Blades OS?

[elijah-boy]

Please be patient with me - complete newbe...

We're running VNWare ESX on blade servers - proliant bl460c g6 series. Root password appears to be lost by previous admin. He said he used generic one which doesn't work. There is a chance it works - VMWare by default dessables root access over ssh and this has to be uncommented in ssh config file.
I'd like to do that, but when I greb laptop and connect it directly to blade server over com1 connection I reciive a prompt that doesn't appear to be linux os that is actual ESX platform.
So the dummy question is - what am I connected to? Do blade servers have some kinf od propriatary OS that is running on the hardware?

Thanks.
Elijah.

[Ken Krubsack]

ESX is a custom OS based on a some-flavor of Linux kernel. The only difference between the blades and a rack-mount server (or a tower for that matter) is the physical layout. There's nothing special going on there.

[David Claypool]

VMware ESX is NOT Linux. VMware ESX is a proprietary hypervisor based on VMware technology. In addition to the hypervisor, ESX installs an administrative console that operates in a special virtual machine and that administrative console runs Linux. So, YES, what you see is Linux, but it is a VM; what is running on the bare metal is the ESX hypervisor.

I actually wouldn't expect anything to appear on COM1 unless a ttyS0 was explicitly set up. What you need to do is log in to iLO2 over the network connection via OA. You can access a remote console just as if you were in front of it physically. Alternatively, grab an SUV cable that came with the enclosure and connect a USB keyboard and monitor to it.

[elijah-boy]

The thing that drives me nuts a nit is that when I connect with console cable to blade server it give a prompt that show to things that you usually don't see in linux:
1. It says Firmware Version 2.6
2. Ig gives a hostname in propmp GLOBALHPBC10A2 which is not the hostname set on the linux bux

(I'll keep calling it linux just for the convinience sake)

Thanks.

[David Claypool]

How are you connecting to the blade? Via the 'S' (serial) connector on the SUV cable? Or to a DB-9 on the back of the enclosure. If the latter, you're talking to OA, not the blade.

[Michal Kapalka (mikap)]

hi,

how to change forgotten root password on ESX

1. reboot the esx server

2. at boot menu time type: esx -s then ENTER

3. at the prompt type your new root password

4. Press CTRL+D

mikap

[The Brit]

Hey Elijah-boy,

It might help a lot if you attach a screen shot of what you are seeing.

Dave