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Managing Power10 Scale-out and Mid-range systems using HMC

By Raghavendra Malapati posted Wed November 09, 2022 12:02 AM

  

Managing Power10 Scale-out and Mid-range systems using HMC

 

IBM Introduced Power10 Enterprise Scale-out and Mid-range systems which use Enterprise Baseboard Management Controller (eBMC) firmware. Hardware Management Console (HMC) 10.1.1020.0 or later delivers the capability to manage these Systems. One significant difference between the traditional Flexible Service Processer (FSP) based Systems and BMC based Systems is that you need to configure an additional IP for virtualization management interface to perform all virtualization operations which is explained here

In this article we will explain few differences between FSP and eBMC based systems management using HMC.

Before you begin, you must assign an IP address or host name to the managed system. You can manually assign an IP address by using the Advanced System Management Interface (ASMI), or you can use a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server on the open network to assign an IP address.

HMC supports two ways of adding a managed system. You can add a managed system either by entering the IP address or host name or by searching a range of IP addresses.

 

There are 2 user IDs configured by default on the eBMC systems

  1. service – for serviceability operations.
  2. admin – administrating privileges of BMC (can be used for HMC-BMC connection).

 

Add a Managed system by entering the IP Address:

 From HMC GUI, user can click on Connect Systems and provide appropriate information.

Adding a Managed System to HMC


 

  • Like FSP based systems you need to provide an IP Address which is configured via ASMI interface of the Service Processor.
  • For FSP based systems username is not required, but for eBMC Systems you need to provide username along with password. User Provided BMC login username must have admin privileges of BMC.
  • Every eBMC system by default will come with admin userID, which can be used to connect to the HMC or a new user can be created with admin privileges on the eBMC which can also be used to connect to the HMC.

 

Add a managed systems using range of IP addresses:

  • Systems can be added via auto discovery as well and by default user “admin” will be used during the auto discovery process

 

Based on the eBMC and Host state, system state and state detail information will be displayed in the HMC. If the password for the provided eBMC username is in expired state, HMC will display the System is in “Pending Authentication – Password update required” state.

 

For updating the password and providing new password for the Managed System, you can use the Actions Menu option of “Update System Password”. Based on the new user password, HMC establishes the connection accordingly and it will display the appropriate state of the managed system along with state detail information.

 

update new password info


Connected the CEC


It is strongly recommended to configure the Virtualization Management Interface (VMI) IP before powering on the system. State detail will show information related to VMI configuration, if there is a problem connecting to VMI or if VMI IP is not configured. There is additional information about the VMI later in this blog.

 

Failed Authentication State:

Another state that system can be in is “Failed authentication” where the password provided is incorrect or not valid anymore.


Failed Authentication


You can use the Update System Password option to provide valid password for the BMC.

updating the password


From Hardware Management Console (HMC) 10.1.1020.0 or later, HMC will list the BMC user id which is used for connecting the system to HMC.
Once user successfully updated the new password, HMC will re-establish the session with new credentials and changes system state appropriately.

Operating State


From CLI:

  When the managed system is in “Failed Authentication State” use the following command.

  chsyspwd -m <managed system> -u <user ID> --newpasswd <new password>

Note: Sometimes even though user provided proper user credentials, if specified User account is locked, HMC Cannot establish the session, so please make sure specified User credentials are working and User account is unlocked from BMC (ASMI) GUI.

 

Configure VMI IP via HMC GUI:

 

  • The VMI IP address is used for virtualization management. This is the IP the HMC uses to communicate with hypervisor for partition management and consoles. Users do not interact directly with this IP. From a customer perspective, other than having two IPs on the service network instead of one, there is no difference in terms of managing the system.
  • All traffic between the HMC and VMI is encrypted with TLS using a system unique certificate.
  • VMI supports both DHCP and static IP configurations. After the server is connected to the HMC and configured by setting the access passwords you may configure the VMI interface.
  • The default VMI connection setting (not the eBMC connection) for a new Power scale-out or mid-range server is static, therefore if you want to use DHCP, you need to change the configuration from static to DHCP before you power on the server.

 

Select -> Actions Menu -> VMI Configuration

VMI Menu Option


Select any network interface eth0/eth1, click on modify option to provide corresponding network IP details.

VMI Config

Provide all mandatory network configuration like IPV4 Address, Subnet Mask, Gateway for Static IP config.

Modify VMI Configuration

You can close the VMI Configuration panel once configuration is done and power on the system to perform virtualization operations. There is a refresh button in this panel to refresh the VMI Interfaces configuration details. If any failure, please close the panel and click on refresh button to get latest status of the VMI IP Config information.

 

Configure VMI IP via HMC CLI:

 

By default, eBMC System will provide 2 network interfaces eth0 and eth1 to configure the VMI IP details. You can list the available network VMI interfaces in the system using the cli command “lssysconn”.

 

lssysconn -r vmi -m <managed system>

resource_type=vmi,type_model_serial_num=9105-22A*139F1B0,interface=eth1,ipv4addr=0.0.0.0,gateway=0.0.0.0,net_mask=0.0.0.0,ipv4addr_orig=static

resource_type=vmi,type_model_serial_num=9105-22A*139F1B0,interface=eth0,ipv4addr=0.0.0.0,gateway=0.0.0.0,net_mask=0.0.0.0,ipv4addr_orig=static

 

To modify the configuration of VMI, you can use the “chsysconn” command operations.

 

CLI Syntax:

VMI Config Command


Example:

  • Configuring Static IPv4 address to VMI’s eth0 interface:

chsysconn –r vmi –m <System Name> –t static –o set -i eth0 -a 9.XX.XX.XXX -g 9.XX.XXX.XXX --nm 255.255.255.0

 

  • Configuring DHCP IPV4 address to VMI’s eth0 interface:

chsysconn –r vmi –m <System Name> –t ipv4dhcp –o set –i eth0

 

  • Clear the configuration of VMI Interface eth0

chsysconn –r vmi –m <System Name> –o clear –i eth0


Connection State of (lssyscfg, lssysconn):

CEC State Possibilities

  • lssysconn shows BMC and VMI endpoint connection state individually
  • lssyscfg shows the consolidated state
  • Output of “lssysconn” with vmi connection error code and “lssyscfg” with state_detail will give enough information on any connection issues.
  • Ex: If VMI IP not reachable and cec State will be in “No Connection”

 

Disconnecting a CEC from another HMC:

 

This Feature is not supported for eBMC Systems. You need to disconnect the Managed System from other HMC only. If the other HMC is not accessible, you can go to ASMI Menu and then disconnect the HMC session.

 

Note: If HMC is responding and it is actively connected to System, removal of a HMC Connection from ASMI may cause re-establishment of the connection from HMC.

  

Useful Reference Links:
 


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