HP Logical Server Management Best Practices

Boot from SAN

Configuring a logical server to boot from SAN utilizes the same basic procedure as boot from SAN for any blade

server. However, many of the necessary steps are handled for the system administrator by the Virtual Connect

software. General boot from SAN capabilities are described at

http://h18006.www1.hp.com/storage/networking/bootsan.html, along with documentation specific to the

arrays and operating system environments. A variety of documentation resources are available and should be

reviewed by both system and storage administrators prior to creating the boot LUNs and logical servers.

Without Virtual Connect, the administrator must manually enable the Host Bus Adapter BIOS and configure the boot

devices. With Virtual Connect, the administrator need not perform these tasks. When the logical server software and

Virtual Connect know boot from SAN is being used (since Fibre Channel boot parameters are specified), Virtual

Connect will make sure that the Server Blade BIOS is configured for the appropriate boot order (and has information

regarding the boot LUN).

The previous sections of this white paper provide information on how to present storage to Virtual Connect HBA

WWNs for the HP EVA and P2000/MSA disk arrays.

A high level view of boot from SAN:

 Storage presented to logical server WWNs and SAN zoning adjusted (by storage administrator). Insight

Control server deployment jobs appropriately edited as explained in following OS Deployment section (or

only one path to the boot volume visible, perhaps by using the HP SPM integration and ability to unmask the

data volumes to make them invisible).

 VC-FC boot parameters specified for logical server (when the VC profile is applied by the logical server

software, Virtual Connect will automatically adjust the server controller order).

 Boot the server and install the OS (using the appropriate software deployment tool)

 Upgrade HBA drivers and install multi-path software

 If enabled only one path to storage, enable redundant paths and data paths

Certain OS versions do not require the HBA driver disks, including

 Windows 2003 SPI or higher

 ESX 3.01 or higher

 RedHat 4 Update5 or higher

 SLES 9 SP3 or higher

The white paper Booting HP ProLiant servers from a storage area network (available at

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c00580093/c00580093.pdf ) provides more

details. Specific aspects regarding VMware ESX installation and boot from SAN are documented at

http://h71019.www7.hp.com/ActiveAnswers/downloads/VMware3_StorageWorks_BestPractice.pdf and are not

repeated within this document to keep the length reasonable.

Local disk boot

HP Matrix infrastructure orchestration contains support for logical servers using a local disk (also referred to as DAS –

Direct Attached Storage) for boot. While such servers lack the flexible movement of those using boot from SAN, there

are some customer environments in which that is acceptable (and the OS can be installed on a new target when

movement is required). A logical server using local disk boot can be initially activated onto a server, the OS installed

to the local disk, and then later suspended and activated back onto that same physical server. If the logical server is

activated onto a different physical server (presumably one with a local disk of suitable size), the OS needs to be re-

deployed.

An administrator using the MatrixIO Designer can define a template including storage using local disk. The boot disk

can be a local (direct attached) disk. If using an on-board RAID controller, only a single logical volume is supported.

The template can also include use of SAN data volumes, if desired. There is no support for local data volumes.

In a Virtual Connect environment, the Matrix OE software is able to automatically gather a variety of information

about the blade servers (memory, processors, potential connectivity). Local disk information is not currently available,