B200-M3 boot support from USB

[Walter Dey]

I know that with 2.1.2a, we introduced minimal support of SD-card, e.g. installing and booting ESXi.

What about internal USB ? I think this is still not supported ? correct ?

[padramas · Accepted solution]

Hello Walter,

Boot from internal USB is supported. Currently, the boot order is not managed by UCSM.

PID -  UCS-USBFLSH-S-4GB=

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/unified_computing/ucs/hw/blade-servers/B200M3.html#ID478

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/unified_computing/ucs/sw/gui/config/guide/2.1/b_UCSM_GUI_Configuration_Guide_2_1_chapter_011111.html

We need to manually enable it from BIOS menu.

HTH

Padma

[Timo Scheller · Accepted solution]

Hi,

we use this setup (ESXi 5.1 on USB) since 03/2013. Works like a charm. No problems.

And we don`t have changend anything in BIOS.

This worked right out of the box, as far as i can remember.

We just put a USB-Stick into the systems.

You only have to be carefull, you use the right size (if not using the original cisco).

Has to be very, very small to fit in.

Best,

Timo

[Walter Dey]

Thanks Padma and Timo, and sorry for this trivial question.

I had it working within minutes, without any problems; I was initially paranoid, when I followed the discussion about the SD boot caveats.

Regards

Walter.

[smcquerr]

Timo,

It will work out fo the box if there are no Hard Drives installed in the server.  When this is the case there will be no need to go into the BIOS since the USB key will be the only "hard drive" avalible to BIOS to boot.  If you also have a local drive and/or a second USB or SD card then you have to enter BIOS setup and prioritize the USB key with your boot image as the first "hard drive" in the BBS priorities.

The service profile will also need to be set to boot from a hard drive.  BBS Priorities (or 2nd level boot order) will be added to UCSM service profies in a future version.

Steve McQuerry

UCS - Technical Marketing