user guide server

www.mellanox.com

Mellanox Technologies Confidential

Mellanox WinOF VPI PXE

User Guide

Rev. 1.0

For W

indow

s Serv

er 20

12

2 Document Number: 4031


NOTE:

THIS HARDWARE, SOFTWARE OR TEST SUITE PRODUCT (“PRODUCT(S)”) AND ITS RELATED DOCUMENTATION ARE

PROVIDED BY MELLANOX TECHNOLOGIES “AS-IS” WITH ALL FAULTS OF ANY KIND AND SOLELY FOR THE PURPOSE OF

AIDING THE CUSTOMER IN TESTING APPLICATIONS THAT USE THE PRODUCTS IN DESIGNATED SOLUTIONS. THE

CUSTOMER'S MANUFACTURING TEST ENVIRONMENT HAS NOT MET THE STANDARDS SET BY MELLANOX

TECHNOLOGIES TO FULLY QUALIFY THE PRODUCT(S) AND/OR THE SYSTEM USING IT. THEREFORE, MELLANOX

TECHNOLOGIES CANNOT AND DOES NOT GUARANTEE OR WARRANT THAT THE PRODUCTS WILL OPERATE WITH THE

HIGHEST QUALITY. ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED

WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NON INFRINGEMENT ARE

DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL MELLANOX BE LIABLE TO CUSTOMER OR ANY THIRD PARTIES FOR ANY DIRECT,

INDIRECT, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OF ANY KIND (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO,

PAYMENT FOR PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS

INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY,

OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY FROM THE USE OF THE PRODUCT(S) AND

RELATED DOCUMENTATION EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

Mellanox Technologies, Inc.

350 Oakmead Parkway Suite 100

Sunnyvale, CA 94085

U.S.A.

www.mellanox.com

Tel: (408) 970-3400

Fax: (408) 970-3403

Mellanox Technologies, Ltd.

Beit Mellanox

PO Box 586 Yokneam 20692

Israel

www.mellanox.com

Tel: +972 (0)4 909 7200 ; +972 (0)74 723 7200

Fax: +972 (0)4 959 3245

© Copyright 2012. Mellanox Technologies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Mellanox Technologies. All rights reserved. Mellanox®, Mellanox logo®, BridgeX®, ConnectX®, CORE-Direct®, InfiniBridge®,

InfiniHost®, InfiniScale®, PhyX®, SwitchX®, Virtual Protocol Interconnect® and Voltaire® are registered trademarks of Mellanox

Technologies, Ltd.

Connect-IBTM, FabricITTM, MLNX-OSTM, Unbreakable-LinkTM, UFMTM and Unified Fabric ManagerTM are trademarks of Mellanox

Technologies, Ltd.

All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

For W

indow

s Serv

er 20

12

Contents Rev. 1.0

3


Contents

Revision History .................................................................................................................................... 6

About this Manual ................................................................................................................................. 7

1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 8

2 Microsoft Windows Deployment Services ................................................................................... 9

3 DHCP Configuration ..................................................................................................................... 10

3.1 DHCP Known Issues ............................................................................................................ 10

4 Windows Server 2012 Installation Procedure ............................................................................ 11

4.1 Unpacking VPI Drivers from Mellanox Driver Installation Package ...................................... 11

4.2 Using Force Ethernet for VPI Cards ..................................................................................... 11

4.3 Preparing the Boot Image with Mellanox Drivers ................................................................. 11

4.4 Importing the Boot Image with the Mellanox Drivers to WDS .............................................. 12

4.5 Importing the Install Image to WDS ...................................................................................... 12

4.6 Downloading and Burning Mellanox Flexboot Expansion ROM ........................................... 13

4.7 Configuring System BIOS to Boot from a Mellanox Device ................................................. 13

4.8 Executing PXE Boot and Installing Windows Server 2012 .................................................. 13

For W

indow

s Serv

er 20

12

Rev. 1.0 Contents

4


List of Figures

Figure 1: DHCP Configuration Example ................................................................................................ 10

For W

indow

s Serv

er 20

12

Contents Rev. 1.0

5


List of Tables

Table 1: DHCP Known Issues ............................................................................................................... 10

For W

indow

s Serv

er 20

12

Rev. 1.0 Revision History

6


Revision History

Rev 1.0 - November 2012:

First release

For W

indow

s Serv

er 20

12

Mellanox WinOF VPI PXE User Guide Rev. 1.0

7


About this Manual

Scope

The goal of this document is to outline the procedure of Windows Server 2012 installation via

network using Windows Deployment Services and Microsoft DHCP.

This document only describes the configuration of WDS and might not be compatible with

other deployment systems. It does not describe the BIOS/UEFI configuration needed to

complete the PXE boot from Mellanox device.

For W

indow

s Serv

er 20

12

Rev. 1.0 Introduction

8


1 Introduction

The sections below describe the settings and the steps required to complete Windows Server

2012 installation over the network using Mellanox device. In addition, this document

describes the know issues and workarounds.

For W

indow

s Serv

er 20

12


9


2 Microsoft Windows Deployment Services

Windows Deployment Services, the updated and redesigned version of Remote Installation

Services (RIS), enable you to remotely deploy Windows operating systems.

