EKS anywhere cluster on bare metal with multiple disks

[ygao-armada]

When I create a EKS anywhere cluster with only 1 (cp) machine on bare metal, if I use the default machine template (so the DEST_DISK is from hardware.csv), and there are multiple disks on the destination machine, when BMC power on to reboot the destination machine, which disk will be picked to reboot?

1. /dev/nvme0n1 -- original boot disk
2. /dev/nvme1n1 -- we use in hardware.csv

Another question is what will happen if /dev/nvme1n1 is unformatted yet?

[jacobweinstock]

Hey @ygao-armada.

Question: When your hardware has multiple physical disks, which one will be boot from after a reboot? Answer: With multiple disks like this, the boot order will be defined by what you have in your firmware. You should check your BIOS/UEFI firmware to make sure that the disk you define in your hardware.csv is the first disk defined in the boot order.

Question: What will happen if /dev/nvme1n1 is unformatted? Answer: EKS Anywhere will stream an OS image to this device. This OS image was created by image-builder and includes all the formatting, partitioning, etc.

Hope this helps. Let me know if i can provide any further clarification or info. Thanks!

[ygao-armada]

@jacobweinstock thanks.

According to the output of command "efibootmgr", current boot entry is 0000, whose DISK is "/dev/nvme0n1"

# efibootmgr -v
BootCurrent: 0000
Timeout: 1 seconds
BootOrder: 0000,0002,0003,0004,0005,0006,0007,0008,0009,0001
Boot0000* ubuntu	HD(1,GPT,7edf6cf1-ca2a-4ca4-8352-ecb86bb1e64c,0x800,0x100000)/File(\EFI\UBUNTU\SHIMX64.EFI)
Boot0001* UEFI: Built-in EFI Shell	VenMedia(5023b95c-db26-429b-a648-bd47664c8012)..BO
Boot0002* UEFI: PXE: IPv4 Intel(R) Ethernet Controller X710 for 10GBASE-T - 7CC25525C9E8	PciRoot(0x1)/Pci(0x3,0x1)/Pci(0x0,0x0)/MAC(7cc25525c9e8,1)/IPv4(0.0.0.00.0.0.0,0,0)..BO
Boot0003* UEFI: PXE: IPv4 Intel(R) Ethernet Controller X710 for 10GBASE-T - 7CC25525C9E9	PciRoot(0x1)/Pci(0x3,0x1)/Pci(0x0,0x1)/MAC(7cc25525c9e9,1)/IPv4(0.0.0.00.0.0.0,0,0)..BO
Boot0004* UEFI: PXE: IPv4 Intel(R) Ethernet Controller X710 for 10 Gigabit SFP+ - 7CC25525C9EA	PciRoot(0x1)/Pci(0x3,0x1)/Pci(0x0,0x2)/MAC(7cc25525c9ea,1)/IPv4(0.0.0.00.0.0.0,0,0)..BO
Boot0005* UEFI: PXE: IPv4 Intel(R) Ethernet Controller X710 for 10 Gigabit SFP+ - 7CC25525C9EB	PciRoot(0x1)/Pci(0x3,0x1)/Pci(0x0,0x3)/MAC(7cc25525c9eb,1)/IPv4(0.0.0.00.0.0.0,0,0)..BO
Boot0006* UEFI: PXE: IPv6 Intel(R) Ethernet Controller X710 for 10GBASE-T - 7CC25525C9E8	PciRoot(0x1)/Pci(0x3,0x1)/Pci(0x0,0x0)/MAC(7cc25525c9e8,1)/IPv6([::]:<->[::]:,0,0)..BO
Boot0007* UEFI: PXE: IPv6 Intel(R) Ethernet Controller X710 for 10GBASE-T - 7CC25525C9E9	PciRoot(0x1)/Pci(0x3,0x1)/Pci(0x0,0x1)/MAC(7cc25525c9e9,1)/IPv6([::]:<->[::]:,0,0)..BO
Boot0008* UEFI: PXE: IPv6 Intel(R) Ethernet Controller X710 for 10 Gigabit SFP+ - 7CC25525C9EA	PciRoot(0x1)/Pci(0x3,0x1)/Pci(0x0,0x2)/MAC(7cc25525c9ea,1)/IPv6([::]:<->[::]:,0,0)..BO
Boot0009* UEFI: PXE: IPv6 Intel(R) Ethernet Controller X710 for 10 Gigabit SFP+ - 7CC25525C9EB	PciRoot(0x1)/Pci(0x3,0x1)/Pci(0x0,0x3)/MAC(7cc25525c9eb,1)/IPv6([::]:<->[::]:,0,0)..BO

Does eksctl-anywhere guarrantee the right disk will be used (in this case the disk from hardware.cvs may not be the current one like "/dev/nvme0n1") to boot from? and how?

