Lenovo BIOS settings common to servers
This page contains information about BIOS settings common to Lenovo servers.
Booting and BIOS configuration
Press
F1
during start-up to enter the BIOS and firmware setup menus. In the BMC GUI you may also pressQuick Actions
and select the Power ActionBoot Server to System Setup
.Press
F10
for network boot andF12
for a one-time boot menu.
The Lenovo UEFI boot goes through PEI and DXE phases before booting the OS.
XClarity Provisioning Manager
Initial BMC login credentials:
Username: USERID
Password: PASSW0RD (Note the zero!)
Note: If you have several SSH authentication key files ($HOME/.ssh/id_*
) they will be tried in turn,
and since the BMC accepts a maximum of 5 login attempts, SSH logins may fail with the error:
Received disconnect from 10.x.x.x port 22:2: Too many authentication failures
Workaround: Specify only 1 of the keys to the SSH command, for example:
ssh -i $HOME/.ssh/id_rsa <BMC_hostname>
Minimal configuration of a new server or a new motherboard
At our site the following minimal settings are required for a new server or a new motherboard.
The (BMC) setup is accessed via the console or BMC web GUI.
Login with the above credentials.
Go to the BMC Configuration -> User/LDAP
menus and modify the login credentials:
Click on
Global Settings
and deselectComplex password required
and setMinimum password length
to 8 (or according to your policies). Also changeMinimum password change interval
to0
so that you can change the password as needed.In the
User/LDAP
menu edit the BMC localUser name
fromUSERID
toroot
. Here you may also change the password.
Using OneCLI one may configure some desirable XCC parameters:
onecli config set IMM.IMMInfo_Name `hostname -s`
onecli config set IMM.HostName1 `hostname -s`b
onecli config set IMM.MinPasswordLen 8
onecli config set IMM.DDNS_Enable Disabled
BMC network settings
You may change the BMC Configuration
Network
settings:
Change the BMC
Hostname
to the server’s DNS name, or selectObtain Hostname from DHCP
.Configure
DHCP control
toDHCP enabled
. Important: Set the BMC network address selection toObtain IP from DHCP
in stead of the defaultFirst DHCP, then static IP
so that the BMC does not fall back to a private IP-address!Set
IPv6
toDisabled
.When done press
Apply
.
Modify the DNS and DDNS
settings:
Change DNS
Preferred address type
toIPv4
.Change DDNS to
Disabled
.Disable
Use DNS to discover Lenovo XClarity Administrator
. Note: If your network has a DNS server configured to advertise the address of a Lenovo XClarity Administrator (LXCA) instance. Lenovo offers a 90 days trial license for LXCA. The BMC will periodically search each DNS server for SRV records defined as:_lxca._tcp
. If an LXCA instance is found, the BMC will attempt to announce its presence to the selected address of LXCA instance.When done press
Apply
.
In Service Enablement and Port Assignment
enable the IPMI over LAN
.
The web GUI says:
The current security settings require incoming IPMI over LAN connection to use cipher suite ID 17.
If you are using the IPMItool utility (prior to version 1.8.19), you must specify the option “-C 17” to connect to this management controller.
When using the Linux FreeIPMI CLI commands use the -I CIPHER-SUITE-ID option, for example:
ipmipower -I 17 -D LAN_2_0 ....
NOTE: Some BMC brands (HPE, SuperMicro) unfortunately only support the default cipher suite -I 3
and will reject connections with -I 17
.
BMC Security
You may change the BMC Configuration
Security
settings:
If desired set the
IPMI SEL Log Wrapping
toEnabled
.
Configuration using the console
The BMC GUI has a Remote Console
menu to open a console in a new browser tab.
Press F1
during start-up to enter the BIOS and firmware setup menus.
In the BMC GUI you may also press Quick Actions
and select the Power Action Boot Server to System Setup
.
Use the console to configure the UEFI setup
.
Go to the menu BMC settings
submenu Network settings
:
Configure
DHCP control
toDHCP enabled
. Important: Set the BMC network address selection toObtain IP from DHCP
in stead of the defaultFirst DHCP, then static IP
so that the BMC does not fall back to a private IP-address!Set
IPv6
toDisabled
.When done press
Save Network Settings
.
Go to the menu UEFI Setup
:
In
System Settings -> Processors
select DisableSMT Mode
(Symmetric Multithreading).In
System Settings -> Network -> Network Stack Settings
you probably want to setIPv6 PXE Support
to Disabled.In
System Settings -> Network -> Network Boot Settings
you have tounconfigure PXE
for each individual NIC in theMAC address
submenu that will never be used for network PXE booting:Set
UEFI PXE Mode
to Disabled.Set
Legacy PXE Mode
to Disabled.
In
Boot Manager -> Change Boot Order
use + and - to change the boot order items to 1) Network, 2) Hard disk. PressCommit Changes and Exit
.In
Boot Manager -> Set Boot Priority -> Network Priority
use + and - to move down the priority of IPv6.When done press
Save Settings
.When all configuration is finished press
Exit UEFI Setup
.