Issue with iSCSI remote diskless boot on X540-t NIC

AAten · ‎09-28-2018

I'm having an issue with remote Diskless boot on the X540-t NIC cards.

My system setup is a Dell 7910 with X540-t2 NIC

UEFI has been update to latest version: A27

On boot up I see the iSCSI screen pop up, the Target and initiator information appears right and on the server PC I can see ISCSI network traffic using wire shark.

After the iSCSI screen I get a no disk drive message and the system does not boot

additional info:

I have checked the VHDX image and it appear good.

I can boot the system from a physical disk just fine, the disk is the same one I made the image from.

The NIC is currently the only selected boot device in UEFI.

wireshark spits the following traffic for iSCSI:

Login command

Login Success

Inquiry LUN: 0x00

Data in LUN: 0x00

Test Unit Ready LUN:0x00

Response LUN: 0x00 (Test Unit Ready) (Good)

Read Capacity(10) LUN: 0x00

Data in LUN: 0x00 (Read capacity(10) response data)

Logout command (close session)

Logout Response

any ideas on what I'm missing here? As a note this is the first time I tried to setup a diskless boot system.

idata · ‎09-30-2018

Hello Atencio,

Thank you for posting in Intel Wired Ethernet Communities. Please inform us of the following:

The "no disk drive " message after iSCSI boot is the only error you are seeing?
What is the operating system you are trying to remote boot?
Do you have any other Ethernet controllers or RAID controllers installed on the system?
If possible, explain the steps you went through to configure iSCSI remote boot. A guide can be found in the https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/11848/Ethernet-User-Guides-for-Intel-Ethernet-Adapters?_ga=2.262656780.1210208223.1538363715-753214976.1529050232&elq_cid=1869446 Adapter User Guide under iSCSI Boot Configuration.

Please check the https://www.intel.com/content/www/xa/en/support/articles/000007279/network-and-i-o.html iSCSI known issues, and https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000007350/network-and-i-o.html troubleshooting to see if any considerations apply to your system if you haven't already. Let us know if you have any other questions.

Best regards,

Daniel D

Intel Customer Support

AAten · ‎10-01-2018

1. The no disk error is the only error that I can see.

2. The OS is Windows 10 Pro.

3. A. There are 4 ports with the Network Card, and 2 built into the motherboard, I did confirm that I am using the correct port.

B. I there is a RAID controller installed.

4. Step by step of what I've done so far:

1. Booted system to a disk drive installed with windows 10 pro.

2. installed the latest version of UEFI BIOS on the system, It lists it as version A27 of the bios.

3. installed the latest version of the Intel drivers, version 4.1.76.0

4. Downloaded and installed the PREBOOT utilities for Intel website.

5. Ran the BootUtil and entered the following commands:

BOOTUTILW64E -NIC=3 -BOOTENABLE=ISCSIPRIMARY

BOOTUTILW64E -NIC=3 -INITIATORIP=192.168.1.3 < client ip address

BOOTUTILW64E -NIC=3 -INITIATORNAME=iqn.1991-05.com.microsoft:win-mgv3vf5gpij-clientpc-target < IQN of the client PC

BOOTUTILW64E -NIC=3 -NETMASK=255.255.248.0

BOOTUTILW64E -NIC=3 -BOOTLUN=0

BOOTUTILW64E -NIC=3 -TARGETIP=192.168.1.10 < server ip Address

BOOTUTILW64E -NIC=3 -TARGETNAME=iqn.1991-05.com.microsoft:desktop-ijm3tmc < IQN of the server PC

BOOTUTILW64E -NIC=3 -TARGETPORT=3260

6. I used macrium to make a VHDX image of the Disk and Boot sectors.

7. I loaded the VHDX image up on the server PC.

8. On the Client PC I opened iSCSI Initiator.

9. In the discovery Tab I entered 192.168.1.10 to find the Server PC.

10. In the Targets Tab I refreshed the list and then selected the iqn target of the server.

11. I connected and verified that I could view the contents of the drive in windows.

12. restarted windows and booted machine into UEFI BIOS.

13. in system configuration > Integrated NIC, I checked the Enable UEFI network Stack option and set the Integrated NIC to Enabled.

