[Bug 2091904] Re: IPv6 iBFT boot runs into a timeout

[Benjamin Drung]

After discussion with Julian, we came to the conclusion that I will try
to implement ip=ibft in initramfs-tools.

The first step will be to write test cases for it. At least two:
* one ibft with IPv4 (two interfaces on the client: one with DHCP server on the other side and one without DHCP server)
* one ibft with IPv6

** Changed in: initramfs-tools (Ubuntu)
   Importance: Undecided => Medium

** Changed in: initramfs-tools (Ubuntu)
     Assignee: (unassigned) => Benjamin Drung (bdrung)

** Tags added: foundations-todo

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/2091904

Title:
  IPv6 iBFT boot runs into a timeout

Status in initramfs-tools package in Ubuntu:
  New
Status in open-iscsi package in Ubuntu:
  New

Bug description:
  iSCSI Boot Firmware Table (iBFT) can provide the network configuration
  that is needed to boot over iSCSI. The iBFT can contain IPv4 or IPv6
  addresses. local-top/iscsi calls `configure_networking`. The default
  behaviour of `configure_networking` is DHCPv4 on all available
  interfaces (if ip= and ip6= are not set). If iBFT provides IPv6
  addresses and no DHCPv4 server are running, `configure_networking`
  will only try DHCPv4 and run into a timeout.

  Placing the single line "ISCSI_AUTO=true" into
  /etc/iscsi/iscsi.initramfs, or use the kernel boot line option
  "iscsi_auto" will configure the network devices based on iBFT, but the
  code in `local-top/iscsi` will assume that the addresses are IPv4.

  dracut on the other hand has the kernel boot line parameters
  `rd.iscsi.firmware=1` and `rd.iscsi.ibft` and `ibft` as option for the
  `ip` parameter. The `ibft` option is a bit under documented.
  https://docs.redhat.com/en/documentation/red_hat_enterprise_linux/7/html/installation_guide/chap-
  anaconda-boot-options mentions `ip=ibft` and dracut.cmdline mentions
  it.

  There are multiple ways to address the timeout with IPv6 iBFT:

  1) Extend `local-top/iscsi` to differentiate between IPv4 and IPv6
  when "iscsi_auto" is used. This information needs to be passed to
  `configure_networking` to only try to bring up that device and
  protocol.

  2) Use `ip=ibft` as indicator to use ibft as source for the network
  configuration. If no ip= parameter is set, local-top/iscsi should
  default to ip=ibft when calling configure_networking.

  Both solutions require passing data to configure_networking.

  Requiring the user to set `ip=off ip6=on` is not a good user
  experience and not a solution in my opinion.

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