Installing Win7 to an iSCSI target

[che]

Hello,

I am trying to install Windows 7 to an iSCSI target but iSCSI disk does not appear as a install location though it is registered successfully. It looks like when windows takes over, connection is lost. I confirmed it by trying Shift-F10 and then "route print".

iPXE> dhcp net0
iPXE> set keep-san 1
iPXE> sanhook iscsi:192.168.0.1:::1:iqn.2014-08.com.axisy.stealth:lvtarget
iPXE> exit
// proceed to boot Windows 7 from CD/DVD

I'm using private subnet. I also tried setting "set netX/gateway 0.0.0.0" before sanhook but it does not help. I am not sure if I'm missing anything. I would appreciate any help.

Thanks,
Che

[robinsmidsrod]

The only thing I can think of is that you're hitting the problem because you're using exit and installing from local media. I would suggest you try to boot up your WinPE environment using wimboot, as explained here: http://ipxe.org/howto/winpe

That might make your iSCSI device hooked the proper way. The gateway "hack" is required if you don't have a router which is routing packets back to your local network properly, or if you need to avoid e.g. 10/100Mbit ports on your router, which would be slow if you're doing gigabit elsewhere.

[sebastian]

I did have this same problem on my new motherboard. It turned out drivers are missing, so I solved it by slipstreaming the drivers.

To diagnose:
Try a ipconfig /all when inside shift+F10.
If this are completely empty, or only contain localhost or similiar corresponding entries, then drivers for your network card is missing at install time.
For it to work, you MUST see your actual network card inside ipconfig /all.

What I did have to do, is to unpack the Windows 7 DVD, and then slipstream the network drivers into the Windows 7 boot installation image.
You might need to use dism and/or imagex to accomplish this. Put the drivers in BOTH boot.wim and install.wim using the same method:
http://superuser.com/questions/63773/how...lation-dvd

[robinsmidsrod]

This slipstreaming is documented on http://ipxe.org/howto/winpe and is indeed required if you don't see your network card in the ipconfig output.

[sebastian]

robinsmidsrod: Thats a entirely different method.
Here im talking about unpacking the Win7 DVD, then adding the network card into boot.wim and install.wim, and then repackaging the Win7 DVD into a ISO file again.

Thus, you use the DVD like normal, without any PE or such things. Its a Little bit easier to do like that.