Troubleshooting Intel® iSCSI Remote Boot Issues

• While the system logon screen may display longer during system startup, Intel iSCSI Remote Boot may not display during POST. It may be necessary to disable a system BIOS feature in order to display messages from Intel iSCSI Remote Boot. From the system BIOS Menu, disable any quiet boot or quick boot options. Also disable any BIOS splash screens. These options may suppress output from Intel iSCSI Remote Boot.
• Intel iSCSI Remote Boot is not installed on the adapter, or the flash ROM of the adapter is disabled. Update the network adapter using the latest version of iSCSIUtl as described in the Installation and Setup section of the User Guide. If iSCSIUtl reports the flash ROM is disabled, use the "iSCSIUtl -flashenable" command to enable the flash ROM and update the adapter.
• The system BIOS may suppress output from Intel iSCSI Remote Boot.
• Sufficient system BIOS memory may not be available to load iSCSI Remote Boot. Attempt to disable unused disk controllers and devices in the system BIOS setup menu. SCSI controllers, RAID controller, PXE enabled network connections, and shadowing of system BIOS all reduce the memory area available to Intel iSCSI Remote Boot. Disable these devices, reboot the system, then see if Intel iSCSI Remote Boot is able to initialize. If disabling the devices in the system BIOS menu doesn't resolve the problem, then try removing unused disk devices or disk controllers from the system. Some system manufacturers allow jumper settings to disable unused devices.

• A critical system error has occurred during iSCSI Remote Boot initialization. Power on the system and press the S key or ESC key before Intel iSCSI Remote Boot initializes. Pressing S or ESC bypasses the Intel iSCSI Remote Boot initialization process and allow the system to boot to a local drive. Use the iSCSIUtl utility to update to the latest version of Intel iSCSI Remote Boot. If the problem persists, use
  "iSCSIUtl -flashdisable" to disable Intel iSCSI Remote Boot.

• Updating the system BIOS may be a solution.

• The system BIOS may not support Intel iSCSI Remote Boot. Update the system BIOS with the most recent version available from the system vendor.
• A conflict may exist with another installed device. Attempt to disable unused disk and network controllers. Some SCSI and RAID controllers are known to cause compatibility problems with Intel iSCSI Remote Boot.

Error message displayed:
Failed to detect link.

• Intel iSCSI Remote Boot was unable to detect link on the network port. Check the link detection light on the back of the network connection. The link light should illuminate green when it established a link with the link partner. If the link light illuminates green but the error message still displays, then run link and cable diagnostics tests. Use DIAGS.EXE for DOS or Intel® PROSet for Windows.

Error message displayed:
DHCP Server not found.

The configuration of iSCSI dictates it retrieve an IP address from DHCP but no DHCP server responded to the DHCP discovery request. This issue can have multiple causes:

• The DHCP server has used all available IP address reservations.
• The client iSCSI system requires static IP address assignment on the connected network.
• No DHCP server present on the network.
• Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) on the network switch is preventing the Intel iSCSI Remote Boot port from contacting the DHCP server. Refer to your network switch documentation on how to disable Spanning Tree Protocol.

Error message displayed:
PnP Check Structure is invalid.

• Intel iSCSI Remote Boot was not able to detect a valid PnP PCI BIOS. If this message displays Intel iSCSI Remote Boot cannot run on the system in question. A fully PnP compliant PCI BIOS is required to run Intel iSCSI Remote Boot.

Error message displayed:
Invalid iSCSI connection information.

• The iSCSI configuration information received from DHCP or statically configured in the setup menu is incomplete. An attempt to log on to the iSCSI target system could not be made. ​Verify proper configuration in the iSCSI setup menu (for static configuration) or on the DHCP server (for dynamic BOOTP configuration):
  • iSCSI initiator name
  • iSCSI target name
  • Target IP address
  • Target port number

Error message displayed:
Unsupported SCSI disk block size.

• The configuration of the iSCSI target system dictates it use a disk block size not supported by Intel iSCSI Remote Boot. Configure the iSCSI target system to use a disk block size of 512 bytes.

Error message displayed:
ERROR: Could not establish TCP/IP connection with iSCSI target system.

• Intel iSCSI Remote Boot was unable to establish a TCP/IP connection with the iSCSI target system. Verify proper configuration of:
  • ​The initiator and target IP address
  • Subnet mask
  • Port and gateway settings
  • Settings on the DHCP server, if applicable
• Also check that the iSCSI target system is connected to a network accessible to the Intel iSCSI Remote Boot initiator. Verify that a firewall is not blocking the connection.

Error message displayed:
ERROR: CHAP authentication with target failed.

• The CHAP user name or secret does not match the CHAP configuration on the iSCSI target system. Verify the CHAP configuration on the Intel iSCSI Remote Boot port matches the iSCSI target system CHAP configuration. Disable CHAP in the iSCSI Remote Boot setup menu if it is not enabled on the target.

Error message displayed:
ERROR: Login request rejected by iSCSI target system.

• A logon request sent to the iSCSI target system was rejected. Verify the following settings match the settings on the iSCSI target system:
  • ​iSCSI initiator name
  • Target name
  • LUN number
  • CHAP authentication
• Also verify that the configuration of the target allows the Intel iSCSI Remote Boot initiator access to a LUN.

Iscsi-sfnet:hostx: Connect failed with rc -113: No route to host
Iscsi-sfnet:hostx: establish_session failed. Could not connect to target

• If you see these error messages, we recommend disabling unused iSCSI interfaces on NetApp filer.
• We recommend adding Continuous=no to the iscsi.conf file

• A TCP/IP connection was successfully made to the target IP address. However, an iSCSI target with the specified iSCSI target name is not found on the target system. Verify that the configured iSCSI target name and initiator name match the settings on the iSCSI target.

• The iSCSI target cannot accept any new connections. This error could be because of:
  • A configured limit on the iSCSI target
  • A limitation of resources, for example, no disks available   

• An error has occurred on the iSCSI target. Inspect it to determine the source of the error. Ensure proper configuration of the iSCSI target.

• A system on the network is using the same IP address as the iSCSI Option ROM client.
• If using a static IP address assignment, change the IP address to one another client on the network isn't using.
• If using an IP address assigned by a DHCP server, make sure there are no clients on the network using an IP address conflicting with the IP address range used by the DHCP server.