Lenovo Servers ThinkEdge SE450 & ThinkSystem SR630 V2 Minimum Requirements for Virtual Media Redfish Readiness

Abstract

Deploying Red Hat Openshift Cluster Platform using Zero Touch Provisioning (ZTP) methodology on baremetal requires virtual media insertion using Redfish protocol.
Lenovo servers ThinkEdge SE450 & ThinkSystem SR630 V2 are new generation servers and they do not come with the required virtual media insertion support in order to be used for ZTP.
This article will provide the minimum requirements needed to deploy spoke clusters using these servers.

Terminology

Background

In general Lenovo servers ThinkEdge SE450 & ThinkSystem SR630 V2 have three types of media:

1. RDOC media type, where the BMC storage space is restricted to 50 MB in total.
2. Remote media type, where you can mount an ISO or image file from the client browser to the host as a DVD or USB drive.
3. EXT media type, where you can mount an ISO or image file from a file server to the host as a DVD or USB drive (NFS or HTTP)

RDOC media has a limitation of 50 MB and the REMOTE media type do not support media insertion via protocols like Redfish, HTTP, or NFS.
ZTP uses Redfish in combination with HTTP or HTTPS protocol. With these requirements, only EXT media type can be used to deploy SNO using ZTP on these Lenovo servers.

We have tested the deployment on ThinkEdge SE450 & ThinkSystem SR630 V2 Lenovo servers and based on our results, we have established the minimum requirements for these servers to install SNO or compact node clusters using ZTP.

Minimum Server Requirements

ThinkEdge SE450

Machine Type/Model 7D8TCTO1WW

To install SNO or compact nodes cluster on Lenovo SE450 you need to ensure the following:

• Lenovo XClarity Controller Enterprise Upgrade license is active on the server
• BMC Version 1.00 Build ID: USX302R as a minimum BMC firmware version.
• UEFI Version 1.00 (Build ID: CME102Q)
• Boot order priority needs to be set to hard drive UEFI

See below the system firmware version

Once these requirements are met, you need to validate that the EXT media type is the first media listed on that server, since ZTP will try to insert the ISO generated for the installation on the first available virtual media.

Below are two queries, the first output is before license and firmware upgrade and the second is after we applied license and firmware upgrade.

Before license upgrade to enterprise and firmware upgrade:

$ curl  https://192.168.53.147/redfish/v1/Managers/1/VirtualMedia --user USER:PASSWD --insecure | jq
  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current
                                 Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed
100   403    0   403    0     0   1970      0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:--  1975
{
  "Members": [
    {
      "@odata.id": "/redfish/v1/Managers/1/VirtualMedia/RDOC1"
    },
    {
      "@odata.id": "/redfish/v1/Managers/1/VirtualMedia/RDOC2"
    }
  ],
  "@odata.type": "#VirtualMediaCollection.VirtualMediaCollection",
  "@odata.id": "/redfish/v1/Managers/1/VirtualMedia",
  "Name": "VirtualMediaCollection",
  "@odata.etag": "\"2b55c385af832722e92\"",
  "Members@odata.count": 2,
  "Description": "A collection of VirtualMedia resource instances"
}

After license upgrade to enterprise:

$ curl  https://192.168.53.147/redfish/v1/Managers/1/VirtualMedia --user USER:PASSWD --insecure | jq
  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current
                                 Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed
100   872    0   872    0     0   3760      0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:--  3758
{
  "Members": [
    {
      "@odata.id": "/redfish/v1/Managers/1/VirtualMedia/EXT1"
    },
    {
      "@odata.id": "/redfish/v1/Managers/1/VirtualMedia/EXT2"
    },
    {
      "@odata.id": "/redfish/v1/Managers/1/VirtualMedia/EXT3"
    },
    {
      "@odata.id": "/redfish/v1/Managers/1/VirtualMedia/EXT4"
    },
    {
      "@odata.id": "/redfish/v1/Managers/1/VirtualMedia/Remote1"
    },
    {
      "@odata.id": "/redfish/v1/Managers/1/VirtualMedia/Remote2"
    },
    {
      "@odata.id": "/redfish/v1/Managers/1/VirtualMedia/Remote3"
    },
    {
      "@odata.id": "/redfish/v1/Managers/1/VirtualMedia/Remote4"
    },
    {
      "@odata.id": "/redfish/v1/Managers/1/VirtualMedia/RDOC1"
    },
    {
      "@odata.id": "/redfish/v1/Managers/1/VirtualMedia/RDOC2"
    }
  ],
  "@odata.type": "#VirtualMediaCollection.VirtualMediaCollection",
  "@odata.id": "/redfish/v1/Managers/1/VirtualMedia",
  "Name": "VirtualMediaCollection",
  "@odata.etag": "\"57af07952d392a2c93c\"",
  "Members@odata.count": 10,
  "Description": "A collection of VirtualMedia resource instances"

As you can see from the above outputs, before applying license and firmware upgrade the virtual media type EXT was not listed. Only once we upgraded the license and the firmware that the virtual media type, EXT, is listed and is also the first one available. The agent will then be able to insert the media into one of the EXT available, using the PATCH method with Redfish + HTTPS protocol.

