Lenovo XClarity Administrator Quick Start Guide Setting up Lenovo XClarity Administrator in a KVM

94 Pages·2017·8 MB·English

Lenovo XClarity Administrator
Quick Start Guide
Setting up Lenovo XClarity Administrator in a
KVM-based environment
Version 2.0.0
Note
Before using this information and the product it supports, read the general and legal notices in the Lenovo
XClarity Administrator online documentation.
First Edition (March 2018)
© Copyright Lenovo 2016.
LIMITED AND RESTRICTED RIGHTS NOTICE: If data or software is delivered pursuant a General Services
Administration “GSA” contract, use, reproduction, or disclosure is subject to restrictions set forth in Contract No.
GS-35F-05925.
Contents
Figures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iii Chapter 4. Virtually separate data
and management network topology
Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v (KVM). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Step 1: Cable the chassis and rack servers to the
Chapter 1. Network considerations. . . 1
top-of-rack switches. . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
IP configuration limitations . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Step 2: Configure top-of-rack switches . . . . . 34
Network types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Step 3: Configure Chassis Management Modules
Network configurations. . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 (CMMs) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Single data and management network . . . . . 3 Step 4: Configure Flex switches . . . . . . . . 36
Physically separate data and management Step 5: Install and configure the host . . . . . . 38
network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Step 6. Install and configure the Lenovo XClarity
Virtually separate data and management Administrator virtual appliance . . . . . . . . . 39
network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Management-only network . . . . . . . . . 8 Chapter 5. Management-only
network topology (KVM). . . . . . . . 43
Chapter 2. Single data and
Step 1: Cable the chassis, rack servers, and
management network (KVM) . . . . . 11 Lenovo XClarity Administrator host to the top-of-
rack switches. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Step 1: Cable the chassis, rack servers, and
Lenovo XClarity Administrator host to the top-of- Step 2: Configure top-of-rack switches . . . . . 45
rack switches. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Step 3: Configure Chassis Management Modules
Step 2: Configure top-of-rack switches . . . . . 13 (CMMs) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Step 3: Configure Chassis Management Modules Step 4: Configure Flex switches . . . . . . . . 47
(CMMs) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Step 5: Install and configure the host . . . . . . 48
Step 4: Configure Flex switches . . . . . . . . 15 Step 6. Install and configure the Lenovo XClarity
Step 5: Install and configure the host . . . . . . 16 Administrator virtual appliance . . . . . . . . . 48
Step 6. Install and configure the Lenovo XClarity
Administrator virtual appliance . . . . . . . . . 17 Chapter 6. Implementing high
availability (KVM). . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Chapter 3. Physically separate data
and management networks (KVM) . . 21 Chapter 7. Accessing the Lenovo
Step 1: Cable the chassis, rack servers, and XClarity Administrator web
Lenovo XClarity Administrator host to the top-of- interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
rack switches. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Step 2: Configure top-of-rack switches . . . . . 23 Chapter 8. Configuring Lenovo
Step 3: Configure Chassis Management Modules XClarity Administrator for the first
(CMMs) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 time. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Step 4: Configure Flex switches . . . . . . . . 25
Creating user accounts. . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Step 5: Install and configure the host . . . . . . 26
Configuring network access . . . . . . . . . . 60
Step 6. Install and configure the Lenovo XClarity
Configuring the date and time . . . . . . . . . 65
Administrator virtual appliance . . . . . . . . . 26
Configuring service and support . . . . . . . . 66
Configuring security . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Managing systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
© Copyright Lenovo 2016 i
ii Lenovo XClarity Administrator Quick Start Guide Setting up Lenovo XClarity Administrator in a KVM-based environment
Figures
1. Example implementation of a single network for 9. Example cabling for a single data and
management, data, and operating system management network . . . . . . . . . . 13
deployment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 10. Flex switch locations in a chassis. . . . . . 16
2. Example implementation of physically 11. Sample Network topology - Physically
separate data and management networks with the separate data and management network
operating-system network as part of the data (KVM) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
network. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 12. Example cabling for physically separate data
3. Example implementation of physically and management networks (VMware
separate data and management networks with the ESXi). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
operating-system network as part of the 13. Flex switch locations in a chassis. . . . . . 26
management network . . . . . . . . . . . 6
14. Sample Network topology - Virtually separate
4. Example implementation of virtually separate data and management network (KVM). . . . 32
data and management networks with the 15. Example cabling for virtually separate data
operating-system network as part of the data and management networks . . . . . . . . 33
network. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
16. Example configuration for Flex switches on
5. Example implementation of virtually separate
virtually separate data and management networks
management and data networks with the
(KVM) in which VLAN tagging is enabled on the
operating-system network as part of the
management network . . . . . . . . . . 34
management network . . . . . . . . . . . 8
17. Example configuration for Flex switches on
6. Example implementation of a management- virtually separate data and management networks
only network with no support for operating-system (KVM) in which VLAN tagging is enabled on both
deployment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
7. Example implementation of a management-
18. Sample Network topology - Management-
only network with support for operating-system
only network (KVM) . . . . . . . . . . . 44
deployment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
19. Example cabling for a management-only
8. Sample single data and management network. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
network topology (VMware ESXi). . . . . . 12
20. Flex switch locations in a chassis. . . . . . 48
© Copyright Lenovo 2016 iii
iv Lenovo XClarity Administrator Quick Start Guide Setting up Lenovo XClarity Administrator in a KVM-based environment
Tables
3. Correlation between vNIC IDs and PCIe functions
on the servers . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
1. Role of Eth0 and Eth1 based on network 4. Role of Eth0 and Eth1 based on network
topology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 topology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
2. Correlation between vNIC IDs and PCIe
functions on the servers . . . . . . . . . 37
© Copyright Lenovo 2016 v
vi Lenovo XClarity Administrator Quick Start Guide Setting up Lenovo XClarity Administrator in a KVM-based environment
Chapter 1. Network considerations
When planning the Lenovo XClarity Administrator installation, consider the network topology that is
implemented in your environment and how Lenovo XClarity Administrator fits into that topology.