14. In Secure Boot > Secure Boot Enable, I disabled Secure Boot.

15. In General > Advanced Boot Options, I checked Enable Legacy Option ROMs.

16. In the General > Boot Sequence, I checked Windows Boot Manager and UEFI.

17. I saved the settings, shutdown the PC and removed the Disk Drive.

18. I restarted the PC. I see the Dell logo, then the Intel iSCSI remote boot version 3.1.13 screen. It indicatess that It has found the Remote Drive and Loaded it to LUN 0.

19 Then the No Hard drive found screen shows up.

idata · ‎10-01-2018

Hello Atencio,

Thank you for the the information and detailed instructions. We will take a look at this, and update you soon. Let us know if you have any questions.

Best regards,

Daniel D

Intel Customer Support

idata · ‎10-02-2018

Hello Atencio,

Please clarify if the following is referring to the integrated NIC in the Dell system, and if this is an X540 Controller.

"in system configuration > Integrated NIC, I checked the Enable UEFI network Stack option and set the Integrated NIC to Enabled."

Is the following referring to an Intel retail version of the X540-T2?

"BOOTUTILW64E -NIC=3 -BOOTENABLE=ISCSIPRIMARY"

If so there is a later version for the https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/19186/Ethernet-Intel-Ethernet-Connections-Boot-Utility-Preboot-Images-and-EFI-Drivers?product=58954 iSCSI remote boot.

You might also want to check with the Target software provider and Macrium for any known issues. Let us know if you have any questions.

Best regards,

Daniel D

Intel Customer Support

AAten · ‎10-02-2018

1. Thinking about that I guess it would be referring to the built in NIC on the mother board. The system has 4 ports for the X540-t2 and 2 ports on the motherboard. There was no other Enable option in the UEFI BIOS though.

2. Yes that is for the retail version of the X540-t2 card. I'll try the newer version of iSCSI remote boot and Get back to you if that worked or not

3. Tried taking the macrium software out of the Loop, used windows 10 disk manager to create a new VHDX image and tossed that up on the server. I then booted to a windows install disk. The drive shows up as a usable unformatted space, tried installing windows on the drive and had issues on the restart. Looks like it is now able to boot to that image, but the windows install didn't finish fully. I'm going to try using a fresh Hard Drive, install windows and clone that.

I did do some more digging. The Cloned image I made in macrium and the original disk that I made it from appear to use GPT portioning. The new VHDX image that I made used MBR portioning. Could this of caused some of the issues?

I think I'm pretty close. I'll the aboves and get back to you.

AAten · ‎10-02-2018

1. so enabling / disabling the built in NIC cards and options in the UEFI BIOS didn't seem to make much difference. I think they just control the Motherboards built in NIC. I'm trying to boot from the X540 connections.

2. Tried the newer version of iSCSI remote boot, didn't make a difference.

3. Didn't have any luck with a cloning a fresh drive, as a note I was wrong about the disk partially loading windows, the windows disk itself was what was kicking it into the repair options, when I took it out, got the same messages as before. "No bootable devices found".

Tried Microsoft, and DELL support, got nothing back from Microsoft yet and DELL pointed me back at you. Hopefully I'll hear something back from Microsoft tonight.

I haven't been able to find a good Guide on how to do this step by step anywhere.

idata · ‎10-03-2018

Hello Atencio,

Thank you for the responses. We will look into this additional information, and update you soon. Let us know if you have any questions.

Best regards,

Daniel D

Intel Customer Support

AAten · ‎10-09-2018

Any further insights on what is going wrong here?

I think I've eliminated the image it's self as an issue. I'm able to boot to it in a Virtual Machine.

I think the issue is between the NIC ROM load and the UEFI Bios.

I did find a reference video from one of your techs that mostly reiterated what I did:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mt3b5IQGG4I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mt3b5IQGG4I

I noticed that his boot screen for his NIC card progressed further than mine. Attached an image of the NIC screen, that's as far as it gets before it kicks into a no disk found screen.

idata · ‎10-09-2018

Hello Atencio,

Thank you for the image and reference video. We are still investigating the issue. Has Microsoft replied to you with any other information? If you have any other questions please let us know.

