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Configuring Your Managed System

Dell OpenManage™ Baseboard Management Controller User's Guide

  BIOS Configuration

  Baseboard Management Controller Configuration

  Configuring Your BMC with the Deployment Toolkit Version 1.3 BMCCFG.EXE Utility

  Configuring Your BMC with Server Administrator Version 2.0

Before you can use the BMC Management Utility, you must first configure the necessary system BIOS, network, and serial connection settings to enable access to the BMC.

In addition, to utilize the BMC Management Utility IPMI Serial functions, you must have a working connection between the management station and the correct serial I/O port of the target BMC, using a null modem cable.

This section describes the basic procedures you must perform to prepare your BMC to be accessed and managed using the BMC Management Utility. The following procedures are described:

• BIOS Configuration
  
  
• Baseboard Management Controller Configuration
  
  
• Configuring Your BMC with the Deployment Toolkit BMCCFG.EXE utility
  
  
• Configuring Your BMC with Server Administrator
  
  

BIOS Configuration

For most configurations, you must configure the serial port settings and the console redirection settings in your system BIOS before you can use the BMC Management Utility. For example, to access the BMC over a serial cable connection you must configure Serial Port 1 to BMC Serial; and to access the BMC over a shared LAN if you are using serial over LAN (SOL) proxy, you must configure Serial Port 1 to BMC NIC. In addition, if you plan to utilize the console redirection feature, you must configure Console Redirection to Serial Port 1. To configure the necessary system BIOS setting, your must enter the System Setup Program.

NOTE: For more information about configuring BIOS settings, see your system User's Guide.

Entering the System Setup Program

1. Turn on or restart your system.
   
   
2. Press <F2> immediately after you see the following message:
   
   

<F2> = Setup

The System Setup screen appears.

NOTE: If your operating system begins to load before you press <F2>, allow the system to finish booting, and then restart your system and try again.

3. Use the up- and down-arrow keys to navigate to the Integrated Devices field and press <Enter>.
   
   
4. Use the up- and down-arrow keys to navigate to the Serial Port 1 field and press <Enter>.
   
   
5. Use the space bar to select the serial port option.
   
   

The options are COM1, COM3, BMC Serial, BMC NIC, Off, and RAC (if an optional RAC is installed in the system).

For BMC usage, serial port 1 uses the COM1 address and communication can be either via the serial port or the integrated shared NIC. RAC control uses only the COM1 address. Off and COM3 are not available options when Console Redirection is set to use serial port 1.

1. Select BMC Serial if you are planning to access the BMC through the serial cable connection.
   
   
2. Select BMC NIC if you are using SOL proxy and are planning to access the BMC over a shared LAN.
   
   
6. Press <Enter> to return to the System Setup screen.
   
   
7. Use the up- and down-arrow keys to navigate to the Console Redirection field and press <Enter>.
   
   
8. Use the up- and down-arrow keys to navigate to the Console Redirection option and then use the space bar to set the console redirection feature to Serial Port 1.
   
   
9. Use the up- and down- arrow keys to navigate to the Failsafe Baud Rate option and then use the space bar to set the console failsafe baud rate, if applicable.
   
   
10. Use the up- and down-arrow keys to navigate to the Remote Terminal Type option and then use the space bar to select either VT 100/VT 200 or ANSI, if applicable.
    
    
11. Press <Enter> to return to the System Setup screen.
    
    
12. Press <Esc> to exit the System Setup program. The Exit screen displays the following options:
    
    
    • Save Changes and Exit
      
      
    • Discard Changes and Exit
      
      
    • Return to Setup
      
      

NOTE: For most options, any changes that you make are recorded but do not take effect until you restart the system.

NOTE: Press <F1> to display the help file for the System Setup program.

Baseboard Management Controller Configuration

You can perform basic BMC configuration using the BMC Setup Module during system startup. For more advanced configuration options, see the instructions for the Deployment Toolkit BMCCFG.EXE utility.

Entering the BMC Setup Module

1. Turn on or restart your system.
   
   
2. Press <Ctrl-E> when prompted after POST.
   
   

If your operating system begins to load before you press <Crtl-E>, allow the system to finish booting, and then restart your system and try again.

BMC Setup Module Options

Table 2-1 lists the BMC Setup Module options and shows how to configure the BMC on a managed system.

Table 2-1. BMC Setup Module  

NOTE: If the first integrated network interface controller (NIC1) is used in an Ether Channel team or link aggregation team, the BMC management traffic will not function properly. For more information about network teaming, see the documentation for the network interface controller.

