[ipxe-devel] iPXE Usage with 10GbE HBA

[Michael Brown]

On 26/08/13 20:34, Gruher, Joseph R wrote:
> I have a Intel S5500WBV server with an Intel X520-DA2 add-in 10GbE HBA.
> When I boot iPXE from USB key I can see the two onboard 1GbE interfaces
> off the 82576 controller but I don’t see the interfaces off the 10GbE
> HBA. Should I be able to use those interfaces from iPXE? Does it require
> any special setup in BIOS or HBA OpROM or iPXE itself? Any reason the
> HBA would not be showing up in iPXE? I would like to initiate an iSCSI
> boot over the 10GbE HBA.

Yes, the X520-DA2 should work in iPXE with the "intelx" driver.  That 
specific card was used during development of the driver, and so should 
work perfectly.

Which build of iPXE are you using?  Is it possible that you just haven't 
included driver support for that card?

> I also have a secondary question, more of a curiosity. If I boot iPXE
> from USB key I see both onboard 1GbE interfaces in iPXE. If I boot iPXE
> using BIOS PXE boot instead of USB key I only see one of the onboard
> interfaces available. Is this expected behavior?

You are probably booting "undionly.kpxe" via BIOS PXE boot.  This build 
does not contain any native NIC drivers; it uses the underlying PXE ROM 
to drive the card.  Only the NIC exposed by that PXE ROM will therefore 
show up in iPXE.

You could choose to PXE-boot e.g. "ipxe.pxe" instead of "undionly.kpxe". 
  This would then use the native iPXE drivers, and all NICs should then 
be visible.

Michael