How to remotely change boot priority in Integrity servers?

[Tony Varghese]

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?

[Torsten.]

You can do both via the MP.


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

[Matti_Kurkela]

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

[Torsten.]

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

[Tony Varghese]

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?

[Torsten.]

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).

[Tony Varghese]

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?

[Torsten.]

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.

[Tony Varghese]

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.

[Torsten.]

See

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

and

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