B200M4 blad server Adapter host interface link state down

[brhong]

Hi there,

I have a new B200M4 server without HD. Trying to bring it up using iSCSI boot. I can associate the service profile successfully, but I saw the following major faults: "Adapter  host interface 2/1/1/1 link state: down".

Any idea on how to overcome this?

I am using 2.2(3k).

Thanks a lot!

[Wes Austin]

Hello,

Have you successfully installed an operating system? If no OS is loaded and there is no enic/fnic driver for the vNICs to bind to, then these errors messages are expected. Once you install an operating system and correct the drivers, those errors will clear.

[brhong]

Hey Wesley,

No, I didn't install OS yet, in fact, that's what I am trying to do. The thing is that I can enable virtual media, and map CD/DVD to install ISO, but I always got the following error:

Reboot and Select proper Boot device

or Insert Boot Media in selected Boot device and press a key...

It seems virtual CD/DVD is not recognized.

I have a very simple boot policy, see attached.

Any ideas how to proceed?

Thanks a lot!

[Wes Austin · Accepted solution]

Currently your boot order has the server booting to local disk and if there is no HDD present this will not work.

You will need to configure the boot order for iSCSI and ensure there is proper networking configuration and connectivity. Once you are able to see the remote storage, you can install to it accordingly.

UCS iSCSI Boot Configuration Example

Cisco UCS Boot From iSCSI Shahed's tech talk Youtube Video

After this you can boot the server and press F6 and it should display the vKVM mapped CD/DVD which you can select and install the operating system.

[brhong]

Hi Wesley,

Thanks a lot for the pointer! I was following the Example link above. There are two issues I overcame:

1) virtual device is not mapped to CIMC mounted CD/DVD, I found an solution to change it via UCSM CLI

2) iSCSI target is not discovered due to the mismatch iSCSI authentication profile.

After fix these two, I am able to boot my B200M4 blades successfully from iSCSI target.

Thanks a lot!