My BladeSystem Toolkit
One of my hobbies is working on cars. My father taught me much of what I know about cars. One thing he always drilled into me was “There’s a tool for every job, and a job for every tool.” Having the proper tools and knowing how to use them will make any job easier.
Same hold true for any computer system. So I have my favorite toolbox for BladeSystem, and this is what it looks like:
At the bottom of this blog is a list of files and tools that I keep on the thumb drive. Attached to this blog is a zip file that contains scripts referenced in this blog. Downloading the files and scripts will allow you to replicate my Toolkit, but first I want to tell you how to use it.
OA Configuration
There are several managed devices within the enclosure that need to communicate with the OA. If you’ve got the enclosure installed and cabled, you can go through the OA setup wizard to configure the IP Addresses and other settings. If you’re setting up the enclosure in a staging area it’s sometimes useful to have the ability to quickly setup temporary IP addresses to enable firmware updates and device configuration. The zip file contains a script called C7000_1.cfg to set up all the IPs for the management interfaces.
Running OA configuration scripts
There’s several ways to run script files against the Onboard Administrator(OA). You can run them through Telnet/SSH, through the OA web GUI, or from the Insight Management Display (IMD) on the front of the enclosure. There are several sample scripts attached to this post in the zip file.
To run the scripts:
Onboard Administrator Password Recovery
You’d be surprised how many times I’ve been in a situation where no one knows the password to the OA. The user guide documents a method for password recovery, but that requires a serial connection, and rebooting the OA. Even though rebooting the OA doesn’t cause any system downtime, it’s a pain, and who has serial ports on the notebooks anymore.
I prefer to use a script on a thumb drive to recover lost OA passwords. In the attachment there are two scripts. ResetPW resets the “Administrator” account password to “password”. The OA-Add-admin script adds use “admin” password “hpinvent” to the OA, and all ILOs in the enclosure.
Scripting ILO configuration
If you look at the script above, you’ll see an example how a script can be run against all the ILOs in an enclosure. There are several items that are often configured in the ILOs:
For details on these configurations and others, download the ILO Scripting Samples document below. Several XML scripts can be combined into a single script, so all the ILO settings required for your environment can be set at once. Look at SetILO.CFG for an example of a script the sets the SIM certificate,license key, and ILO password.
Note: One thing that often causes an issue is hyphens in the ILO Advanced Pack licensing key. Make sure you take them out of the script.
Update OA Firmware
The OA firmware can be updated directly from the thumb drive. Insert the Toolkit thumb drive into the active OA, then run the following from the IMD:
Firmware Update – Servers
On a new install, the easiest way to update all the servers is to just boot them off the latest firmware DVD (see download link below). Make sure the OA and ILOs have IP addresses (see above). Insert your Toolkit thumb drive into the active Onboard Administrator. Then boot the blades to the DVD using the following steps on the Insight Display on the front of the enclosure:
You can also mount and boot ISO files from the OA web GUI as well.
Virtual Connect Firmware
Virtual Connect firmware is updated over the network from a Windows or Linux system using the Virtual Connect Support Utility(VCSU). It’s best to be on the same subnet, and ensure there are no firewalls blocking the update. The fibre channel VC modules use FTP over random ports, and firewalls (including local firewalls) can often cause issues. Links for the firmware, VCSU and the VCSU user’s guide are below.
If you're building the enclosure in a staging environment, and you used the script above to set up temporary IP addresses, you can set you staging PC to 192.168.234.1 to connect to the OA and run VCUTIL.
Conclusion
The purpose of this blog was to give you a few ideas on how to use a thumb drive to simplify management of HP BladeSystem using a thumb drive. This is just a small sampling of what can be done. I’ll try to add to this list as time allows. I’d like to hear some of your ideas for inclusion.
Toolkit Resources and Files
Firmware DVD 9.10c – This contains all the firmware for the ProLiant and BladeSystem products.
Virtual Connect Firmware 3.10 – Firmware for just the VC modules, separate for easier access
Virtual Connect Support Utility 1.5.1 (Windows) – This is the command line utility to load VC firmware
Virtual Connect Support Utility 1.5.1 (Linux) – This is the command line utility to load VC firmware
Virtual Connect Support Utility 1.5x Users Guide
Onboard Administrator Firmware 3.11
Onboard Administrator Command Line Interface User Guide
Microsoft Virtual CD-ROM tool – for mounting ISO images from within Windows
http://bit.ly/VirtCD (BIT.LY will give you a warning, because it's an executable)
ILO XML Scripting Samples
