Managing chassis

About this task

XClarity Administrator can automatically discover chassis in your environment by probing for manageable systems that are on the same IP subnet as XClarity Administrator. To discover chassis that are in other subnets, specify an IP address or range of IP addresses, or import information from a spreadsheet.

After the chassis are managed by XClarity Administrator, XClarity Administrator polls each managed chassis periodically to collect information, such as inventory, vital product data, and status. You can view and monitor each managed chassis and perform management action (such as configuring system information, network setting, and failover). For chassis that are in protected mode, management actions are disabled.

Chassis are managed using XClarity Administrator managed authentication.

A device can be managed by only one XClarity Administrator instance at a time. Management by multiple XClarity Administrator instances is not supported. If a device is managed by one XClarity Administrator, and you want to manage it with another XClarity Administrator, you must first unmanage the device on the initial XClarity Administrator, and then manage it with the new XClarity Administrator. If an error occurs during the unmanagement process, you can select the Force management option during management on the new XClarity Administrator.

Procedure

Complete one of the following procedures to discover and manage your chassis using XClarity Administrator.

• Discover and manage a large number of chassis and other devices using a bulk-import file (see Managing devices).

• Discover and manage chassis that are on the same IP subnet as XClarity Administrator.

  1. From the XClarity Administrator menu bar, click Hardware > Discover and Manage New Devices. The Discover and Manage New Devices page is displayed.

     
     
     

     You can sort the table columns to make it easier to find the chassis that you want to manage. In addition, you can enter text (such as a system name or IP address) in the Filter field to further filter the chassis that are displayed. You can change the columns that are displayed and the default sort order by clicking the Customize Columns icon ().

  2. Click the Refresh icon () to discover all manageable devices in the XClarity Administrator domain. Discovery might take several minutes.

  3. Click the Enable encapsulation on all future managed devices checkbox to change the firewall rules on all devices during the management process so that incoming requests are accepted from only XClarity Administrator.

     Encapsulation can be enabled or disabled on specific devices after they are managed.

     Attention

     If encapsulation is enabled and XClarity Administrator becomes unavailable before a device is unmanaged, necessary steps must be taken to disable encapsulation to establish communication with the device. For recovery procedures, see Recovering chassis management with a CMM after a management server failure and Recovering rack or tower server management after a management server failure.

  4. Select one or more chassis that you want to manage.

  5. Click Manage Selected.

  6. Choose to use XClarity Administrator managed authentication or local authentication for this device. Managed authentication is selected by default. To use local authentication, clear Managed Authentication.

     Note

     Managed and local authentication are not supported for ThinkServer and System x M4 servers.

  7. Choose the type of credentials to use for the device and specify the appropriate credentials:

     • Use manually entered credentials

       • Specify the local user ID and password with lxc-supervisor authority for authenticating to the CMM.

       • (Optional) Specify a new password for the CMM user account if the password is currently expired on the device.

     • Use stored credentials

       Select the stored credential with lxc-supervisor authority to use for this managed device. You can add stored credentials by clicking Manage Stored Credentials.

       Note

       If you choose to use local authentication, you must select a stored credential to manage the device.
     Tip

     It is recommended to use a supervisor or administrator account to manage the device. If an account with lower level authority is used, management might fail, or management might succeed but other future XClarity Administrator operations on the device might fail (particularly if the device is managed without managed authentication).

     For more information about normal and stored credentials, see Managing user accounts and Managing stored credentials.

  8. Specify the recovery password if managed authentication is selected.

     A recovery account (RECOVERY_ID) is created on the CMM, and all local user accounts are disabled. If there is a problem with XClarity Administrator, and it stops working for some reason, you cannot log in to the CMM using normal user accounts. However, you can log in using the RECOVERY_ID account.

     Note:

     • The recovery password is required if you choose to use managed authentication and is not allowed if you if you choose to use local authentication.

     • You can choose to use a local recovery account or stored recovery credentials. In either case, the user name is always RECOVERY_ID.

     • Ensure that the password follows the security and password policies for the device. Security and password policies might vary.

     • Ensure that you record the recovery password for future use.

     For more information about the recovery ID, see Managing the authentication server.

  9. Click Change to change the role groups that are to be assigned to the devices.

     Note

     • You can select from a list of role groups that are assigned to the current user.

     • If you do not change the role groups, the default role groups are used. For more information about the default role groups, see Changing the default permissions.

  10. Click Manage.

      A dialog is displayed that shows the progress of this management process. To ensure that the process completes successfully, monitor the progress.

      When the process is complete, the dialog displays the number of devices in the chassis and the chassis status.

      Note

      Some inventory data is collected after the management process completes. The chassis is in the Pending status until all inventory data is collected. You cannot perform certain tasks on a managed device (such as deploying a server pattern) until all inventory data is collected for that device and the chassis is no longer in the Pending state.

  11. When the process is complete, click OK.

      The device is now managed by XClarity Administrator, which automatically polls the managed device on a regular schedule to collect updated information, such as inventory.

      If management was not successful due to one of the following error conditions, repeat this procedure using the Force management option.

      • If the managing XClarity Administrator failed and cannot be recovered.

        Note

        If the replacement XClarity Administrator instance uses the same IP address as the failed XClarity Administrator, you can manage the device again using the RECOVERY_ID account and password (if applicable) and the Force management option.

      • If the managing XClarity Administrator was taken down before the devices were unmanaged.

      • If the devices were not unmanaged successfully.

