In this course, you will learn about day-to-day BladeCenter S unit management. You will compare the available management interfaces, evaluate which management interfaces might work best for your environment, and discover the basic procedures for updating firmware, updating hardware, and performing problem determination.
Let’s begin by comparing the available management interfaces. Advanced Management Module, Storage Configuration Manager and IBM Director are day-to-day management tools that fulfill specific needs for managing the BladeCenter S unit.
Advanced Management module is a single entry point for consolidated status and point of control for all hardware contained in the BladeCenter S unit.
You can easily connect to the Advanced Management Module through an Ethernet connection or serial-port connection.
The browser-based interface is designed to help you manage your Advanced Management Module hardware in your chassis. After you log in, the System Status Summary is displayed. On this panel, view the health of your BladeCenter S hardware components including your blade servers, I/O modules, storage modules, management module, power modules, chassis cooling devices, and the media tray.
In addition, you can manage many chassis-level BladeCenter S unit functions including power cycling, remote control, event notification, and security configurations.
However, to update switch firmware you must use the native switch console provided by the switch manufacturer.
For your storage configuration needs, you can use the Advanced Management Module to apply predefined storage configurations. However, if your company needs a customized storage configuration, use Storage Configuration Manager.
Next, lets look at Storage Configuration Manager. This application provides a user-friendly GUI for BladeCenter S storage. The interface provides the same eight predefined storage configurations as featured in the Advanced Management Module. However, you can use Storage Configuration Manager to define up to four customized configurations for your BladeCenter S integrated storage.
You can use Storage Configuration Manager for more than server and storage configurations. You can use Storage Configuration Manager to update firmware for the SAS connectivity modules, view audit logs, view the device log, view error counters, and collect support information for the SAS connectivity modules in your BladeCenter unit.
Finally, Storage Configuration Manager is versatile. It can be installed either stand-alone, or on a management workstation along with IBM Director to manage multiple BladeCenter S units. IBM Director can be used to monitor and manage your entire IT environment, in addition to your BladeCenter S units.
IBM Director uses profiles to predefine chassis configuration, including settings for switches, management modules, and operating system images to be installed on each new blade. Detect-and-deploy technology enables new or replacement hardware to be automatically configured based on your preconfigured policies, making BladeCenter deployment as simple as plugging in your new servers.
After IBM Director discovers your BladeCenter components, you can use it to group your BladeCenter S resources into meaningful categories that help you analyze the health of your systems. The same resources can be placed in more than one group. For example, one group could include blade servers that are running a specific operating system, and another group could include blade servers at a specific location. One or more of your blade servers could belong to both groups.
You can also use IBM Director to automate actions and applications, including those based on specific events. For example, you can set up one program to page the server administrator if a fan malfunctions, and another program to send a diagnostic analysis of what caused the fan failure.
Finally, IBM Director includes Update Manager. This feature automatically checks firmware levels for blade servers, updates blade servers, and can perform these actions for all the blade servers on the managed network. You can also set up IBM Director to apply a new profile automatically when a new device is inserted into a BladeCenter chassis or when a new BladeCenter chassis is discovered.
Updating device firmware is part of the ongoing management of your BladeCenter S unit. BladeCenter S components are shipped with the most recent available updates already applied. However, new firmware updates and critical fixes might become available at any time. Ideally, you should plan to update firmware for all your devices at initial installation and configuration. Afterwards, you can schedule periodic firmware updates to take place when will they will least affect user access.
You can use Storage Configuration Manager to update your SAS and storage module firmware. Click Update Firmware. Select your component from the displayed list. Click the link to check the IBM BladeCenter Support Web site for the latest available firmware updates. Locate and download the firmware and then use Storage Configuration Manager to install the files. Alternatively, you can use the software provided by the manufacturer of your devices and download the appropriate device firmware using that interface.
You might decide to install additional hardware after your initial purchase and configuration of your BladeCenter S unit. If you add a server, storage disk, or an Ethernet switch, there is no need to modify your Advanced Management Module configuration. The Advanced Management Module automatically detects the new server, disk, or network switch. IBM Director can also autom?tically detect newly installed BladeCenter S components.
However, if it has been a while since you initially installed and configured your BladeCenter S unit, you might need to update the firmware after you install your new components.
Finally, after installing new components, review your SAS zoning configurations using Storage Configuration Manager to ensure that they are still valid. If needed, reconfigure the SAS zoning configuration to take advantage of the newly installed servers, storage disks, or switches.
Now, learn about the procedures and resources available to assist you with problem determination. In this section, you will learn how IBM management tools can help you troubleshoot BladeCenter S unit issues. You will also be introduced to the IBM BladeCenter Web site and the IBM BladeCenter forum.
Let us begin with event notification. You can set up Advanced Management Module event notification so that events are reported through Advanced Management Module by e-mail or pager or to other higher-level management programs such as IBM Director.
Before setting up event notification, visit the IBM Systems information center and review the worksheet that lists available settings for event notifications. Then, plan which alerts you want to implement. To configure event notification, log into Advanced Management Module, click MM Control, and then click Alerts.
Based on your planning parameters for event notification, specify your remote alert recipients, global remote alert settings, and monitored alerts.
If you have received an alert or event notification, the Advanced Management Module event logs can help you perform problem determination and provide alerts for informational, warning, and critical events.
Another problem determination resource is your BladeCenter LED light-path display. This display panel alerts you to specific types of system problems. Your Advanced Management Module firmware can you help you diagnose issues with your BladeCenter unit.
Likewise, Storage Configuration Manager, either stand-alone or with IBM Director, provides a variety of information sources to help you with problem determination.
You can view the audit logs to see user-initiated actions.
The Storage Configuration Manager Error Counters complement the Advanced Management Module error log. You can use it to view disk port errors. You can also use Storage Configuration Manager to collect support data about SAS connectivity modules. Save the zipped file to disk. This support data might be requested by your IBM service representative. Remember where you saved this zipped file so that you can send it when requested.
In addition to your local resources, IBM provides extensive Web-based technical support. Also, the IBM BladeCenter forum provides a place to discuss technical IBM BladeCenter topics.