Managing Bare Metal Agent

This chapter contains the following sections:

Managing bmaadmin Access

From the Cisco UCS Director Bare Metal Agent release 6.9(2.0), root user access is disabled by default to prevent the use of root privileges for regular management operations. Instead, 'bmaadmin' user account is enabled by default to enhance security. Therefore, it is recommended to access the Cisco UCS Director Bare Metal Agent using the 'bmaadmin' account.

To provide administrative privileges, the following BMA Shell options are introduced:

  • Manage bmaadmin Access

  • Login as bmaadmin

Logging in as bmaadmin User


Note

As the 'root' user access is disabled and 'bmaadmin' user access is enabled by default, you must log in as bmaadmin user with bmaadmin as the password.

Procedure

Step 1

From the BMA Shell menu, choose Login as bmaadmin and press Enter.

The following information is displayed: 
Do you want to Login As bmaadmin [y/n]?

Step 2

Enter y and press Enter.

The following information is displayed:
Logging in as bmaadmin
Password:

Step 3

Enter the password and press Enter.

Note

 

The first time you enter the default password bmaadmin, you will be prompted to change the password in accordance with the password policy.

The BMA shell options are displayed.

Enabling bmaadmin Access

Procedure

Step 1

From the BMA Shell menu, choose the Manage bmaadmin Access option and press Enter.

The following information is displayed: 
Enable/Disable/Configure (bmaadmin privilege) [e/d/c]:

Step 2

Enter e and press Enter.

The following information is displayed: 
Do you want to Enable bmaadmin Access [y/n]?

Step 3

Enter y and press Enter.

The following information is displayed: 
Enabling bmaadmin access...
Unlocking password for user bmaadmin.
passwd: Success
bmaadmin access enabled successfully
Press return to continue ...

Step 4

Press Enter to complete the process.

Disabling bmaadmin Access


Note

As the 'root' user access is disabled and 'bmaadmin' user access is enabled by default to enhance security, it is not recommended to disable the bmaadmin access.

Procedure

Step 1

From the BMA Shell menu, choose the Manage bmaadmin Access option and press Enter.

The following information is displayed: 
Enable/Disable/Configure (bmaadmin privilege) [e/d/c]:

Step 2

Enter d and press Enter.

The following information is displayed: 
Warning: All active terminal sessions of the bmaadmin user will be terminated.
Do you want to Disable bmaadmin Access [y/n]?

Step 3

Enter y and press Enter.

The following information is displayed: 
Disabling bmaadmin access...
Locking password for user bmaadmin.
passwd: Success
bmaadmin access disabled successfully
All active bmaadmin sessions have been terminated.
Press return to continue ...

Step 4

Press Enter to complete the process.

Configuring bmaadmin Access

Procedure

Step 1

Log in to BMA CLI using an SSH client.

Step 2

From the BMA Shell menu, choose the Manage bmaadmin Access option and press Enter.

The following information is displayed: 
Enable/Disable/Configure (bmaadmin privilege) [e/d/c]:

Step 3

Enter c and press Enter.

The following information is displayed: 
Warning: If the bmaadmin user account is disabled, it will be enabled during the password reset process.
Do you want to Configure/Set bmaadmin Privilege/Password [y/n]?

Step 4

Enter y and press Enter.

The following information is displayed: 
Changing password for user bmadadmin.
New password:

Step 5

Enter the password and press Enter.

The following information is displayed:
Retype new password:

Step 6

Enter the password again for confirmation and press Enter.

The following information is displayed:
passwd: all authentication tokens updated successfully.
bmaadmin password changed successfully and bmaadmin account has been enabled.
Press return to continue...

Step 7

Press Enter to complete the process.

Configuring Password Policy

The Shell admin console allows you to configure a password policy for users such as shelladmin, bmaadmin, and root. This configuration enforces strong password requirements to ensure the security of the Cisco UCS Director Bare Metal Agent.

