topic Re: How to remotely change boot priority in Integrity servers? in Integrity Servers

How to remotely change boot priority in Integrity servers?

Tony Varghese — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 09:07:57 GMT

I have a requirement in which i need to remotely Power ON/OFF a set of servers which can be of any HP model as well as change the boot priority remotely.

For Power ON/OFF I can use SMASH commands over SSH, but the Integrity servers do not support changing the boot priority through SMASH. In Proliant servers we could run the command
set /system1/bootconfig1/bootsource5 bootorder=5
which is not supported in Integrity.

Could someone please suggest a method in which we can change the boot priority remotely on Integrity servers?

Re: How to remotely change boot priority in Integrity servers?

Torsten. — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 09:34:23 GMT

You can do both via the MP.

If running hp-ux, you can set the boot path order via "setboot" command.

Re: How to remotely change boot priority in Integrity servers?

Matti_Kurkela — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 09:35:24 GMT

All operating systems that run on Integrity servers will have some sort of tools for configuring the EFI bootloader.

For example, on HP-UX systems, the command is "setboot". It can be used to query existing settings, and to change them.

MK

Re: How to remotely change boot priority in Integrity servers?

Torsten. — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 09:43:31 GMT

The user manual usually has a chapter

Booting and Shutting Down the Operating System

about doing this with hp-ux, windows, linux and openvms.

4 Booting and Shutting Down the Operating System..................................................73
Operating Systems Supported on the Server Blade..............................................................................73
Installing the Operating System onto the Server Blade........................................................................73
Installing the OS Using a USB DVD Drive and the OS Disks.........................................................73
Installing the OS From the External USB DVD Device...................................................................74
Installing the OS Using HP Ignite-UX.............................................................................................75
Installing the OS Using vMedia......................................................................................................75
Configuring System Boot Options........................................................................................................75
Booting and Shutting Down HP-UX.....................................................................................................77
Adding HP-UX to the Boot Options List.........................................................................................77
Adding the HP-UX Boot Option................................................................................................77
HP-UX Standard Boot......................................................................................................................78
Booting HP-UX (EFI Boot Manager)..........................................................................................78
Booting HP-UX (EFI Shell).........................................................................................................79
Booting HP-UX in Single-User Mode..............................................................................................80
Booting HP-UX in Single-User Mode (EFI Shell).......................................................................80
Booting HP-UX in LVM-Maintenance Mode..................................................................................81
Shutting Down HP-UX....................................................................................................................81
Booting and Shutting Down HP OpenVMS.........................................................................................82
Adding OpenVMS to the Boot Options List....................................................................................82
Booting OpenVMS...........................................................................................................................83
Booting OpenVMS (EFI Boot Manager).....................................................................................83
Booting HP OpenVMS (EFI Shell)..............................................................................................83
Shutting Down OpenVMS...............................................................................................................84
Booting and Shutting Down Microsoft Windows................................................................................85
Adding Microsoft Windows to the Boot Options List....................................................................85
Booting the Microsoft Windows Operating System........................................................................87
Shutting Down Microsoft Windows................................................................................................88
Shutting Down Windows from the Command Line..................................................................88
Booting and Shutting Down Linux.......................................................................................................89
Adding Linux to the Boot Options List...........................................................................................89
Booting the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Operating System..............................................................90
Booting Red Hat Enterprise Linux from the EFI Shell...............................................................91
Booting the SuSE Linux Enterprise Server Operating System........................................................91
Booting SuSE Linux Enterprise Server from the EFI Shell.........................................................91
Shutting Down Linux......................................................................................................................92

Re: How to remotely change boot priority in Integrity servers?

Tony Varghese — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 10:42:09 GMT

Thanks Torsten and Matti Kurkela.

@Torsten: How can I change the boot priority using MP?

My exact requirement is to set the boot priority to PXE. This is possible in Proliant Servers using SMASH.

The 'setboot' command in HP-UX should be used locally on that server, but I have to do this remotely without any specific agent software running on that server.

Is there any documentation for MP capabilities and interfaces for Integrity servers?

Re: How to remotely change boot priority in Integrity servers?

Torsten. — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 10:50:01 GMT

It would be easier if you specify what server model you have - low end, mid range, blade, superdome, etc.

