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StarWind SoftwareTechnical Reference Series

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

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

Thursday, March 05, 2009

www.starwindsoftware.com


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Copyright © StarWind Software 2008-2009. All rights reserved. No part of thispublication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in anyform or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise,without the prior written consent of StarWind Software.

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The material in this document is for information only and is subject to change withoutnotice. While reasonable efforts have been made in the preparation of this documentto assure its accuracy, StarWind Software assumes no liability resulting from errors oromissions in this document, or from the use of the information contained herein.StarWind Software reserves the right to make changes in the product design withoutreservation and without notification to its users.

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Table of Contents

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

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

....................................................................................................... 23Initializing Starwind disk, formatting it and markingas active

....................................................................................................... 37Copying operating system to the newly createdboot volume

....................................................................................................... 42Conclusion



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 netBoot/i

First of all you need to install and activate the netBoot/i Server. Please refer tothe emBoot documentation on how to do this. At the second step, you need to configure the netBoot/i Server services.Launch the netBoot/i Manager and start the emBoot PXE, TFTP and netBoot/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 netBoot/i services, Implementing emBoot PXEService and DHCP on the same server, Implementing emBoot PXE Serviceand DHCP on different network servers.Now you need to add a netBoot/i Client. Launch the netBoot/i Manager.Select the Client node in the left-hand panel, right click it and select AddClient… from the context menu.



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On the General information page enter the client computer Name (you canoptionally select to change the Windows machine name to match the one usedwith the netBoot/i Client later) and MAC address of the NIC you plan to bootfrom. Specify the MAC address using an xxxxxxxxxxxx hex format.




20

On the iSCSI Boot page enter the IP address of the StarWind computer as thePortal and also the Port (default value is 3260). Enter the iSCSI Target namethat you created in the Configuring StarWind iSCSI Target section of thisguide. To facilitate this you will need to have the Microsoft iSCSI Initiatorrunning on the netBoot/i Server machine. Leave all other options untaggedfor now.

Press the Finish button to complete the wizard.



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



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Now you need to install the netBoot/i Client software package, accepting thedefault values and restarting the machine at the end of the installationprocess.At this step you need to create an iSCSI boot volume. Login to the netBoot/iClient machine and launch the Computer Management console. Initialize thedisk, quick format it, set partition type as “primary”, provide a drive letter andmark partition as “active” (a complete step-by-step description is providedbelow in the Initializing StarWind disk, formatting it and marking as “active”section of this manual).Use the netBoot/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 bellow). 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 netBoot/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 tosee if machine can successfully boot from the iSCSI volume.



23

Initializing Starwind disk, formatting it and marking as active

The sequence of actions listed below allows a user to create the netBoot/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.




24

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.




25

At the next step you’d be asked to convert Basic disk to the Dynamic disk.Don’t do this - uncheck the Disk 1 checkbox if it is already pre-selected.




26

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

Press the Finish button to complete the wizard.



27

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.



28

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




29

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.




30

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.




31

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.




32

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.




33

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

Press the Finish to complete the wizard.



34

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.



35

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.



36

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.



37

Copying operating system to the newly created boot volume

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



38

On the dialog page that appears, select the newly created drive as aDestination Drive (G: on the sample page provided below). Source Drive (C:always). Content from the source drive will be copied to the destination drivewith the System Copy utility.

Press the Start button to continue.



39

During the file copy process you can watch the copy progress indication andcheck the file names copied. A sample picture is provided below.



40

After System Copy has completed the copy process it will show a CopyComplete message box like the one provided below.

Press the Close button to finish.



41

At this moment the iSCSI boot disk contains a complete operating systemimage. You can switch the netBoot/i Client machine off. When powered downyou may wish to remove the local hard disk from the PC if you don’t need itany more. You can now boot directly from the StarWind iSCSI Target with thehelp of the netBoot/i Client.



42

Conclusion



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