I am pretty new to SAN setups and iSCSI, but have decided to setup a FreeNAS SAN at work to provide a dedicated storage box with remote boot capabilities. Here's where I am at:
Our old server configuration was running on an Intel RAID controller, which, if you know anything about Intel RAID, it can be firmware RAID. At times, it will drop drives from the array periodically (the 7 second time-out thing). This was getting old and the Intel RAID controller was dropping drives and having to rebuild my array. First, I tried a RAID 5 array, which ran like crap, threw out some "iffy" hard drives, then RAID 10, which also ran like crap (how, I have no idea). I took out all our drives and tested them one-by-one with various SMART tools, to ensure that none of the drives were faulty. They weren't, but I decided to throw out 2 more that were "iffy". All this down time meant I couldn't get my work done, so I decided to use FreeNAS, so I wouldn't have to worry about Windows RAID or Intel RAID dropping drives (not to mention having to keepthrowing away hard drives).
Now, I set up FreeNAS to act as a SAN and iSCSI target (all configuration done). Next, I setup my domain controller, which is running Win Server 2012 Standard. I had tried to figure out how to use gPXE to use my SAN LUNs as the boot drives for my DC, but couldn't and I haven't had the time. Likewise, the information on the gPXE site isn't very helpful to a n00b like me. Furthermore, I want to use my other LUNs for another machine running Server 2012.
Ideally, my network setup will be: FreeNAS SAN with iSCSI targets, x2 Windows Server 2012 machines that will boot from the iSCSI drives hosted by the FreeNAS box. My question(s) then is(are): 1. How can I trick my Server 2012 boxes into thinking that my LUNs are local drives when I boot and load the installation disc? 2. Does FreeNAS's tftp server allow facilitation of this process? 3. Where can I find more information (for n00bs) on how to do this?
Thanks in advance! :D
Our old server configuration was running on an Intel RAID controller, which, if you know anything about Intel RAID, it can be firmware RAID. At times, it will drop drives from the array periodically (the 7 second time-out thing). This was getting old and the Intel RAID controller was dropping drives and having to rebuild my array. First, I tried a RAID 5 array, which ran like crap, threw out some "iffy" hard drives, then RAID 10, which also ran like crap (how, I have no idea). I took out all our drives and tested them one-by-one with various SMART tools, to ensure that none of the drives were faulty. They weren't, but I decided to throw out 2 more that were "iffy". All this down time meant I couldn't get my work done, so I decided to use FreeNAS, so I wouldn't have to worry about Windows RAID or Intel RAID dropping drives (not to mention having to keepthrowing away hard drives).
Now, I set up FreeNAS to act as a SAN and iSCSI target (all configuration done). Next, I setup my domain controller, which is running Win Server 2012 Standard. I had tried to figure out how to use gPXE to use my SAN LUNs as the boot drives for my DC, but couldn't and I haven't had the time. Likewise, the information on the gPXE site isn't very helpful to a n00b like me. Furthermore, I want to use my other LUNs for another machine running Server 2012.
Ideally, my network setup will be: FreeNAS SAN with iSCSI targets, x2 Windows Server 2012 machines that will boot from the iSCSI drives hosted by the FreeNAS box. My question(s) then is(are): 1. How can I trick my Server 2012 boxes into thinking that my LUNs are local drives when I boot and load the installation disc? 2. Does FreeNAS's tftp server allow facilitation of this process? 3. Where can I find more information (for n00bs) on how to do this?
Thanks in advance! :D
