StarWind and Cisco Network Boot

[Brandon]

Has anyone tried Cisco's Network Boot software with StarWind? Has anyone gotten it to work?

I've been messing around with getting the PXE boot loader to work but I haven't had much luck.

The PXE file loads, the initiator get fed all the necessary information (as far as I can tell) it tries to login to the published resource but it just gives up after awhile.

Granted I know Cisco's party line is they don't support any third party iSCSI Targets but dang it if they adhere to standards it should work. A long shot for Cisco, I know.

Here's the StarWind log file showing the Network Boot client trying to access a published image file called "bootimage"
The Cisco software from within Windows successfully replicated to the boot image published share, there is a full copy of the hard drive sitting in the image.

[ ... ]

I tried a newer trial version of 2.6.1 and I believe it was the same result, so forgive the log file being 2.4.3

Brandon,

[Brandon]

I just ordered a copy of 2.6.1 since my trial period has expired.
I'll post the log file once I get the license for the newer software.

Brandon,

[anton (staff)]

Got your order! Our staff would take care of your issue ASAP. You may provide download details for Cisco stuff to support@starwind.com so we would try EXACT versions you're busy with. BTW, is Cisco network boot stuff free? Thanks!

[Val (staff)]

Hi Brandon,

From the log file we can see that the Cisco initiator sends 2 custom keys during the negotiation.

16:08:14:014 (4dc) Params: <<< Unknown key 'X-com.cisco.POP' with value: '332d665143fd08a98fe1c27a5064c2e3'
16:08:14:014 (4dc) Params: <<< Unknown key 'X-com.cisco.PingTimeout' with value: '0'

16:08:14:014 (4dc) Params: >>> X-com.cisco.POP=NotUnderstood.
16:08:14:014 (4dc) Params: >>> X-com.cisco.PingTimeout=NotUnderstood.

StarWind responses to the unknown keys according to the RFC 3720.
But maybe the CIsco initiator demands the keys to be supported by an iSCSI target to boot from it?