Procedure

Step 1

From the BMA Shell menu, choose Configure Password Policy and press Enter.

The password policy criteria is displayed.

Criteria

Minimum Range

Maximum Range

Default Value

Minimum Password Length

6

80

8

Minimum Character Classes

0

4

4

Minimum Lowercase Letters

–5

0

–1

Minimum Uppercase Letters

–5

0

–1

Minimum Digits

–5

0

–2

Minimum Special Characters

–5

0

–1

Minimum Unique Characters from Old Password

0

5

2

Maximum Sequential Identical Characters Allowed

0

5

3

Maximum Retry Attempts

0

5

5

Number of Old Passwords Remembered

0

15

10

Enforce Policy for root

Yes/No

Yes

Step 2

Press Enter to keep the default values or enter a new value within the given range and press Enter.

The following information is displayed:
Password policy updated successfully in /etc/security/pwquality.conf and /etc/security/pwhistory.conf
Press return to continue ...

Note

 

When a shelladmin, bmaadmin, or root user attempts to set a new password, the user must adhere to the configured password policy.

Password Management

The default password for Bare Metal Agent is 'bmaadmin'. When you log in to the Bare Metal Agent for the first time, you will be prompted to reset the default password according to the password policy. For more information, see Managing BMA Admin Access.

Changing the Default Bare Metal Agent Account

The first Bare Metal Agent account that you create is designated as the default account. This account is used by default in legacy workflows. To use a different account in the legacy workflows, you must designate that Bare Metal Agent account as the default.

Procedure

Step 1

Choose Administration > Physical Accounts.

Step 2

On the Physical Accounts page, click Bare Metal Agents.

Step 3

Click the row for the Bare Metal Agent account that you want designate as the default.

Step 4

Click Set Default BMA.

Starting and Stopping Bare Metal Agent Services

Procedure

Step 1

Choose Administration > Physical Accounts.

Step 2

On the Physical Accounts page, click Bare Metal Agents.

Step 3

Click the row for the Bare Metal Agent account whose services you want to start or stop.

Step 4

Click one of the following:

  • Start Services
  • Stop Services

Step 5

Click Service Status and check the status displayed in the Enabled Services column to ensure that services have started or stopped as desired.

If services do not start, check the status displayed in the Enabled Services column. If this status indicates that services are not enabled, verify the configuration of your DHCP server and try again.

Checking the Status of a Bare Metal Agent

Procedure

Step 1

Choose Administration > Physical Accounts.

Step 2

On the Physical Accounts page, click Bare Metal Agents.

Step 3

Click the row for the Bare Metal Agent account whose status you want to check.

Step 4

To see if services for the Bare Metal Agent account are Active or Inactive, check the Status column.

Step 5

To check the status of the services, click Service Status.

Step 6

To view the SSH-based test connection status, check the Reachable column.

Viewing the DHCP Configuration for a Bare Metal Agent Account

Procedure

Step 1

Choose Administration > Physical Accounts.

Step 2

On the Physical Accounts page, click Bare Metal Agents.

Step 3

Click the row for the Bare Metal Agent account for which you want to view the DHCP configuration.

Step 4

Click View DHCP Configuration.

You might need to click the Down arrow at the end of the button bar to access the View DHCP Configuration option.

The View DHCP Server Configuration window displays the contents of the DHCP server configuration file for the account.

Using External DHCP Server and Bare Metal Agent

The following figure shows the sample topology for OS deployment over PXE from Cisco UCS Director using an external DHCP server, Bare Metal Agent, and bare metal servers in different subnets.

The following figure shows the sample topology for OS deployment over PXE from Cisco UCS Director using an external DHCP server, Bare Metal Agent, and bare metal servers in the same subnet.

