Hardware requirements

All BladeCenter® components, except for the BladeCenter HS20 Type 8678 blade server, are SOL capable. All blade servers must be configured to enable SOL operation. Some of the older BladeCenter components require additional configuration to support SOL operation.

To use the SOL feature, the following hardware is required:

• An SOL-capable blade server.

  The BladeCenter HS20 Type 8678 blade server does not support SOL operation. You can use the console command to control a blade server through SOL only on blade server types that support SOL functionality that have the required firmware levels (see Table 1).

• An Ethernet I/O module installed in I/O-module bay 1. For systems using management channel auto discovery (MCAD), SOL can use I/O modules installed in other I/O-module bays (see the BladeCenter Advanced Management Module User's Guide for additional information about MCAD).

The following blade servers have specific requirements for SOL operation:

• For the BladeCenter HS20 Type 8832 and Type 8843 blade servers, and LS20 Type 8850 blade server:
  • SOL uses the first network interface, Ethernet 1 (eth1 or Planar Ethernet 1), of the blade server to communicate. When this network interface attempts to boot through PXE or DHCP, the network interface is reset, causing the current SOL session to be dropped and have a new status of Not Ready. If you require booting through PXE or DHCP, use the second network interface, Ethernet 2 (eth2 or Planar Ethernet 2), of the blade server and install an Ethernet I/O module in I/O-module bay 1.
  • For the BladeCenter HS20 Type 8832 blade server, jumper J28 must be installed in the correct position. See HS20 Type 8832 SOL jumper placement for information.
• For the BladeCenter JS20 Type 8842 blade server, SOL uses the first network interface, Ethernet 1 (eth1 or Planar Ethernet 1), of the blade server to communicate. When this network interface attempts to use BOOTP, the network interface is reset, causing the current SOL session to be dropped and have a new status of Not Ready. If you require BOOTP, use the second network interface, Ethernet 2 (eth2 or Planar Ethernet 2), of the blade server and install an Ethernet I/O module in I/O-module bay 1.