Technical data

Chapter 3
Diagnostics
Using ipmitool to Request Diagnostic Boot
190
Using ipmitool to Request Diagnostic Boot
For accessing the HP bc2100 ATCA Server Blade diagnostic Service OS, it is possible to override the default
boot options and boot device priority (configured in the BIOS setup), and instead invoke a diagnostic boot
sequence using an IPMI command to set the system boot options. For example, if the Server Blade generally
boots from its local hard disk, an IPMI command can be sent to the blade to direct the blade to perform a PXE
boot instead on its next boot. This is a one-time only boot option, so subsequent boots will once again be based
on the boot device priority in the BIOS.
The IPMI command functionality is described in the IPMI 1.5 Specification in the section on “Remote Access
Boot Control” (“Set System Boot Options” command). A summary of the command bytes is shown below
ipmitool is a command line utility program that is used to send ipmi commands either locally (if ipmitool is
running on the Server Blade’s Linux OS) or via IPMI-over-LAN if run from a remote system manager.
For more information on ipmitool please see: http://ipmitool.sourceforge.net
Example 1: Sending a local raw data request to PXE boot on next boot
ipmitool raw 0x00 0x08 0x05 0x80 0x04 0x00 0x00 0x00
Where, as shown in the table above:
Table 3-24 ipmitool Command Bytes
Command
Net
Function
Cmd
Code
Request Data
Set System
Boot Options
Chassis
(00h)
08h • Byte 1 = 0x5 - Parameter Selector as ‘boot flags’
•Byte 2
[7] = 1b - boot flags valid
[6] = 0b - options apply to next boot only
[5] = 0b - BIOS boot type (for BIOS variants that support
both legacy and EFI boots)
•Byte 3
[7] = 0b
[6] = 0b
[5:2] = Boot device selector
- 0001b = Force PXE
- 0010b = Force boot from default hard drive
- 0101b = Force boot from default CD/DVD
•Byte4 = 0b
•Byte5 = 0b
•Byte6 = 0b