BMC

For automatic provisioning of servers and discovery, the BMC method can be used.

Pre requisites

  • Set the IP address of the OIM. The OIM NIC connected to remote servers (through the switch) should be configured with two IPs (BMC IP and admin IP) in a shared LOM or hybrid set up. In the case dedicated network topology, a single IP (admin IP) is required.

../../../../_images/ControlPlaneNic.png

  • To assign IPs on the BMC network while discovering servers using a BMC details, target servers should be in DHCP mode or switch details should be provided.

  • BMC credentials should be the same across all servers and provided as input to Omnia in the parameters explained below.

  • Target servers should be configured to boot in PXE mode with the appropriate NIC as the first boot device.

  • If the discovery_ranges provided are outside the bmc_subnet, ensure the target nodes can reach the OIM.

  • IPMI over LAN needs to be enabled for the BMC.

    racadm set iDRAC.IPMILan.Enable 1
racadm get iDRAC.IPMILan

Caution

If you are re-provisioning your cluster (that is, re-running the discovery_provision.yml playbook) after a clean-up, ensure to use a different static_range against bmc_network in input/network_spec.yml to avoid a conflict with newly assigned servers. Alternatively, disable any OS available in the Boot Option Enable/Disable section of your BIOS settings (BIOS Settings > Boot Settings > UEFI Boot Settings) on all target nodes.

  • All target servers should be reachable from the admin_network specified in input/network_spec.yml.

  • BMC network details should be provided in the input/network_spec.yml file.

Few things to keep in mind while entering details in input/network_spec.yml:

  • Ensure that the netmask bits for the BMC network and the admin network are the same.

  • The static and dynamic ranges for the BMC network accepts multiple comma-separated ranges.

  • The network gateways on both admin and BMC networks are optional.

Note

If the value of enable_switch_based is set to true, nodes will not be discovered via BMC irrespective of the contents in input/network_spec.yml.

Next step:

If you have any feedback about Omnia documentation, please reach out at omnia.readme@dell.com.