Onboard Administrator and APIPA

[kursik]

Hello,
is there any restriction NOT to assign IP addresses from private range (169.254.x.y/16) to Onboard Administrator and blade ILOs for c-class?
Customer wanted to do so, but i could not access OA with IP address from that range.

When APIPA address is set to OA, its MAC even not seen in GbE2c arp table.

I could not find any document containing that. And of course, I can access to OA when reverted to 192.168.x.y/24 :)

[JKytsi]

could be just a guess but I think it has something to do with enclosure up/down link cabeling. from top enclosure link up -socket You will get an APIPA address to your laptop when troubleshooting OA. So maybe it is reserved for that usage.

[AllenDerusha]

I'm not sure if this is any help, but the 169.254 range is specifically designated for auto-IP assignment for devices where no IP assignment mechanism is available. Addresses picked are intended to be random and temporary. They are breaking RFC best practices by using this range - can you talk them out of this?

[kursik]

Yes, i know that that range is used for auto-assigned temporally IPs. but Customer already have (their reasons is unknown for me) ALL management IPs in their environment assigned MANUALLY from that range, and they wanted me to configure OA and ILOs from 169.254.3(,4,5, and so on).* ...

For the moment, i talked them out simply by "Guys, look - its just doesn't work." :)

and now i'm diggin' this question for myself: why i CAN (i know, its breaking RFCs) manually assign APIPA address for ethernet adapters at blades and CAN access them, but CANNOT even ping OA with APIPA address...

i tried to connect OA directly to my notebook, to the switch, and acess it from blade's ethernet adapter. no result for APIPA (but two blades with APIPA IPs can access each other), and everything OK for other ranges...