Configuring Your BMC with the Deployment Toolkit Version 1.3 BMCCFG.EXE Utility

The Dell OpenManage™ Deployment Toolkit (DTK) includes a set of DOS-based utilities for configuring and deploying Dell PowerEdge systems. The DTK BMCCFG.EXE utility is specifically designed to address all necessary BMC configuration tasks using a powerful and comprehensive command-line interface. This utility runs on Dell PowerEdge 1425SC and all supported Dell PowerEdge x8xx systems. The BMCCFG.EXE utility is not supported on PowerEdge x7xx or earlier systems.

To use the BMC Management Utility, you must configure your managed system with the BMCCFG.EXE utility. Perform the following tasks:

• Install the Deployment Toolkit Version 1.3.
  
  
• Create either a BMC configuration diskette or CD containing a DOS-bootable image, the appropriate CD drivers (for a CD only), and the BMCCFG.EXE utility.
  
  
• Configure BMC Users.
  
  
• Configure BMC SOL access.
  
  
• Configure BMC IPMI serial access.
  
  

Installation and Setup

NOTE: See the Deployment Toolkit Version 1.3 User's Guide for additional information about installing and using the DTK utilities, and the Deployment Toolkit Version 1.3 Command Line Interface Reference Guide for a complete list of all valid options, suboptions, and arguments for using the BMCCFG.EXE to configure and manage your BMC.

The DTK components are provided as a self-extracting zip file on the Dell Support website at support.dell.com. The self-extracting file can be opened on any system running a Microsoft® Windows® operating system, or it can be extracted in DOS using the PKUNZIP.EXE utility (not supplied with the DTK). By default, the dtk-1.3-dos-AXX.exe files are extracted to the root directory of your local hard drive, C:\. This location can be changed by giving a different path when extracting the file. Perform the following steps to extract the DTK components to a workstation running Windows:

1. Download the DTK file dtk-1.3-dos-AXX.exe from the Dell Support website at support.dell.com and save it anywhere on a system running a supported Windows operating system.
   
   
2. After the zip file is downloaded, double-click the file.
   
   
3. Click OK.
   
   
4. Click Unzip.
   
   

By default, the DTK files are unzipped to C:\Dell\Toolkit. The BMCCFG.EXE utility is located in the C:\Dell\Toolkit\Tools directory.

Creating a Bootable Diskette or CD

Use the following guidelines to create bootable media that can be used to configure the BMC on a managed system:

The bootable diskette image must contain, at a minimum, a command parser (COMMAND.COM), a configuration file (CONFIG.SYS), an initial start-up script (AUTOEXEC.BAT), and the appropriate CD drive and network drivers (for a CD only).

NOTE: The DTK utilities support MS-DOS® version 6.22 and later; however, MS-DOS version 7.1 or later is recommended.

1. Boot your system in DOS.
   
   
2. Insert a blank 1.44-MB diskette in the system's diskette drive.
   
   
3. Type cd\dos to get to the DOS directory.
   
   
4. Type Format A:/S to format the diskette and then transfer the files that make the diskette bootable.
   
   
5. Copy additional files as needed.
   
   

For example, type the following, and press <Enter> after each command:

• copy format*.* a:
  
  
• copy mscdex*.* a:
  
  
• copy xcopy*.* a:
  
  
• copy smartdrv*.* a
  
  
• copy sys*.* a:
  
  
• and so on
  
  
• Create (or edit) an autoexec.bat file that loads the drivers for required devices (for example, CD drive drivers).
  
  
• Create (or edit) a config.sys file that loads the drivers required for the target system devices.
  
  

If you are using a bootable diskette to configure the BMC, go to the next step. If you are using a bootable CD to configure the BMC, go to step 9.

8. Copy the BMCCFG.EXE utility to the Bootable diskette.
   
   

You are now ready to use the BMCCFG.EXE utility to configure the BMC. Go to "Configuring the BMC."

9. Start your CD burning software and generate a DOS-bootable CD using the bootable diskette you just created as the boot image.
   
   
10. Copy the BMCCFG.EXE utility to the root of the CD.
    
    

You are now ready to use your bootable CD to configure the BMC on a managed system. Go to "Configuring the BMC."

Configuring the BMC

Before you can use the BMC Management Utility to remotely manage the BMC on a managed system, you must perform some basic configuration tasks. The DTK BMCCFG.EXE utility provides a powerful command-line interface for performing the following configuration tasks:

• Configuring BMC users for the managed system
  
  
• Configuring the BMC IP address for IPMI LAN access and SOL access for the managed system
  
  
• Configuring the BMC serial channel for IPMI serial access for the managed system
  
  

NOTE: See the Deployment Toolkit Version 1.3 User's Guide for additional information about installing and using the DTK utilities, and the Command Line Interface Reference Guide for a complete list of all valid options, suboptions, and arguments for using the BMCCFG.EXE to configure and manage your BMC.

