HP BladeSystem

Enclosure Bay IP addressing

The Onboard Administrator EBIPA feature helps you provision a fixed IP address to a particular bay in an enclosure. The components plugged into the bays are set for DHCP and interconnect modules are configured to use the internal management port to Onboard Administrator. If the component is configured for a static IP address, an EBIPA assignment to that bay has no effect.

If you use DHCP servers on your management network, do not use EBIPA for management IP address assignments.

If you use static IP addresses for management processors, then the Onboard Administrator CLI hponcfg command can be used to send the iLO network settings RIBCL script to an iLO if that iLO already has an IP address. EBIPA can be used to bootstrap IP addresses to iLOs, so that Onboard Administrator CLI hponcfg command can be used to send configuration scripts to those iLOs. Changes to iLO network settings results in that iLO resetting the network interface and breaking the current connections for a few seconds.

If the server blade iLO is configured for static IP address, it carries that address if the blade is moved to another enclosure.

If the server blades are set for DHCP and Onboard Administrator is configured for EBIPA for that bay, iLO will obtain an EBIPA configured IP address when it is plugged into that enclosure.

EBIPA assigns IP addresses for the iLO processors that are bridged through the Onboard Administrator and must not be used for port mapping for the server blade NICs or for network routers or switches. EBIPA does not assign IP addresses for any other device on the network and cannot be used as a DHCP server on the network.

The server blade iLO ports and interconnect module management ports can obtain IP addresses on the management network in three ways: dynamic IP addressing, static IP addressing, or EBIPA. If your network has a DHCP service or if you want to manually assign static IP addresses one by one to the server blades and interconnect modules, click Skip. When manually configuring IP addresses, you do not have to set IP addresses in sequential order. You can set the IP addresses individually at any time after initially configuring EBIPA.

The server blade iLO defaults to DHCP IP addressing, obtained through the network connector of the active Onboard Administrator. Interconnect modules that have an internal management network connection to the Onboard Administrator might also default to DHCP address.

The Onboard Administrator GUI lists the IP address for the server blade iLO port and interconnect module management port.

If your facility prefers static IP address assignment, you can individually change each of the server blade iLO ports and interconnect module management ports to unique static addresses or use EBIPA to assign a range of static IP addresses to individual server blade and interconnect module bays.

To set up your enclosure without an active network connection using EBIPA:

1. Configure a static IP for each Onboard Administrator using Insight Display, and note the active OA Service IP address on the Insight Display Enclosure Info screen. Attach the client PC to the enclosure Service Port (Enclosure Link Up connector) between the OA bays with a standard Ethernet patch cable. The client PC NIC must be configured for DHCP because it acquires an IP address in the range 169.254.x.y approximately 1 minute later.
2. Launch a web browser (or alternatively a Telnet or SSH session), and select the Onboard Administrator Service IP address as displayed in the enclosure Insight Display on the Enclosure Info screen.
3. Using the administrative password attached to the active Onboard Administrator, log in to the Onboard Administrator as Administrator.
4. During the First Time Setup Wizard, enable Device Bay EBIPA with a starting static IP address and enable Interconnect Bay EBIPA with a different starting IP address. After running the First Time Setup Wizard, you can modify the EBIPA settings at any time by selecting Enclosure Bay IP Addressing in the Enclosure Settings list.

   Clicking the Autofill button creates 16 sequential IP addresses for the device bays and eight sequential IP addresses for the interconnect bays. The Subnet Mask, Gateway, Domain, DNS Servers, and NTP Servers are also copied to each of the consecutive bays in the list. Alternatively, you can assign individual IP addresses by manually entering the desired IP address in the EBIPA Address field for the specific bay. The Subnet Mask, Gateway, DNS, Domain can be same or different for each bay.

   Servers in the device bays automatically acquire the Device Bay EBIPA addresses within a minute, but the interconnect switch modules must be manually restarted by clicking the Virtual Power button on each Onboard Administrator Interconnect Module information page.

5. To verify that the server blade iLO addresses have been set according to the EBIPA starting IP address and range, use the Onboard Administrator Device list.

When a server blade or interconnect module is inserted into a device bay that has EBIPA enabled, the management port receives the specific static IP address from the Onboard Administrator if the device is configured for DHCP. If the device is configured for static IP, then it must be manually reconfigured to DHCP to change the EBIPA IP address.

The administrator sets an independent range for device bays and interconnect module bays using the Onboard Administrator EBIPA setup wizard. The first address in a range is assigned to the first bay and then consecutive bays through the range.

For example, if you set the server bay EBIPA range starting from 16.100.226.21 to 16.100.226.36, then the iLO in Server bay #1 is assigned 16.100.226.21 and the iLO in Server bay #12 is assigned 16.100.226.32, and the interconnect bay EBIPA range to 16.200.139.51 to 16.200.139.58. If you set the interconnect module port, then the interconnect bay #1 is set to 16.200.139.51 and the interconnect module management port in Interconnect bay #7 is set to 16.200.139.57.

Knowing your network configuration before setting up EBIPA ensures an easy setup and enables you to install your HP BladeSystem Onboard Administrator on your network quickly. Record the information requested in the fields on the EBIPA screen, and verify before entering the data. Use only the possible values listed in the following table.

If you have double dense server blades, do not configure EBIPA for the base bays. You must configure EBIPA in the double dense section, (for example, 1A, 2A, and so forth).

Enable Enclosure Bay IP Addressing for Server Bay iLO Processors—Select this checkbox to enable EBIPA settings for the server bays in this enclosure.

Enclosure Bay IP addressing