IBM Director

The IBM Director program is IBM's systems management product. Through the remote connection on the advanced management module, you can use IBM Director on a management console to configure the BladeCenter S system, modify the configuration, and set up more advanced features.

To communicate with the BladeCenter S system, the IBM Director software needs a managed object (in the Group Contents pane of the IBM Director Management Console main window) that represents the BladeCenter S system. If the advanced management module IP address is known, the network administrator can create an IBM Director managed object for the BladeCenter S system. If the IP address is not known, the IBM Director software can automatically discover the BladeCenter S system (out-of-band, using the Ethernet port on the management module) and create a managed object for the system.

For the IBM Director software to discover the BladeCenter S system, your network must initially provide connectivity from the IBM Director server to the advanced management module Ethernet port. To establish connectivity, the advanced management module attempts to use DHCP to acquire its initial IP address for the Ethernet port. If the DHCP request fails, the advanced management module uses a static IP address. Therefore, the DHCP server (if used) must be on the management LAN for the BladeCenter S system.

Through the advanced management module, you can assign a new static IP address for each BladeCenter S system. If DHCP is not used and you do not assign a new static IP address for each BladeCenter S system before attempting to communicate with the IBM Director software, only one BladeCenter S system at a time can be added onto the network for discovery. Adding multiple systems to the network without a unique IP address assignment for each BladeCenter S system results in IP address conflicts.

The IBM Director management server must have IP connectivity to the advanced management module and to the blade servers (if an IBM Director agent is installed on the blade servers).

IBM® Director has the capability to use the zone configurations that you create with Storage Configuration Manager. You can use Storage Configuration Manager to create an initial zone configuration for a BladeCenter S system and use IBM Director to distribute the configuration to other BladeCenter S systems.

For information about IBM Director, refer to the IBM Director Web site. Also see the Implementing IBM Director 5.20 redbook for more information about using Director with BladeCenter products.