On 12/20/2016 12:13 PM, Mike Christie wrote:
> On 12/20/2016 12:15 PM, Andrew Patterson wrote:
>> On 12/12/2016 02:38 PM, Andrew Patterson wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>> On Friday, December 9, 2016 at 3:33:57 PM UTC-7, Mike Christie wrote:
>>>
>>>     On 12/08/2016 10:55 AM, [email protected] <javascript:> wrote:
>>>     > I am trying to get iSCSI boot working on a debian-based system
>>>     > using built-in uEFI iSCSI initiator firmware and broadcom
>>>     > NICs (bnx2x).
>>>     >
>>>     > The debian initramfs uses the ibft support in iscsistart to log
>>>     > into the root volume. The initramfs script uses iscsistart -N to
>>>     > bring up the NICs before logging in with iscsstart -b. This
>>>     > process works fine when using non-offload NICs, but fails when
>>>     > using NICs using the bnx2, bnx2x, cxgb3, and cxgb4 drivers due to
>>>     > the following code in
>>>     > utils/fwparam_ibft/fw_entry.c:fw_setup_nics():
>>>     >
>>>     >         list_for_each_entry(context, &targets, list) {          
>>>     >             /* if it is a offload nic ignore it */
>>>     >             if (!net_get_transport_name_from_netdev(context->iface,
>>>     >                                 transport))
>>>     >                 continue
>>>     >
>>>     >
>>>     > Which does a lookup in the table in usr/iscsi_net_util.c
>>>     >
>>>     >         static struct iscsi_net_driver net_drivers[] = {
>>>     >             {"cxgb3", "cxgb3i" },
>>>     >             {"cxgb4", "cxgb4i" },
>>>     >             {"bnx2", "bnx2i" },
>>>     >             {"bnx2x", "bnx2i"},
>>>     >             {NULL, NULL}
>>>     >         };
>>>     >
>>>     >
>>>     > to see if -N should skip this NIC.  I cannot determine the reason
>>>     > for this check. Do iscsi offload NICs not need to be configured
>>>     > for boot? The current code causes iscsi boots to fail. I removed the
>>>     > check and booting works fine.
>>>     >
>>>
>>>     If you use the ibft net info for the nic, what do you use for the iscsi
>>>     offload engine? 
>>>
>>>
>>> I am not configuring it at boot (at least not yet). I haven't tried
>>> using the boot support in the NIC firmware yet, just the uEFI iSCSI firmware
>>> which will work with any NIC.
>>>
>>>
>>>  
>>>
>>>     Do they both have the same IP, and are you creating boot
>>>     iscsi sessions through the offload engine?
>>>
>>>
>>> I am not using offload yet. But I will probably need to get this working 
>>> next.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>     cxgb*i is able to share the net info. The normal old nic engine and
>>>     iscsi engine are able to use the same IP. That originally was not
>>>     supposed to be allowed upstream, but it got in.
>>>
>>>     bnx2* is (or at least was when we wrote that code) not able to share the
>>>     net info. The nic and iscsi engines need different IPs.
>>>
>>>
>>> That makes some sense. The firmware has two different MAC addresses,
>>> one for the NIC and one for iSCSI.
>>>
>>>
>>>  
>>>
>>>
>>>     So to cover both types we just use the ibft net info for the iscsi
>>>     offload engines.
>>>
>>>     In the version of the code you are using is OFFLOAD_BOOT_SUPPORTED
>>>     defined in open-iscsi/usr/iface.c or not?
>>>
>>>
>>> Version 2.0.874. OFFLOAD_BOOT_SUPPORTED is in the code but not defined.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>     If it's not defined and you modified the code like you described, then I
>>>     think you would use the ibft info to setup the normal old nic, and then
>>>     you would end up creating a boot session using software iscsi. 
>>>
>>>
>>> Yes, I believe that is the result I am getting.
>>>
>>>
>>>  
>>>
>>>     I am not
>>>     100% sure about this last statement. I cannot remember and just looked
>>>     at the code for a couple minutes.
>>>
>>>
>>> I will try defining OFFLOAD_BOOT_SUPPORTED to see if that brings up the NIC.
>>>
>>>  
>>>
>>
>> I tried defining OFFLOAD_BOOT_SUPPORTED. The NIC is brought up but no
>> IP is assigned. Is that expected? I have been using the uEFI iSCSI
> 
> It is expected for what you are doing. I misunderstood what you were
> trying to do.
> 
>> driver which does not support hardware offload. I also have at least
>> one bnx2x NIC that does not support iSCSI hardware offload:
>>
>>     02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5719
>>     Gigabit Ethernet PCIe (rev 01)
>>     02:00.0 0200: 14e4:1657 (rev 01)
>>
>> Do we need some sort of whitelist or a command-line flag to support these 
>> sort
>> of configurations?
>>
> 
> I thought you wanted to use a iscsi offload engine in the broadcom card.
> If you wanted to use a card that is in those offload lists for normal
> old networking, have iscsistart bring it up and do iscsi root using
> software iscsi, then yeah, I think we need some sort of flag.
> 

I want to do both. I haven't been able to get software iSCSI working
because the cards/configurations I have been using are effectively
blacklisted (unless I use some sort of hack). I am still working on
finding a card/server I can use to try hardware offload to see if that
is working on Debian.


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