Owner's Manual

42 Installing and Setting Up the CMC
Setting Up Initial Access to the CMC
To manage CMC remotely, connect the CMC to your management network
and then configure the CMC network settings.
NOTE: To manage the M1000e solution, it must be connected to your management
network.
For information on how to configure the CMC network settings, see
"Configuring the CMC Network" on page 43. This initial configuration
assigns the TCP/IP networking parameters that enable access to the CMC.
The CMC and iDRAC on each server and the network management ports for
all switch I/O Modules are connected to a common internal network in the
M1000e chassis. This allows the management network to be isolated from the
server data network. It is important to separate this traffic for uninterrupted
access to chassis management.
The CMC is connected to the management network. All external access to
CMC and iDRACs is accomplished through the CMC. Access to the
managed servers, conversely, is accomplished through network connections
to I/O modules (IOMs). This allows the application network to be isolated
from the management network.
NOTE: It is recommended to isolate chassis management from the data network.
Dell cannot support or guarantee uptime of a chassis that is improperly integrated
into your environment. Due to the potential of traffic on the data network, the
management interfaces on the internal management network can be saturated by
traffic intended for servers.This results in CMC and iDRAC communication delays.
These delays may cause unpredictable chassis behavior, such as CMC displaying
iDRAC as offline even when it is up and running, which in turn causes other unwanted
behavior. If physically isolating the management network is impractical, the other
option is to separate CMC and iDRAC traffic to a separate VLAN. The CMC and
individual iDRAC network interfaces can be configured to use a VLAN with the
racadm setniccfg command. For more information, see the RACADM
Command Line Reference Guide for iDRAC6 and CMC.
If you have one chassis, connect the CMC and the standby CMC to the
management network. If you have a redundant CMC, use another network
cable and connect the GB CMC port to a second port of the management
network.