Table Of Contents
Using IPMI on Cisco CDE 250
Overview
Configuring IPMI on Cisco CDE-250
Configuring Active Directory Settings for IPMI
Configuring Role Group
Remote Server Health Monitoring
Viewing System Sensor Information
Viewing Event Log Information
Remote Control of Cisco CDE 250 via IPMI
Launching Remote Console
Launching SOL
Power Control Operations
Virtual Media Operations
Unit Reset
References
Using IPMI on Cisco CDE 250
This appendix provides supplementary information on the Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) for VQE on Cisco CDE-250 hardware. This appendix has the following major topics
Overview
Configuring IPMI on Cisco CDE-250
Configuring Active Directory Settings for IPMI
Remote Server Health Monitoring
Remote Control of Cisco CDE 250 via IPMI
Unit Reset
References
Overview
IPMI provides access to multiple users from different locations to monitor system health and manage computer events from a remote location. IPMI operates independently of the operating system (i.e. out-of-band) to allow administrators to manage a system remotely in the absence of an operating system or a system management software. This interface can be used before an OS has booted and after OS or system failure. It allows for managing mutiple disparate servers from a single remote location.
IPMI functionality is provided by the BMC Controller present in the motherboard. This controller provides serial link connections between the South Bridge (one of the components in the BMC Controller) and other onboard system components, allowing for network interfacing via remote access.
IPMI configuration can be done via a GUI interface.
Configuring IPMI on Cisco CDE-250
To configure IPMI on Cisco CDE-250, do the following:
Step 1 
Connect the CDE 250 IPMI Ethernet Port to a IP Network with a valid DHCP Server. The IPMI Controller present in the hardware sends DHCP requests to the DHCP Server and acquires an IP Address to be assigned to IPMI Ethernet port.
Step 2 Execute the following linux CLI command to verify the IP Address configured:
Note In absence of a DHCP server, the linux CLI command ipmiutil lan -e -l <IP Address> -G <Gateway IP> can be used to configure IP Address and Gateway IP for IPMI dedicated ethernet port.
Step 3 Using your web browser, enter the IP address of IPMI.
Note IPMI GUI Interface supports Internet Explorer version 6 or higher, and Mozilla Firefox version 3.6 or higher.
For example, if the IP address of your CDSM is 192.168.0.236, enter:
http://192.168.0.236
Step 4 Enter the username and password and click Login. The IPMI home page is displayed.
The built-in username is ADMIN and the initial password is ADMIN.
Configuring Active Directory Settings for IPMI
To configure Active Directory Settings for IPMI, do the following:
Step 1 Choose Configuration > Active Directory. The Active Directory Settings Table page is displayed.
Step 2 Click Advanced Settings. The Active Directory- Advanced Settings page is displayed.
Step 3 Enter the settings as appropriate. See Table J-1 for a description of fields.
Table J-1 Active Directory Advanced Settings Fields
Field
|
Description
|
Enable Active Directory Authentication
|
To enable/disable Active Directory, check or uncheck the "Enable Active Directory Authentication" checkbox respectively.
|
User Domain Name
|
Specifies the domain name of the user
|
Port
|
Specifies the port number for sending active directory queries. The default value is 389
Note If the port value is incorrect, then it will take a couple of minutes, while trying to authenticate to the Active Directory server and finally authentication will fail. In the meantime, web server will not be able to serve any other request(s).
|
Time Out
|
Specifies the time in seconds for Active Directory queries to complete. The range is from 15 to 300 seconds. The default is 120 seconds.
|
Domain Controller Server Address 1
|
The IP address of Active Directory server. Atleast one Domain Controller Server Address must be configured.
|
Domain Controller Server Address 2
|
The IP address of Active Directory server. Atleast one Domain Controller Server Address must be configured.
|
Domain Controller Server Address 3
|
The IP address of Active Directory server. Atleast one Domain Controller Server Address must be configured.
|
Default Active Directory Certificate
|
Specifies the defauly active directory certificate. If no certificate is uplaoded then the default certificate is used.
|
Uplaod New Active Directory Certificate
|
Browse the Active Directory Certificate file using Browse button.
|
Step 4 Click Save to save the settings.
Configuring Role Group
To configure Role Group for the serve, do the following:
Step 1 Choose Configuration > Active Directory. The Active Directory Settings Table page is displayed.
Step 2 Select an empty slot in the list and click Add Role Group button. Add New Role Group page is displayed
Step 3 Enter the settings as appropriate. See Table J-1 for a description of fields.
Table J-2 Role Group Settings Fields
Field
|
Description
|
Role Group Name
|
Enter a name that identifies the role group in the Active Directory. This name should match the role group name configured in the Active Directory server.
Note Role Group Name is a string of 255 alpha-numeric characters.Special symbols hyphen, underscore and dot are allowed.
|
Role Group Domain
|
Enter a domain where the role group is located.
Note Domain Name is a string of 255 alpha-numeric characters.Special symbols hyphen, underscore and dot are allowed.
|
Role Group Privelege
|
Choose the level of privilege to assign to this role group. The drop-down list has the following values:
•Administrator
•Operator
•User
•Call Back
•No Access
|
Step 4 Click Add to save the settings and return to Role Group list page
Note After creating role groups, a new user can be created in the Active Directory Server and can be assigned to appropriate group and domain in the AD server. The user can also be assigned suitable privileges depending on his role.
