Boot on san within virtual machines

[normansoth]

Hello,

I want to troubleshoot an application installed on a windows which is boot on san.

I don't have san storage only an ISCSi array disk.

My question is if I install a virtual machine with an open filer or a SAN emulator, is it possible to create a virtual machine which is going to boot on these virtual machine (storage inside)?

Thanks for your help.

Regards,

[farkasharry]

Sure you can. i.e. Openfiler is a good choice, it IS an ISCSI storage appliance that fully supports even boot from its storage.

[normansoth]

Thanks for your answer:

So I can install a virtual machin with open filer.

Create a new virtual machine which is boot on san where the storage is stored in this "virtual open filer"?

[farkasharry]

Yes, but make sure that this opeanfiler storage is visible for your virtual machine!

[normansoth]

That's the question

I create an open filer virtual machine with a storage for the boot on san virtual machine.

My question is how to tell my boot on san virtual machine to use the storage on the open filer.

What is the correct configuration for my virtual machine?

thanks.

[farkasharry]

It should be a visible storage area on the same network segment where the san-boot VM is located. You should change the BIOS settings of the san-boot VM to boot from the network first. Press Esc at power on OR go to Edit Setting-> Options -> force to launch BIOS. On the storage, there should be something reacting to the network boot request. (PXE server or so to assign an IP for the boot process...)

[normansoth]

Great I am going to test this.

Thanks for your help.

Regards,

[normansoth]

Hello,

Here is what i have done.

Create a virtual machine with open filer and create an iscsi storage.

What i don't understand is:

1. I create a new virtual machine I have to choose a place to put the vmdk file.

How can I install the OS of new virtual machine on the iscsi storage which is inside a vm machine?

[farkasharry]

The VM cannot host itself. Youshould put the VM to another (i.e. local or other network) storage!

[normansoth]

Ok.

I create a new virtual machine (vmdk on local disk of the ESX server)

Can I install the OS on the storage which is inside the virtual image (open filer iscsi)?

[farkasharry]

If you mean to put the OS that will be booted over network to the openfiler storage, yes sure. but it must be a network bootable installation and the client needs to get a PXE kind of server to know what to boot and where!

[normansoth]

Hello

What I want is :

1. I create a new virtual machine

2. When installing the OS for this virtual machine I want it to be installed on the ISCSI target which is on a open filer virtual machine

Is this possible? 

[farkasharry]

As you want your VM to use a network device (SAN LUN or NFS) as OS drive, you will need to transmit somehow the information, where this network device is located and how can it be reached. For this purpose, you would need a second VM acting as PXE server. Otherwise, the powered on VM does not have a local device to boot from and will not have an IP address and the address of the boot location either.
What is the exact reason to have a network booted OS?

[normansoth]

Reasong is I need to troubleshoot an application and need to simulate boot on san.

As I dont have a san I am trying to simulate it using vmware and open filer virtual machine.

What I dont understand is:

1. You cannot create a virtual machine without assigning it a storage for the datastore

2. I have create a WDS server to install the OS from remote --> This is working

What I want is when I boot my virtual machine and installing the OS I want it to be on the storage which is within another virtual machine (open filer).

Really don't know if it is possible...

Thanks for your help.

[farkasharry]

Virtual ISCSI storage is acting the same as a physical. Traffic is going through the network.
When you are creating a VM, all files (config files, logs, etc) needs to be stored somewhere, but you can still create it without a local HDD, and set the VM's BIOS to boot from network. Question is, how this VM will know where his OS drive is located?

[normansoth]

I have the same question 🙂

[farkasharry]

So we are back to the PXE server as second VM, that would assign IP to the VM and give him the path to his OS