An Oracle Technical White Paper January 2014 Implementing iSCSI Boot with Oracle Solaris on the Oracle ZFS Storage Appliance Implementing iSCSI Boot with Oracle Solaris on an Oracle ZFS Storage Appliance Table of Contents Introduction ................................................................................................ 4 Benefits of Booting Using iSCSI ............................................................. 4 Differences from a Network PXE Boot .................................................... 4 iSCSI Boot Configuration Requirements ..................................................... 5 Oracle Solaris SPARC Platforms ............................................................ 5 x86 Platforms ......................................................................................... 5 Oracle Solaris Operating Systems .......................................................... 5 Network Configuration and iSCSI Protocol Parameters .......................... 6 Controlling the Boot Process on a SPARC Server .................................. 6 Controlling the Boot Process on an x86-based Server ............................ 6 DHCP Configuration Considerations ....................................................... 7 Required Configuration Information for Setting Up an iSCSI Connection ............................................................................................. 7 Oracle Solaris installation ................................................................................. 8 Oracle Solaris boot ........................................................................................... 8 Configuring the Oracle ZFS Storage Appliance for iSCSI Boot ................... 8 Creating a Project ................................................................................... 9 Creating iSCSI Target and iSCSI Target Groups .................................. 10 Creating iSCSI Initiators and iSCSI Initiator Groups ............................. 11 Creating iSCSI Boot LUNs .................................................................... 12 Installing Oracle Solaris on the Server ...................................................... 14 Installing Oracle Solaris on a SPARC Platform ..................................... 14 Installing Oracle Solaris on an x86 Platform ......................................... 15 Installing the iSCSI Component (Platform-independent) ....................... 15 Configuring the Server for iSCSI Boot ...................................................... 19 Rebooting on the Oracle Solaris SPARC Platform ................................ 19 Rebooting on the x86 Platform ............................................................. 20 Oracle Solaris Setup ............................................................................. 22 Best Practices for Deploying iSCSI Boot .................................................. 23 Network Topology ................................................................................. 23 Using Multipathing ................................................................................ 23 Using DHCP ......................................................................................... 24 2 Implementing iSCSI Boot with Oracle Solaris on an Oracle ZFS Storage Appliance Troubleshooting iSCSI Configuration Problems ........................................ 24 No Network Connection Configured During Oracle Solaris Installation ............................................................................................ 24 Need to Verify iSCSI Targets' Access from Initiator .............................. 24 Too Many LUNs Showing Up................................................................ 26 Appendix A: Manually Configuring a Network Connection ........................ 27 Appendix B: DHCP Setup Tips ................................................................. 29 Setting up for configuration with a fixed server IP address ............................ 29 Setting up DHCP to provide iSCSI boot disk info and initiator IQN ............... 29 Using DHCP for iSCSI Boot in Coexistence with Automated Installer ........... 30 Appendix C: Configuration Information Handling ...................................... 32 Appendix D: References ........................................................................... 33 Table of Figures Figure 1. Required information for iSCSI setup ........................................... 8 Figure 2. Creating a new project on the Oracle ZFS Storage Appliance......................................................................................... 9 Figure 3. Setting project properties ............................................................. 9 Figure 4. Project LUN defaults .................................................................. 10 Figure 5. Creating the iSCSI target ........................................................... 11 Figure 6. iSCSI targets and target groups ................................................. 11 Figure 7. Registering an iSCSI Initiator IQN ............................................. 12 Figure 8. ISCSI Initiator IQN Groups setup ............................................... 12 Figure 9. Creating an iSCSI boot LUN ...................................................... 13 Figure 10. Created boot LUNs displayed in the Oracle ZFS Storage Appliance BUI .................................................................. 13 Figure 11. iSCSI LUN option .................................................................... 15 Figure 12. Specifying iSCSI configuration information to locate the target LUN ..................................................................................... 16 Figure 13. Available disks for Oracle Solaris installation ........................... 17 Figure 14. LUN GUID information displayed in the Oracle ZFS Storage Appliance BUI .................................................................. 17 Figure 15. Selected boot disk details ........................................................ 18 Figure 16. Analytics to show iSCSI install I/O ........................................... 18 Figure 17. Starting NIC iSCSI setup ......................................................... 20 Figure 18. NIC setup; selecting the primary boot port ............................... 21 Figure 19. NIC setup; entering iSCSI configuration information ................ 22 Figure 20. NIC setup; saving changes ...................................................... 22 Figure 21. Oracle Solaris install on iSCSI LUN flowchart .......................... 32 3 Implementing iSCSI Boot with Oracle Solaris on an Oracle ZFS Storage Appliance Introduction The iSCSI boot feature of Oracle Solaris enables you to load and start Oracle Solaris over the network from a remote location. The iSCSI boot feature supports booting from both SPARC-based and x86-based hardware systems. iSCSI (Internet Small Computer System Interface) boot is typically initiated by the server while the boot image resides on an iSCSI target that is attached to the network. Because the feature uses a standard Ethernet-based infrastructure, only standard network infrastructure components are required. This paper describes how to set up the Oracle ZFS Storage Appliance to use iSCSI LUNs from which to boot Oracle Solaris, how to install Oracle Solaris on the configured iSCSI LUN, and how to configure the server boot environment to boot from the installed Oracle Solaris image. This paper also details the use of Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) services. Using DHCP simplifies the Oracle Solaris installation process and it can be configured to supply the iSCSI boot information needed by the server’s hardware boot process. Note: In this paper a Network Interface Adapter (NIC) of the Intel 1000/Pro server series is used for the x86-hardware-based examples. Benefits of Booting Using iSCSI An iSCSI boot solution provides significant benefits: Reduces data center footprint and facility costs – Booting using iSCSI enables you to use diskless servers and blade servers, which take up less space, consume less power, and require less cooling. Lowers administrative overhead – All operating system storage is centrally provisioned and managed from the Oracle ZFS Storage Appliance. A server can be easily replaced by remapping its corresponding boot LUN to a new server. If the new server has the same hardware profile as the server being replaced, the server will boot the operating system from the iSCSI LUN without requiring reconfiguration. Snapshots and clones of operating system images can be created and mapped to new servers on the SAN with just a few clicks of a mouse, simplifying migration and scalability tasks. Facilitates disaster and server failure recovery – By installing operating systems on the Oracle ZFS Storage Appliance rather than individual servers, you can take advantage of the data protection and redundancy features of the Oracle ZFS Storage Appliance to help reduce downtime normally caused by maintenance and fault outages. Operating system images can be protected using snapshots and clones, backed up using Network Data Management Protocol (NDMP) or images replicated to a second ZFS Storage Appliance on an off-site location. Differences from a Network PXE Boot Using iSCSI boot on a SPARC-based system to boot over the network differs from a typical SPARC network PXE (Pre-boot eXecution Environment) boot by its streamlined process. The network boot process is a multistep process; it requires loading a boot environment