[ipxe-devel] Win 2008r2 - sanboot image and install to iSCSI

[Marek Salwerowicz]

Hi,

after following the 
http://etherboot.org/wiki/sanboot/win2k8_iscsi_install tutorial I am 
able to install/boot the Windows 2008R2 into iSCSI target.
(target registered under 0x80, then exit to boot from CD)

But the problem is that the DVD image was mounted as 'Real CD/DVD' in my 
VMWare machine. But I want to install it completely (disk/DVD)less.

When I firstly sanhook the iSCSI target (as 0x80 drive), and then 
sanboot the image (from http server), i receive the same error:

File: \Boot\BCD
Status: 0xc000000e
Info: An error occurred while attempting to read the boot configuration 
data.

My second attempt was to:

set keep-san 1
sanhook --drive 0x81 
iscsi:192.168.65.135::::iqn.2012--06.freenas.local:win2k8disk (works - 
registers the drive under 0x81)
sanboot --no-describe http://ip/win2k8.iso

The installer boots fine (but it takes about 2 times more than booting 
installer without any targets registered), the iSCSI target is 
discovered, but I get the information that:

"Windows cannot be installed to this disk. this computer's hardware may 
not support booting to this disk. Ensure that the disk's controller is 
enabled in the computer's BIOS menu"

As I found in the archive, Andrew had the same problem:

http://lists.ipxe.org/pipermail/ipxe-devel/2011-March/000480.html
and:
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7itproinstall/thread/cea6177e-9cb2-420e-bbc0-0cac487e51e2

it seems to be a problem with INT 13h drives addressing and ARC paths.
Because it's more than year since that post, maybe someone found a 
solution for this problem ?
Is there any possibility to manually edit those ARC paths / force 
windows to install on that drive?

I've read about installing a hard drive inside the client machine, but I 
don't want to do it - I want to stay completely diskless.

looking forward to hearing from you.

Regards,
-- 
Marek Salwerowicz