HP LeftHand SAN Solutions Support Document - Application Notes - QLogic HBAs and the LeftHand SAN 20071223

8
Boot from SAN
Windows Boot from SAN configurations requires the QLogic STOR miniport
driver. During SLES installation, use the SLES Boot from SAN package
iso-dd-kit driver available from QLogic. You will need to decompress (gunzip,
winrar the gz file) the iso image and burn this image to a CD for installation.
During RHEL installation, use the RHEL Boot from SAN package iso-dd-kit
driver available from QLogic. Use appropriate 32 or 64 bit packages.
A maximum of 63 targets may be defined in the QLogic device boot table. Our
tests focused on 1 target defined in the device boot table.
In some switch networks, we have seen delays in physical networks which
may have a detrimental timing affect on booting. The four main features that
cause this delay are: Spanning Tree Protocol (STP), Etherchannel negotiation,
Trunking negotiation, and link speed/duplex negotiation. Each switch is
different in allow enabling/disabling these features. For instance, if a
Managed Cisco switch is used, we recommend setting PORTFAST to enabled
in the IOS. STP, etherchannel and trunking can all be disabled for the port or
switch-wide. Manual speed/duplex settings may be configured on both the
switch and device side. Boot sensitivity on timing is the concern here.
Compensation thru the QLogic firmware for spin-delay may also affect
this timing.
Multiport Adapters
At this time, LeftHand only supports path failover in Windows with the
LeftHand Windows Solutions Pack’s MPIO DSM, a network interface, and the
Microsoft iSCSI Initiator. LeftHand does not support the Microsoft generic
MPIO DSM and therefore at this time can not support the QLogic iSCSI HBA
in path failover configurations.
LeftHand has not tested generic Linux MPIO device configurations and will
be unable to support these configurations at this time.