Configuring the DHCP Server on Linux OS

Procedure

Step 1

Disable the DHCP services on the BMA. Perform the following:

  1. Log on to the Bare Metal Agent VM using SSH client as 'shelladmin' user. See, Shelladmin Script for Bare Metal Agent.

  2. Choose the Disable DHCP Service option to stop the DHCP service.

    Note

     

    In future, if you want to use the DHCP service on the same BMA, you can choose the Enable DHCP Service option to start the DHCP service.

Step 2

Perform the following in the router:

  1. Enable routing between the BMA or the Bare Metal server subnet and the DHCP server subnet.

  2. Enable the DHCP functionality on the router.

  3. Configure DHCP relay agent such that the DHCP relay address points to the DHCP server IP address.

Step 3

Perform the following on the Linux server to configure the DHCP server:

  1. Copy the network details of the BMA or the Bare Metal server subnet to /etc/dhcpd.conf file.

  2. Configure the DHCP configuration file having the ‘next-server’ IP with the BMA PXE interface IP address.

    Note

     

    DHCP relay configuration is only needed when the DHCP server and the target bare metal servers on the different subnet.

  3. Configure the PXE binary.

    if substring (option vendor-class-identifier, 15,5) = "00000" {
filename "/ipxelinux.0";
}else{
filename "ipxe.efi";
}

The following is a sample of the DHCP configuration file on the Linux OS which is catering DHCP services to two subnets. You can customize the DHCP configuration based on your requirements.

#
# DHCP Server Configuration file.
#   see /usr/share/doc/dhcp*/dhcpd.conf.sample
#
ddns-update-style interim;
ignore client-updates;
subnet 192.168.4.0  netmask 255.255.255.0 {
         option routers                  192.168.4.1;
#        option subnet-mask              255.255.255.0;
#        option nis-domain               "domain.org";
#        option domain-name              "domain.org";
#        option domain-name-servers      192.168.55.1;
        option time-offset              -18000; # Eastern Standard Time
        range dynamic-bootp 192.168.4.100 192.168.4.200;
        default-lease-time 21600;
        max-lease-time 43200;
        allow booting;
        allow bootp;
        next-server 192.168.4.20; # IP of the BMA server
        if substring (option vendor-class-identifier, 15, 5) = "00000" {
                filename "/ipxelinux.0";
        }else{
                filename "/ipxe.efi";
        }
}



subnet 192.168.1.0  netmask 255.255.255.0 {
         option routers                  192.168.1.1;
#        option subnet-mask              255.255.255.0;
#        option nis-domain               "domain.org";
#        option domain-name              "domain.org";
#        option domain-name-servers      192.168.55.1;
        option time-offset              -18000; # Eastern Standard Time
        range dynamic-bootp 192.168.1.100 192.168.1.220;
        default-lease-time 21600;
        max-lease-time 43200;
        allow booting;
        allow bootp;
        next-server 192.168.1.60; # IP of my PXE server
        if substring (option vendor-class-identifier, 15, 5) = "00000" {
                filename "/ipxelinux.0";
        }else{
                filename "/ipxe.efi";
        }
}

Configuring the DHCP Server on Windows OS

Procedure

Step 1

Disable the DHCP services on the BMA. Perform the following:

  1. Log on to the Bare Metal Agent VM using SSH client as 'shelladmin' user. See, Shelladmin Script for Bare Metal Agent.

  2. Choose the Disable DHCP Service option to stop the DHCP service.

    Note

     

    In future, if you want to use the DHCP service on the same BMA, you can choose the Enable DHCP Service option to start the DHCP service.

Step 2

Perform the following in the router:

  1. Enable routing between the BMA or the Bare Metal server subnet and the DHCP server subnet.

  2. Enable the DHCP functionality on the router.

  3. Configure DHCP relay agent such that the DHCP relay address points to the DHCP server IP address.

    Note

     

    DHCP relay configuration is only needed when the DHCP server and the target bare metal servers on the different subnet.

