Dell/PowerEdge C2100

Revision as of 21:55, 5 July 2012

Model(s)

Dell PowerEdge C2100

• 2U rackserver
• 12 3.5" disks (or 24 2.5" but we do not use that model as of yet)

Lights Out Management

The BMC card has a dedicated RJ45 socket on the motherboard which can be used independently from the main NICs.

Common actions (easy way)

RobH has written us a wrapper around the common ipmitool commands. It exists on sockpuppet.

root@sockpuppet:~# ipmi_mgmt
Syntax is ipmi_mgmt <host> <commands>
Command Listing
Power commands: powercycle, powerdown, powerup, powerstatus, powermonitor
Setting one time boot option: bootbios, bootcdrom, bootdisk, bootfloppy, bootpxe
Serial Console: console & ~~. to disconnect when done; consoleclose (for unintentional DC that doesn't free the com port)
BMC/LOM specific: bmcinfo, bmcreset.
Info gathering: fru, id (flash lights on system for local tech ID), log (BMC event log), sdr, sensor, sysinfo

Common actions (raw way)

IPMI must be used to connect and manage the system. This tool can be run from a command line on any bastion host.

Powercycle the Server

 ipmitool -U root -H <hostname> chassis power cycle/up/down

Opening IPMI Shell

 ipmitool -U root -H <hostname> shell

Connecting to serial console

 ipmitool -U root -H <hostname> sol activate

Serial console control commands'

 [SOL Session operational.  Use ~? for help]
 ~?
 Supported escape sequences:
 ~.  - terminate connection (and any multiplexed sessions)
 ~B  - send a BREAK to the remote system
 ~C  - open a command line
 ~R  - Request rekey (SSH protocol 2 only)
 ~^Z - suspend ssh
 ~#  - list forwarded connections
 ~&  - background ssh (when waiting for connections to terminate)
 ~?  - this message
 ~~  - send the escape character by typing it twice
 Note that escapes are only recognized immediately after newline.)

Getting the service event log

 ipmitool -U root -H <hostname> sel

Setting up the IP for mgmt

Load up the BIOS with a crash cart (F2 on POST) and apply the mgmt network settings via the BIOS screen.

Initial Setup

(Note: this setup assumes 12 drives + 2 SSDs) connect to the web interface

• change the management password

in the BIOS:

• under Advanced, under IDE Configuration, change "Configure SATA#1 as" from IDE to AHCI
• under Advanced, under PCI Configuration, note the MAC address of NIC1 (eth0) for DHCP
• under Boot, under Hard Disk Drives, change the drive order so the two AHCI Intel SSDs come first