[Dave]

Amazing idea, keep us updated and if you get it sorted I think you should do a detailed write up

[Unbitrium]

if you didn't get it working, just a suggestion but if you go to the reinstall wizard and select NFS for the file system instead of iscsi, that might be much easier for you to sort out...

[unclebob]

Just fired a quick email off to support about this post. Received this response a few minutes later:

Dear customer,

firstly, the forum is not the place to go to *expect* support. That's a platform for the community around OVH. Looking for support? call us or send us an email.

Now, for the particular sitution: we don't support such configuration and we won't be able to give you any passwords or access codes. Not all the configurations and possibilities are supported by OVH, even though they may be possible.

Sorry about it.

Kind regards

...

Looks like custom configurations are not officially supported, but I'm still going to have a deeper poke around once I get a little more free time.

Will post whatever results I come up with here.

[unclebob]

That's odd. How did you get hold of the file? Manual DHCP & TFTP?

If I can get a copy of the file, I'll have a look as well. There might be some odd overlaying of file systems going on or an 'init script' that set up the iSCSI.

I really appreciate the help. Thanks

Initrd-iscsi.img was already in the root of my file system, fortunately. You can grab a copy here.

I'm starting to doubt that the authentication details are contained in this, since the file linked above is not hosted by me and has the same md5 checksum as the initrd-iscsi.img on my RPS.

Perhaps there is no username & password authentication, but access is determined by IP address? I cannot telnet to any other (OVH) iSCSI SAN than the one I have been assigned...

Can an OVH staff member shed any light on this?

[ruperthair]

I mounted initrd-iscsi.img and found the following files and folders, none of which contain any authentication details...

That's odd. How did you get hold of the file? Manual DHCP & TFTP?

If I can get a copy of the file, I'll have a look as well. There might be some odd overlaying of file systems going on or an 'init script' that set up the iSCSI.

[unclebob]

I mounted initrd-iscsi.img and found the following files and folders, none of which contain any authentication details...

/etc/iscsi/ (folder only contains a file called version)
/sbin/iscsi-iname
/sbin/iscsistart

[ruperthair]

I am going to attempt to boot from the USB flash drive that is currently being used as swap space, via vKVM.

Interesting idea! I'd like to hear about how it goes.

I guess that the make-or-break question will be if the BIOS is set to boot from the USB stick before the network or not.

[unclebob]

I am interested in how you plan to re-install the system. I can't see how you are going to boot into the installer in the first place.

I am going to attempt to boot from the USB flash drive that is currently being used as swap space, via vKVM.

I'll have a look at the initial RAM disk and see what I can find. Thanks

[ruperthair]

/etc/iscsi/iscsid.conf and ~/.iscsid.conf do not exist on the stock OVH Debian install - where is Debian getting these authentication details from?

All of the set-up for the iSCSI is done from the initial RAM disk. With some trickery (running DHCP from your current OS) you should be able to find the TFTP server that serves the kernel and RAM disk.

I am interested in how you plan to re-install the system. I can't see how you are going to boot into the installer in the first place.

[unclebob]

I'm looking to reinstall my RPS and experiment a little on the way, but I've hit a problem - where can I find the authentication details so that I can connect to my iSCSI storage?

/etc/iscsi/iscsid.conf and ~/.iscsid.conf do not exist on the stock OVH Debian install - where is Debian getting these authentication details from?

Any help from an OVH technician / staff member would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks