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New H3C Technologies iFIST User Manual

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H3C Servers
iFIST User Guide
New H3C Technologies Co., Ltd.
http://www.h3c.com
Software version: iFIST-1.01.15 or higher
Document version: 6W100-20191010

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Summary of Contents for New H3C Technologies iFIST

  • Page 1 H3C Servers iFIST User Guide New H3C Technologies Co., Ltd. http://www.h3c.com Software version: iFIST-1.01.15 or higher Document version: 6W100-20191010...
  • Page 2 No part of this manual may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written consent of New H3C Technologies Co., Ltd. Trademarks Except for the trademarks of New H3C Technologies Co., Ltd., any trademarks that may be mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners. Notice The information in this document is subject to change without notice.
  • Page 3 Preface This preface includes the following topics about the documentation: • Audience. • Conventions. • Documentation feedback. Audience This documentation is intended for: • Network planners. • Field technical support and servicing engineers. • Server administrators working with the G3 Server. Conventions The following information describes the conventions used in the documentation.
  • Page 4 Symbols Convention Description An alert that calls attention to important information that if not understood or followed WARNING! can result in personal injury. An alert that calls attention to important information that if not understood or followed CAUTION: can result in data loss, data corruption, or damage to hardware or software. An alert that calls attention to essential information.

  • Page 5: Documentation Feedback

    Documentation feedback You can e-mail your comments about product documentation to info@h3c.com. We appreciate your comments.

  • Page 6: Table Of Contents

      Preparing for an iFIST sign-in ···································································································· 3-1   Prerequisites for a direct iFIST sign-in··················································································· 3-1   Prerequisites for a iFIST sign-in through the HDM remote console ·············································· 3-2   Procedure ····························································································································· 3-2   iFIST Web interface ················································································································· 3-3 4 Using the OS installation wizard ····················································· 4-1  ...

  • Page 7: Ifist Overview

    H3C servers. You can access iFIST directly after the server startup and initialization are complete. No manual installation is required. iFIST enables you to perform a range of configuration and management tasks on the local server from a simple, unified Web interface, including: •...

  • Page 8: Applicable Scenarios

    When access to a remote HDM system is not available, you can use iFIST for in-band local server management. To use iFIST on a server, you must connect a monitor, a keyboard, and a mouse to the server. Applicable products This guide is applicable to the following products: •...

  • Page 9: Guidelines

    UN-. The webpage screenshots used in this document are for illustration only and might differ from your products. To obtain help information when you use iFIST, click the question mark icon at the upper right of the webpage.

  • Page 10: Signing In To Ifist

    The following information describes the prerequisites for a successful sign-in to iFIST. Prerequisites for a direct iFIST sign-in To sign in to iFIST on a server directly, you must connect a monitor, a mouse, and a keyboard to the server.

  • Page 11: Prerequisites For A Ifist Sign-In Through The Hdm Remote Console

    Figure 3-2 Connecting a monitor, a mouse, and a keyboard to a blade server Prerequisites for a iFIST sign-in through the HDM remote console Prepare the hardware environment for signing in to iFIST through HDM. For more information, see H3C Servers HDM User Guide . Procedure Launch the remote console from the HDM Web interface.

  • Page 12: Ifist Web Interface

    Figure 3-3 Launching iFIST from the POST screen (BIOS version 2.00.26) The Web interface of iFIST is displayed, as shown in Figure 3-4. Figure 3-4 Web interface of iFIST iFIST Web interface As shown in Figure 3-5, the iFIST Web interface contains the following areas:...
  • Page 13 • —Click the button to exit iFIST and reboot the server. Displays links to the functions provided by iFIST. To obtain help information when you use iFIST, click the question mark icon 2) Work pane at the upper right corner.

  • Page 14: Using The Os Installation Wizard

    Using the OS installation wizard Supported operating systems You can install the following types of operating systems through the iFIST OS installation wizard: • Red Hat Enterprise Linux. • SuSE Linux Enterprise Server. • CentOS. • Ubuntu Server. • VMware ESXi.

  • Page 15: Supported Storage Controllers

    Microsoft Windows Server 2016 Standard Microsoft Windows Server 2016 Datacenter Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2016 Microsoft Windows Server 2019 Standard Microsoft Windows Server 2019 Datacenter Supported storage controllers The iFIST OS installation wizard supports the following types of storage controllers: • HBA-1000-M2-1. • RAID-P430-M1. •...