ThinkSystem SR630 V2

Machine Type/Model 7Z71CTO1WW

To install SNO or compact nodes cluster on Lenovo ThinkSystem SR630 V2 you need to ensure the following:
- Lenovo XClarity Controller Enterprise Upgrade license is active on the server
- BMC Version 1.65 (Build ID: AFBT18J) as a minimum BMC firmware version.
- UEFI Version 1.11 (Build ID: AFE114G)
- Boot order priority needs to be set to hard drive UEFI

See below the server firmware versions used for validation

Once these requirements are met, you need to validate that the EXT media type is the first media listed on that server, since ZTP will try to insert the ISO generated for the installation on the first available virtual media.

Before license upgrade to enterprise:

curl  https://192.168.53.146/redfish/v1/Managers/1/VirtualMedia --user USERID:PASSWD --insecure | jq   % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current
                                 Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed
100   872    0   872    0     0   2319      0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:--  2325
{
  "Members": [
    {
      "@odata.id": "/redfish/v1/Managers/1/VirtualMedia/RDOC1"
    },
    {
      "@odata.id": "/redfish/v1/Managers/1/VirtualMedia/RDOC2"
    },
    {
      "@odata.id": "/redfish/v1/Managers/1/VirtualMedia/EXT1"
    },
    {
      "@odata.id": "/redfish/v1/Managers/1/VirtualMedia/EXT2"
    },
    {
      "@odata.id": "/redfish/v1/Managers/1/VirtualMedia/EXT3"
    },
    {
      "@odata.id": "/redfish/v1/Managers/1/VirtualMedia/EXT4"
    },
    {
      "@odata.id": "/redfish/v1/Managers/1/VirtualMedia/Remote1"
    },
    {
      "@odata.id": "/redfish/v1/Managers/1/VirtualMedia/Remote2"
    },
    {
      "@odata.id": "/redfish/v1/Managers/1/VirtualMedia/Remote3"
    },
    {
      "@odata.id": "/redfish/v1/Managers/1/VirtualMedia/Remote4"

After license Upgrade to enterprise:

$ curl  https://192.168.53.147/redfish/v1/Managers/1/VirtualMedia --user USER:PASSWD --insecure | jq
  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current
                                 Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed
100   872    0   872    0     0   3760      0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:--  3758
{
  "Name": "VirtualMediaCollection",
  "@odata.type": "#VirtualMediaCollection.VirtualMediaCollection",
  "@odata.id": "/redfish/v1/Managers/1/VirtualMedia",
  "Members@odata.count": 10,
  "Members": [
    {
      "@odata.id": "/redfish/v1/Managers/1/VirtualMedia/EXT1"
    },
    {
      "@odata.id": "/redfish/v1/Managers/1/VirtualMedia/EXT2"
    },
    {
      "@odata.id": "/redfish/v1/Managers/1/VirtualMedia/EXT3"
    },
    {
      "@odata.id": "/redfish/v1/Managers/1/VirtualMedia/EXT4"
    },
    {
      "@odata.id": "/redfish/v1/Managers/1/VirtualMedia/Remote1"
    },
    {
      "@odata.id": "/redfish/v1/Managers/1/VirtualMedia/Remote2"
    },
    {
      "@odata.id": "/redfish/v1/Managers/1/VirtualMedia/Remote3"
    },
    {
      "@odata.id": "/redfish/v1/Managers/1/VirtualMedia/Remote4"
    },
    {
      "@odata.id": "/redfish/v1/Managers/1/VirtualMedia/RDOC1"
    },
    {
      "@odata.id": "/redfish/v1/Managers/1/VirtualMedia/RDOC2"
    }

As you can see from the above outputs, the virtual media type EXT is now changed to the first one listed. The agent will be able to insert the media into one of the EXT media type available using the PATCH method with Redfish + HTTPS protocol.

ACM+ZTP implementation

Once the server requirements above are met, you are ready to deploy SNO or compact clusters using ZTP.

You can follow the below links for this implementation:
- ztp-deployment-disconnected .

Version of software used

Appendix

Below is the BOM for the servers tested.

• ThinkEdge SE450

• ThinkSystem SR630 V2