Step 3

Perform the following on the Windows server to configure the DHCP server:

  1. Configure the firewall rules on the Windows server to allow the DHCP requests.

  2. Configure the DHCP scope options with the network details of the BMA or the Bare Metal server subnet.

  3. Choose the 066-Boot Server Host Name option and specify the BMA PXE interface IP address in the Data entry field.

  4. Choose the 067-Bootfile Name option and enter ipxelinux.0 in the Data entry field.

Viewing the DHCP Logs for a Bare Metal Agent Account

Procedure

Step 1

Choose Administration > Physical Accounts.

Step 2

On the Physical Accounts page, click Bare Metal Agents.

Step 3

Click the row for the Bare Metal Agent account for which you want to view the DHCP logs.

Step 4

Click the down arrow at the end of the button bar and choose View DHCP Logs.

The View Bare Metal Agent DHCP Log window displays the contents of the DHCP server logs for the account.

Viewing the Logs for a Bare Metal Agent Account

Procedure

Step 1

Choose Administration > Physical Accounts.

Step 2

On the Physical Accounts page, click Bare Metal Agents.

Step 3

Click the row for the Bare Metal Agent account for which you want to view the logs.

Step 4

Click the down arrow at the end of the button bar and choose View BMA Logs.

The View Bare Metal Agent Log window displays the logs for the account.

Viewing Operating System Images

You can view a list of the operating system (OS) images that have been created and are available for a Bare Metal Agent account.

Procedure

Step 1

Choose Administration > Physical Accounts.

Step 2

On the Physical Accounts page, click Bare Metal Agents.

Step 3

Click the row for the Bare Metal Agent account for which you want to view OS images.

Step 4

Click View Details.

Step 5

Click BMA OS List.

Viewing PXE Service Requests

You can view information about PXE requests made through a workflow that have an associated service request. You cannot view details of PXE requests that are not made through a workflow, as those requests are not associated with a service request.

The information provided about each PXE request includes the following:

  • Service request ID

  • Request type

  • User who initiated the request

  • Name of the catalog or workflow that was used to create the request

  • Any comments provided by the user who initiated the request

  • Time of the request

  • Status of the request

  • Rollback type, if applicable

Procedure

Step 1

Choose Administration > Physical Accounts.

Step 2

On the Physical Accounts page, click Bare Metal Agents.

Step 3

Click the row for the Bare Metal Agent account for which you want to view PXE service requests.

Step 4

Click View Details.

Step 5

Click PXE Service Requests.

Viewing the Network Interface Details for a Bare Metal Agent Account

Procedure

Step 1

Choose Administration > Physical Accounts.

Step 2

On the Physical Accounts page, click Bare Metal Agents.

Step 3

Click the row for the Bare Metal Agent account for which you want to view the network interface details.

Step 4

Click the down arrow at the end of the button bar and choose View Details.

Step 5

Click Network Interface Summary. The network interface details are displayed.

Shelladmin Script for Bare Metal Agent

Procedure

Step 1

Log in to the Bare Metal Agent VM using SSH client as 'shelladmin' user.

Example:

The following list of services appears: 


BMA | Version:6.8.0.0 | UpTime:  03:34:47 up 10 days,  2:38

0)  Quit
1)  Display Services Status
2)  Stop Services
3)  Start Services
4)  Display Samba Service
5)  Stop Samba Service
6)  Start Samba Service
7)  Change Samba Password
8)  Disable DHCP Service
9)  Enable DHCP Service
10) Time Sync
11) Ping Hostname/IP Address
12) Show Version
13) Configure Network Interface
14) Display Network Details
15) Add DNS Server
16) Tail Network Services Logs
17) Tail DHCP Logs
18) Change DHCP Configuration
19) Run IsoExtractor Script
20) Apply Patch
21) Apply Signed Patch
22) Shutdown Appliance
23) Reboot Appliance
24) Change Root Password
25) Change ShellAdmin Password
26) Login as Root
27) Show UCSD appliance host name
28) BMA Migration
29) Migration Status
30) Manage Root Access
31) Manage bmaadmin Access
32) Login as bmaadmin
33) Configure Password Policy

Step 2

Choose the required option and press Enter.

