Intel® Ethernet FCoE Boot Installation - Detailed Instructions

Detailed Instructions for Installing Windows Server with Local Disk

Appendix 1

Appendix 2

Appendix 3

Detailed Instructions for Installing Windows Server with Local Disk

The following steps describe one method to install Intel® Ethernet FCoE Boot for Windows. Other methods, using different tools, may also work.

NOTE: Please be sure to read the Appendix information when directed; they contain important details. 

Prepare for partition imaging

  1. On the test server set up the local disk drives. These instructions will cover imaging with a partition imaging tool, so at a minimum a second partition will be needed to store the captured image. If the entire Windows disk will be captured, then a second local disk will be required.

Prepare the Adapter for FCoE Booting

NOTE: If the FCoE Option ROM does not find the FCoE LUN, perform steps 2-4. Otherwise, skip to step 5.
  1. Flash adapter with FCoE Option ROM.
    1. Intel® Ethernet drivers CD: \Apps\BootUtil\DOS\Bootutil /?
  2. Configure the Option ROM to boot from an FCoE LUN:
    1. Input Ctrl+D during boot message.
    2. Select the boot port.
    3. Select Discover Targets.
    4. Choose a target, enter its LUN and set its boot order to 1.
NOTE: Once Intel® Ethernet FCoE drivers are installed, in order to uninstall them the Option ROM must not be allowed to connect to an FCoE LUN. Either disable the boot port in the Option ROM or set all boot orders to 0.
  1. During POST ensure that the FCoE Option ROM loads and finds the LUN.
  2. Ensure local disk is set as first boot option in system BIOS boot menu.

Install the OS and drivers

  1. Install Windows Server on the first local drive.
  2. Boot to the OS on the local disk. Install Intel® Ethernet drivers via CD, selecting FCoE Using Data Center Bridging and reboot. After rebooting, re-run Intel® Ethernet driver FCoE/DCB installation.
  3. Using Disk Management, verify that FCoE LUNs are mounted.
  4. Reboot.

Prepare Windows for imaging

  1. As administrator: Open a command window. Navigate to Intel® Ethernet drivers CD “APPS\FCOEBOOT\Win32” or “APPS\FCOEBOOT\Winx64” depending on installed OS. Run fcoeprep.bat and verify no error messages.
NOTE: The following steps capture the image that was created on drive C: to the secondary partition.
  1. Reboot and ensure the server boots to a copy of WinPE. See Appendix 1 for WinPE information.
NOTE: This step is performed right after running fcoeprep. If the server boots back into Windows, fcoeprep must be run again. This is because Windows resets the settings every time it boots.
  1. From the WinPE command line, capture the local Windows installation with ImageX. See Appendix 2 for ImageX information. Assuming WinPE mounts the Windows disk as C: and the secondary partition or disk as D:, use the following command line:
    imagex /capture /check/compress fast c: d:\fcoeboot.wim "FCoE Boot Image"
  2. For Windows Server 2008 R2 and above. Windows 2008 R2 may be installed onto two partitions: the normal Windows partition and a smaller partition called System Reserved. System Reserved contains files necessary to boot Windows. Assuming WinPE mounts the System Reserved partition as C: and the secondary partition as D:, use the following command line to capture the System Reserved partition: Reserved"
    imagex /capture /check /compress fast c: d:\fcoesr.wim "FCoE Boot System

    Note that in this case WinPE should mount the System Reserved partition as C:, and the Windows partition may be mounted as D or E.

  3. ImageX usually takes about 15 minutes. Reboot to Windows when finished.

The following steps write the image to the FCoE LUN.

