Users Guide

14–Fibre Channel Over Ethernet
FCoE Boot from SAN
231 BC0054508-00 J
RHEL 6.2 and Later
On RHEL 6.2 and later, if the system is configured to boot through an initiator port
that has not previously been configured in the OS, the system automatically boots
successfully, but will encounter problems during shutdown. All new boot path
initiator ports must be configured in the OS before updating pre-boot FCoE boot
parameters.
1. Identify the network interface names for the newly added interfaces through
ifconfig -a.
2. Edit /boot/grub/menu.lst by adding
ifname=<INTERFACE>:<MAC_ADDRESS> to the line kernel /vmlinuz
… for each new interface. The MAC address must be all lower case and
separated by a colon. (for example, ifname=em1:00:00:00:00:00:00)
3. Create a /etc/fcoe/cfg-<INTERFACE> file for each new FCoE initiator
by duplicating the /etc/fcoe/cfg-<INTERFACE> file that was already
configured during initial installation.
4. Issue the following command:
nm-connection-editor
a. Open Network Connection and choose each new interface.
b. Configure each interface as needed, including DHCP settings.
c. Click Apply to save.
5. For each new interface, edit
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-<INTERFACE> to add
the line NM_CONTROLLED="no". Modifying these files automatically causes
a restart to the network service, which may cause the system to appear to
hang briefly. QLogic recommends that you ensure that redundant multipath
paths are available before performing this operation.
VMware ESXi FCoE Boot Installation
FCoE Boot from SAN requires that the latest QLogic BCM57xx and BCM57xxx
async drivers be included into the ESXi 6.0 U2 and 6.5 install image. Refer to
Image_builder_doc.pdf from VMware on how to slipstream drivers.
Table 14-1 shows the supported Legacy BFS and uEFI BFS.
Table 14-1. Supported Legacy BFS and uEFI BFS
Version Legacy BFS uEFI BFS
ESXi 6.0 U2 Supported Supported
ESXi 6.5 Supported Supported