iLo3 adv (remote console) not working with additional graphic card

[Andras Ordogh]

Hello all,

we have a dl370g6 server with HP Quadro 6000 PCIe graphic card kit. It's supported

hardware, because it was factory integrated.

After we plugged in, there was no video signal in the mainboard vga, but the quadro

card dvi port worked fine.

We have advenced iLo (with remote console) but there is no video signal (just black

screen). It's maybe because it use the mainboard integrated vga?

Is it possible to use iLo remote console, if there is an additional vga card?

thanks,

andras

[PDP-Fan]

iLO shows the same as the onboard VGA.... if that shows black, iLO will show black too. You must find a way to enable both cards. For a test remove the additional card and try again, then you shold have a picture on the iLO remote console.

[Matti_Kurkela]

The iLO3 remote VGA console would obviously need some kind of connection to the active graphics chip to work. But the VGA console redirection is not the only method for networked console access: depending on your choice of OS, there may be a variety of serial-port-based access methods, which would work even if the system is currently using a graphic card with no connection to iLO3.

For Windows Server 2003 and 2008, this is known as the EMS console. On Linux, this would be a special case of the generic "serial console" functionality.

Please see this document:

http://h20565.www2.hp.com/portal/site/hpsc/template.PAGE/action.process/public/psi/mostViewedDisplay/?sp4ts.oid=4154735&javax.portlet.action=true&spf_p.tpst=psiContentDisplay&javax.portlet.begCacheTok=com.vignette.cachetoken&spf_p.prp_psiContentDisplay=wsrp-interactionState%3DdocId%253Demr_na-c00263709%257CdocLocale%253Den_US&javax.portlet.endCacheTok=com.vignette.cachetoken

Note that the use of serial-port-based connection has the side benefit of allowing access the console using a lightweight device, unlike the VGA-based remote console which requires a browser with either ActiveX or Java support. With a serial-port-based console configured, you could use anything with a SSH client to have a console connection with full admin powers, although it would require some familiarity with command-line-based admin procedures. Even a smartphone with a SSH application could allow a meaningful level of access. This might be useful in some situations.