iscsi boot/install fails

[Markus]

Hello again
I posted into another post about this, so please don't wonder about it, it is somewhat urgent :/
I have a problem right now with iscsi boot.
Before i had a winPE3 image to be loaded at boot time and to be installed into an iscsi target. after some hassle it worked. the target got acknowledged by the initiating windows 7 and it was ready as a disk to install to. I did and rebooted - happily it worked for some time and restarts.
Some days later it did not work anymore. Neither the installed OS (during start there is a bluescreen) nor for the winPE image.

My winPE has got the iscsi service enabled and via iscsicli.exe connects to the targets. Windows Setup sees the disk but there it claims that it cannot be installed to the disc because:
"Windows cannot be installed to this disk. iSCSI deployment is disabled since no NICs referenced in the iBFT can be resolved to actual NT-visible devices."

So far i found out about the ibft which should be passed to the OS. But i think it should be passed

My Script looks like:

Code:

#!ipxe
set user-class iPXE
dhcp
set keep-san 1
sanboot ${root-path}
chain installer/windows/win7-U/pxeboot.0

Of course I replaced the chain line with the shell to see what happens.
It registers as san-device 0x80 and fails (since there is no image to boot)
then i chain manually to find above mentioned problem.

I also tried sanhook since it makes more sense, but it results in the same problem.
The user-class is set because my dhcp will then give away the root-path to ipxe.

Any hint?

[robinsmidsrod]

This message is quite vital: "iSCSI deployment is disabled since no NICs referenced in the iBFT can be resolved to actual NT-visible devices."

It most likely means that the driver for the NIC referenced in the iBFT is either not installed, or not set to start at boot. This might've happened through a Windows Update or some other method that (mistakenly) overwrote the older driver and didn't update the registry properly (with the on-boot-start parameter).

[Markus]

I see, that way i did not think of.... But how can i check more detailed?
From my viewpoint everything should be alright. The windows setup actually starts and runs from a network drive. Also the working installed Windows did not have any updates.

Before i read somewhere about UNDI driver ipxe used, which was somehow generic (correct me if wrong). Does it differ from a real driver (in my case rtl8111) which could be loaded?If so, how may i check which driver is loaded?

(2012-04-12 08:23)robinsmidsrod Wrote:  This message is quite vital: "iSCSI deployment is disabled since no NICs referenced in the iBFT can be resolved to actual NT-visible devices."

It most likely means that the driver for the NIC referenced in the iBFT is either not installed, or not set to start at boot. This might've happened through a Windows Update or some other method that (mistakenly) overwrote the older driver and didn't update the registry properly (with the on-boot-start parameter).

[Markus]

I checked the network adapter settings of winPE via imageX and the winPE registry. I actually had some interestingcase about this from work. So i tried it here.
Under HKLM/System/ControlSet001/Control/NetworkProvider/HWOrder and- Order you can see the order in which the devices are loaded. but actually there is only one device :/
any other hint?

[robinsmidsrod]

Is THAT the device you're actually network booting from? Is this the correct driver for your system?

After you've started your WinPE (from the network) you can type Shift-F10 to get into a rescue shell. What does ipconfig /all tell you? Has it successfully acquired a DHCP lease?

If this is not the case, I think you need to revisit your WinPE image and how you integrated the driver for your network device into it.

[Markus]

Hello,

quite late reply, but have been busy with some exams, sorry for that.

(2012-04-21 07:34)robinsmidsrod Wrote:  Is THAT the device you're actually network booting from? Is this the correct driver for your system?

After you've started your WinPE (from the network) you can type Shift-F10 to get into a rescue shell. What does ipconfig /all tell you? Has it successfully acquired a DHCP lease?

If this is not the case, I think you need to revisit your WinPE image and how you integrated the driver for your network device into it.

My Windows PE actually starts with a rescue shell with an autostart script.
It includes:

Code:

iscsicli Qaddtargetportal %host%
iscsicli ListTargets
iscsicli qlogintarget
iscsicli PersistentLoginTarget %target% T * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 0
iscsicli listpersistenttargets
iscsicli reporttargetmappings

%host% and %target% are variables declared in the script, pointing to the Server with IP-Adress and the Target-iqn.

From Start:
ipxe itself will get the IP via DHCP, fixed to the MAC-Adress of the Network card (there is only one onboard network card). Some options like theroot-path are coming along with the DCHP OFFER.
Now iPXE will load the Windows PE-Image and it starts.
When Windows PE boots it also will get the IP-Adress via DHCP, and of course it is the same. (192.168.178.140), since it is still fixed to the MAC.

The Windows PE Image does not contain the Setup or anything related. This is on a networkshare hosted via SMB on the Server (Same like the Target).

Code:

net use p: \\%host%\%share%

After this the Setup is started via:

Code:

P:\windows\win7-image\win7%arch%\setup.exe.

So at least the network is working fine. I think I did not mention before that my setup.exe is starting from the network.

"ipconfig /all" says I still have same MAC and the same IP like in iPXE-config.

I dont know why Windows is now unable to install to the network-target.
Once it worked, but as mentioned even that install does not want to boot anymore (bluescreen + reboot).
Basically I think the winPE should be correct.

My iPXE has this script:

Code:

#!ipxe
set user-class iPXE
set keep-san 1
dhcp net0
sanhook ${root-path}
chain installer/windows/win7-U/pxeboot.0

Hope this gives more clues

[robinsmidsrod]

I have to say that this is above my skill level, but maybe someone else reading this can help you out.

[Markus]

(2012-06-04 19:22)robinsmidsrod Wrote:  I have to say that this is above my skill level, but maybe someone else reading this can help you out.

Nevermind, probably someone knows. iBFT seems to be hard to find