Blades ISO image/ignite

[Sp4admin]

Hello,

We have new Blades CL870/860 running 11.31. We have no external DVD or DAT drive. The only thing I can use is virtual DVD. I currently have a image on one Blade which I would like to move to the others. Since I have no way to create a ignite tape like I do for the other servers. I heard there is a way to create a ISO file of the I O/S to image the other Blades. I would appreciate if someone is familiar will this process and can share which steps are needed.

[Steven E. Protter]

Shalom,

Your bet bet is to set up an Ignite image and boot these systems off the Ignite server.

http://docs.hp.com/en/6770/golden.images.pdf

http://docs.hp.com/en/5992-3336/ch09s03.html

http://docs.hp.com/en/5992-3336/ch09s02.html

SEP

[Sp4admin]

Shalom Steven,


Thanks for the reply. I don't have a ignite server and was told there is a way to copy the ISO file from my "installed server" to my laptop and use the virtual media to upload/boot a new server, is this correct? We are not allowed to use NFS. I know with the virtual meathead I can browsermy laptop for the image.

sp,

[Torsten.]

You cannot create this ISO to your laptop. You can create a system image first (ignite) and build an ISO from this. The ignite server will use NFS. Other options are to "clone" the disks or install all from an external DVD or virtual media.

[Sp4admin]

Okay,

Here's my situation... I have to install the OS on six more Blades. I have no DVD directly connoted, DAT drive and can't use NFS, also there is no Network connectivity. I can't use a ignite sever because of security reasons. Which is the best way to image the other six servers? What would you guys do to achieve this?

Thanks in advance,
Sp,

[Torsten.]

How about DRD?

http://docs.hp.com/en/oshpux11iv3.html#Dynamic%20Root%20Disk

[Sp4admin]

Hi Torsten,

DRD, well we use SAS controller to mirror the disk at the a hardware level. There are no external disk connected, Yet! And not only that, I can't download any products on the server unless it's on the App DVDs because of no network. I'm stuck !!!

Sp,

[Torsten.]

DRD is on the install media (and perhaps on the appl. media too). But this may only help on the BL870c, because of the 4 disks.

I'm not sure if I tried this before (but I think so) - "roaming" the disks from one server to another.

[Sp4admin]

I really don't see any easy way to resolve my issue. I will take a look at the DRD for the BL870, if nothing else it will be good experience. Any other idea's would be appreciated.

Sp,

[Torsten.]

I did a "roaming" with the disks between several blades in the past, but I can't remember if these disks were hardware mirrored or LVM mirrored.

You are using hardware mirror, right?

I would try this:

1) fully install the OS to one blade and shutdown, once this is done.

2) create the mirror pair on an "empty" blade.

3) remove the disks from the first and insert to the second (only 1 disk)

4) activate the mirrored volume if needed

5) adjust hostname and IP

6) if this all works, add an empty new disk to sync the mirror.

7) now you should have 4 disks (2 pairs) with a valid OS.

[Dennis Handly]

>I really don't see any easy way to resolve my issue

Get yourself a DVD drive?
You mention a laptop, so you have some type of networking?

[Sp4admin]

Dennis,

I'm using the OA and telnet (hummingbird) to access the server 10.10 network. I have a total of ten Blades. Unfortunately management decide not to purchase the DVD/DAT drives, not my choice. They are aware of this problem I'm having and are looking into hopefully providing a DVD or allowing a temporary ignite server to be installed.

Sp,

[Torsten. · Accepted solution]

Well, if I think about this ... I replaced a system board of a blade some time ago. The original has a hardware mirror (integrated mirror) setup.

So if I put the disk pair into the "new" server, the server will take the setup from the disks. So it will be (maybe) better to insert a pair of disks at this time.

The RAID may be deactivated, so you need to go into the controller setup and activate the raid.

Once this is done, you can power off the blade and remove 1 of the disks. Doing this will ensure you have clean file systems. Now power on again and insert a new drive. The controller will rebuild the array by itself.


Just make sure to have a clean (closed) filesystem before you swap disks. Allow the array to rebuild.

Take care and don't boot 2 blades with similar hostnames and IPs.

First boot into single user mode and use "set_parms" to configure.

[Dennis Handly]

>They are aware of this problem I'm having and are looking into hopefully providing a DVD or allowing a temporary ignite server to be installed.

Basically what's cheaper? Your time or hardware? Also, will you have to do this again?

[Patrice Le Guyader]

Hello,

What I use to do is to connect to Ilo interface of the Bl860c with Firefox, then go in the virtual devices and launch the virtual media.
From it you can use a local image (From your Laptop) or use directly the DVD in you DVD reader to complete this first installation.

After as Torsten said, you can use your first installed blade and make a Golden from it (On it), then if you don't have an ignite server get the image to your Laptop and use this image from Ilo2 and install the others.
The procedure to create a bootable iso image from a Golden image is easy to find.

I wonder if this fonctionnality is not only enable with ILO2 Licence, to verify.

Hope this helps.
Kenavo.
Pat.

[Steven E. Protter]

Shalom,

Ignite doesn't really use iso files per say.

You can create a DVD image on disk but that really doesn't help you because you have not DVD.

The best thing you can do if you have a regular HP-UX server is to build an Ignite server and maintain Ignite images, not ISO images.

My original links posted give you the tools you need to do the job.

You can create an iso image with the dd command. But by not using Ignite, you are bypassing the chance to get HP support if you have trouble using your iso image.

SEP

[Patrice Le Guyader]

Hello,

I've not been as clear as I want, I din't want to said that you can use iso files from ignite server, because as mentioned by Mr Protter it doesn't exist.

What I do is to get the gz file from the ignite server or from the blade directly (after local Golden image creation) and make from it a bootable iso file.that's all.

Then this can be used from your laptop with ILO2 web interface as I said. This can be done with many Itanium servers by connecting to the ilo web interface and using this virtual media then you don't need a physical one. Once again we use to buy a additional Ilo2 license and perhaps this is needed for this fonctionnality.
I've already tested this on rx3600,rx6600,Bl860c and work fine.

Against by using a ignite server you'll save a lot of time and simplify your job. Up to you to know how you want to spent your time.

Hope this help
Kenavo
Pat.

[Sp4admin]

Thank you for all the replies and suggestions. I think my best bet is to create a ignite server.

Thanks!
sp,

[V. Nyga]

Sp4admin - may I invite you to this:

http://forums12.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=1259121

V.