Note For additional information on Configuring Active Directory via IPMI GUI, see Chapter 2 Section 2.4.4 of SuperMicro Embedded BMC/IPMI Manual, Revision 2.0
Remote Server Health Monitoring
The data related to server health such as sensor readings and the event log, can be viewed remotely via IPMI GUI Interface.
Viewing System Sensor Information
To view system sensor information of various sensors, do the following:
Step 1 Choose Server Health > Sensor Readings. The Sensor Readings page is displayed, that displays a list of the sensors with their Name, Status, and Readings.
Step 2 To select the type of sensor readings to be displayed in the list, select the Sensor Type from the dropdown list.
Step 3 To refresh the Sensor Reading, click Refresh.
Step 4 To view the low and high threshold assignments for each sensor, click Show Thresholds.
Viewing Event Log Information
To view event log information, do the following:
Step 1 Choose Server Health > Event Log. The Event Log page is displayed, that displays a list of event logs with their ID, Timestamp, Sensor Name, Sensor Type and Sensor Description.
Step 2 To select a particular event log category to be displayed in the list, select the event log category from the dropdown list.
Step 3 To clear event logs, click Clear Event Log.
Note For additional information on Remote Server Health Monitoring via IPMI GUI, see Chapter 2 Section 2.3 of SuperMicro Embedded BMC/IPMI Manual, Revision 2.0
Remote Control of Cisco CDE 250 via IPMI
IPMI provides support for the user to carry out activities and perform operations on a remote server via remote access. It provides support for the following remote activities:
•To launch remote console support and manage the remote server using JAVA plugin installed on IE or Firefox
Note Ensure JAVA plugin for the browser is installed on the remote host from where console is launched
•To enable Serial_Over_LAN support.
•To display server power state and configure server power settings.
•To configure virtual media settings.
Launching Remote Console
To launch remote console, do the following:
Step 1 Choose Remote Control, the Remote Control Operations page is displayed.
Step 2 Click Launch Console option and download jviewer.jnlp (Java Web Start File).
Step 3 Open jviewer.jnlp file to launch the console. The remote console is dsiplayed through IPMI dedicated LAN port.
Note There will be few seconds delay in display of the output on the console screen. Press Enter multiple times for immediate display of output on the console screen. When reboot command is issued, there will be few seconds deloy before the output is displayed on the screen
Launching SOL
SOL feature provides serial port connections over LAN to allow the user to access / monitor a host server via Console Redirection from a remote site.
Note Ensure JAVA plugin for the browser is installed on the remote host from where the console is launched
To launch SOL, do the following:
Step 1 Choose Remote Control, the Remote Control Operations page is displayed.
Step 2 Click Launch SOL option. The console screen appears.
Step 3 Select the baud rate as 9600 (CISCO configured baudrate in BIOS on CDE 250) from the drop-down list and click Start.
Note There will be few seconds delay in display of the output on the console screen. Press Enter multiple times for immediate display of output on the console screen.
Power Control Operations
To view the current server power state and perform remote power control operations, do the following:
Step 1 Choose Remote Control, the Remote Control Operations page is displayed.
Step 2 Click Power Control option. The Power Control and Status page is displayed.
Step 3 To perform one of the remote power control operations, do the following:
a. Check Reset Server checkbox to reboots the system without powering off (warm boot).
b. Check Power Off Server- Immediate checkbox to immediately power off the server.
c. Check Power Off Server - Orderly Shutdown checkbox to initiate Operating System shutdown.
d. Check Power On Server checkbox to power on the server.
e. Check Power Cycle Server checkbox to power off the server and then reboot (cold boot)
Step 4 Click Perform Action to perform the operation.
Virtual Media Operations
The virtual media feature is used for reimaging the system with a software (iso image) when the system is suspected to be corrupted.
To configure the image file, do the following:
Step 1 Choose Remote Control, the Remote Control Operations page is displayed.
Step 2 Click Virtual Media option. The Virtual Media page is displayed.
Step 3 Enter the settings as appropriate. See Table J-3 for a description of fields.
Table J-3 Virtual Media Fields
Field
|
Description
|
Share Host IP
|
The IP Address of the Host where the iso image is placed
|
Share Folder Name
|
The name of the shared folder
|
Path to Image
|
Location of the iso image within the shared folder
|
Image Type
|
Identifies the type of emulation and the options are
•Floppy Disk
•CD-ROM
Note
|
User Name
|
|
Password
|
|
Step 4 Click Set to save the settings. Once the iso file is mounted as CDROM, the page displays Successfully Set Virtual CD message is displayed.
Note Once the above steps are completed successfully, system should be Rebooted / Powered On to start the installation from the ISO image mounted as a Virtual CD Drive on this host.
Unit Reset
To reset the IPMI device, do the following:
Step 1 Choose Maintenance > Unit Reset. the Unit Reset page is displayed.
Step 2 Click Reset to reboot the IPMI device.
References
For additional information on IPMI GUI, see SuperMicro Embedded BMC/IPMI Manual, Revision 2.0
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