TOPIC: Configuring Serial Over LAN for Blade Centers

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Serial over LAN is the primary means of connecting to a blade in the blade center, it created this kind of virtual serial connection to the blade using either telnet or ssh. These serial connections can pretty much be assumed working as any other serial connection (to the best of my knowledge there are no differences other then connecting). This procedure was tested using a Blade Center, and a JS20/JS21 blade.

Level: Intermediate

Prepare the Blade Center for SoL (One -time set-up):

1. Log into the blade center web interface (The default IP address is listed on the Blade Cent Management Module, or has already been configured), username and password would be provided by a system administrator or The Management Module Default
2. In the left-hand panel under blade-tasks Click on “Serial over LAN”
3. Scroll down to the “Serial Over LAN Configuration”
4. The Settings should be as follows (defaults):
   • Serial Over LAN “Enabled”
   • SOL VLAN ID “4095”
   • BSMP IP address range “10.10.10.80” (Can vary depending on your configuration)
   • Accumulate timeout “5” msec
   • Send threshold “250” bytes
   • Retry count “3”
   • Retry interval “250” msec
   • 'Enter CLI' key sequence “ ^[( “ (Esc and '(' (shift+9) this is the key sequence to exit the serial connection from the blade back to the Management Module “system>” prompt
   • 'Reset blade' key sequence “ ^[R^[r^[R ” (Esc R Esc r Esc R) (note: “R” is shift+r) this is the key sequence to reboot the blade you are currently connected to (I have not yet been able to use this successfully)
5. Click “Save”

Prepare individual blades for Serial over LAN (one-time per blade):

1. Log into the blade center web interface
2. In the left-hand panel under blade-tasks Click on “Serial over LAN”
3. Under “Serial Over LAN Status” section check the blade(s) you want to enable SOL on
4. Click “Enable Serial Over LAN”

Connecting to Serial Over LAN via Telnet (Each Time):

1. Open a terminal Window
2. “telnet {IP addrees of FQDN of Management Module }”
3. Enter your username and password
4. You should now have a “system>” prompt
5. Type “console -T system:blade[X]” where “X” is the number of the slot of the blade you want to connect to, if a blade occupies more then one slot use the slot with the lowest number.

This HOWTO was prepared by Aaron Johnson, Terra Soft Solutions, Inc.