Fiber Channel boot

[Mike Hyde]

I am trying to boot a server over fiber channel to a freenas (9.3) box. Everything is setup, but I get an error from the server saying access failure on the LUN. If I boot from a vmware DVD, I am able to see the share over fiber channel and do a install onto it, but not boot from it.

Any ideas? Is booting over fiber channel not supported?

I have the LUN statically set, initiators set to all.

 

[mav@]

There is no reason why it should not work. Make sure you have properly configured zoning for FreeNAS FC WWPN on your FC fabric (if you have one) and access right for your LUN on your target. If still does not work -- show what you have, because it is difficult to diagnose without information.

 

[Mike Hyde]

Its a cisco UCS connected to a cisco MDS to a freenas box.

On the UCS its shows:
- FLOGI State : flogi est (fc_id 0x5c0021)
- PLOGI Sessions
- WWNN 21:00:00:24:ff:2f:fa:dd WWPN 21:00:00:24:ff:2f:fa:dd fc_id 0x5c0000
- LUN's configured (SCSI Type, Version, Vendor, Serial No.)
LUN ID : 0x0004000000000000 access failure
- REPORT LUNs Query Response
LUN ID : 0x0000000000000000
- Nameserver Query Response
- WWPN : 21:00:00:24:ff:2f:fa:dd

On the MDS:
zoneset name zs_vsan200 vsan 200
zone name zone_vsan_200 vsan 200
* fcid 0x5c0000 [pwwn 21:00:00:24:ff:2f:fa:dd]
pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:10:10:0a
pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:10:10:0b
pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:10:10:0c
* fcid 0x5c0021 [pwwn 20:00:00:25:b5:10:10:0d]

mds-1# show flogi database
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
INTERFACE VSAN FCID PORT NAME NODE NAME
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
fc1/10 100 0x0f0020 21:00:00:24:ff:2f:fa:dc 20:00:00:24:ff:2f:fa:dc
fc1/11 200 0x5c0000 21:00:00:24:ff:2f:fa:dd 20:00:00:24:ff:2f:fa:dd
port-channel 200 200 0x5c0020 24:c8:00:2a:6a:7b:2b:80 20:c8:00:2a:6a:7b:2b:81
port-channel 200 200 0x5c0021 20:00:00:25:b5:10:10:0d 20:00:00:25:b5:11:10:04

 

[Mike Hyde]

Has anyone managed to do boot from san over finer channel?

 

[Racinrandall]

I have had a few servers boot from SAN using a FC target on FreeNAS 9.3. My setup wasn't a Cisco UCS, just a standard rack server. Using Qlogic and Emulex fibre cards I just had to enable the bios in the FC HBA and tell it the LUN number to boot from. Then in the server's bios I had to tell it to boot from the FC card. I set my LUN ids on FreeNAS to 0 when I use it as a boot LUN as some older firmware will only boot to LUN 0.

 

[CalvinHobbesN7]

There is no reason why it should not work. Make sure you have properly configured zoning for FreeNAS FC WWPN on your FC fabric (if you have one) and access right for your LUN on your target. If still does not work -- show what you have, because it is difficult to diagnose without information.

I have had a few servers boot from SAN using a FC target on FreeNAS 9.3. My setup wasn't a Cisco UCS, just a standard rack server. Using Qlogic and Emulex fibre cards I just had to enable the bios in the FC HBA and tell it the LUN number to boot from. Then in the server's bios I had to tell it to boot from the FC card. I set my LUN ids on FreeNAS to 0 when I use it as a boot LUN as some older firmware will only boot to LUN 0.

I'm trying the same thing. I have two noob questions:

First - How do you assign a LUN to a QLogic HBA (QLE2462)(server side) so it can boot from FreeNAS?
Second - Thoughts on introducing / configuring a Cisco SAN 9124 fibre channel switch to the mix? I assumed it would be just like any other network switch, however the drive is only visible when directly connected. Adding the switch into the middle (with ports no-shut and proper sfp's) shows that both FreeNAS and my server HBAs connect to the switch, but the drive is no longer visible on my server.

Please note that I am using FreeNAS 11 stable. The drive is visible (and completely usable) when directly connected via Fibre Channel, and works well.

This a personal project to gain exposure to this technology, and I've been working on it for weeks! This is my first time working with Fibre Channel tech. I can access the HBA config settings from my MB's UEFI.

Thank you!