Remote control in Dell and Cisco UCS servers

[Background]

We have Dell and Cisco servers and both of them support IPMI, so we're looking for a solution to setup and use IPMI for remote control and management.

 

[Dell 1950]

1.) Configure IPMI

When system boots up and prompts:

Pressa for Remote Access Setup within 5 sec...

 

Press Ctrl + E and configure IP, NETMASK, GATEWAY, USERNAME, PASSWORD etc.

 

2.) Use Browser to access system via 80/443 if you have DRAC card

You may use ] and use the fuction Dell supported.

However you need a DRAC card first.

 

3.) Use ipmish for management

If you don't have a DRAC card, we can use ipmitool or ipmish (from Dell) to manager that server.

For Linux
\\cd-rom\SYSMGMT\ManagementStation\linux\bmc\osabmcutil9g-RHEL-4.1-0.i386.rpm
# rpm -ivh osabmcutil9g-RHEL-4.1-0.i386.rpm
For Windows

setup.exe

 

Command Usage:

# ipmish -ip x.x.x.x -u root -p xxxxxxxx sysinfo
# ipmish -ip x.x.x.x -u root -p xxxxxxxx sysinfo fru
# ipmish -ip x.x.x.x -u root -p xxxxxxxx power status
# ipmish -interactive
IPMISH>connect -ip x.x.x.x -u root -p xxxxxxxx

IPMISH>power status
Status =  on
IPMISH>power off -force
IPMISH>power status
Status =  on
IPMISH>power status
Status =  off
IPMISH>power on
IPMISH>power reset
IPMISH>power status
Status =  on
IPMISH>quit

 

4.) Use ipmitool for management

# rpm -ivh OpenIPMI-libs-2.0.6-5.el5.3.x86_64.rpm
# rpm -ivh OpenIPMI-2.0.6-5.el5.3.x86_64.rpm
# rpm -ivh OpenIPMI-tools-2.0.6-5.el5.3.x86_64.rpm

# modprobe ipmi_devintf
# modprobe ipmi_si
or
# /etc/init.d/ipmi start

# ipmitool -I open power status
Chassis Power is on

 

5.) Use SOL for management

If you want to get remote console, you may use SOL (Serial Over Lan)

# telnet localhost 623
Trying 127.0.0.1...
Connected to localhost.localdomain (127.0.0.1).
Escape character is '^]'.

Powered by Avocent
BMC Management Utility - SOLProxy v4.1 Release 0
Copyright 2009 - Avocent Corporation()

No connection

1:Connect to the Remote Server's BMC
2:Configure the Serial-Over-LAN for the Remote Server
3:Activate Console Redirection
4:Reboot and Activate Console Redirection
5:Help
6:Exit

Please select the item(press 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6):1
Server Address:10.224.106.100
Username:root
Password:
Key:

SOLProxy Status:Connected.

 

Powered by Avocent
BMC Management Utility - SOLProxy v4.1 Release 0
Copyright 2009 - Avocent Corporation()

Current connection:x.x.x.x:root

1:Connect to the Remote Server's BMC
2:Configure the Serial-Over-LAN for the Remote Server
3:Activate Console Redirection
4:Reboot and Activate Console Redirection
5:Help
6:Exit

Please select the item(press 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6):3
Activating remote console now.
Remote console is now active and ready for user input.

 

6.) SOL Proxy to manager grub
Disable graphic show in grub.conf。
#splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
#hiddenmenu

 

7.) SOL Proxy to manager linux
a. Edit grub.conf
title CentOS-4 i386 (2.6.9.42smp)
        root (hd0,0)
        kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.9.42smp ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet enforcing=0  console=tty0 console=ttyS0,115200 

        initrd /initrd-2.6.9.42smp.img
  add console=tty0 console=ttyS0,115200 in grub.conf for console setting.

b.Edit /etc/inittab

add the following line in tty seting:

S0:12345:respawn:/sbin/agetty ttyS0 115200

 

 

[Cisco C200]
Cisco has CIMC (Cisco Integrated Management Controller) management and very easy to use. Just like DRAC card, you can access the system in CIMC for console and remote start/shutdown/reboot and monitor server status and add admin user.

 

Cisco server integrates CIMC by default and you may configure it by pressing F8 when system boots up.

 

Login interface:

 

Management interface:

 

 

 

Remote console:

 

User administrator:

 

 

For Cisco C200, you can also use ipmish and ipmitool to manage the server with command.

 

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Reference Materials