iSCSI boot of LUN through a target IPv6 address will fail

This document (7004216) is provided subject to the disclaimer at the end of this document.

Environment

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11

Situation

Install/boot SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 on a remote LUN using iSCSI Boot Firmware Table (iBFT).
When using IPv6 addressing on the iSCSI connection the portals address will fail..

The SLES 11 initrd does not add the IPv6 module or enable the dhcp6c client daemon to facilitate connections to the Target portal's IPv6 address.
System with the IPv6 LUN connected over iSCSI will halt. System will panic with “no init found”.

Resolution

The following workaround will enable IPv6 based iSCSI boots from the remote LUN.

1. Install image on remote LUN using the target portals IPv4 address
2. After install, unzip the initrd -
# cd <working_dir>
# gunzip < /boot/initrd-<kernel version>| cpio -dui
# cp /sbin/dhcp6c/ <working_dir>/sbin/
# cp /etc/dhcp6c.conf /<working_dir>/etc/

On 64 bit systems
# cp /lib64/libnl.so.1 /<workding_dir>/lib64/

3. Apply the following patch to <working_dir>/boot/11-network.sh-
@@ -128,6 +128,16 @@
       echo 'hosts: files dns' > /etc/nsswitch.conf
     fi
   fi
+# DHCPv6 stuff.
+   if [ ! -e "/etc/dhcp6c.conf"]; then
+    echo "interface $interface {">> /etc/dhcp6c.conf
+    echo "};">> /etc/dhcp6c.conf
+   fi
+
+   if [ -e "/etc/dhcp6c.conf"]; then
+       modprobe ipv6
+       /sbin/dhcp6c -c /etc/dhcp6.conf $interface
+   fi

# static ip config
elif [ "$nettype" = "static"]; then

4. Append "ipv6" to /etc/sysconfig/kernel so that the ipv6 module will
use the above script.
5. Compress the initrd back again.
    # find . | cpio -o -H newc | gzip -9 -c > initrd.gz

The new initrd is ready to boot over IPv6 using iBFT.

Disclaimer

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