Important: Configure the servers and chassis components in ways that minimize IP address changes.
Consider using static IP addresses instead of Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP). If DHCP is used,
ensure that IP address changes are minimized.
IP configuration limitations
For the following functions and managed devices, network interfaces must be configured with an IPv4
address. IPv6 addresses are not supported.
• Firmware updates for Lenovo Storage devices
• ThinkServer servers
• Lenovo Storage and Nimble storage systems
Network address translation (NAT), which remaps one IP address space into another, is not supported.
Network types
In general, most environments implement the following types of networks. Based on your requirements, you
might implement only one of these networks or you might implement all three.
• Management network
The management network is typically reserved for communications between Lenovo XClarity
Administrator and the management processors for managed devices. For example, the management
network might be configured to include Lenovo XClarity Administrator, the CMMs for each managed
chassis, and the baseboard management controller of each server that Lenovo XClarity Administrator
manages.
• Data network
The data network is typically used for communications between the operating systems that are installed
on the servers and the company intranet, the Internet, or both.
• Operating-system deployment network
In some cases, an operating-system deployment network is set up to separate out the communications
that are required to deploy operating systems on servers. If implemented, this network typically includes
Lenovo XClarity Administrator and all server hosts.
Instead of implementing a separate operating-system deployment network, you might choose to combine
this functionality in either the management network or the data network.
Network configurations
Attention:
• Changing the Lenovo XClarity Administrator IP address after managing devices might cause the devices
to be placed in offline state in Lenovo XClarity Administrator. Ensure that all devices are unmanaged
before changing the IP address.
• You can enable or disable checking for duplicate IP addresses in the same subnet by clicking the
Duplicate IP address checking toggle. It is disabled by default.
© Copyright Lenovo 2016 1
When enabled, Lenovo XClarity Administrator raises an alert if you attempt to change the IP address of
Lenovo XClarity Administrator or manage a device that has the same IP address as another device that is
under management or another device found in the same subnet.
• If the network interface for the management network is configured to use the Dynamic Host Configuration
Protocol (DHCP), the management-interface IP address might change when the DHCP lease expires. If
the IP address changes, you must unmanage the chassis, rack and tower servers, and then manage them
again. To avoid this problem, either change the management interface to a static IP address, or ensure
that the DHCP server configuration is set so that the DHCP address is based on a MAC address or that
the DHCP lease does not expire.
Lenovo XClarity Administrator has two separate network interfaces (Eth0 and Eth1) that can be defined for
your environment, depending on the network topology that you implement.
• When only one network interface (Eth0) is present:
– The interface must be configured to support the discovery and management of hardware. It must be
able to communicate with the CMMs and Flex switches in each managed chassis, the baseboard
management controller in each managed server, and each RackSwitch switch.
– If you intend to acquire firmware updates using Lenovo XClarity Administrator, the Eth0 interface must
also have connectivity to the Internet, typically through a firewall. Otherwise, you must manually import
firmware updates into the firmware-updates repository.
– If you intend to deploy operating-system images to managed servers, the network interface must have
IP network connectivity to the server network interface that is used to access the host operating
system, and must be configured with an IPv4 address.
• When two network interfaces (Eth0 and Eth1) are present:
– The Eth0 interface must be connected to the management network and used to discover and manage
hardware. It must be able to communicate with the CMMs and Flex switches in each managed chassis,
the management controller in each managed server, and each RackSwitch switch.
Important: Do not connect Eth1 to the management network.
– If you intend to acquire firmware updates using Lenovo XClarity Administrator, the Eth0 interface must
also have connectivity to the Internet, typically through a firewall. Otherwise, you must import firmware
updates into the firmware-updates repository.
– The network interface that you chose to use to deploy operating-system images to the managed
servers must have IP-network connectivity to the server network interface that is used to access the
host operating system, and must be configured with an IPv4 address.
– If you implemented a separate network for deploying operating systems, you can configure Eth1 to
connect to that network instead of the data network. However, if the operating-system deployment
network does not have access to the data network, when you install the operating system on a
managed server, you must define an additional I/O interface on that server so that the server host has
access to the data network.
The following table shows possible configurations for the Lenovo XClarity Administrator network interfaces
based on the type of network topology that has been implemented in your environment. Use this table to
determine how to define Eth0 and Eth1.
2 Lenovo XClarity Administrator Quick Start Guide Setting up Lenovo XClarity Administrator in a KVM-based environment