Boot from SAN Guide

Restrictions
The following sections describe restrictions for booting from a SAN.
Operating system restrictions
The following operating system restrictions apply:
Microsoft Windows operating systems require a unique, dedicated disk for booting. Therefore, each
server connected to a RAID array must have its own disk, or logical unit number (LUN), dedicated for
booting and operating system files. Data can be allocated across both the boot disk and the remaining
disks. Booting from array-based disk partitions is possible.
NOTE:
For Windows Server 2003, a crash dump file will not be generated if the path to the system drive is
different from the active path established if the system was booted at the time of a system crash. To
ensure that a crash dump is created, move the system disk back to the active boot time path as soon
as possible, after any failure. For detailed information a file creation, see the website
http://download.microsoft.com/download/f/9/7/f9775acc-baa6-45cc-9dec-b82983705620/
Boot%20from%20SAN%20in%20Windows.doc
Clustered server restrictions
This section describes clustered server restrictions for Storport miniport drivers.
Storport miniport driver restrictions
• For Storport miniport driver restrictions, see the following Microsoft articles:
• To set up MSCS properly, see Cluster is formed by using a local quorum resource after a cluster
setup failure in Windows Server 2003, available at the website
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=888160
• For boot from SAN and MSCS configurations on Windows Server 2003 systems, see the up-
dated Storport storage driver, version 5.2.3790.2494 that is available for Windows Server
2003 available at the website
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/912944/en-us
Also see How to add a registry value to a Windows Server 2003-based computer that you
start from a SAN so that the startup disk, the page file disks, and the cluster disks are all on
the same SAN fabric, available on the website
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/886569/en-us
• To avoid improper modification of the registry, use the Boot from SAN Cluster Registry Update
utility to add the Manage Disks On System Buses key. Download the utility (BFSCLRegUp.exe)
from the website
http://h18006.www1.hp.com/storage/saninfrastructure.html
• A minimum of two HBA ports per host is required for a High Availability (HA) configuration.
For detailed information, see the ProLiant High Availability website
http://h18004.www1.hp.com/solutions/enterprise/highavailability/index.html
Boot from SAN14