      Attention

      Devices can be managed by only one XClarity Administrator instance at a time. Management by multiple XClarity Administrator instances is not supported. If a device is managed by one XClarity Administrator, and you want to manage it with another XClarity Administrator, you must first unmanage the device from the original XClarity Administrator, and then manage it with the new XClarity Administrator.

  12. If this is a new chassis, click Continue to Chassis Configuration to validate and change management network settings for the entire chassis (including compute nodes and Flex switches) and to configure the compute node information, local storage, I/O adapters, boot targets, and firmware settings by creating and deploying server patterns. For more information, see Modifying the management-IP settings for a chassis and Configuring servers using configuration patterns.

• Discover and manage chassis that are not on the same IP subnet as XClarity Administrator by manually specifying IP addresses.

  1. From the XClarity Administrator menu bar, click Hardware > Discover and Manage New Devices. The Discover and Manage page is displayed.

  2. Click the Enable encapsulation on all future managed devices checkbox to change the firewall rules on all devices during the management process so that incoming requests are accepted from only XClarity Administrator.

     Encapsulation can be enabled or disabled on specific devices after they are managed.

     Attention

     If encapsulation is enabled and XClarity Administrator becomes unavailable before a device is unmanaged, necessary steps must be taken to disable encapsulation to establish communication with the device. For recovery procedures, see Recovering chassis management with a CMM after a management server failure and Recovering rack or tower server management after a management server failure.

  3. Select Manual Input.

  4. Specify the network addresses of the chassis that you want to manage:

     • Click Single System, and enter a single IP address domain name, or fully-qualified domain name (FQDN).
       Network Access

       To specify an FQDN, ensure that a valid domain name is specified on page (see Configuring network access).
     • Click Multiple Systems, and enter a range of IP addresses. To add another range, click the Add icon (). To remove a range, click the Remove icon ().

  5. Click OK.

  6. Choose to use XClarity Administrator managed authentication or local authentication for this device. Managed authentication is selected by default. To use local authentication, clear Managed Authentication.

     Note

     Managed and local authentication are not supported for ThinkServer and System x M4 servers.

  7. Choose the type of credentials to use for the device and specify the appropriate credentials:

     • Use manually entered credentials

       • Specify the local user ID and password with lxc-supervisor authority for authenticating to the CMM.

       • (Optional) Specify a new password for the CMM user account if the password is currently expired on the device.

     • Use stored credentials

       Select the stored credential with lxc-supervisor authority to use for this managed device. You can add stored credentials by clicking Manage Stored Credentials.

       Note

       If you choose to use local authentication, you must select a stored credential to manage the device.
     Tip

     It is recommended to use a supervisor or administrator account to manage the device. If an account with lower level authority is used, management might fail, or management might succeed but other future XClarity Administrator operations on the device might fail (particularly if the device is managed without managed authentication).

     For more information about normal and stored credentials, see Managing user accounts and Managing stored credentials.

  8. Specify the recovery password if managed authentication is selected.

     A recovery account (RECOVERY_ID) is created on the CMM, and all local user accounts are disabled. If there is a problem with XClarity Administrator, and it stops working for some reason, you cannot log in to the CMM using normal user accounts. However, you can log in using the RECOVERY_ID account.

     Note:

     • The recovery password is required if you choose to use managed authentication and is not allowed if you if you choose to use local authentication.

     • You can choose to use a local recovery account or stored recovery credentials. In either case, the user name is always RECOVERY_ID.

     • Ensure that the password follows the security and password policies for the device. Security and password policies might vary.

     • Ensure that you record the recovery password for future use.

     For more information about the recovery ID, see Managing the authentication server.

  9. Click Change to change the role groups that are to be assigned to the devices.

     Note

     • You can select from a list of role groups that are assigned to the current user.

     • If you do not change the role groups, the default role groups are used. For more information about the default role groups, see Changing the default permissions.

  10. Click Manage.

      A dialog is displayed that shows the progress of this management process. Monitor the progress to ensure that the process completes successfully.

      When the process is complete, the dialog is displayed the number of devices in the chassis and the chassis status.

      Note

      Some inventory data is collected after the management process completes. The chassis is in the Pending status until all inventory data is collected. You cannot perform certain tasks on a managed device (such as deploying a server pattern) until all inventory data is collected for that device and the chassis is no longer in the Pending state.

  11. When the process is complete, click OK.

      The device is now managed by XClarity Administrator, which automatically polls the managed device on a regular schedule to collect updated information, such as inventory.

      If management was not successful due to one of the following error conditions, repeat this procedure using the Force management option.

      • If the managing XClarity Administrator failed and cannot be recovered.

        Note

        If the replacement XClarity Administrator instance uses the same IP address as the failed XClarity Administrator, you can manage the device again using the RECOVERY_ID account and password (if applicable) and the Force management option.

      • If the managing XClarity Administrator was taken down before the devices were unmanaged.

      • If the devices were not unmanaged successfully.

      Attention

      Devices can be managed by only one XClarity Administrator instance at a time. Management by multiple XClarity Administrator instances is not supported. If a device is managed by one XClarity Administrator, and you want to manage it with another XClarity Administrator, you must first unmanage the device from the original XClarity Administrator, and then manage it with the new XClarity Administrator.

  12. If this is a new chassis, click Continue to Chassis Configuration to validate and change management network settings for the entire chassis (including compute nodes and Flex switches) and to configure the compute node information, local storage, I/O adapters, boot targets, and firmware settings by creating and deploying server patterns. For more information, see Modifying the management-IP settings for a chassis and Configuring servers using configuration patterns.