  • Page 16: Prerequisites

    ISO image format. iFIST cannot recognize compressed driver installation packages. • If iFIST is accessed through the HDM remote console, you must mount both the OS image file and REPO image file to the HDM remote console. Figure 4-1 shows an example of mounting to the KVM remote console the OS image file and REPO image file stored on a virtual CD.

  • Page 17: Os Installation Workflow

    Figure 4-1 Mounting the OS image file and REPO image file OS installation workflow Figure 4-2 shows the workflow of using the OS installation wizard to install an operating system.

  • Page 18: Configuring Basic Settings

    Configuring basic settings The configuration parameters in this task vary by the storage controller used. Procedure On the iFIST home page, click OS Installation Wizard. The OS installation wizard displays the Configure basic settings page, as shown in Figure 4-3.
  • Page 19 The file must be stored on a USB flash drive formatted with the FAT32 or NTFS file system. If the Import config file configuration method is used, iFIST automatically creates the logical drives by using all the available capacities of the member drives on the server. The logical drive capacity settings in the configuration file are not imported.
  • Page 20 (physical CD or HDM virtual media) and USB flash drive. If you select USB flash drive, iFIST displays the paths of image files detected on the USB flash drive in a list next to this field. Select an image file from the list.

  • Page 21: Configuring Raid Arrays

    To install the CentOS, Ubuntu Server , or CAS operating system, make sure the image source is CD (physical CD or HDM virtual media). To install the VMware ESXi operating system, make sure the image file resides on a USB flash drive partition formatted with the FAT32 or NTFS file system.
  • Page 22 Figure 4-4 Create RAID array tab To create a RAID array: a. Select one or more physical drives. b. Click Create. The Create RAID Array window opens, as shown in Figure 4-5. For descriptions of the parameters on this window, see "Parameters." Figure 4-5 Create RAID Array window c.

  • Page 23: Managing Physical Drives

    Parameters • Name—Name of the RAID array. • RAID level—RAID level. • Capacity—This field is automatically populated with the maximum capacity of the RAID array, which cannot be modified. • Stripe size—Data block size written to each physical drive in the RAID array. The default is 256 •...
  • Page 24 Figure 4-7 Set Cache Mode window The Set cache mode option is available only when the following conditions are met: A PMC controller (except PMC HBA or UN-RAID-P460-M4 RAID controller) is used. On the Configure basic settings page, the Global write cache parameter is set to Drive specific.

  • Page 25: Managing Logical Drives

    Parameters on the Set Cache Mode window: • Cache mode—Select a cache mode. Options are: Disabled (write through)—New data is written to the cache and the physical drive at the same time. Writing data will experience latency as the data need to be written to two places. Enabled (write back)—New data is written only to the cache.
  • Page 26 Figure 4-10 Set Cache Mode window for a PMC RAID controller Click Next. Parameters • Name—Name of the logical drive. • RAID level—RAID level of the logical drive. • Status—State of the logical drive. • Capacity—Capacity of the logical drive. •...

  • Page 27: Configuring System Settings

    Write through/Disabled (write through)—Use the write-through policy. The controller writes data to the drive directly without first writing the data to the cache. It sends a write-request completion signal only after the data is written to the drive. This policy does not require that the RAID controller support power fail safeguard and does not entail data loss risks in the event of supercapacitor exceptions.
  • Page 28 Figure 4-12 Setting the parameters for installing a Windows operating system For a VMware ESXi operating system, set the hostname (optional), root password, and network settings, as shown in Figure 4-13. Figure 4-13 Setting the parameters for installing a VMware ESXi operating system 4-15...
  • Page 29 In the Target drive field, select the logical drive where you want to install the operating system. This parameter is required for all operating systems. Click Next. Parameters • Image type—Type of the OS image mounted to the server. Only Microsoft Windows and Linux are supported.

  • Page 30: Verifying The Configuration

    − The default gateway address and the IPv4 address specified in the IPv4 settings area must reside on the same network segment. − The IPv6 settings area is not available. For the VMware ESXi operating system: − The default gateway address and the IPv4 address specified in the IPv4 settings area must reside on the same network segment.

