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IBM BladeCenter Deployment Guide
Installation and Configuration
2 Preparatory Steps
The BladeCenter Chassis components should be prepared by updating the firmware and assigning the
appropriate IP addresses to the management and switch modules. The IP addresses of the various
modules as well as the userids and passwords for each will be needed during the installation. A sample
worksheet can be found in
1.Appendix A.
The operating systems that are supported in BladeCenter boot from SAN configurations are Linux
RedHat Advanced Server 2.1, 3.0 and 4.0; Microsoft Windows 2000 (W2K) Advanced Server, Microsoft
Windows 2000 Server, Microsoft Windows 2003 (WS03) Enterprise Edition, Web Edition and Server.
Note: Since the storage subsystem provides multiple paths to the server, multiple views
of the same logical disk will be presented. Multipathing software controls these multiple
views by interposing between the operating system and the hardware. Since the
multipathing software is not available for the initial boot, only one path may be presented
to the server for the initial boot. This process is described in detail later in this document.
2.1 Network Configuration
The two switch modules provide redundant paths to each of the server blades for reaching other server
blades within the same chassis or for communication to external devices via the network infrastructure.
(
Figure 2 BladeCenter internal network) The Ethernet switch modules can be managed via telnet or a
Web interface. Both the Web and telnet interfaces can be started by accessing the switch directly or
starting a session from the management module’s Web interface.
Note: The external ports on the switch must be enabled, and enabled for management as well, to
manage the switch directly without going through the management module. Because the management
interface is on VLAN 4095 and cannot be moved, a separate interface from the management interface
must be created with an IP address valid on the production network to manage the switch directly.
Figure 2 BladeCenter internal network
8 http://w3-03.ibm.com/support/techdocs/atsmastr.nsf/WebIndex/WP100564
The BladeCenter Deployment Guide is intended as a personal productivity tool. It is not intended to be comprehensive and is provided for
guidance only, on an 'as is basis' without warranty of any kind. Please be aware that its contents have not been certified by IBM.
© 2006 IBM Version 3.0, 3/10/2006