Iscsi offload and boot – HP Virtual Connect 8Gb 20-port Fibre Channel Module for c-Class BladeSystem User Manual

Page 123

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Virtual Connect server profiles 123

the BIOS limit the number of PXE enabled embedded NICs to one. However, additional NIC ports from a
mezzanine adapter can be enabled simultaneously using the "Use BIOS" settings.
All mezzanine NIC ports can be enabled for PXE booting at the same time, along with one embedded NIC
port. If one or more mezzanine NIC ports are enabled for PXE booting, you should review the RBSU IPL list
to validate or update the boot order priority.
If you need to enable PXE on more than one NIC port, you must set all of the NICs' PXE configuration options
in the VCM to "Use BIOS". Then, configure the individual PXE NIC settings using RBSU: F9 during POST to

configure an embedded NIC, and F1 during POST to configure the mezzanine NIC ports. After all of the
selected NIC ports are PXE enabled, you must configure the boot order using the RBSU boot order settings.
Only the first FlexNIC on each physical port of a Flex-10 device can be used for PXE boot. Virtual Connect

cannot enable PXE boot on the remaining FlexNICs of a physical port.
Redundancy for PXE operations can be achieved using multiple PXE enabled NICs. However, the Virtual
Connect Manager is limited to enabling only one NIC for PXE booting. If a configuration requires more than

one NIC to have PXE enabled, you should set all NICs in the VC Manager to the "Use BIOS" setting, and
configure the NIC PXE settings through their respective BIOS utilities (F9 for embedded NICs, and F1 for

mezzanine NIC ports.)
The following table lists examples of valid configurations for PXE enabling NIC ports. This is only a sampling
of the possible valid configurations.

PXE enabled

PXE disabled

Server blade configuration

Embedded NIC 1,

Mezz 1 NIC port 1

Embedded NIC 2,
Mezz NIC port 2

BL46xc with a dual-port NIC mezzanine
adapter

Embedded NIC 2,
Mezz 1 NIC port 1

Embedded NIC 1,
Mezz NIC port 2

BL46xc with a dual-port NIC mezzanine
adapter

Embedded NIC 1,
Mezz 1 NIC port 1, 2

Embedded NIC 1

BL46xc with a dual-port NIC mezzanine
adapter

Mezz 1 NIC port 1, 2

Embedded NIC 1, 2

BL46xc with a dual-port NIC mezzanine

adapter

Embedded NIC 1,

Mezz 1 NIC port 1
Mezz 2 NIC ports 1, 2

Embedded NIC 2, 3, 4
Mezz 1 NIC port 1

Mezz 2 NIC port 3, 4

BL48xc with a dual-port NIC mezzanine
adapter and a quad-port NIC mezzanine

adapter

Embedded NIC 4,

Mezz 1 NIC ports 1, 2
Mezz 2 NIC ports 1, 2, 3, 4

Embedded NIC 1, 2, 3

BL48xc with a dual-port NIC mezzanine

adapter and a quad-port NIC mezzanine
adapter

Mezz 1 NIC port 1

Mezz 2 NIC ports 1

Embedded NIC 1, 2, 3, 4

Mezz 1 NIC port 2
Mezz 2 NIC port 2, 3, 4

BL48xc with a dual-port NIC mezzanine

adapter and a quad-port NIC mezzanine
adapter

In each configuration above, only one embedded NIC port can have PXE enabled (any embedded NIC port
is eligible), but any and all mezzanine NIC ports can be enabled whether or not an embedded NIC port is

being enabled.
For more information on RBSU, see the HP ROM-Based Setup Utility User Guide on the Documentation CD or

the HP website (

http://www.hp.com/support/smartstart/documentation

).

iSCSI offload and boot

The iSCSI configuration setup feature enables you to configure a server to boot from a remote iSCSI target as
part of the VC server profile.

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