IPMI triggering a PXE install

To reinstall a machine that is managed by IPMI, you tell it to PXE boot and then power cycle. Here are my notes.

#env vars for IPMI scripts export IPMI_PASS=change-me! export IPMI_USER=ADMIN export IPMI_SYS=10.76.116.164

First, set up a separate terminal to watch the process. You want to do this first. I am going to reboot the machine with IP address 10.76.116.164, so modify this to suit your system.

. ~/.config/ipmi.sh
ipmitool -H $IPMI_SYS -U $IPMI_USER -I lanplus -P $IPMI_PASS  sol activate

In another terminal, check the power status:

$ . ~/.config/ipmi.sh
$ ipmitool -H $IPMI_SYS -U ADMIN -I lanplus -P $IPMI_PASS power status
Chassis Power is on

Tell the system via IPMI that The next it boots it should use PXE to provision:

ipmitool -H $IPMI_SYS -U ADMIN -I lanplus -P $IPMI_PASS chassis bootdev pxe
Set Boot Device to pxe

Power off the system.

ipmitool -H $IPMIipmitool -H $IPMI_SYS -U ADMIN -I lanplus -P $PASSWORD

You might be able to note a change in the SOL terminal. If there was an interactive session going on there prior (perhaps a login screen) you should now get no response.

Now power the system back on.

$ ipmitool -H $IPMI_SYS -U ADMIN -I lanplus -P $PASSWORD power on
Chassis Power Control: Up/On

Again, look for a changer in the console. My system shows:

DRAM Initialization: [ 60%] [ =============>       ]

And then it should kick into the PXE Menu, and you can continue the install.

2 thoughts on “IPMI triggering a PXE install

  1. I was hoping folks are really focusing on leaving IPMI behind and moving to Redfish

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