OK - so sticking 'wait_for_udev' infront of the 'configure_networking' call in the iscsi local-top hook appears to resolve the issue so it looks like this is a udev timing problem with the e1000 card.
OK - so sticking 'wait_for_udev' infront of the 'configure_ networking' call in the iscsi local-top hook appears to resolve the issue so it looks like this is a udev timing problem with the e1000 card.