From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Sep 19 06:10:08 2012 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [69.147.83.52]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 24F7E106564A for ; Wed, 19 Sep 2012 06:10:08 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from dweimer@dweimer.net) Received: from webmail.dweimer.net (24-240-198-187.static.stls.mo.charter.com [24.240.198.187]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id DA99C8FC08 for ; Wed, 19 Sep 2012 06:10:07 +0000 (UTC) Received: from www.dweimer.net (webmail.dweimer.net [192.168.5.1]) by webmail.dweimer.net (8.14.5/8.14.5) with ESMTP id q8J5rH8r018409 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 bits=256 verify=NO) for ; Wed, 19 Sep 2012 00:53:17 -0500 (CDT) (envelope-from dweimer@dweimer.net) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2012 00:53:17 -0500 From: dweimer To: FreeBSD Questions Organization: dweimer.net Mail-Reply-To: Message-ID: X-Sender: dweimer@dweimer.net User-Agent: Roundcube Webmail/0.8.1 Subject: Anyone Tried to use iPXE to boot with iSCSI? X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list Reply-To: dweimer@dweimer.net List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2012 06:10:08 -0000 I was just trying some proof of concept testing to see if I could get a system booting with no local disk using iSCSI running from my FreeNAS box. I got started, by first booting a 9.1-RC1 CD, into live CD, created a /tmp/iscsi.conf used kldload to load the iscsi initiator, connected to the target, created a gpt boot partition, swap partition and just a single / volume using remianing space. Copied the bootcode, created the file system, extracted the system etc. Created a loader.conf file, added the iscsi_initiator_load="YES" option, copied my /tmp/iscsi.conf file to the new file system at /etc/iscsi.conf created a /etc/fstab file using the gpart labels to mount / and swap partitions. Booted the system from the iPXE.iso, ran the necessary configuration options, connected to the iscsi volume, and booted from it. It does launch the bootcode, as expected, and then breaks failing to mount root. Whoch I actually expected, I have proved I can install to an iSCSI volume, I can connect to that iSCSI volume prior to loading the kernel, and load the kernel from it. What I can't seem to find any information on is how to mount iSCSI volumes at boot on FreeBSD, so that the kernel can mount the root partition. Does anyone have any idea how to do this, or if its even possible? -- Thanks, Dean E. Weimer http://www.dweimer.net/