CIMC - configuration and management from OS side

[Tim Warner]

Is there anyway to manage the CIMC from the Operating system (as there is with HP ILO)?

[Robert Burns]

Not really.  The CIMC is meant to be completely out of band management.  The only access your host can have with the CIMC is via IPMI or XML.

Details on the XML scheme available on CDN -> http://developer.cisco.com/web/unifiedcomputing/c-series-cimc-xml-api

Regards,

Robert

[kedevara]

Hello Tim,

Hope the below given links will help you.

1) http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/unified_computing/ucs/c/sw/gui/config/guide/1.5/b_Cisco_UCS_C-series_GUI_Configuration_Guide.151_chapter_01.html,

2) http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/unified_computing/ucs/c/sw/gui/config/guide/1.0_1x/Cisco_UCS_C-Series_Servers_Integrated_Management_Controller_Configuration_Guide_1.0_1x_chapter1.html

Regards

keshav

[smcquerr · Accepted solution]

Tim,

Actually there is a tool (UCSCFG) that will allow you to configure some CIMC and BIOS paramaters from supported operating systems. 

See the following for more information regarding UCSCFG.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/unified_computing/ucs/c/sw/ucsconfig/install/b_ucscfg_utility.pdf

Steve McQuerry

UCS - Technical Marketing

[rferrentino]

That's great and all. Where would one download this mythical tool? It's impossible to find anything in the abyss of Cisco's website, where downloading anything as simple as a manual requires a password most of the time.

[RedNectar]

@rferrentino 

You are digging up a question that is over 7 years old. Might be time to ask a new one about what you actually want to achieve.

[rferrentino]

Why post something new, when there is an identical old post asking the same question?

What I'm trying to accomplish:

My CIMC appears to not be working (appears to be hung / non-responsive / does not load page / does not reply to ping).

This is a production server, and I do not have physical access.

I can access the host OS (Windows), and I can run software fine on that host OS.

I'm looking for a tool that can be used to admin the CIMC, for example, restart the CIMC module perhaps (or maybe if I wanted to change the IP of the CIMC, etc).

The server is a UCS C240 M4

Most of the documentation suggests downloading ISOs, extracting some files, etc... But finding the correct ISO has been difficult to find on Cisco's site.

[RedNectar]

Hi @rferrentino ,

For the record:

Why post something new, when there is an identical old post asking the same question?

Because this question was marked as answered 7 years ago. This means one of two things.

1. The answer marked as the solution didn't work for you, which could be because the answer is outdated and no longer relavant, or was wrongly marked as answered when it wan't really answered.
2. You have a slightly different problem.

Either way, asking a new question allows YOUR solution (shoud you find one - even if YOU find it in the end yourself) to be marked as correct.  This helps future users who may have a problem that more closely resembles your problem/solution than the original.  There's no way your correct answer can be pushed to the top of the list for this item!

[Sergiu.Daniluk]

As is always fun to say it: "this product is only effective if you read the instructions thoroughly".

Jokes aside, it's written in the documentation (the link above), section "using the utility", page 5:

a) Access the Download Software page at https://software.cisco.com/download/home  (extra help here - I changed the URL to the current one)
b) Unified Computing and Servers > Cisco UCS C-Series Rack-Mount UCS-Managed Server Software >
Unified Computing System (UCS) Utilities.
c) Select the operating system, and download the ISO image.
The Cisco UCS Configuration Utility is available as a zip file and a tar file.
d) Extract the contents of the zipped file or the tar file.
All files within the downloaded file are required for the utility to work. So do not delete or move the files that are
extracted from the zip or tar file.
e) Run the utility from the directory it resides in.
Use the ucscfgx64 files for 64-bit operating systems, and ucscfgx86 files for 32-bit operating systems.
When you run the utility on Linux operating systems, it first determines if the IPMI service is running. If the service
is not running, the utility starts the IPMI service.

Stay safe,

Sergiu

[rferrentino]

Long story short, I was downloading the wrong ISO.

I was downloading the "Unified Computing System (UCS) Server Configuration Utility" ISO

When what I needed was the "Unified Computing System (UCS) Utilities"

For reference, for my server (UCS C240 M4) the download location is here:

https://software.cisco.com/download/home/286281356/type/283850975/os/Windows/release/3.1(3)

That link would have saved me a lot of time :).