iPXE vs Flexboot iPXE branch

[jamespharvey20]

I have two InfiniBand mlx4_0 devices, MT25408 ConnectX Mellanox Technologies.

I'm interested in using iPXE, or Mellanox's branch of iPXE, flexboot, at: http://git.ipxe.org/vendor/mellanox/flexboot.git

Wondering which you guys would recommend using... Why they felt the need to branch rather than contribute to the main... Whether flexboot is required, etc...

Should iPXE git master support booting over InfiniBand using the iSER protocol, rather than TCP/IP via IPoIB?

[mcb30]

(2015-07-27 21:46)jamespharvey20 Wrote:  I have two InfiniBand mlx4_0 devices, MT25408 ConnectX Mellanox Technologies.

I'm interested in using iPXE, or Mellanox's branch of iPXE, flexboot, at: http://git.ipxe.org/vendor/mellanox/flexboot.git

Wondering which you guys would recommend using... Why they felt the need to branch rather than contribute to the main... Whether flexboot is required, etc...

Mellanox's branch includes some changes that are not suitable for inclusion upstream: for example, the addition of a configuration utility that is specific to Mellanox cards. We are working to gradually reduce the differences between the two branches.

The MT25408 should be supported by both FlexBoot and upstream iPXE, so you can use either branch. If you encounter problems when using the FlexBoot branch, you'll have to talk to Mellanox to get fixes. If you encounter problems using the master branch, you can ask here (or on the mailing list, or in IRC).

Quote:Should iPXE git master support booting over InfiniBand using the iSER protocol, rather than TCP/IP via IPoIB?

iPXE has no support for iSER but does support SRP, which is another SCSI-over-RDMA protocol for Infiniband.

Michael