Supermicro SuperBlade SBI-6119P-T3N, User Manual

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Chapter 3: Setup and Installation
Installing with an External USB CD-ROM Drive
The most common method of installing the OS is with an external USB CD-ROM drive.
Take the following steps to install the OS to a blade module:
Caution: Installing the OS from an external CD-ROM drive may take several hours to
complete.
Installing via PXE Boot
PXE (Preboot Execution Environment) is used to boot a computer over a network. To
install the OS via PXE, the following conditions must be met:
1. The PXE B
OOT
option in BIOS must be enabled.
2. A PXE server has been configured (this can be another blade in the system).
3. The PXE server must be connected over a network to the blade to be booted.
4. The blade has only non-partitioned/unformatted hard drives installed and no
bootable devices attached to it.
Once these conditions are met, make sure the PXE server is running. Then turn on the
blade on which you wish to boot and/or install the OS. The BIOS in the blade will look at
all bootable devices and finding none will connect to the PXE server to begin the boot/
install.
Installing via Virtual Media (Drive Redirection)
You can install the OS via Virtual Media through either the IPMIview (Java based client
utility), IPMItool or the Web-based Management Utility . With this method, the OS is
installed from an ISO image that resides on another system/blade.
Refer to the manuals on your SuperBlade CD-ROM for further details on the Virtual
Media (CD-ROM or Drive Redirection) sections of these two utility programs.
3-8 Management Software
System management may be performed with either of three software packages:
IPMIview , IPMItool or a Web-based Management Utility . These are designed to provide
an administrator with a comprehensive set of functions and monitored data to keep tabs
on the system and perform management activities.
Refer to the manuals on your SuperBlade CD-ROM for further details on the various
functions provided by these management programs.
3-9 Configuring and Setting up RAID
Each blade module that supports two or more hard drives may be used to create a RAID
array. The procedures for doing this vary depending upon the blade model chosen for
your SuperBlade system. For this module RAID 0, 1, and 5 is available for each node.