zfs discuss - Feb 2011 - Using Solaris iSCSI target in VirtualBox iSCSI Initiator

Hello,

I?m using ZFS to export some iscsi targets for the virtual box iscsi
initiator.

It works ok if I try to install the guest OS manually.

However, I?d like to be able to import my already prepared guest os vdi
images into the iscsi devices but I can?t figure out how to do it.

Each time I tried, I cannot boot.

It only works if I save the manually installed guest os and re-instate the
same as follows:

dd if=/dev/dsk/c3t600144F07551C20000004D619D170002d0p0 of=debian.vdi
dd if=debian.vdi  of=/dev/dsk/c3t600144F07551C20000004D619D170002d0p0

fdisk /dev/dsk/c3t600144F07551C20000004D619D170002d0p0

       Total disk size is 512 cylinders
             Cylinder size is 4096 (512 byte) blocks

                                               Cylinders
      Partition   Status    Type          Start   End   Length    %
      =========   ======    ============  =====   ===   ======   ==          1  
Active    Linux native      0   463     464     91
          2                 EXT-DOS         464   511      48      9

I?m wondering whether there is an issue with the disk geometry hardcoded in
the vdi file container ?

Does the VDI disk geometry need to match the LUN size ?

Thanks,

Thierry. 


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>-----Original Message-----
>From: Thierry Delaitre
>Sent: Wednesday, February 23, 2011 4:42 AM
>To: zfs-discuss at opensolaris.org
>Subject: [zfs-discuss] Using Solaris iSCSI target in VirtualBox iSCSI
Initiator
>
>Hello,
>
>I?m using ZFS to export some iscsi targets for the virtual box iscsi
initiator.
>
>It works ok if I try to install the guest OS manually.
>
>However, I?d like to be able to import my already prepared guest os vdi
images
>into the iscsi devices but I can?t figure out how to do it.
>
>Each time I tried, I cannot boot.
>
>It only works if I save the manually installed guest os and re-instate the
same as
>follows:
>
>dd if=/dev/dsk/c3t600144F07551C20000004D619D170002d0p0 of=debian.vdi dd
>if=debian.vdi ?of=/dev/dsk/c3t600144F07551C20000004D619D170002d0p0
>
>fdisk /dev/dsk/c3t600144F07551C20000004D619D170002d0p0
>
>???????Total disk size is 512 cylinders
>?????????????Cylinder size is 4096 (512 byte) blocks
>
>???????????????????????????????????????????????Cylinders
>??????Partition ??Status ???Type ?????????Start ??End ??Length ???%
>??????========= ??====== ???============ ?===== ??=== ??======
??==>??????????1 ??????Active ???Linux native ?????0 ??463 ????464 ????91
>??????????2 ????????????????EXT-DOS ????????464 ??511 ?????48 ?????9
>
>I?m wondering whether there is an issue with the disk geometry hardcoded in
the
>vdi file container ?
>
>Does the VDI disk geometry need to match the LUN size ?
>
>Thanks,
>
>Thierry.
Hi Thierry.

You need to convert the VDI image into a raw image before you import into a
zvol.  

Something like:  vboxmanage internalcommands converttoraw debian.vdi
debian.raw

Then I run dd directly into the zvol device, not the iscsi LUN like:
/dev/zvol/rdsk/zpool_name/debian

Geoff