starwind iscsi target for microsoft windows: diskless boot

StarWind SoftwareTechnical Reference Series

Copyright © StarWind Software 2008-2009. All rights reserved.

StarWind iSCSI Target for Microsoft Windows:Diskless boot with winBoot/i

Thursday, March 05, 2009

www.starwindsoftware.com


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3


Table of Contents

....................................................................................................... 4Introduction

....................................................................................................... 5Configuring StarWind....................................................................................................... 17Configuring the DHCP Server....................................................................................................... 18Configuring winBoot/i

....................................................................................................... 36Initializing StarWind disk, formatting it and markingas active

....................................................................................................... 50Copying operating system to the sewly sreated bootvolume

....................................................................................................... 57Conclusion



4

Guide

Introduction

The diagram below illustrates the network architecture used throughout thisdocument. Note: winBoot/i Manager can be co-installed on the same machinewhere StarWind iSCSI Target runs to simplify the hardware requirements andwhole configuration process.



5

Configuring StarWind

During this initial phase you have to create a boot volume exported as an iSCSItarget.

Launch the StarWind console selecting Start -> All Programs -> StarWindSoftware -> StarWind -> StarWind. After the console is launched its iconappears in the system tray. Double click the icon with the left mouse button orsingle click it with the right and select Start Management pup-up menu item.



6

From the Connections tree please select the computer you wish to connect to.By default, there is a single item in the tree (localhost) which represents aloopback connection. Press the right mouse button over the desired host(computer) and select the Connect… menu item. You will be prompted to enterthe login and password. Default ones are: test, test. You can always changethem later.

Select Connect… menu item to continue.



7

The Login dialog asking for the User name and the Password input looks likethe one on the image shown below.

Press the OK button to continue.



8

After you have successfully connected to the StarWind Service, please clickthe right mouse button over the desired host (computer).

Select Add device… pop-up menu item to continue.



9

In the wizard that appears, please select Image File device (the briefdescription of each option is displayed in the right area of the wizard window).You can display the online help by pressing the Help button.

Press the Next button to continue.



10

Select Create new virtual disk to create a new virtual hard disk or Mountexisting virtual dsik to mount an existing virtual disk you’ve prepared before.




11

If you have decided to create a new virtual disk please specify its location andthe name of the virtual disk you want to be created. Also you have to providethe virtual disk size in megabytes. Check any additional parameters of thevirtual disk you want to create. Please refer to the online help for detailsregarding those additional parameters (Compressed and Encrypted).




12

Image File device has some extra parameters. Please refer to the online helpfor details regarding those additional parameters (Asynchronous mode, Allowmultiple concurrent iSCSI connections (clustering), Read-Only mode andSpecify advanced options).




13

Select an optional target name. Under this target name, the device will bedeclared to the iSCSI initiators connecting to the StarWind over an IP network.




14

Check if all of the device parameters are correct. Press the Back button if anychanges are required.




15

The information about the recently created device is displayed on the lastwizard page (see picture below).

Press the Finish button to close the wizard.



16

If everything went fine, the StarWind console should look like the samplepicture provided below.



17

Configuring the DHCP Server

You can use, for example, the Microsoft DHCP server or a Linux/FreeBSDDHCP server running on the different machine. Please refer to your particularDHCP server documentation for details.



18

Configuring winBoot/i

First of all, you need to install and activate the winBoot/i Server. Untilactivated, the winBoot/i Server will display an error message on winBoot/iclients attempting to connect to it. Please refer to the emBoot documentationon how to do this.

At the second step, you need to configure the winBoot/i Server services.Launch the winBoot/i console and start the emBoot PXE, TFTP and winBoot/iservices. This can be done by clicking on the Services node in the left-handpanel and then double clicking the specific services listed in the right-handpanel. Refer to these chapters of the emBoot help guide: Configuring theemBoot PXE, TFTP and winBoot/i services, Implementing emBoot PXEService and DHCP on the same server, Implementing emBoot PXE Serviceand DHCP on different network servers.



19

Now you need to add a winBoot/i Client. Launch the winBoot/i Console.Select the Clients node in the left-hand panel, right click it and select New, NewClient… from the context menu.



20

On the Create New Client page, enter the client’s name (you can optionallyselect to change the Windows machine name to match the one used with thewinBoot/i Client later) and MAC address of the NIC you plan to boot from.Specify the MAC address using a xxxxxxxxxxxx hex format.




21

The winBoot/i Client has been added.



22

Now you need to add a winBoot/i Target. Select the Targets node in the left-hand panel, right click it and select New, New Target… from the context menu.



23

On the Create New Target page, enter the IP address of the StarWindcomputer as the Portal and also the Port (default value is 3260). Enter theiSCSI Target name that you created in the Configuring StarWind iSCSI Targetsection of this guide. To facilitate this you will need to have the Microsoft iSCSIInitiator running on the winBoot/i Server machine. Leave all other optionsuntagged for now.




24

The target has been added.



25

Now you have to assign the iSCSI target configuration(s) to the winBoot/iClient. Select the desired winBoot/i Client node in the left-hand panel, rightclick it and select Add Target to Client from the context menu.