Best regards,

Daniel D

Intel Customer Support

AAten · ‎10-10-2018

Microsoft came back with a recommendation to try installing windows from scratch on the disk image using Windows PE (pre-installer environment). Other than that they have reiterated things that I have already tried so far.

I finished downloading everything I needed for Windows PE install last night, trying it today.

Thanks for your help so far.

AAten · ‎10-10-2018

I think I'm very, very close.

I have managed to get the system to boot to a remote vhdx loaded with windows PE (not really what I want but it proves that the remote boot is setup correctly).

Apparently it is a semi complicated process to setup a windows 10 boot image for a vhdx network drive, but I'm working on that.

I still get one issue on startup: after it exits the NIC page (attached image a couple of posts above), I get a "Alert! Hard Drive not found." message with options to retry boot, enter setup utility or run diag. If I retry boot, it will boot from the vhdx image.

I haven't been able to find a way to suppress this prompt. Any ideas on that?

idata · ‎10-10-2018

Hello Atencio,

Thank you for sharing the feedback from Microsoft. We will look into this issue. If you have any other questions please let us know.

Best regards,

Daniel D

Intel Customer Support

idata · ‎10-15-2018

Hello Atencio,

Please confirm that this is a retail X540-T2 adapter, and not an OEM adapter. Please provide the product label markings as shown in the following https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000007060/network-and-i-o/ethernet-products.html article. If you cannot find these markings please inform us. Let us know if you have any questions.

Best regards,

Daniel D

Intel Customer Support

AAten · ‎10-16-2018

Got it working, I'm actually running thru the entire process again to get a good step by step, but here's what I got.

For getting rid of the HD message I disabled SATA operation in BIOS (after I'm done with all of the setup, as it disables the DVD/CD drive as well, but for my purposes I would have to do this anyway).

For windows 10 pro.

1. Run thru the steps I had above for setting up the NIC

2. create a blank VHDX image, this must be static in size and at least 40 GB (for some reason dynamic sized doesn't work).

3. Mount the VHDX image on the server.

4. Create a windows PE disk (see docs.microsoft.com\en-us\windows-hardware\manufacture\desktop\ this site had a lot of userful info, also instructions on how to create a PE disk)

5. Boot to the disk, Note that when the client PC boots, the NIC should still find the VHD and load it.

6. in windows PE run "wpeutil initializenetwork", this will take a couple of minutes but will load the network driver for win PE.

7. run the following to create the windows partitions you will need:

diskpart

list disk >>> note the network drive disk number

select disk 0 >>>> replace 0 with the network drive disk number

create partition primary size=3000 id=27

format quick fs=ntfs label="recovery"

assign letter="R"

create partition primary size=300

format quick fs=ntfs label="System"

assign letter="S"

create partition primary

format quick fs=ntfs label="Windows"

assign letter="W"

exit

8. restart and install windows to the windows partition created above (should look like a normal drive).

9. On restart, boot into the windows PE disk again.

10. load the network drivers again and enter the following:

C:\windows\system32\bcdboot C:\windows /s S: /f ALL >>>>> this will refresh the boot sector

md R:\recovery\WindowsRE >>> this will rebuild the recovery sector

copy C:\Windows\system32\recovery\winre.wim R:\recovery\windowsRE\winre.wim

C:\windows\system32\reagentc /setreimage /path R:\Recovery\WindowsRE /target W:\Windows

bcdboot C:\Windows

11. restart the PC.

12. On the first boot screen press Shift+Ctrl+F3 to boot into Audit mode.

13. Install the NIC driver.

14. Restart the PC again.

15. you might get a driver signing error, hit F8 and select option 7 (ignore driver signing).

16. Reinstall the drivers with the signing error (the NIC driver was one in my case) and delete the old driver from C:\windows\system32\drivers

17. restart and windows should boot normally.

Hope this helps the next person to come across this issue.

idata · ‎10-19-2018

Hi atencio,

Thanks for sharing the update. Glad to know the issue has been resolved. Feel free to post in the Wired Communities for other Intel® Ethernet Network Adapters questions.

Regards,

Vince T.

Intel Customer Support