For more information on Windows Deployment Services:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc771670(v=ws.10).aspx

For W

indow

s Serv

er 20

12

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc771670(v=ws.10).aspx

Rev. 1.0 DHCP Configuration

10


3 DHCP Configuration

The following DHCP options must be configured in the DHCP scope for PXE boot:

Option Option Name Value

60 PXEClient PXEClient

66 Boot Server Host Name IP of PXE server in IB or ETH network

67 Boot File Name boot\x86\wdsnbp.com

The following is an example of the DHCP configuration:

Figure 1: DHCP Configuration Example

3.1 DHCP Known Issues

Table 1: DHCP Known Issues

Known Issue Workaround To be fixed on

Only one of the ports (Port1/Port2) gets a Boot Server Host

Name from the DHCP server. If Port1 is provided with Boot

Server Host Name, but boot is omitted, Port2 will try to boot

from same server.

N/A Feature Release

Ethernet switches from many vendors (including CISCO)

come configured with spanning tree enabled by default and

portfast disabled. This causes DHCP request to fail on PXE

boot sporadically because switch cannot forward any packets

on port for up to 30 seconds form link up event.

Enable the

portfast feature

on all ports used

for PXE

deployment.

N/A

For W

indow

s Serv

er 20

12


11


4 Windows Server 2012 Installation Procedure

4.1 Unpacking VPI Drivers from Mellanox Driver Installation Package

Mellanox driver installation package comes as an executable file. These drivers are supported

for PXE installation via InfiniBand, Ethernet or VPI adapters that support automatic port

protocol detection.

To unpack the driver files from Mellanox driver installation package:

1. Run the executable file with /a command line parameter.

2. Follow the wizard.

3. Unpack the files to an empty directory (for example c:\Temp\drivers).

4.2 Using Force Ethernet for VPI Cards

Mellanox VPI network adapters can work with either InfiniBand or Ethernet connection.

Some adapters support automatic detection of port protocols.

Adapters that do not support port protocol auto detection will use the default InfiniBand

port type. To deploy PXE using an Ethernet port type, download the special driver

package for Windows PE with the fixed Ethernet port type from:

http://www.mellanox.com/content/pages.php?pg=products_dyn&product_family=32&me

nu_section=35 under the WinServer2012 tab. These drivers should be unpacked to an

empty directory (for example c:\Temp\drivers).

4.3 Preparing the Boot Image with Mellanox Drivers

To prepare the boot image with Mellanox drivers:

1. Copy the boot.wim file from the Windows Server 2012 installation DVD to a temporary

folder (for example: C:\Temp)

2. Create an empty directory for the mounting WIM image (for example: mkdir c:\Temp\mnt)

3. Mount the boot.wim file. Run:

dism /Mount-Wim /WimFile:boot.wim /index:2 /MountDir:mnt

4. Add the Mellanox drivers into the boot image. Run: For

Wind

ows S

erver

2012

http://www.mellanox.com/content/pages.php?pg=products_dyn&product_family=32&menu_section=35


Rev. 1.0 Windows Server 2012 Installation Procedure

12


dism /Image:mnt /Add-Driver /Driver:drivers /recurse

5. Unmount the image and commit the changes. Run:

dism /Unmount-Wim /MountDir:mnt /commit

NOTE: As Index 2 of boot.wim is already used, Index 1 is used for Windows PE and not for

Windows Setup.

4.4 Importing the Boot Image with the Mellanox Drivers to WDS

To import the boot.wim file with the Mellanox drivers to WDS Boot Images, add "Microsoft

Windows Setup (x64) with Mellanox driver" to the image name in the Wizard. See the image

below as an example.

4.5 Importing the Install Image to WDS

The install.wim from Windows Server 2012 has Inbox Mellanox drivers by default. Updated

Mellanox drivers can be injected into Install Image similar to Boot Image in the previous (on

For W

indow

s Serv

er 20

12


13


page 12) section. Importing the image to WDS will result in Windows 2012 Server installation

with updated Mellanox drivers out of the box.

4.6 Downloading and Burning Mellanox Flexboot Expansion ROM

If your network adapter is not supplied with PXE expansion ROM, Mellanox Flexboot

expansion ROM and documentation can be downloaded from Mellanox Website:

http://www.mellanox.com/content/pages.php?pg=products_dyn&product_family=34&menu

_section=34

Follow the instructions in the FlexBoot User Manual to burn PXE expansion ROM.

4.7 Configuring System BIOS to Boot from a Mellanox Device

System’s BIOS should be configured to boot from Mellanox device.

4.8 Executing PXE Boot and Installing Windows Server 2012

To execute PXE boot and install Windows Server 2012:

1. Reboot the system.

2. Allow the system to execute PXE boot.

The system will boot from Port 1 (IB) or from Port 2 (ETH) according to Boot Server Host

Name option supplied by the DCHP scope. This also can be controlled on per-host basis

by using DHCP options on DHCP reservation level.

3. Choose "Microsoft Windows Setup (x64) with Mellanox driver" form WDS boot menu and

continue to Windows Setup as usual.

For W

indow

s Serv

er 20

12



user guide server

Documents