Boot ESX from iSCSI target.

Update:

Now I've attempted an install with ESX 4.1 U1 (not i) and tried with installing additional Broadcom drivers, and without (but the preloaded Broadcom drivers appear to work just fine). I even tried removing the iSCSI target and recreating a larger one (and then changing the target name in the NIC BIOS), and I get the same result every time: The SAN system.log shows the connection from the NIC, the ESX install shows the NICs listed, and even sees that one of the NICs is connected, I configure the correct IP range for the NIC driver in the ESX install (both separate from, or the same as, the NIC IP), but when you go to select the LUN to install ESX to, it is blank. There are no drives listed...nothing.

I originally had thought it might be a NIC driver issue, but after seeing the ESX 4.1 u1 install steps, I know that the NIC drivers are just fine, and are being fully recognized by ESX.

The problem at this point is clearly something with how the ESX install talks to the ReadyNAS iSCSI target LUN, or how it's presented to the ESX installation. Because the Broadcom NIC BIOS appears to talk with the ReadyNAS iSCSI target LUN just fine.

The last five lines in the system.log, listed below, are the perplexing part. It appears that the connection to the LUN is disconnected as soon as the ESX loader "takes over". Am I doing something wrong, or is something not working correctly?

I'm hoping that a Netgear expert can look at the last five lines in the log and say, "Oh yeah, you need to do X." Any help would be appreciated.

Jul 6 19:54:19 san01 kernel: Received iSCSI login request from 192.168.4.32 on TCP Network Portal 192.168.4.20:3260
Jul 6 19:54:19 san01 kernel: Located Storage Object: iqn.2011-07.san01:esx01
Jul 6 19:54:19 san01 kernel: Located Portal Group Object: 1
Jul 6 19:54:19 san01 kernel: ------------------------------------------------------------------
Jul 6 19:54:19 san01 kernel: AuthMethod: None
Jul 6 19:54:19 san01 kernel: HeaderDigest: None
Jul 6 19:54:19 san01 kernel: DataDigest: None
Jul 6 19:54:19 san01 kernel: MaxRecvDataSegmentLength: 65536
Jul 6 19:54:19 san01 kernel: ------------------------------------------------------------------
Jul 6 19:54:19 san01 kernel: ------------------------------------------------------------------
Jul 6 19:54:19 san01 kernel: MaxConnections: 1
Jul 6 19:54:19 san01 kernel: TargetName: iqn.2011-07.san01:esx01
Jul 6 19:54:19 san01 kernel: InitiatorName: iqn.1995-05.com.broadcom.iscsiboot01
Jul 6 19:54:19 san01 kernel: TargetAlias: LIO Target
Jul 6 19:54:19 san01 kernel: TargetPortalGroupTag: 1
Jul 6 19:54:19 san01 kernel: InitialR2T: Yes
Jul 6 19:54:19 san01 kernel: ImmediateData: Yes
Jul 6 19:54:19 san01 kernel: MaxBurstLength: 65536
Jul 6 19:54:19 san01 kernel: FirstBurstLength: 65536
Jul 6 19:54:19 san01 kernel: MaxOutstandingR2T: 1
Jul 6 19:54:19 san01 kernel: DataPDUInOrder: Yes
Jul 6 19:54:19 san01 kernel: DataSequenceInOrder: Yes
Jul 6 19:54:19 san01 kernel: ErrorRecoveryLevel: 0
Jul 6 19:54:19 san01 kernel: SessionType: Normal
Jul 6 19:54:19 san01 kernel: ------------------------------------------------------------------
Jul 6 19:54:19 san01 kernel: TARGET_CORE[iSCSI]: Registered fabric_sess_ptr: f686b8c0
Jul 6 19:54:19 san01 kernel: iSCSI Login successful on CID: 1 from 192.168.4.32 to 192.168.4.20:3260,1
Jul 6 19:54:19 san01 kernel: Incremented iSCSI Connection count to 1 from node: iqn.1995-05.com.broadcom.iscsiboot01
Jul 6 19:54:19 san01 kernel: Established iSCSI session from node: iqn.1995-05.com.broadcom.iscsiboot01
Jul 6 19:54:19 san01 kernel: Incremented number of active iSCSI sessions to 1 on iSCSI Target Portal Group: 1
Jul 6 19:55:24 san01 kernel: Vmware3: 0x 1,0xc0,0x 0
Jul 6 19:55:24 san01 kernel: Decremented iSCSI connection count to 0 from node: iqn.1995-05.com.broadcom.iscsiboot01
Jul 6 19:55:24 san01 kernel: TARGET_CORE[iSCSI]: Deregistered fabric_sess
Jul 6 19:55:24 san01 kernel: Released iSCSI session from node: iqn.1995-05.com.broadcom.iscsiboot01
Jul 6 19:55:24 san01 kernel: Decremented number of active iSCSI Sessions on iSCSI TPG: 1 to 0