  1. Open Disk Management and verify that the boot LUN on the FCoE Target is online. Note the drive letter assigned to the FCoE LUN.
  2. Open a command prompt. Use DiskPart to create the necessary partition(s) on the FCoE LUN. If a System Reserved partition was captured, then one should be created on the FCoE LUN. See Appendix 3 for DiskPart information.
  3. Assuming the image was saved to drive D: and the FCoE LUN was mounted as drive E:, use the following command line:
    4. imagex /apply d:\fcoeboot.wim 1 e:\
  4. For Windows Server 2008 R2 and above: If the System Reserved partition was captured above, it should be applied. In this case, you may need to use Disk Management to assign a drive letter to this partition on the FCoE LUN. Assuming the FCoE LUN’s System Reserved partition is mounted as drive F:, use the following command line:
    imagex /apply d:\fcoesr.wim 1 f:\
  5. For Windows 2008 R2 and above: Run bcdboot.exe from the local Windows installation to make the FCoE disk bootable.
    1. Open Disk Management
    2. If a System Reserved partition exists on the FCoE LUN, type: bcdboot F:\Windows /s E: where E: is the FCoE System Reserved partition and F: is the FCoE partition with the Windows directory.
    3. If a System Reserved partition does not exist, type: bcdboot E:\Windows /s E: where E: is the FCoE partition with the Windows directory.

Boot the system from the FCoE LUN

  1. Shutdown the system.
  2. Use the BIOS settings to configure the server to boot from the FCoE LUN.
NOTE: If the server still boots from the local drive, then remove the local drives.
  1. Boot to the OS on the FCoE LUN.

Appendix 1: WinPE

WinPE is used to run ImageX to capture the local Windows partitions. WinPE versions 2.1 or later is required. 

The simplest way to boot WinPE is with a Windows Server install DVD. A bootable WinPE USB flash drive may also be created and used.

For install DVD installation only: After booting, proceed to perform a “Custom” installation. When Windows setup displays the drive selection screen, input SHIFT-F10 to open a command prompt.

Important: At the command prompt, cycle through the drive letters and use the dir command to identify which disk partitions are mounted with which driver letters. WinPE may use different drive letters than Windows, so no assumptions can be made.

Once the partitions are identified, ImageX can be used to capture the image.

Appendix 2: ImageX

ImageX is available as part of the Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit (ADK) for Windows® 8.  To get ImageX:

  1. Download the Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit (ADK) for Windows® 8 from Microsoft's web site.
  2. Run the adksetup file you downloaded.
  3. When asked to Select the features you want to install, select Deployment Tools.
  4. Once installation has completed, imagex.exe may be found at one of the following paths depending on whether you want to run it on a 32-bit or 64-bit version of Windows:
  5. Copy the appropriate ImageX to portable media for use during the imaging process.
ImageX is documented at Microsoft Technet:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc748966(v=ws.10).aspx

Appendix 3: DiskPart

If a partition image tool is used to copy Windows to the FCoE LUN, then DiskPart must be used to create partitions on the FCoE LUN. There are two sets of instructions below. The first covers creating one partition, while the second covers the case where a System Reserved partition is captured in addition to the Windows partition.

To identify the FCoE LUN disk number within DiskPart, use the LIST DISK command. Alternatively, Disk Management also shows the disk numbers.

Windows Server 2008 R2 and above with no System Reserved partition

The following sequence of commands in DiskPart will create a Windows partition on an FCoE LUN, suitable for imaging Windows Server when no System Reserved partition is used (assumes FCoE LUN is disk 1, and only C: and D: are already used by Windows):

  1. SELECT DISK 1
  2. CLEAN
NOTE: This will destroy everything on the disk, so be sure the correct disk is selected!
  1. CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY
NOTE: Add SIZE=nnn to the end of the line to create a partition of size nnn in MB.
  1. SELECT PARTITION 1
  2. ACTIVE
  3. FORMAT FS=NTFS QUICK
  4. ASSIGN LETTER=E
  5. EXIT

Windows Server 2008 R2 and above with a System Reserved partition

The following sequence of commands in DiskPart will create a System Reserved and Windows partition on an FCoE LUN, suitable for imaging Windows 2008 R2 (assumes FCoE LUN is disk 1, and only C: and D: are already used by Windows):

  1. SELECT DISK 1
  2. CLEAN
NOTE: This will destroy everything on the disk, so be sure the correct disk is selected!
  1. CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY SIZE=100
  2. SELECT PARTITION 1
  3. ACTIVE
  4. FORMAT FS=NTFS QUICK
  5. ASSIGN LETTER=E
  6. CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY
NOTE: Add SIZE=nnn to the end of the line to create a partition of size nnn in MB.
  1. SELECT PARTITION 2
  2. FORMAT FS=NTFS QUICK
  3. ASSIGN LETTER=F
  4. EXIT