iPXE problems with iSCSI Boot and Windows

[brownmit]

Well.

I'm making loads of progress with iPXE, and I love it. But, i'm having tons of problems with windows and iSCSI boot. So, let me back up and give you some troubleshooting information.

I am using both undionly.kpxe and ipxe.kpxe, built from a git pull from a few weeks back. version is 1.0.0 + (d0bfd)

my DHCP server is configured to give out undionly.kpxe, and I have a script that loads from which I can chain over to the full ipxe.kpxe when needed.

I have successfully built a linux diskless client that boots from iSCSI. Its screaming fast. My iSCSI server is an HP DL380 G7 running ubuntu server and the iscsitarget software stack. Seems to work very well, no problems with either using iSCSI to boot ISO images and also my linux diskless image.

However, when I try using it with Windows, it is crazy, terribly slow. I have a custom PE image that I load using iPXE and winboot, works great.

So, here's what I tried to get windows installed:

Strategy #1

grab the shell and do a sanhook iscsi:192.168.15.25::::iqn.2016-01.com.mjbrowns:mbstudio
(works, maps to 0x80)

proceed to winboot my PE image. Image takes longer than usual to boot, but when it finishes, I can see the ISCSI device, but any I/Os to it take forever. diskpart clean (to clean the disk headers) took over 10 minutes!

I've tried this sequence inserting a variety of:
set keep-san 1
set netX/gateway 0.0.0.0

to no avail.

Strategy #2

I also put a disk in, booted, mapped the iSCSI LUN and cloned the boot disk (using Paragon Partition Manger) to the ISCSI disk, then shut down, removed the drive and tried to do a sanboot - it basically just seems to hang on the logo screen and goes nowhere.

I've tried Strategy #1 using both physical diskless client and virtual machine in VMware Workstation running on my laptop -same thing happens.

Any suggestions?