Upgrading the BMC firmware on these hosts resets the settings to default (argh!), which includes:
- Setting to DHCP for IP source
- Losing the static IP, netmask and default gateway settings
- Switching to a “shared” NIC rather than dedicated
- (This doesn’t appear to be “use dedicated then fall back if not”, just straight to “shared”…)
Unfortunately, the various Dell docs don’t make this clear, nor exactly which ipmitool commands to run on a C6145 to set the BMC back to “dedicated” network port usage.
I haven’t tried these on any other Dell Cloud models yet (e.g. C5000, C8000), so I don’t know if they work at all! Use them at your own risk!
Resetting the BMC IP setup is fairly straightforward:
# ipmitool lan set 1 ipsrc static# ipmitool lan set 1 ipaddr 1.2.3.4# ipmitool lan set 1 netmask 255.255.255.0# ipmitool lan set 1 defgw ipaddr 1.2.3.250 |
Then printing the current config shows the expected configuration:
# ipmitool lan print 1Set in Progress : Set CompleteAuth Type Support : MD2 MD5 PASSWORD Auth Type Enable : Callback : MD2 MD5 PASSWORD : User : MD2 MD5 PASSWORD : Operator : MD2 MD5 PASSWORD : Admin : MD2 MD5 PASSWORD : OEM : MD2 MD5 PASSWORD IP Address Source : Static AddressIP Address : 1.2.3.4Subnet Mask : 255.255.255.0MAC Address : 00:01:02:03:04:05SNMP Community String : publicIP Header : TTL=0x40 Flags=0x40 Precedence=0x00 TOS=0x08BMC ARP Control : ARP Responses Enabled, Gratuitous ARP DisabledGratituous ARP Intrvl : 2.0 secondsDefault Gateway IP : 1.2.3.250Default Gateway MAC : 00:00:00:00:00:00Backup Gateway IP : 0.0.0.0Backup Gateway MAC : 00:00:00:00:00:00802.1q VLAN ID : Disabled802.1q VLAN Priority : 0RMCP+ Cipher Suites : 0,0,0Cipher Suite Priv Max : uaaaXXXXXXXXXXX : X=Cipher Suite Unused : c=CALLBACK : u=USER : o=OPERATOR : a=ADMIN : O=OEM |
However, this doesn’t cover (or display in these settings…) the shared/dedicated setting for the BMC port.
You can find that by running this “raw” ipmitool command:
# ipmitool raw 0x34 0x14 01 |
..where 01 means dedicated and 00 means shared. (In this example we’re obviously already set to dedicated as this is after the fact)
In our case we want dedicated, which is set with this “raw” command:
# ipmitool raw 0x34 0x13 0x01 01 |
Then the status command should show 01 as above and the dedicated BMC port will be in use.
Then go ahead and reset the BMC with this command:
# ipmitool mc reset coldSent cold reset command to MC |
This will take a couple of minutes before the BMC is contactable again, but then it should be using the dedicated interface rather than shared, and you can go about your business again, huzzah!
Other possibly-useful ipmitool commands
- Get the chassis node number this host is in:
ipmitool raw 0x34 0x11> returns a number, presumably with indices starting at 1, for which node in the chassis this is.
- Other C-chassis power control commands are shown on this Dell blog post: https://www.dell.com/support/article/uk/en/ukbsdt1/sln244176/poweredge-c410x-ipmi-commands-for-linux-and-windows?lang=en
- Haven’t tested these yet!
References:
- Dell C6145 Reference Guide (https://downloads.dell.com/Manuals/all-products/esuprt_ser_stor_net/esuprt_cloud_products/poweredge-c6145_Reference%20Guide2_en-us.pdf) which shows the IPMI OEM commands list. Look for “Set LAN source” and “Get LAN source” entries in the tables.
- This ipmitool cheat sheet page : http://www.theprojectbot.com/ipmitool-cheatsheet-and-configuring-drac-from-ipmitool/
- But the raw commands provided don’t work for the Dell C6145 Cloud servers, unfortunately.