Configuring New BMC Users

The BMC is configured by default with user ID 2 set to username: root, password: calvin. It is highly recommended that you change the user name and password when deploying your system.

1. Insert the DOS-bootable BMC configuration diskette or CD into the appropriate drive of the system to be deployed and reboot the system.
   
   
2. To create a new user, at the command prompt, type:
   
   

bmccfg username --userid=X --name=name

where X is a number from 2–10, and name is an ASCII string of 16 or fewer characters.

Press <Enter> to execute the command line options.

3. To enable the new user ID, at the command prompt, type:
   
   

bmccfg useraction --userid=X --action=enable

Press <Enter> to execute the command line options.

4. To set the password for a BMC user, at the command prompt, type:
   
   

bmccfg passwordaction --action=setpassword --userid=X -- password=password

where password is an ASCII string of 16 or fewer characters.

NOTICE: A password must be set for each BMC user. The BMC firmware does not allow access to users with null user names or passwords.

Press <Enter> to execute the command line options.

Configuring the BMC IP Address

1. Insert the DOS-bootable diskette or CD into the appropriate drive of the system to be deployed and reboot the system.
   
   
2. To configure the BMC IP address source for the LAN channel to DHCP, at the command prompt, type:
   
   

bmccfg lcp --ipaddrsrc=dhcp

Press <Enter> to execute the command line options.

For a complete list of all valid options, suboptions, and arguments for configuring the BMC LAN channel see the Deployment Toolkit Version 1.3 Command Line Interface Reference Guide.

3. To configure the BMC IP address source for the LAN channel to a static IP address, at the command prompt, type:
   
   

bmccfg lcp --ipaddrsrc=static --ipaddress=XXX.XXX.XXX.XX
--subnetmask=XXX.XXX.XXX.X --gateway=XXX.XXX.XXX.X

Press <Enter> to execute the command line options.

For a complete list of all valid options, suboptions, and arguments for configuring the BMC LAN channel see the Deployment Toolkit Version 1.3 Command Line Interface Reference Guide.

Configuring the BMC Serial Channel Access

1. Insert the DOS-bootable diskette or CD into the appropriate drive of the system to be deployed and reboot the system.
   
   
2. To configure the serial port for BMC, at the command prompt, type:
   
   

bmccfg scp --connectionmode=basic --msgcommbitrate=XXXXX

where XXXXX is the baud rate in bps.

Press <Enter> to execute the command line options.

For a complete list of all valid options, suboptions, and arguments for configuring the BMC serial channel see the Deployment Toolkit Version 1.3 Command Line Interface Reference Guide.

Configuring Your BMC with Server Administrator Version 2.0

You can also configure the BMC options using Server Administrator., which is a one-to-one systems management software program that must be installed on the managed system. Once installed, you can remotely access Server Administrator from a management station with a supported browser to perform BMC configuration tasks. See the Server Administrator User's Guide for more information about installing and using Server Administrator.

You can configure the BMC settings from either the Server Administrator home page or from its command line interface. Users must have Administrator privileges to access the BMC settings. Users logged in with User or Power User group privileges can view the BMC information but cannot change the settings.

See the Server Administrator Version 2.0 Command Line Interface User's Guide for information about configuring the BMC from the command line.

When using Server Administrator, you can click Help on the global navigation bar for more detailed information about the specific window you are viewing. Server Administrator help is available for all windows accessible to the user based on user privilege level and the specific hardware and software groups that Server Administrator discovers on the managed system.

Configuring the BMC

The Server Administrator Instrumentation Service allows you to manage Baseboard Management Controller (BMC) features such as general BMC information, configuration of the LAN and serial port, BMC users, and BIOS setup. To use Server Administrator to configure the BMC on a managed system, perform the following steps:

NOTE: You must be logged in with Admin privileges to configure the BMC settings.

1. Log in to the Server Administrator home page for the target system.
   
   
2. Click the System object.
   
   
3. Click the Main System Chassis object.
   
   
4. Click the BMC object.
   
   
5. The BMC Information window appears.
   
   
6. Click the Configuration tab.
   
   

Under the Configuration tab, you can configure LAN, Serial Port, and Serial Over LAN.

7. Click the Users tab.
   
   

Under the Users tab, you can modify the BMC user configuration.

NOTICE: A password must be set for each BMC user. The BMC firmware does not allow access to users with null user names or passwords.

8. Click the BIOS Setup tab.
   
   

Under the BIOS Setup tab, you can modify the state of the Serial Port, Console Redirection, and Console Redirection Failsafe Baud Rate.

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