Fedora 12 has a graphical installer which can attach to an iSCSI target and use it directly. On the storage configuration screen, choose the 'Advanced configuration' option, choose to use an iSCSI target, and fill out the details requested. The installer will then use that LUN as you see fit.

Fedora 11 and earlier installation process is somewhat fragile, and the built-in support for iSCSI installation does not function properly. However, it is possible to work around this limitation and install to an iSCSI target.

Start a Fedora network installation in the usual way, and proceed up to the point of the graphical welcome screen:

Before clicking on Next, press Ctrl-Alt-F2. This should take you to a root shell prompt. Configure and start up the iSCSI initiator:

  sh-3.2# mkdir /etc/iscsi
  
  sh-3.2# echo InitiatorName=iqn.2007-08.name.dns.initiator.my > \
     /etc/iscsi/initiatorname.iscsi
  
  sh-3.2# iscsid

where name.dns.initiator.my is your initiator's DNS name in reverse order. (For completeness, you should also replace 2007-08 with the year and month in which you first obtained your DNS domain. The iSCSI naming schemes are somewhat pedantic, but it won’t affect anything in practice; as long as the initiator name is unique then everything will work just fine.)

Connect to the iSCSI target to be used for installation:

  sh-3.2# iscsiadm -m discovery -t sendtargets -p my.target.dns.name:3260

where my.target.dns.name is the DNS name (or IP address) of your iSCSI target. You will see a list of available target IQNs. Log in to the installation target:

  sh-3.2# iscsiadm -m node -T iqn.2007-08.name.dns.target.my:iscsiboot -l

where iqn.2007-08.name.dns.target.my:iscsiboot is the IQN of the target that you want to install to.

You are now logged in to the installation iSCSI target.

Press Ctrl-Alt-F6 to return to the graphical installation process, and click on Next to proceed to the disk selection screen:

You must tick the “Review and modify partitioning layout” box before proceeding to the disk partitioning screen:

Select and delete the swap partition. This is required for two reasons: firstly, swap over iSCSI (or over any network device) is generally a bad idea; secondly, doing so works around a bug in the Fedora installer which would otherwise result in the partition table never being written to disk.

Make a note of the iSCSI target IQN that you installed to (iqn.2007-08.name.dns.target.my:iscsiboot in the above example). You are now ready to

• Boot from your iSCSI target image