[ipxe-devel] iPXE, ESXi 5.5 Stateless + Caching Install - BMP Razor + Chef Integration, Routed iSCSI, IaaS block

[Mike Harris]

Greetings!

I'm currently using local storage (2-way mirror, LSI controller) to booting a "test rabbit" SuperMicro blade in my lab.

High level;

+ X8DTT-H Motherboard
+ Intel X540 NIC (dual 10G copper)

We commonly use these blades and would like to bare metal provision a failed blade from a last known good state.  Final profile applied by an ESM tool like Chef.

Currently the blade use DAS.  It works, but an iSRB is better and more convenient (from a hardware point of view).

I would like to;

+ iPXE boot,
+ Attach an SAN volume for a boot device (1),
+ have Razor; factor, tag, kickstart the ESXi 5.5 install process.
+ Then broker the node to Chef for final provisioning.

I've been able to get most of this working aside from the SAN volume (1).  Routed iSCSI/NFS SAN volume is a challenge since the default iPXE binary doesn't support vcreate.  I haven't found any exampled of routed iSCSI (or NFS), I'm sure someone has, hopefully they're on this mailing list.

If anyone has any tips on routed iSCSI/NFS boot volumes, and Razor/Chef integration experience, I'd be move appreciative for some feedback on how you managed iSRB.  I have a pretty network diagram of the POC which I'm happy to share if you're interested.

Although the reward is strictly karma at this point, I may have a bunch of Chef work that needs doing that could lead to some meaningful PS for a couple of ninjas in a cool location or two.

May the force be with you!

Mike


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