26

Select target(s) from the list. You can select multiple targets by pressing theCtrl key while clicking on the desired target configuration.




27

The target has been assigned to the client.



28

Now you need to install the winBoot/i Client software package, accepting thedefault values and restarting the machine at the end of the installationprocess. While installing, check the Configure iSCSI Network Boot Supportoption and select the network interface driver for the NIC that will be used toboot via iSCSI.




29

After installation you have to launch MS iSCSI Initiator. Switch to theDiscovery tab and specify the computer with StarWind installed or iSNSserver (if there is one configured over your network).

Press the Add button to continue.



30

In the dialog that appears, type in the IP address of the computer withStarWind installed and Port of that machine.

Then press the OK button.



31

The Target Portal is added now.



32

Switch to the Targets tab. Select the target name from the list and press LogOn… button to continue.



33

In the Logon to Target dialog box press the OK to logon to StarWind iSCSITarget.



34

The target is now connected.



35

At this step, you need to create an iSCSI boot volume. Login to the winBoot/iClient machine, launch the Computer Management console and select DiskManagement. Initialize the disk, quick format it, set partition type as“primary”, provide a drive letter and mark partition as “active” (a completestep-by-step description is provided below in the Initializing StarWind disk,formatting it and marking as “active” section of this manual).

Use the winBoot/i System Copy utility to copy the operating system to thisnewly created drive (see the Copying operating system to the newly createdboot volume section of the manual below).

Now you can try to boot from the iSCSI volume to verify if everything is OKwith the machine. To do this you need to enter the winBoot/i Client computerBIOS and enable PXE boot (also referred as boot from LAN or boot fromnetwork).Save the settings and exit the BIOS configuration utility. Check to see ifmachine can successfully boot from the iSCSI volume.



36

Initializing StarWind disk, formatting it and marking as active

The sequence of actions listed below allows a user to create the winBoot/icompatible iSCSI boot device from the StarWind iSCSI Target exported iSCSIvolume. All of these actions should be performed at the client side.Launch the Computer Management console, expand the Storage node andselect the Disk Management menu item. The Initialize and Convert DiskWizard appears. Follow the instructions of the wizard to initialize a new iSCSIdisk device.




37

If you don’t have any other uninitialized disks attached to the client machinethen Disk 1 should be the only one wizard will ask you to perform initialization.




38

At the next step you’d be asked to convert Basic disk to the Dynamic disk.Don’t do this - uncheck the Disk 2 checkbox if it is already pre-selected.




39

If everything went fine, you should see the last wizard page like the one below.

Press the Finish button to complete the wizard.



40

When the initialization is complete, you have to create a new partition on thedevice by right clicking on the unallocated space and selecting the NewPartition… menu item from the pop-up context menu. Follow the instructionsto create a new primary partition.

Select New Partition… menu item to continue.



41

The first page of the Welcome to the New Partition Wizard should look likethe one provided below.




42

As this is a brand new disk we need to allocate only one Primary partition onit. Select Primary partition on the Select Partition Type page of the NewPartition Wizard.




43

Now you need to specify the partition size. Use the whole allocated space forthe Primary partition - leave the Partition size in MB edit box untouched.




44

Before formatting the volume you need to assign a Drive Letter or Path to it.Pick up any drive letter you like from the drop down list of the available ones.




45

Now you need to specify new file system details. It’s recommended to stickwith the NTFS and default Allocation unit size. You can enable Perform aquick format option as doing a full format for huge volumes can take quite alot of time.




46

If everything went fine you should see a picture like the one below.

Press the Finish to complete the wizard.



47

Now you may start the Computer Management console and select the DiskManagement tree item from the Computer Management (Local) tree on theleft side panel. You should see a formatted disk volume displaying a status ofHealthy on both of the right side panels.



48

Mark the new partition as Active by right clicking the new partition andselecting Mark Partition as Active from the context menu. Close theComputer Management console when done.



49

Now the StarWind disk is allocated, formatted, marked as Active and ready tobe used. The volume status should change from just Healthy to the Healthy(Active) like the one in the picture provided below.



50

Copying operating system to the sewly sreated boot volume

Run the winBoot/i System Copy utility, selecting the System Copy menu itemfrom the winBoot-i Client sub menu.



51

Select the Copy Mode. Read the description for more information.




52

Select a Source Volume. Content from the source volume will be copied to thedestination volume with the System Copy utility.




53

On the dialog page that appears, select the newly created drive as aDestination Volume (J: on the sample page provided below).

Press the Proceed button to start copying.



54

A confirmation dialog will appear.

Press the Yes button.



55

During the file copy process you can watch the copy progress indication andcheck the file names copied. After System Copy has completed the copyprocess it will show a System Copy - Completed message like the oneprovided below.

Press the Close button to finish.



56

At this moment the iSCSI boot disk contains a complete operating systemimage. You can switch the winBoot/i Client machine off. When powereddown you may wish to remove the local hard disk from the PC if you don’tneed it any more. You can now boot directly from the StarWind iSCSI Targetwith the help of the winBoot/i Client.



57

Conclusion



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starwind iscsi target for microsoft windows: diskless boot

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