Bare Metal Agent Migration Using Shelladmin Script

Online Migration

Procedure

Step 1

Log on to the Bare Metal Agent VM using SSH client as shelladmin user.

The following list of services appears: 

Cisco UCS BareMetal Agent Shell Menu
BMA | Version:6.9.0.0 | UpTime:  10:17:03 up 33 min,  1 user

0)  Quit
1)  Display Services Status
2)  Stop Services
3)  Start Services
4)  Display Samba Service
5)  Stop Samba Service
6)  Start Samba Service
7)  Change Samba Password
8)  Disable DHCP Service
9)  Enable DHCP Service
10) Time Sync
11) Ping Hostname/IP Address
12) Show Version
13) Configure Network Interface
14) Display Network Details
15) Add DNS Server
16) Tail Network Services Logs
17) Tail DHCP Logs
18) Change DHCP Configuration
19) Run IsoExtractor Script
20) Apply Patch
21) Apply Signed Patch
22) Shutdown Appliance
23) Reboot Appliance
24) Change Root Password
25) Change ShellAdmin Password
26) Login as Root
27) Show UCSD appliance host name
28) BMA Migration
29) Migration Status
30) Manage Root Access
31) Manage bmaadmin Access
32) Login as bmaadmin
33) Configure Password Policy

Step 2

From the Bare Metal Agent Shell menu, choose the BMA Migration option and press Enter.

The following information displays: 
***********************************************************************************
*****************************    BMA migration     *********************************
***********************************************************************************

Current BMA Version : 6.9.0.0
Stopping BMA services , before Starting migration ..........
Enter existing Baremetal Agent Appliance Address   : 10.193.47.218

Step 3

Enter the existing address of the BMA appliance and press Enter.

The following information is displayed: 

Enter root password   of xxxxxx       :

Step 4

Enter the root password and press Enter.

The following information is displayed: 
Enter the root password and press Enter.
The following information is displayed:
Existing Baremetal Agent Appliance Address   : XX.XX.XX.XX

******************   STARTING BMA MIGRATION STEP (1/2)   **************************

Required disk space : 2638 MB
Available free disk space : 86650 MB
Stop BMA service for 10.193.47.218

******************   COMPLETED BMA MIGRATION STEP (1/2)  **************************
******************   STARTING BMA MIGRATION STEP (2/2)   **************************

Copying ipconfig files of Legacy BMA
Warning: Permanently added '10.193.47.218' (ED25519) to the list of known hosts.
Copying the version information from existing appliance...
Copying dhcpd.conf file from the existing BMA...
Copying provisioned image files from the existing BMA. This may take some time depending on the number of images provisioned d the network speed
Copying image templates from the existing BMA...
Copying osImagesRepository from the existing BMA...
Copying pxelinux configuration files from the existing BMA...
Copying bma-sw-rep folder and its softlinks  from existing BMA...
Copying image softlinks from existing BMA...
Copying windows  Win2k12R2x64 image...
Copying windows  Win2k12x64 image...
Copying windows  Win2k8R2x64 image...
Copying windows  Win2k16x64 image...
Copying windows  Win2k19x64 image...
Copying windows  Win2k22x64 image...
Copying as-repository folder...
Copying Boot folder for Windows PXE.
Copying web folder...
Validating Legacy hostname
Changing Hostname for BMA 10.193.47.219 from localhost.localdomain to localhost.localdomain
Changed Hostname Successfully
Hosts file updated successfully with localhost.localdomain

******************   COMPLETED BMA MIGRATION STEP (2/2)  **************************

Starting BMA services , after migration ..........
Completed the Baremetal Agent Migration process successfully.
Generated migration log file at /var/log/bmaMigrationLogs.txt
Migrated BMA successfully
Press return to continue:

Step 5

Press Enter to return to complete the process.

