HP 460c Gen9 + Ubuntu 14.04 + iSCSI HBA

ubern00b

ubern00b

ubern00b

Soldato
Joined
25 Nov 2004
Posts
3,792
Hi all

I am currently setting up the above mentioned for use with MySQL (Percona). I have configured 2 paths/NICs within the Virtual Connect for the iSCSI HBA and I assumed I would see these two NICs within the OS but all I am seeing is the 2 "PROD/Management" NICs I configured.

We are a Microsoft house so my Linux knowledge is sketchy at best but since I essentially have 4 NICs in the systems, 2 for PROD/Management and 2 for iSCSI I expect to see the 4 NICs of which I bond the 2 PROD/Management and assign IPs to the other 2 for the Storage network and install iSCSI initiator give it a discovery IP and off I go.

No? Am I missing anything that you can think of?
 
This is purely a guess, because I have never done iSCSI on VC, but are they maybe showing up to the OS as a storage device? In other words the initiator config is done at the BIOS stage when the blade is booting up. I know you can boot from iSCSI HBAs, which is why I am suggesting this. See if when you boot the blade (via the ILO) you get a prompt to configure the iSCSI HBAs.

All just guesses.
 
So you were quite right, there are a bunch of configuration options at the BIOS level. I have assigned IP's on the storage network and entered the discovery IP and found all paths etc, great. Boot into Ubuntu and I was expecting/hoping to just see the disk available to me to use. Not so :(

Any other ideas from anyone? Thing is, I could just assign another 2 NICs (not the iSCSI HBA NICs in VC) to the blade and put them on the storage network, bond them and then use iscsiadm to configure it all. I just thought that this method I am trying now would be the "right" way of doing it, being an HBA and all.
 
I'd say you're 80% of the way now, the fact you were able to see paths from the BIOS. Maybe needs a driver under Ubuntu?

As far as using hardware iSCSI vs software, for me hardware is a pain in the bum because you can only configure it in the BIOS, which makes it difficult to script and difficult to manage while the box is up.
 
The only reason I don't think it is driver related is because the iSCSI NICs are actually the same as the rest of the NICs:

AzRVm97.jpg


And they work just fine. During the boot phase you can also see it detect the iSCSI hardware, it detects "scsi host1" and then the same for "scsi host2" I just wasn't quick enough to screenshot it.

2YMRVsL.jpg


So anyway if I don't get it working by the end of the day then I will just do it the way I know how to. I just want to make it work now though to satisfy my need to not have it win! :p
 
According to this cookbook:
http://h20628.www2.hp.com/km-ext/kmcsdirect/emr_na-c02533991-10.pdf

You need one of these drivers (as you can see from the name, totally different from the base NIC driver -- VC creates "virtual" cards, that each show up as separate hardware devices to the guest OS):
With Emulex adapters:
be2iSCSI driver (Offload iSCSI driver)
be2iSCSI Driver Update Disk for Emulex iSCSI boot installs

With Broadcom adapters:
Accelerated iSCSI operations require both the networking driver and the bnx2i driver.
bnx2i driver (Offload iSCSI driver) + bnx2x (networking driver)

Edit, check if you're using "Accelerated iSCSI" (also from the cookbook, page 45):

Note: Under the OS, Accelerated iSCSI defers with Software iSCSI in the sense that it provides a HBA type of interface and not a Network interface card (NIC). Consequently, additional drivers, software and settings are sometimes required.
 
Bloody marvellous! Thank you for that. I have been looking for some point of reference most of the day. My Google fu is clearly weak. That's a lot of documentation to read now but it's something. Thanks again!

Edit: 100% using "Accelerated iSCSI".
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom