6–Boot from SAN Configuration
iSCSI Boot from SAN
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iSCSI Preboot Configuration
For both Windows and Linux operating systems, iSCSI boot can be configured to
boot with two distinctive methods:
iSCSI SW
(also known as non-offload path with Microsoft/Open-iSCSI
initiator)
ISCSI HW
(offload path with the Cavium FastLinQ offload iSCSI driver). This
option can be set using
Boot Mode
(see
).
For VMware ESXi operating systems, only the iSCSI SW method is supported.
iSCSI preboot information in this section includes:
Supported Operating Systems for iSCSI Boot
Configuring Adapter UEFI Boot Mode
Selecting the iSCSI UEFI Boot Protocol
Configuring iSCSI Boot Parameters
Configuring Adapter UEFI Boot Mode
Configuring iSCSI Boot Options
Configuring the DHCP Server to Support iSCSI Boot
Supported Operating Systems for iSCSI Boot
The Cavium FastLinQ 45000 Series Adapters support iSCSI boot on the following
operating systems:
Windows Server 2012 and later 64-bit (supports offload and non-offload
paths)
RHEL 6.7 and later, SLES 11 SP4 and later, and SLES 12 SP1 and later
(supports offload and non-offload paths)
SLES 10.
x
and SLES 11 (supports only non-offload path)
VMware ESXi 5.5 and later (supports only non-offload SW iSCSI path,
because a limitation in the ESXi iSCSI infrastructure prevents the use of
hardware offload-based iSCSI boot).
NOTE
To use the iSCSI HW offload method, the adapter must be capable of
iSCSI offload and have iSCSI offload enabled on the iSCSI booting
port.