Utilizing SoL logging for Serial Redirect on UCS

Introduction

The purpose of this document is to describe how to configure Unified Communication System (UCS) to log a server's console to the Serial over Lan (SoL) functionality from a blade on the UCS B Infrastructure.

Configure SoL Policy 

First you will need to create a SoL Policy to turn on the SoL functionality.

Log into UCS Manager, select Servers > Policies > Serial Over LAN Policies.

Click the [+] / New icon.

In the popup window, provide a NAME, DESCRIPTION, SPEED, and select ENABLE.

Click OK.

Configure IPMI Policy 

Next you will create an Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) Access Profile which creates a user account used  to log into the SoL session.

In UCS Manager, select Servers > Policies > IPMI Access Policies.

Click the [+] / New icon.

In the popup window, provide a NAME, PASSWORD, and specify the ROLE.

Click OK.

Configure BIOS Policy

Now we are going to make a Basic Input Output System (BIOS) policy to turn on the required settings in the BIOS.

Log into UCS Manager, select Servers > Policies > BIOS Policies.

Click the [+] / New icon.

In the popup window, provide a NAME and DESCRIPTION

On the 'Serial Port' page, select ENABLED

On the 'Server Management' page, configure the Console Redirection.

Point it to a Serial Port

Specify the BAUD RATE and TERMINAL TYPE

Click OK

Assigning the SoL, IPMI, and BIOS Policies

Apply the SoL, IPMI and BIOS changes to the Service Profile you are working with.  Note that if the SP is bound to a template, you may have to potentially unbind it, then re-associate.

Select the SERVERS tab, select your SERVICE PROFILE, then click POLICIES tab.

You will see the policies you just created now available under Policies on the Service Profile.  BIOS and IPMI is a quick drop down and choose.

For the SoL Policy, you have to pick the Actions link on the left side of the Policies tab.

Then you will be prompted with the following box to choose the Policy.

This will then show up as shown below:

Testing SoL

Now you are ready to use this feature.  Get the IP address of the KVM.  On 2.2(1c), you can click the double right arrow to see the IP address.  You can also see the IP from the Management IP Address from the General tab on your service profile OR under the CIMC tab under Inventory from the blade equipment.

Here you can see that by SSH'ing into the KVM IP on standard port 22, you will now get the output from the blade via the onboard serial port tunneling over LAN.

Use Case

VMware is not booting all the way up.  You go to alt-F12 to see what the kernel is logging.  However, you find the logs are truncated to the right side of the screen. 

To get the full logs during the boot, you can do the above steps and then follow the VMware documentation Enabling serial-line logging for ESX and ESXi 4.1 (1030667) to redirect the logging to the serial port. 

 - Note that Serial Port 1 in vmware will map to our Serial Port A.

For ESXi 5.x, refer to this KB:

Enabling serial-line logging for ESXi 5.x