All Integrities normally have a MP, there you can use the boot menu to order the boot entries (by moving them up/down).

Re: How to remotely change boot priority in Integrity servers?

Tony Varghese — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 11:33:27 GMT

Hi Torsten,

I would like to perform this operation irrespective of the server model but which have an MP.
If there is no MP, this feature is not required.

Could you please tell me how you communicate with the MP which provides you a boot menu?

Re: How to remotely change boot priority in Integrity servers?

Torsten. — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 11:43:22 GMT

You don't know MP/iLO?

Connect to the iLO/MP; boot the system and use the appropriate boot menu.

I will search for a document, but it is a bit hard since it is moved away from docs.hp.com ...

Note: there are differences between the several MPs used in different server families.

Re: How to remotely change boot priority in Integrity servers?

Tony Varghese — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 12:00:11 GMT

I have basic knowledge of MP/ILO.

But from the iLO perspective, I haven't found a boot menu nor an option to change the boot priority neither from the iLO UI, nor by using CPQLOCFG.EXE(ie HP XML scripts).

I have found another interface called SMASH to communicate with the MP, but the Integrity SMASH does not provide an option for changing the boot priority.

Re: How to remotely change boot priority in Integrity servers?

Torsten. — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 12:18:48 GMT

See

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c01936251/c01936251.pdf

and

http://docs.hp.com/en/AB587-96012/apbs04.html

Re: How to remotely change boot priority in Integrity servers?

rick jones — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 00:03:04 GMT

telnet/ssh to the MP/iLO. Issue a "co" console command. Reboot system. During the reboot there will be an EFI boot menu displayed. Interrupt the boot process at that stage and you can do whatever you like with the boot order.

Otherwise, I believe you are looking at setboot.

Depending on how old the system is, you may have at the EFI level the "dbprofile" command which can be used to configure assorted profiles for network booting the system.

Re: How to remotely change boot priority in Integrity servers?

Tony Varghese — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 05:09:21 GMT

Thanks Torsten and Rick.

@Torsten: I have been looking into those manuals, but still can't find out how I can change the boot priority remotely through the MP.

@Rick: I know exactly what you mean, but I need to be able to do the same programmatically as well, which is not possible using the console.

IPMI is another method to do this, but I have to bundle IPMIUtil in my program and it is not compatible with all versions of the MP. My application should be compatible with all versions of HP servers which have an MP.

I don't mind having different methods for different types of servers, since for Proliant servers I'll be using SMASH commands. But for Integrity servers I don't have a programmatical solution.

Re: How to remotely change boot priority in Integrity servers?

Torsten. — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 05:15:46 GMT

But it is clearly written there ...

http://docs.hp.com/en/AB587-96012/apbs04.html

Re: How to remotely change boot priority in Integrity servers?

Tony Varghese — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 08:50:57 GMT

@Torsten: The link which you provided does not provide any option for remote operations. If you're suggesting to perform this using the CO console option like Rick had mentioned earlier, it cannot be done programmatically.

Re: How to remotely change boot priority in Integrity servers?

Torsten. — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 12:09:15 GMT

The first link talks about SMASH too, the second is about the remote console, which is for remote use for sure ...

If you want to change from OS, focus on setboot command.

Re: How to remotely change boot priority in Integrity servers?

rick jones — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 15:42:24 GMT

If setboot etc doesn't offer enough of what you seek, by all means fire-up the support contract and get an enhancement request submitted.

In the meantime, it would be kludgy in the extreme, but perhaps an "expect" script to access the console?

Re: How to remotely change boot priority in Integrity servers?

Bruce Edge — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 17:33:02 GMT

While it looks like one can change the boot device subsystem using the following smash CLI commands:

hpiLO-> set /system1/bootconfig1/bootsource1 bootorder=1

status=0
status_tag=COMMAND COMPLETED

bootsource1=BootFmCd bootorder=1
bootsource4=BootFmUSBKey bootorder=2
bootsource3=BootFmDisk bootorder=3
bootsource5=BootFmNetwork bootorder=4
bootsource2=BootFmFloppy bootorder=5

It does not appear that one can select internal vs. external USB devices.

Is this the case?

TIA

-Bruce