Dell C6100 BIOS/BMC Configuration

As I’ve recently purchased a Dell C6100 series 4 node Cloud Server for use in my lab. For those of you who might also be thinking of picking one up, or just for my own reference, I want to document the procedure for configuring the IPMI. These Dell units are not “PowerEdge” servers, so the BMC/IPMI is standard, and not a more typical iDRAC.

1) From the BIOS upon boot, configure the IPMI for an IP Address by pressing F2

2) Select ADVANCED

Select CPU CONFIGURATION:

Ensure that Intel VT-D, VT, and HT are enabled for your vSphere hosts. Press ESC.

Select USB CONFIGURATION:

If you like to install TO or FROM USB, ensure that the Controller Mode is HISPEED. Press ESC.

Select PCI CONFIGURATION:

For the NIC FUNCTION SUPPORT, when you press ENTER you get a list of options – PXE, ISCSI and DISABLED. Note that this is not intuitive – you’d think if you don’t want PXE or ISCSI, you’d want DISABLED. However, this disables the NICs entirely. So read this as “What Mode do you want the NIC to operate in?”. I have chosen PXE.

Then, on NIC1/NIC2 OPTION ROM:

You can choose to enable or disable the PXE or ISCSI boot process, to speed up your boots. Press ESC.

3) Select BOOT.

Select BOOT SETTINGS CONFIGURATION:

The important option here is FORCE USB FIRST. By doing so, you can not only force USB thumb drives to boot first, but they will be detected as HARD DISK vs REMOVABLE. This may be needed for some OS’s to install to USB thumb drives. Press ESC.

Select BOOT DEVICE PRIORITY:

Here you can also set the USB/Removable to be the first USB device. Press ESC.

Select HARD DISK DRIVES:

From this screen you can select the presentation order of the HDD’s. While I have an SSD present, I don’t want to install the OS to it, as I want to use it for caching and other purposes. So I have ensured that it is not going to be detected as the first hard drive. Press ESC.

4) Select SERVER:

The important options here for virtualiation will likely be:

POWER MANAGEMENT = MAXIMUM PERFORMANCE

RESTORE AC ON POWER LOSS = POWER ON

AC POWER RECOVERY DELAY = IMMEDIATE

Select IPMI CONFIGURATION:

Set the BMC NIC as DEDICATED if you wish to use the 3^rd port and not share any of the 2 on board NICS.

Select SET LAN CONFIGURATION:

This screen should be fairly self-explanatory. If your BMC is to be STATIC, then entire the IP ADDRESS, SUBNET MASK and DEFAULT GATEWAY IP. Press ESC.

5) Select EXIT

Then SAVE CHANGES and EXIT.

6) Load a web browser and launch an HTTPS session to the iP in question.

The default username and password is “root”

7) Click on CONFIGURATION on the left hand menu, and then NETWORK on the top menu.

Configure the appropriate settings. Note that the options for using DHCP to configure DNS and DNS domain name, only work if the IP address is also configured with DHCP. You cannot use a static address and DHCP for the remainder.

Click SAVE

8) Click on CONFIGURATION on the left hand menu, and then SMTP on the top menu.

Enter the IP address of the mail server. You’re going to be tempted to use a DNS name, so you can use load balancers, round robin, etc.

That’s not going to work, but we could have guessed that.

After entering the IP and clicking SAVE, press OK.

9) Click on CONFIGURATION on the left hand menu, and then ALERTS on the top menu.

Select the first alert and click MODIFY.

Modify:

ALERT TYPE = EMAIL

EVENT SEVERITY = WARNING (or better)

EMAIL ADDRESS = <something appropriate>

SUBJECT = <something appropriate>

MESSAGE = <something appropriate>

Click SAVE

10) Click on CONFIGURATION on the left hand menu, and then USERS on the top menu.

Click MODIFY USER after selecting the “root” user.

Here you can set the USER NAME and PASSWORD. Also select the appropriate NETWORK PRIVELEDGES. For example, you may want USER if the user should have read only access to logs and alerts. Click MODIFY to save the settings.

11) If you need to do a BIOS update, click on MAINTENANCE on the left hand menu, and then click ENTER UPDATE MODE.

12) If you need to do a POWER CONTROL, click on REMOTE CONTROL on the left hand menu, and then SERVER POWER CONTROL on the top menu.

13) If you need to do a CONSOLE REDIRECTION, click on REMOTE CONTROL on the left hand menu, and then CONSOLE REDIRECTION on the top menu.

From here you can launch a java console which will allow remote control.

14) When you launch the JAVA CONSOLE, you get a JViewer screen pop up which looks like:

This is of course how I captured steps 1 through 5 above, after the fact.

The important details are the KEYBOARD menu:

And the DEVICE menu:

This is where you can remotely map to an ISO file on your hard drive.

Simply select the file and click OPEN.

Now when you click the DEVICE menu, you will see a check box next to REDIRECT ISO.

15) Reboot the server – either via Power Control, or using the Remote Console (eg: exit the BIOS screen, I’m currently showing).

Ensure you keep an eye on the screen. You want to press F11 to launch the BBS – Boot Selection menu.

Select the USB: AMI VIRTUAL CDROM

From here, it’s just like you’re at the console.