iSCSI diskless boot/chroot HOWTO

Hobbyists; I am very pleased to provide a complete proof of concept
for iSCSI diskless booting/chroot.

As this is an evolving project, please provide feedback or any questions.

Enjoy!

Bryan D. Black

**Also externally attached in html format.

iSCSI diskless boot/chroot howto

bryan.don.black@xxxxxxxxx
  < Last updated: Jan 26, 2006 > version 0.2


Proof of concept includes:

server: HP Athlon 64bit 3500+ | (running ietd,ISC dhcp,pxelinux,tftp-hpa)

client: DELL Latitude | D610 | (running iSCSI initiator Core)

kernel ver 2.6.14.5 , both server & client machines

Server Tasks:

Setup ISC DHCP

Setup Syslinux (for PXELinux) & TFTP-HPA

Setup iSCSI Target (ietd enterprise target)

Client Tasks:

Setup iSCSI initiator (iSCSI initiator Core)

Boot time

Setup ISC DHCP

edit /etc/dhcp/dhcpd.conf
allow booting;
allow bootp;
option routers 192.168.1.6;
option subnet-mask 255.255.255.0;
ddns-update-style ad-hoc;
subnet 192.168.1.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
   range 192.168.1.111 192.168.55.115;
}
group {
 next-server 192.168.1.6;
 filename "pxelinux.0";
 host laptop-eth0 {
      hardware ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00; (replace with your mac-address)
 }

Setup PXELinux

untar syslinux, make && make install

untar tftp-hpa, make && make install

mkdir -p /tftproot/pxelinux.cfg

cp pxelinux.0 /tftproot

build a kernel for your client and cp to /tftproot/

** make an initrd and cp to /tftproot

note on above: (i will be releasing a very small (25MB) yet complete universal initrd very soon!!)

edit /tftproot/pxelinux.cfg/default
		TIMEOUT 50
		PROMPT 1
		LABEL iscsiboot
		        KERNEL vmlinuzLaptop
		        APPEND root=/dev/ram initrd=bblinux25M
		        IPAPPEND 1
		LABEL disk
		LOCALBOOT 0

Start tftpd: /sbin/in.tftpd -l -v -s /tftproot

Setup iSCSI Target

download ietd (svn export svn://svn.berlios.de/iscsitarget/trunk)

cd trunk && make KERNELSRC=/usr/src/linux && make KERNELSRC=/usr/src/linux install

make some test disk. ie: dd if=/dev/zero of=/iscsi-diska bs=4096k count=1024

configure your new LUN in /etc/ietd.conf

		        Target laptop:diska
        		Lun 0 Path=/iscsi-diska,Type=fileio
		        Alias dell
		        DataPDUInOrder Yes
		        DataSequenceInOrder Yes

start ietd

*Your server/target should be ready, provided ietd,dhcp,in.tftpd is running

Setup iSCSI initiator Core

(client side installation notes)

download core-iscsi-tools (pub/linux/utils/storage/iscsi/)

untar core-iscsi, make initiator KERNEL_DIR=/usr/src/linux && make install

untar core-iscsi-tools, make install

iSCSI core stack is then loadable via iscsi_initiator_mod.ko,

core tools rely upon /etc/sysconfig/initiator

		CHANNEL="0 2 eth0 192.168.55.6 3260 0"
and /etc/sysconfig/iscsi_device_maps
		DEVICE="0 0 1 diska"

Boot time

Change bios on client to pxeboot before HD

at the pxelinux prompt, type iscsiboot (referring to label in pxelinux.cfg/default)

after successfully booting, do something like this:

			/bin/mount / -o rw,remount
			/bin/mount -t proc none /proc
			/bin/mount -o sysfs /sys
			/sbin/ifconfig eth0 192.168.1.92 255.255.255.0
			
			cd /dev && /bin/mknod sdb1 b 8 17
			NAME=$(/sbin/initiator-iname)

			echo "InitiatorName=$NAME" > /etc/initiatorname.iscsi
			/etc/rc.d/init.d/initiator start
			/bin/fdisk /dev/sdb # (create partition)
			/bin/mke2fs /dev/sdb1
			/bin/mount /dev/sdb1 /laptop:diska

			cp -dpRav /bin /sbin /dev /etc /var /lib /usr /tmp /laptop:diska
			cd /laptop:diska && mkdir proc && mkdir sys
			/bin/chroot /laptop:diska /bin/bash

iSCSI diskless boot/chroot howto

bryan.don.black@xxxxxxxxx   < Last updated: Jan 26, 2006 > version 0.2


Proof of concept includes:

server: HP Athlon 64bit 3500+ | (running ietd,ISC dhcp,pxelinux,tftp-hpa)

client: DELL Latitude | D610 | (running iSCSI initiator Core)

kernel ver 2.6.14.5 , both server & client machines

Server Tasks:

