Boot from SAN 101 with Cisco UCS | Jeff Said So Page 1 of 11

Boot from SAN 101 with Cisco UCS

Posted on November 9, 2010 by Jeff Allen

So my Dad is selling Viagra now – or at least that’s what his latest email claimed
shift from his real estate job, I called him to inquire. It turns out that while dad w
email had been working overtime to provide this medical benefit to everyone in
emails a minor nuisance, the job of helping him remove the malware from his P
and it happens time and again.

I’m sure this sounds all too familiar to most of you. After all, you’re the “comput
either your dad that fell for the “You’re infected – Click Here now to clean your
roommate that doesn’t understand why her Facebook keeps posting links to ina
wall. When I come across things like this, I’m the type of guy who wants to unde
understand how the infection works and what makes it spread. I do this so that
completely understand it and don’t have to submit to the drastic measure of re-i
and/or formatting the drive like PC repair shops do. Doing this provides me wit
done faster and easier next time, and I won’t be forced to repeat menial tasks lik
over again every time it comes up. I take this same approach in the data center w
horizon. Today, I want to help you understand how Boot from SAN works in a le
UCS makes the task 100 times faster (literally).

I should let you know right up front that I’m not a storage guru, but I’ve setup se
many different arrays now that I’ve lost track. This should be of some comfort if
well – meaning that this isn’t rocket science (which is probably equally easy sinc
right?). And while most of the relevance in this discussion surrounds Boot from
to be just as useful to any SAN admin who wants to allocate storage prior to the
HDD. Sometimes it just comes down to timing and schedules and for those situa
valuable.

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Now, for those who don’t boot from SAN today, I’ll review briefly the general tas
legacy servers and blades to do so.

1. Server Tasks
A. Power on the server.
B. Press the appropriate hot key to enter the server BIOS/EFI and change th
server’s SAN storage controller. Note: HP calls this “Boot Controller Orde
standard Boot Order.
C. Save settings and reboot.
D. Again, press the appropriate hot key during POST when the HBA option
Qlogic and ALT+E for Emulex). Entering this utility forces the HBA to lo
it at the intro screen.
2. Switch Tasks
A. Zone the server WWPN to a zone that includes the storage array controlle
B. Zone the second fabric switch as well. Note: For some operating systems
zone just a single path during OS installation so consider this step option
3. Array Tasks
A. On the array, create a LUN and allow the server WWPNs to have access t
B. Present the LUN to the host using a desired LUN number (typically zero,
available on all array models)

The steps are done in this order for a reason. Without the Server Tasks section,
that zoning can occur. Without the Switch Tasks, the array can’t see the HBAs so
this point you can reboot the server and install the OS right onto the SAN LUN.
like a local disk – pretty cool! Well, it’s pretty cool until you have a bunch of serv
deploying a few servers, most people wouldn’t mind repeating a task or two on e
done. Sometimes it’s just faster to do this than to try to automate if you can see
(and it isn’t an oncoming train). But what if the task is beyond “just a few server
of servers you need to catch during POST to force them to login. I’ve used every
out there and none of them are perfect (yes, Cisco’s CIMC too). That’s at least 20

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the instructions below will show you how to force any number of Cisco UCS blad
need to ever enter the HBA BIOS utility or Server BIOS. I need to get one item o
pre-provisioning. Some might argue that the servers don’t need to login to the fa
steps because, in UCS, all the WWPNs are already known ahead of time – before
While this is true, and certainly possible, it just hasn’t been my personal experie
it that way. Feel free to comment otherwise.

Using UCS, the tasks above change just slightly. But instead of repeating the 3 b
task list below just once.

1. UCS Manager Tasks

A. Create a Service Profile Template with x number of vHBAs.
B. Create a Boot Policy that includes SAN Boot as the first device and link it
C. Create x number of Service Profiles from the Template
D. Use Server Pools, or associate servers to the profiles
E. Let all servers attempt to boot and sit at the “Non-System Disk” style mes
2. Switch Tasks
A. Zone the server WWPN to a zone that includes the storage array controlle
B. Zone the second fabric switch as well. Note: For some operating systems
zone just a single path during OS installation so consider this step option
3. Array Tasks
A. On the array, create a LUN and allow the server WWPNs to have access t
B. Present the LUN to the host using a desired LUN number (typically zero,
available on all array models)

Remember, the above tasks are done one time only and all 100 servers (or howe
the SAN switch. As you are probably aware, Cisco UCS manages SAN, LAN, and
console. What makes this task (and lots of others) so easy can be traced back to
Templates. UCS manages the server facet by separating the server’s identity (MA
VLANs, BIOS Settings, Firmware, etc) from the physical hardware itself. I’m no
article, but you can read up on them on Sean’s blog here: http://www.mseanmc

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statelessness-cisco-ucs-vs-hp-virtual-connect/. Part of the server’s identity is th

Additionally, because any number of Service Profiles can be instantly created fro
create 100 or more “servers” and manage everything about them from one temp
template, I just added a vlan to all servers using the template. If I change the bo
the boot order of all servers. And yes, you can unlink profiles from templates ((a
want this behavior at some point. Because I assume some of you may want to go
actual step-by-step below. If you have any questions, please let me know.

