IBM xSeries 336 - Management Interface 1

[asmith1972]

Hi We have a number of IBM sSeries 336 servers. They have 2 network cards in them plus another network looking port that says management interface on it. Would I de correct in saying that we should be able to plug a network cable in this and then remotely connect to the server, maybe with a web browser?

Basically we would like the ability to be able to remotely turn the machine on if someone shuts it down or be able to view Windows blue screen errors and I thought that this interface could give me this features. Trouble is I have no idea how to configure it and I can't seem to find anything on IBM website

Thanks

 

[rclarke250]

It's for an optional RSA II card. remote supervisor adapter
and is only active after the slimline version has been installed. You won't be able to see blue screens of the OS with it, as it is for hardware only, you can however set it up to send an email,or alert if the server crashes. even page someone. And you can monitor the environment, and remotely reboot,turn off, or turn on the server.

 

[asmith1972]

Oh right, so basically you have to buy another adaptor and connect this to this interface?

So do IBM not do a device similar to HP Remote Insight Boards were you just give it a IP address and you can then connect to this via a web browser and it is just like being in front of the server. You see the whole boot process along with the ability to remotely turn the server off and then back on?

Thanks

 

[ee61re]

the server may well already have the RSA board installed in it. Depends what you ordered, etc.

We have 150+ 336s with RSA. We have them connected to a switch, and the RSA cards default to getting an IP address from a DHCP server. Assuming you know the IP address of them, you can then connect using telnet or http. default username and password (case sensitive) are USERID and PASSW0RD (thats a zero in there!)

If you've not got DHCP on the connection, the cards default to a fixed IP of 192.160.70.125.

Rob

 

[catorze]

The management ports you are referring to are connections to the RS-485 bus. It is NOT a network interface. It's used for interconnecting (chaining) multiple systems with the onboard ISMP devices to a systems management bus, with one or more RSAs (one required, more for redundancy) in the bus. Each server does NOT require an RSA for these ports to be active. As indicated, only one RSA is required on the bus, and up to 24 devices are supported per bus. The RSA connects to the RS-485 bus through the I2C ribbon cable (internal to the server in which it is installed). The RSA has a (separate) full-functioning Ethernet connection which will allow you to connect to the network. From the RSA's web interface, you can connect to any device on the interconnect bus. Unlike the Remote Insight Boards, IBM only requires one RSA for up to 24 devices (servers), not one in each server.

 

[asmith1972]

So are you saying that you just buy 1 RSA II card, install this in 1 server and then you can remotley control all you servers. Including remote power on /off??

What do you do run a dasiy chain the server together somehow?

 

[Jemimus]

You will be interested to know that, even without the RSA-II Slimline management board, you CAN remotely manage that server, albeit in a simplefied manner.

The xSeries 336 comes with an on board BMC, or Baseboard Management Controller. This BMC can be sent simple commands using the IPMI protocol, such as power on, power off, turn on the blue led, etc. The BMC is also resoncible for sending out hardware alerts, either via SMTP, IPMI, or via the IBM director Agent in Windows (most specificly, via the Management Processor Assistant (MPA) Agent and its associated Windows drivers).

Anyhow... with both IBM Director server, or the simple OSA SM-Bridge tool, you can remotely send commands to the BMC (even when the server is off). It sends and recieves IPMI or SOL (serial over Lan) traffic on the back of one of the two built-in Broadcom NIC's.

With the OSA SM-Bridge tool, you can even capture the screen using Serial over Lan.. allowing you to enter the BIOS remotely, and even do a windows barebone install remotely, assuming you booted from PXE or something similair. Its basicly the same like attaching a serial cable.

Of course the RSA-II card, of you have it, is the cream of the crop, giving you strait telnet and SSH access, aswell as a web-interface.. and allowing you to create RSA management networks, all on hardware level.