IBM BladeCenter Configuration

Set the boot order of the blades

The blades need to be configured to attempt to boot from the network before booting from the hard drive.

• Log in the the BladeCenter Advanced Management Module
• Select Blade Tasks > Configuration
• Select the Boot Sequence tab:
  
• Click on one of the blade names
• Change the boot order so that Network precedes Hard drive 0:
  
• Select the Apply to all blades checkbox
• Click Save

Configure SNMPv3

• Select Login Profiles
• Select a login ID that is not used
  
• Enter a Login ID and password
  
• Under role, select Supervisor
• Click Save
• Click the user which was just created
• Scroll to the bottom and click Configure SNMPv3 User
  
• Enter the username and password of the user and set the rest of the fields as follows:
  
• Click Save

Install xCAT

On the VCL management node:

Download the xCAT yum repository files

wget -N -P /etc/yum.repos.d http://sourceforge.net/projects/xcat/files/yum/xcat-dep/rh6/x86_64/xCAT-dep.repo

wget -N -P /etc/yum.repos.d http://sourceforge.net/projects/xcat/files/yum/2.8/xcat-core/xCAT-core.repo

Install xCAT

yum clean all

yum install -y xCAT

Configure the xCAT site table

chtab key=master site.value=<management node private IP address>

chtab key=nameservers site.value=<management node private IP address>

chtab key=forwarders site.value=<DNS server address>

chtab key=dhcpinterfaces site.value=<management node private NIC>

chtab key=domain site.value=vcl.local

Configure the xCAT networks table

chtab netname=<public> networks.disable=1

Configure the xCAT passwd table

chtab key=cmm passwd.username=<AMM SNMPv3 username> passwd.password=<AMM SNMPv3 password>

chtab key=system passwd.username=root passwd.password=<installed node root password>

Define the BladeCenter chassis Advanced Management Module (or Flex Chassis Management Module)

nodeadd <AMM name> groups=amm,all

chdef -t group amm mgt=blade

chdef -t group amm mpa=<AMM name> ip=<AMM IP address>

chtab mpa=<AMM name> mpa.username=<AMM SNMPv3 username> mpa.password=<AMM SNMPv3 password>

Define the blades

nodeadd vclh3-7-vclh3-8 groups=all,blade,compute

chtab node=compute noderes.tftpserver=<management node private IP address> noderes.nfsserver=<management node private IP address> noderes.xcatmaster=<management node private IP address>

chtab mpa=bch3 mpa.username=<AMM SNMPv3 username> mpa.password=<AMM SNMPv3 password>

for i in {7..8} ; do chtab node=vclh3-$i mp.mpa=bch3 mp.id=$i ; done

chtab node=vclh3-7  hosts.ip=10.10.1.53

chtab node=vclh3-8  hosts.ip=10.10.1.54

Retrieve the blade MAC addresses

getmacs blade -i $NODE_MGT_NIC

Configure DHCP

makedhcp -n

chkconfig dhcpd on

service dhcpd start

makedhcp /vcl-n.*

Configure the /etc/hosts file

makehosts -n

Configuring DNS

makedns -n

Download a CentOS ISO image

wget -N -P /install/software ftp://distro.ibiblio.org/centos/6/isos/x86_64/CentOS-6.5-x86_64-bin-DVD1.iso

Import the CentOS image

copycds /install/software/CentOS-6.5-x86_64-bin-DVD1.iso

Configure blades to install the image

chdef /vclh3.* os=centos64 arch=x86_64 profile=centos64-minimal

nodeset vclh3-7 install

rpower vclh3-7 boot