Setup ISC DHCP

Setup Syslinux (for PXELinux) & TFTP-HPA

Setup iSCSI Target (ietd enterprise target)

Client Tasks:

Setup iSCSI initiator (iSCSI initiator Core)

Boot time

Setup ISC DHCP

edit /etc/dhcp/dhcpd.conf

allow booting;
allow bootp;
option routers 192.168.1.6;
option subnet-mask 255.255.255.0;
ddns-update-style ad-hoc;
subnet 192.168.1.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
   range 192.168.1.111 192.168.55.115;
}
group {
 next-server 192.168.1.6;
 filename "pxelinux.0";
 host laptop-eth0 {
      hardware ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00; (replace with your mac-address)
 }

Setup PXELinux

untar syslinux, make && make install

untar tftp-hpa, make && make install

mkdir -p /tftproot/pxelinux.cfg

cp pxelinux.0 /tftproot

build a kernel for your client and cp to /tftproot/

** make an initrd and cp to /tftproot

note on above: (i will be releasing a very small (25MB) yet complete universal initrd very soon!!)

edit /tftproot/pxelinux.cfg/default

		TIMEOUT 50
		PROMPT 1
		LABEL iscsiboot
		        KERNEL vmlinuzLaptop
		        APPEND root=/dev/ram initrd=bblinux25M
		        IPAPPEND 1
		LABEL disk
		LOCALBOOT 0

Start tftpd: /sbin/in.tftpd -l -v -s /tftproot

Setup iSCSI Target

download ietd (svn export svn://svn.berlios.de/iscsitarget/trunk)

cd trunk && make KERNELSRC=/usr/src/linux && make KERNELSRC=/usr/src/linux install

make some test disk. ie: dd if=/dev/zero of=/iscsi-diska bs=4096k count=1024

configure your new LUN in /etc/ietd.conf

		        Target laptop:diska
        		Lun 0 Path=/iscsi-diska,Type=fileio
		        Alias dell
		        DataPDUInOrder Yes
		        DataSequenceInOrder Yes

start ietd

*Your server/target should be ready, provided ietd,dhcp,in.tftpd is running

Setup iSCSI initiator Core

(client side installation notes)

download core-iscsi-tools (pub/linux/utils/storage/iscsi/)

untar core-iscsi, make initiator KERNEL_DIR=/usr/src/linux && make install

untar core-iscsi-tools, make install

iSCSI core stack is then loadable via iscsi_initiator_mod.ko,

core tools rely upon /etc/sysconfig/initiator

		CHANNEL="0 2 eth0 192.168.55.6 3260 0"

and /etc/sysconfig/iscsi_device_maps

		DEVICE="0 0 1 diska"

Boot time

Change bios on client to pxeboot before HD

at the pxelinux prompt, type iscsiboot (referring to label in pxelinux.cfg/default)

after successfully booting, do something like this:

			/bin/mount / -o rw,remount
			/bin/mount -t proc none /proc
			/bin/mount -o sysfs /sys
			/sbin/ifconfig eth0 192.168.1.92 255.255.255.0
			
			cd /dev && /bin/mknod sdb1 b 8 17
			NAME=$(/sbin/initiator-iname)

			echo "InitiatorName=$NAME" > /etc/initiatorname.iscsi
			/etc/rc.d/init.d/initiator start
			/bin/fdisk /dev/sdb # (create partition)
			/bin/mke2fs /dev/sdb1
			/bin/mount /dev/sdb1 /laptop:diska

			cp -dpRav /bin /sbin /dev /etc /var /lib /usr /tmp /laptop:diska
			cd /laptop:diska && mkdir proc && mkdir sys
			/bin/chroot /laptop:diska /bin/bash