UCS 2.0 with iSCSI Boot from San

[JCcisco123]

Is booting from iSCSI SAN supported with UCS 2.0 and vSphere 5?

I remember there was a problem with iSCSI boot from san when UCS 2.0 was released, Has that been fixed and can someone reference the fix?

[mipetrin]

Hi JC,

To date, iSCSI Boot for ESXi 5.0 running on UCS 2.0 is still _NOT_ officially supported, although that doesn't mean that you can't get it to work. However, if there are issues, they will not be supported by TAC.

It is currently going through the QA process which should be completed shortly.

Let me follow up with the internal team and get back to you.

Thanks,

Michael

[mipetrin]

Hi JC,

Cisco has completed it's internal QA for vSphere 5 + iSCSI Boot + UCS Firmware 2.0. However, we are currently going through VMware iBFT certification and our storage partners are in the process of testing as well.

Only once these are completed will you see that it is officially supported. We expect to see official support for some of these in early 2012 - assuming all goes to plan.

Thanks,

Michael

[Brian Schultz]

Does anyone have any links if this is a supported configuration yet?

[kg6itcraig]

We have it working on RedHat Enterprise 5.5 and Windows7 & 8.

There is a blog page with vidio on this topic http://realworlducs.com/cisco-ucs-iscsi-boot-appliance-ports/

Craig

[Keny Perez]

Brian,

I hope this helps a little, if not, I missunderstood the question...

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/unified_computing/ucs/sw/gui/config/guide/2.0/b_UCSM_GUI_Configuration_Guide_2_0_chapter_011101.html#concept_8AD0577BC71F495B88BAF4335C4EF348

-Kenny

[kg6itcraig]

How have peoples speeds been booting from iSCSI? In my testnig so far:

For Imaging Windows 2008R2

SAN = 6 minutes

iSCSI = 13 minutes

iSCSI seems to work OK but is "slow" for reasons I don't really get. Wondering if that is just inherent with iSCSI and UCS working together for Boot or something else. Maybe it is because I am compairing to an SSD Boot SAN?

Craig