ESXi Software iSCSI Boot

[nick_couchman]

I'd like to install ESXi on an iSCSI SAN and boot a few machines over the SAN via the iSCSI volume. The catch is this: the systems don't have iSCSI HBAs, they just have GigE network cards with iSCSI Boot ROMs (gPXE, actually). I'm got it partially working at this point - I have ESXi on an iSCSI volume, I've booted a machine via that volume. ESXi loads all of the files and starts up - right up until the point where it says: "Starting config script." At this point, it hangs for a while, and if I go to another console, I get a message that says: "PANIC: Failed to find USB boot partition."

Obviously I don't have a USB boot partition, nor do I want it to look for one. Does anyone know if there's a way to keep it from trying to find this, or if there's a way to force the iSCSI software service to start earlier so that the iSCSI volume will be available for ESXi to continue to boot?

Thanks - Nick

[jose_maria_gonz]

Hi Mike,

I am not sure if this would be related to the issue you are having but have to tried to add the usbBoot=FALSE at boot prompt?

Rgds,

J.

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[nick_couchman]

Got a little further this time - now I get the following error:

PANIC: Failed to find SIMULATED boot partition.

[jose_maria_gonz]

Hi Nick

Sorry to hear that. Not sure now why you are getting that error

I would suggest you open a support ticket with VMware to fix the problem.

Sorry for not being of much help on this now

Rgds,

J.

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[englund]

Hey,

have you found any solution for this yet? Perhaps works with the latest U3 update?

How did you install ESXi to the iSCSI in the first place? I can't get the installer to see the target when booting from CD (using "option gpxe.keep-san 1;" in the dhcp config). Did you install to a local disk and copy the partitions or did you dig out the install manually from the iso?

Best regards,

Johan