Dell Brocade Adapters Brocade Adapters Installation and Reference Manual - Page 155

Boot over SAN 4 NOTE For details on using BCU commands, refer to instructions for ethboot in the Brocade Command Utility appendix of the Brocade Adapters Administrator's Guide. Boot over SAN The "Boot Over SAN" feature allows a host to boot its operating system from a boot device directly attached to the host system or located somewhere on the SAN instead of the host's local disk. Specifically, this "boot device" is a logical unit number (LUN) located on a storage device. LUNs can be specifically targeted to boot hosts running Windows, Linux, or VMware, or Solaris. For more information on how the Brocade Boot BIOS functions to implement this feature, refer to "Brocade BIOS support for boot over SAN" on page 128. Booting from a remote SAN location provides the obvious advantage of recovering quickly from a host or adapter malfunction. With the adapter boot BIOS enabled for booting over SAN and configured with boot device locations and boot sequences, replacing an old host with a new one involves installing the adapter from the old host into the new one with the same configuration, then booting the new host. The host's operating system automatically boots from the remote SAN boot device. Although fast recovery from a malfunction is a big advantage, following are considerations for the host and adapter, depending on the replacement situation: • Even though you install a similar host, the new host may require unique System BIOS options and other settings, or internal IDE drives may need to be disconnected or disabled to boot over SAN. • If replacing the Brocade adapter in a host with a similar Brocade adapter, you will need to reconfigure the adapter and storage to boot from the appropriate remote boot device. You must also update access on storage device ports to reflect the adapter PWWN. Finally, you must update the single-initiator target zone created for the adapter port and storage device port with the new adapter PWWN. • If replacing a host with a different model, you may be prompted to install the adapter driver for the existing adapter. Booting servers from SAN-attached storage can significantly streamline server administration and facilitate server deployment. Instead of manually configuring each individual server, boot images on SAN-attached storage can be cloned and assigned to groups of servers at the same time. This not only simplifies initial configuration, but makes ongoing software updates and maintenance much easier to administer. When boot images are centrally managed on the SAN, server security, integrity, and ability to recover data are also enhanced. Following are additional benefits of boot over SAN: • Eliminating the requirement for local hard drives. • Centralized storage management and administration of client workstations. • Disaster recovery. • More control and efficiency for software distribution. • Increased host reliability since operating system boots from highly available storage devices. • Improved security. Brocade Adapters Installation and Reference Manual 127 53-1002144-01