Boot over IB

Overview

The Mellanox Boot over InfiniBand solution enables the booting of servers from an IP-based LAN environment.  This is also known as PXE boot. The program is based on the open source Etherboot/gPXE project (see www.etherboot.org).

In the PXE environment supported by the Mellanox Boot over InfiniBand solution, boot and application images are stored on an Ethernet-attached boot server. The InfiniBand HCA is equipped with remote boot firmware (which includes a PXE or modified EtherBoot client). The IPoIB protocol is used to abstract away the InfiniBand components from the PXE boot process.

BENEFITS

• Simplification of image and configuration management
• Rapid recovery from server and site failures
• Reduces cost of servers
• Boot from iSCSI storage

Supported Mellanox HCA Devices

• ConnectX™ IB
• InfiniHost™ III Ex (Mem-Free Mode)
• InfiniHost™ III Lx