Offline Migration

Procedure

Step 1

Login to BMA 6.9.0.0 with root credentials.

Step 2

Navigate to the migration folder using the following command. 

cd /opt/infra/migration and execute ./performBMAMigration.sh offline copyMigrationScript
***********************************************************************************
*****************************    BMA migration     *******************************
***********************************************************************************
Current BMA Version : 6.9.0.0

Step 3

Specify the IP address and root password details of BMA 6.7.4.2 / 6.8.x.x appliance.

Enter Baremetal Agent 6.7.4.2/6.8.x.x appliance IP address : XX.XX.XX.XX
Enter root password for XX.XX.XX.XX :
Transfer AlmaLinux9 BMA migration script into a Remote mechine(XX.XX.XX.XX)
****************** STARTING BMA MIGRATION STEP (1/1) **************************

Move migration script files into XX.XX.XX.XX
file Moved successfully..
Transferred AlmaLinux9 BMA migration files successfully.

****************** COMPLETED BMA MIGRATION STEP (1/1) **************************
[root@localhost migration]#

Step 4

Login to BMA 6.7.4.2 / 6.8.x.x appliance with root credentials and execute the command below to backup the data.

[root@localhost migration]# ./performBMAMigration.sh offline backup
***********************************************************************************
*****************************    BMA migration     *******************************
***********************************************************************************
Current BMA Version : 6.8.8.0
Required disk space : 2638 MB
Available free disk space : 82719 MB
Services will be stopped before migration starts. Do you want to continue [y/n]? y

******************   STARTING BMA MIGRATION STEP (1/2)   **************************

Stopping services..........
Capturing Source BMA IP Details
Copying the version information from existing appliance...
Copying dhcpd.conf file from source appliance
Copying provisioned image files from the existing BMA. This may take some time depending on the number of images provisioned d the network speed
..
Copying image templates from the existing BMA...
Copying osImagesRepository from the existing BMA...
Copying pxelinux configuration files from the existing BMA...
Copying bma-sw-rep folder from the existing BMA...
Copying image softlinks from existing BMA...
Copying windows images...
Copying Boot folder for Windows PXE.
Copying web folder...
Skipping Bigdata specific migration as the existing BMA doesn't have Bigdata files.
generating tar files...
............................................................
Generated /opt/infra/migration/backup-bma/backup-bma.tar.gz file with the backup contents.

******************   COMPLETED BMA MIGRATION STEP (1/2)  **************************
******************   STARTING BMA MIGRATION STEP (2/2)   **************************

Do you want to copy BMA backup file to a remote location [y/n]? : y

Specify the Transfer mode [FTP/SFTP/SCP]: sftp

Specify the necessary login credentials

Server IP Address: 10.193.47.218
Server Login: root
Server Password:
Sub-directory (from Home directory) to store the file. Press enter to select the Home directory itself: /tmp
File is copied successfully

******************   COMPLETED BMA MIGRATION STEP (2/2)  **************************

Step 5

Login into BMA 6.9.0.0 with root Credentials and navigate to /opt/infra/migration directory.

Step 6

Initiate restore operation using the following command.

[root@localhost migration]# ./performBMAMigration.sh offline restore
***********************************************************************************
*****************************    BMA migration     *******************************
***********************************************************************************
Current BMA Version : 6.9.0.0
Stopping BMA services , before Starting migration ..........

******************   STARTING BMA MIGRATION STEP (1/2)   **************************

Do you want to copy BMA backup file from a remote location [y/n]? : y

Step 7

Enter y and press Enter.

Step 8

Specify the transfer mode and press Enter. 

Specify the Transfer mode [FTP/SFTP/SCP]: SFTP

Step 9

Specify the IP and login credentials, and press Enter.

The following output is displayed.

