Under Xen, iSCSI initiator fails to load at boot

This document (3737586) is provided subject to the disclaimer at the end of this document.

Environment

SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10

Situation

In some cases, the iSCSI initiator fails to load at boot when booting into the Xen kernel.

Resolution

On some systems running multiple NICs with Xen, it has been reported that the iSCSI initiator fails to load at boot time. When the Xen network bridges are setup, the network is brought down, causing iSCSI to lose its connection. The fix is to load iSCSI after the "xend". This solution may work on other systems where there is only one NIC.

Open a terminal
Change directories to /etc/init.d
Open the file named "open-iscsi"
The comment section should look like this:
### BEGIN INIT INFO

# Provides: iscsi

# Required-Start: $network

# Should-Start:

# Required-Stop:

# Should-Stop:

# Default-Start: 3 5

# Default-Stop:

# Short-Description: Starts and stops the iSCSI client initiator

### END INIT INFO
Change it to (change high-lighted in bold)
### BEGIN INIT INFO

# Provides: iscsi

# Required-Start: $network +xend

# Should-Start:

# Required-Stop:

# Should-Stop:

# Default-Start: 3 5

# Default-Stop:

# Short-Description: Starts and stops the iSCSI client initiator

### END INIT INFO
Save the file
Use insserv to register the depenceny change
insserv open-iscsi
Turn the service back on
chkconfig open-iscsi on

Disclaimer

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