So let’s take a look at the steps required to get this trick to work.

1. Create a Service Profile Template.

A. Choose “Updating” template type from the first screen in the wizard. An u
make changes in just one place, to the template itself, when we want to ch
that template.

1. Create the Boot Policy

A. While creating the template, choose the option to “Create Boot Policy”

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1. Add only SAN Boot to the policy (I always name my vHBA’s “fc0″ and “
adding a Primary path. A Secondary can also be created if you wish to h
method.

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1. Add a SAN Boot Target to the Primary vHBA (fc0)

1. Use ANY valid WWPN as the Boot Target WWPN. Since the purpose of
HBA to login, you can use one from your actual array or just make one
20:00:00:00:00:00:00:00

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1. Finish the Policy and Template

A. Save the Boot Policy and be sure and select it from the list before y
Service Profile Template creation. Finish the Template at this point.
2. Create Profiles
A. With the template highlighted, click “Create Service Profile from Templat
of Service Profiles from the Template. Use names that make sense to you
servers, you probably want to use Server Pools to automate the Service Pr
hardware (I intend to cover Server Pools as future topic). Regardless, onc
associated to physical servers, we can proceed to the next step.
3. Boot the Servers
A. By default, this will happen for you automatically. The servers will power
WWPN you designated as a target which obviously won’t actually boot th
primary goal of the server vHBA successfully logging in to the SAN Fabri
servers logged into the SAN Fabric and normal switch zoning can be don
successful login. First, look in the Service Profile to see the assign WWPN
example, it’s 20:00:00:25:B5:00:A1:BF as shown below.

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1. Verify Successful Login

A. So now that we know what we’re looking for, let’s go see if it shows up in
Database. A simple “show flogi database” command at the switch produc

Bingo – there it is! Along with the other 100 vHBAs I needed to zone.

Once zoning is complete, simply change the Boot Policy in the template to point
You can edit the Policy or just create a new one. This brings up another huge UC
change the boot target for all of the servers, that means you can do some pretty
SAN upgrades. Imagine if your datacenter upgrades from array vendor-X to arra
the next model array from the same vendor. Replication software exists to hand
but nothing exists to go out and change all the servers to point to the new array
now that is.

So there you have it. With UCS I can take a task that would have taken a single a
of keystrokes and shortened the task to just a few simple steps. I’d like to send a
Jeremy Waldrop (who’s done more than his fair share of UCS). He shows an int

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provisioning that uses UCS service profiles that you could combine with the info
provision your storage before your physical blades arrive – with no outage! Grea
http://jeremywaldrop.wordpress.com/2010/11/11/cisco-ucs-service-profile-coo

Now you’ve heard what I have to say, and I hope you found this useful and that
deploying your servers. If you have anything you’d like to add, please feel free.

For more info on how Fibre Channel is implemented on Cisco UCS, see this link
https://supportforums.cisco.com/docs/DOC-6186

Thanks for stopping by.

-Jeff Allen

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11 Responses to Boot from SAN 101 with Cisco UCS

Andrew Miller says:

November 27, 2010 at 10:02 pm

Very helpful for a UCS newbie….am liking what I’m learning at this point….

Reply

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Kendrick Coleman says:

November 29, 2010 at 8:47 am

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Boot from SAN 101 with Cisco UCS | Jeff Said So Page 10 of 11

Jeff,
Great article and I can’t thank you enough for the spoon feeding. I’m new with UCS a
knowledge as I can. Keep up with the nice step-by-step posts, I enjoyed reading it alo

Kendrick

Reply

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Ajay says:
November 30, 2010 at 10:52 am

Hey Jeff,

we’re about to recieve a UCS with 16 blades and Bang.. i come across this article.. talk

A big big big THANK YOU for this article. i dont know how many hours you have sav
Cheers!

Reply

Jeff Allen says:

November 30, 2010 at 11:32 am

You’re very welcome. That’s what this blog is all about.

Reply

TK says:
December 9, 2010 at 11:52 am

Wow, I wish Cisco had this in their documentation! One of the biggest issues an admi
and what is the best order to run tasks.

This is what I’ve been searching for to get SAN booting set up correctly. MUCH appre

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Reply

NC says:
January 4, 2011 at 4:10 pm

Thanks for the informative article!

A Cisco SE consultant told me you have to remove/disconnect the local hard drives in
hard drives already have bootable OS installed on them. Is that true?

Reply

Jeff Allen says:

January 15, 2011 at 7:44 pm

This is no longer a requirement. If the boot order does not include local stora
controller will not load.

Reply

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