StarWind Software

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.

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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,

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,

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!

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?