I know how frustrating it is to come across one of these posts and never see a conclusion, so here it is. :)
TLDR: I got access to the remote console via a BIOS update but this probably won't help anyone else.
My first try at gaining access to the CIMC was using the utility CD but as noted above, it didn't work (tried V2 and V3 of the utility ISO)
The other thing I wanted to try was a BIOS/CIMC update (yeah, throwing stuff at the wall, hoping)
I didn't want to try this blind, way too much of a chance of bricking the server, but discovered there are CLI update utilities out there. HUU in recent versions (V3 and V4) are encrypted though, so I didn't have access but a nice user from the forum provided me with the method to unsquash the firmware FS, but it only worked on V3, not V4.
With that, I was able to get V3 firmware for BIOS/CIMC and the utilities to update. They were successful, but when I rebooted I lost all access to the server. I had a another M4 next to it with tcpdump so I could try and fathom what the blind M4 was trying to do and come to find out V2 to V3 made the ethernet port names change and I lost my static IP. Just for something to try, I plugged the tcpdump cable into the management port and amazingly it was trying to communicate on the static IP it was originally given when setup. (it had never done this before the update, no idea why it decided to now) I was able to log in to the CIMC and the rest is history, remote KVM let me update to V4 and I had full access to the server. (still no local video but no big loss with remote access available).
So, all is well and the server is happily working. No idea why though.
Greg