Specify the necessary login credentials

Server IP Address: XX.XX.XX.XX
Server Login: root
Server Password:
Remote Backup File (Absolute Path to File backup-bma.tar.gz ): /opt/infra/migration/backup-bma/backup-bma.tar.gz

File is fetched successfully.

******************   COMPLETED BMA MIGRATION STEP (1/2)  **************************
******************   STARTING BMA MIGRATION STEP (2/2)   **************************

Extracting the backup archive file...
..........
Moving the version information from existing appliance
Moving resolv.conf file from source appliance
Moving dhcpd.conf file from source appliance
Updating Migration Properties File
Done Updating Migration Properties File
Moving provisioned image files from the existing BMA. This may take some time depending on the number of images provisioned and the network speed
Moving image templates from the existing BMA.
Moving osImagesRepository from the existing BMA...
Moving pxelinux configuration files from the existing BMA...
Moving bma-sw-rep folder from the existing BMA...
Moving image softlinks from existing BMA
Moving windows image. 
Moving Boot folder for Windows PXE. 
Moving web folder... 
Skipping Bigdata specific migration as the existing BMA doesn't have Bigdata files. 
  
******************   COMPLETED BMA MIGRATION STEP (2/2)  ************************** 
  
Starting BMA services , after migration .......... 
Completed the Baremetal Agent Migration process successfully. 
Generated migration log file at /var/log/bmaMigrationLogs.txt         ...

Viewing the Bare Metal Agent Migration Status

Procedure

From the Bare Metal Agent Shell menu, choose the Migration Status option and press Enter.

The following information displays: 

Migration Status : Completed
Successfully completed the BMA migration.
Press return to continue:

Note

 

The BMA migration status can be one of the following:

  • Completed

    Note

     

    When the migration status is displayed as Completed, log in to Cisco UCS Director, Release 6.9 and choose Administration > Physical Accounts and click Bare Metal Agent. On the Add Bare Metal Agent Appliance screen, delete the BMA account (specific to version 6.7.4.2 / 6.8.x.x) and add the BMA account (migrated BMA, version 6.9.0.0) to Cisco UCS Director, Release 6.9.

  • In Progress

  • Failed

  • Not Triggered

Setting Up UEFI as Network Boot Manager

The following are the list of operating system supported for UEFI booting:

  • Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2022, and Windows Server 2025.

  • ESXi 6.5, ESXi 6.7, and ESXi 8.0

  • Centos 7.x and Centos 8.x

  • RHEL 7.x and RHEL 9.x

  • SLES 12 and above

For more information, see Cisco UCS Director Compatibility Matrix, Release 6.9.


Note

RHEL 7.3 and Centos 7.3 installation are not supported for UEFI booting. OS kernels which are not compiled with EFI stub are also not supported.

Procedure

Step 1

Create a catalog from the Bare Metal Agent 6.9.

Note

 

For Non-Windows operating system, provision the OS image from the Cisco UCS Director UI or run isoExtractor.sh available in /opt/infra folder. See Configuring Cisco UCS Director Bare Metal Agent. However, for Windows operating system, ensure that ipxe-uefi.cfg and autounattend-uefi.xml files are available in the catalog.

Step 2

Choose iPXE-UEFI as the network boot manager. See, Provisioning OS Images through Orchestration Workflow Tasks.

Note

 
iPXE-UEFI supports TFTP protocol by default. However, you can modify the ipxe-uefi.cfg with the following details to support the HTTP protocol. HTTP protocol with UEFI does not work on all servers. 

#!ipxe
initrd  http://$PXE_NATIVE_WEBSERVER/$PXE_OS/isolinux/initrd.img
kernel  http://$PXE_NATIVE_WEBSERVER/$PXE_OS/isolinux/vmlinuz initrd=initrd.img ks=$PXE_KS_URL net.ifnames=0 biosdevname=0
initrd  http://$PXE_NATIVE_WEBSERVER/$PXE_OS/isolinux/initrd.img
boot