The iSCSI standard (RFC 3720) defines transporting of the SCSI protocol over a TCP/IP network that allows block access to target devices. A host connection to the network can be provided by an iSCSI host bus adapter or an iSCSI software initiator that uses the standard network interface card in the host.
iSCSI-capable IBM Blades utilize two iSCSI initiators during the boot process. One iSCSI software initiator is contained in the system firmware or BIOS. The other iSCSI software initiator is provided by the operating system.
The System x and System p Blades provide a non-volatile area that can be written with iSCSI parameters. These parameters are used by the system firmware/BIOS during the boot process to obtain the boot loader. The iSCSI parameter values can also be used by enabled Linux distributions for configuring the software iSCSI initiator during installation and boot.
IBM System x and System p Blade iSCSI software initiator install provides instructions to install Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 to an iSCSI target using the iSCSI software initiator capabilities on supported IBM System x and System p Blades.
To discuss this Blueprint, visit the IBM Linux Storage Connectivity Forum: iSCSI and Multipath.
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