Vat of Knowledge

HP servers have iLO capabilities built in to all servers I’ve run across, and it gives any administrator a lot of remote capabilities.

Setting up iLO

To configure iLO, all you have to do is plug your iLO, or management port into a switch.  At the console, you can enter the iLO configuration by hitting F8 at boot.  If there is an administrative password, don’t fret too much, it can be changed through the O/S as well.  First of all, you need to make sure to have the iLO driver installed.  This can be installed from the HP Smart Start CD.  This ISO can be downloaded for your particular model at HP drivers and software downloads.  http://www.hp.com/#Support This CD also has the HPONCFG utility which enables you to configure iLO from the operating system.  By default iLO uses DHCP and DDNS. The iLO DNS name is iLO + server serial number.  This will give you the IP address of the iLO in order to configure it.  Some O/S will not work with HPONCFG, such as HP-UX.  In this case you can reset iLO.

You can however reset the ILO buy pressing and holding the reset button on the ILO as follows:

iLO 2 MP Reset Button

The iLO 2 MP Reset button enables you to reset the iLO 2 MP and reset the user-specific values to factory default values. A momentary press causes a soft reset of the iLO 2 MP when the button is released. A greater than four second press causes a soft reset of the iLO 2 MP upon release and resets local user accounts and passwords to factory default values.

This is found in the following document:

HP Integrity iLO 2 MP Operations Guide

HPONCFG utility

If I remember right, the utility gets installed along with the driver from the latest Smart Start CD.  If not, I ran across this post on the HP forums, which may or may not work, since HP changes their website a lot:

To download this utility, perform these steps:
1) http://www.hp.com/servers/lights-out
2) select iLO Standard or iLO Advanced
3) select Software and Drivers
4) pick your product and OS
5) select HP Lights-Out Online Configuration Utility

Scripts with HPONCFG

Here are some sample scripts for adding licensing, users, IP address configuration, etc with HPONCFG:

HP Integrated Lights-Out Management Processor Scripting and Command Line Resource Guide

Basic iLO functions

Basic functions include performing a hard reset, momentary power switch press, 4 sec power switch press, etc.  It also includes any hardware logs, such as fan failures, server shut downs, etc, as well as server status.  What I find quite useful is the Integrated Management Log as well as the Server and iLO Diagnostics.

Among the basic functions is Virtual Power.  As mentioned above you can:

• Momentary Press
• Press and Hold
• Cold boot of system
• Reset system

Advanced iLO functions

Advanced features have to be enabled by licensing iLO.  The thing is, you can get away with using one Advanced iLO key across all of your HP servers of similar models.  For instance an Advanced iLO key for a DL380 G4 will not work with the DL160, because the DL160 uses a different version of iLO, known as LO100i vs. the standard iLO 2 interface.  Earlier version of HP servers may also be using iLO (the first version) compared, or RILOE.  I’m not sure how compatible keys are, but again, you can get away with one key on all similar model types.

The advanced features is where iLO really shines.  It gives you remote console capabilities that allow you to work with the server through your browser at the BIOS level.  You can imagine what kind of power this gives you with a server.  Upgrading firmware, troubleshooting issues that can only be seen at the BIOS level, etc.

In addition to remote console, virtual media kicks ass.  Virtual media allows you to mount a CD from your local file system to the remote server.  Also, it allows you to mount ISO image files as well, which is particularly useful.  When you’re working with remote servers in a datacenter, for instance, using ISO files on the remote end’s local network is the way to go, rather than pushing a virtual image from your network to the remote network, if you follow.

More to come

I’ll keep this article updated as I have time, there is a lot more to iLO than the points I made above, such as certificate management and SSH key authorization.