  • Page 31: Triggering Automated Operating System Installation

    The server might automatically restart multiple times during installation of a Windows operating system. Procedure After you click Next on the Verify configuration page, iFIST starts to prepare the server for the OS installation and displays the realtime progress, as shown in Figure 4-15.
  • Page 32 The server is automatically restarted after the OS installation is complete without manual intervention. Figure 4-15 Installing the operating system on the server 4-19...

  • Page 33: Diagnosing The Server Components

    Server Diagnostics supports diagnosing various components on a server, including the CPU, PSU, fan, HDM, memory, and PCIe devices. Performing fast diagnostics Configuring fast diagnostics settings On the iFIST home page, click Server Diagnostics. The Fast diagnostics tab page opens, as shown in Figure 5-1.

  • Page 34: Viewing The Diagnostic Status

    • Memory—Select this option to check the capacity, CPU number, channel, slot number, and maximum frequency of the memory chips on the server. • PCIe—Select this option to check name, slot number, component ID, transmission rate, and bandwidth of the PCIe devices installed on PCIe slots. Viewing the diagnostic status Restrictions and guidelines Do not power off the server while the diagnostic process is in progress.
  • Page 35 To clear the diagnostic log data, click Clear. To export the diagnostic log data to a USB flash drive, click Save. Figure 5-3 Viewing and exporting the diagnostic log data...

  • Page 36: Configuring Storage Controllers

    Configuring storage controllers iFIST automatically creates the storage controller configuration file by reading the storage controller configuration on the server. You can view the storage controller configuration file, but cannot modify or download the file. Storage Controller Configuration does not allow you to view or configure RAID settings on the storage controller.

  • Page 37: Viewing Detailed Information About A Storage Controller Configuration File

    Figure 6-1 Storage Controller Configuration page Viewing detailed information about a storage controller configuration file On the Storage Controller Configuration page, click View in the Operations column for the file whose detailed information you want to view. The storage controller configuration file details page opens. Figure 6-2 shows an example storage controller configuration file details page for storage controller HBA-1000-M2.

  • Page 38: Exporting The Current Storage Controller Configuration

    20. You can set values in the range of 0 to 255 for these parameters on the BIOS setup page, but iFIST supports only values in the range of 0 to 20 for them.

  • Page 39: Deleting Storage Controller Configuration Files

    The configuration file import results cannot survive a server reboot. Check the operation results as soon as possible after the import operation is complete. Figure 6-3 shows an example Operation Results page for a storage controller configuration file import operation. Figure 6-3 Operation Results page If one or more configuration items failed to be imported, click the corresponding link (Failure or Default) to view the failure reason.

  • Page 40: Updating Ifist

    Mount the storage media to the server. Make sure the server has only one bootable media mounted. If the server has multiple bootable media mounted, the server might fail to locate the correct boot media and upgrade of iFIST will fail as a result.
  • Page 41 Figure 7-2 Virtual Media window d. Click Browse next to a CD Image field to select the iFIST image file, and then click Open. e. Click Connect. Reboot the server. The POST screen opens upon completion of the server initialization, as shown in Figure 7-3.
  • Page 42 Figure 7-3 POST screen (BIOS version 2.00.26) Press ESC or DEL. The BIOS setup screen opens. Select the Sava & Exit menu, as shown in Figure 7-4.
  • Page 43 Figure 7-4 BIOS setup screen Select UEFI:AMI Virtual CDROM0 1.00 and press Enter. The upgrade options screen opens, as shown in Figure 7-5. Figure 7-5 Upgrade options screen Type 1 and press Enter. IMPORTANT: Do not remove the boot media during the upgrade process. If the boot media is removed before the upgrade completes, you must re-attach the boot media to the server, reboot the server, and restart the upgrade process.
  • Page 44 Figure 7-7 Removing the installation media at the system prompt Press Enter to reboot the server. 10. Launch iFIST. 11. On the Web interface of iFIST, and click in the upper right corner to check the iFIST version and verify that iFIST is upgraded successfully.

  • Page 45: Faq

    HDM is reset. How do I resolve the issue? As a best practice, do not reset HDM while you are using iFIST. If you did so, reboot the server and then restart iFIST. A logical drive is displayed with a garbled name in iFIST. How do I resolve the issue? Delete the logical drive with the garbled name, and then create a new logical drive as needed.

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