[jacobweinstock]

@jacobweinstock thanks.

According to the output of command "efibootmgr", current boot entry is 0000, whose DISK is "/dev/nvme0n1"

# efibootmgr -v
BootCurrent: 0000
Timeout: 1 seconds
BootOrder: 0000,0002,0003,0004,0005,0006,0007,0008,0009,0001
Boot0000* ubuntu	HD(1,GPT,7edf6cf1-ca2a-4ca4-8352-ecb86bb1e64c,0x800,0x100000)/File(\EFI\UBUNTU\SHIMX64.EFI)
Boot0001* UEFI: Built-in EFI Shell	VenMedia(5023b95c-db26-429b-a648-bd47664c8012)..BO
Boot0002* UEFI: PXE: IPv4 Intel(R) Ethernet Controller X710 for 10GBASE-T - 7CC25525C9E8	PciRoot(0x1)/Pci(0x3,0x1)/Pci(0x0,0x0)/MAC(7cc25525c9e8,1)/IPv4(0.0.0.00.0.0.0,0,0)..BO
Boot0003* UEFI: PXE: IPv4 Intel(R) Ethernet Controller X710 for 10GBASE-T - 7CC25525C9E9	PciRoot(0x1)/Pci(0x3,0x1)/Pci(0x0,0x1)/MAC(7cc25525c9e9,1)/IPv4(0.0.0.00.0.0.0,0,0)..BO
Boot0004* UEFI: PXE: IPv4 Intel(R) Ethernet Controller X710 for 10 Gigabit SFP+ - 7CC25525C9EA	PciRoot(0x1)/Pci(0x3,0x1)/Pci(0x0,0x2)/MAC(7cc25525c9ea,1)/IPv4(0.0.0.00.0.0.0,0,0)..BO
Boot0005* UEFI: PXE: IPv4 Intel(R) Ethernet Controller X710 for 10 Gigabit SFP+ - 7CC25525C9EB	PciRoot(0x1)/Pci(0x3,0x1)/Pci(0x0,0x3)/MAC(7cc25525c9eb,1)/IPv4(0.0.0.00.0.0.0,0,0)..BO
Boot0006* UEFI: PXE: IPv6 Intel(R) Ethernet Controller X710 for 10GBASE-T - 7CC25525C9E8	PciRoot(0x1)/Pci(0x3,0x1)/Pci(0x0,0x0)/MAC(7cc25525c9e8,1)/IPv6([::]:<->[::]:,0,0)..BO
Boot0007* UEFI: PXE: IPv6 Intel(R) Ethernet Controller X710 for 10GBASE-T - 7CC25525C9E9	PciRoot(0x1)/Pci(0x3,0x1)/Pci(0x0,0x1)/MAC(7cc25525c9e9,1)/IPv6([::]:<->[::]:,0,0)..BO
Boot0008* UEFI: PXE: IPv6 Intel(R) Ethernet Controller X710 for 10 Gigabit SFP+ - 7CC25525C9EA	PciRoot(0x1)/Pci(0x3,0x1)/Pci(0x0,0x2)/MAC(7cc25525c9ea,1)/IPv6([::]:<->[::]:,0,0)..BO
Boot0009* UEFI: PXE: IPv6 Intel(R) Ethernet Controller X710 for 10 Gigabit SFP+ - 7CC25525C9EB	PciRoot(0x1)/Pci(0x3,0x1)/Pci(0x0,0x3)/MAC(7cc25525c9eb,1)/IPv6([::]:<->[::]:,0,0)..BO

Does eksctl-anywhere guarrantee the right disk will be used (in this case the disk from hardware.cvs may not be the current one like "/dev/nvme0n1") to boot from? and how?

EKS Anywhere will only use the disk specified in the hardware.csv. You'll need to handle boot order.