Cisco UCS C220 M4 - Intend to setup CIMC without rebooting the server

[desmond.liew]

Hi All,

I was recently introduced into an environment with multiple Cisco UCS servers in production. I intend to setup a management network and have the Cisco UCS server's CIMC port connected into the management network. However, the server never had CIMC configured in the first place.

I have read that:

1. Server needs to be rebooted and BIOS needs to be accessed to configure the CIMC IP address.

2. By default (if I understand correctly), the CIMC is in DHCP.

If I do not want to reboot the server to go into BIOS but instead, can I setup a simple DHCP server on the management network and connect one (1) server into the management network? If I get an IP assignment, HTTP to that IP and change the dynamically assigned IP to a static IP one. Then I continue to do for the remain servers.

Will this work?

[Richard Simmons]

Hi Desmond, 

I've not actually tried setting up CIMC like that myself but i can't see why that wouldnt work, you'll only need to reboot the server if you want to the huu (host update utility) which is a package for updating the CIMC and Server firmware.

Regards,

Richard

[Wes Austin]

Hello,

What you stated should work. You connect the server to a management switch with DHCP enabled. Once you confirm the IP address that is distributed to the server, you can access the CIMC via HTTP or SSH and change/configure the CIMC further.

The only thing that may impact this is if DHCP was turned off on the server when it was setup. If DHCP is not configured, you could attempt to connect to the servers serial console, depending on the model, and configure a CIMC IP address that way.

HTH,

Wes

[desmond.liew]

Hi Wes,

This is also my concern too. I could not find any documentation to note what are the default settings (e.g. DHCP off or on).

These are the C220 M4 we are talking about and I don't have any around to play around with.

[Richard Simmons · Accepted solution]

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/unified_computing/ucs/c/hw/C240M4/install/C240M4.pdf

The server is shipped with these default settings:

• The NIC mode is Shared LOM EXT.
Shared LOM EXT mode enables the 1-Gb Ethernet ports and the ports on any installed Cisco virtual
interface card (VIC) to access Cisco Integrated Management Interface (Cisco IMC). If you want to
use the 10/100/1000 dedicated management ports to access Cisco IMC, you can connect to the server
and change the NIC mode as described in Step 1 of the following procedure.
• The NIC redundancy is active-active. All Ethernet ports are utilized simultaneously.
• DHCP is enabled.
• IPv4 is enabled. You can change this to IPv6.

To configure the system remotely, you must have a DHCP server on the same network as the system. Your DHCP server must be preconfigured with the range of MAC addresses for this server node. The MAC address is printed on a label that is on the pull-out asset tag on the front panel (see Figure 1-1 through Figure 1-4). This server node has a range of six MAC addresses assigned to the Cisco IMC. The MAC address printed on the label is the beginning of the range of six contiguous MAC addresses.

[desmond.liew]

Oh. I also checked the C220 M4 Installation and Service Guide. It states the same there.

Okay then. I will use this.

Thanks Richard.