HP Insight Control for Linux 6.2 User Guide

6 Configuring network parameters for virtual media
Topics include:
• “Introduction” (page 63)
• “Preparing for virtual media” (page 64)
• “Using the Define Networks tool” (page 67)
• “Using the Network Configuration Editor” (page 70)
• “Next Step” (page 73)
6.1 Introduction
Virtual media is a mechanism available only for systems with an iLO-based management processor.
Virtual media allows a system to boot an ISO image over the network; it is the alternate boot
mechanism to PXE.
When you perform an Insight Control for Linux operation (such as, a bare-metal discovery, a
capture of a Linux OS image, a deployment of an image, or install an operating system) on a
server that was configured to use virtual media, a bootable ISO image file is created in the /opt/
repository/iso directory on the CMS. The bootable ISO image file contains the previously
configured network parameters and is used to configure the boot NIC on the target server. When
the server is booted, the iLO is instructed to mount the bootable ISO from the CMS using HTTPS
port 60002 by default. After the iLO mounts the bootable ISO file, the server’s bootable NIC is
configured and all subsequent network activity, (for example, an OS installation) is performed
through the boot NIC. If the server’s NIC was configured to PXE boot, it is possible that, even
though the server failed to boot using virtual media, it may still boot using PXE, depending on
your DHCP server configuration.
IMPORTANT: When using Virtual media, the server's iLO connects to port 60002 (HTTPS) on
the CMS to obtain the ISO image. That port must be opened on the CMS or the server does not
boot as expected and the task does not complete successfully.
• If the HTTPS port on the CMS is closed, the server does not boot as expected.
• You can specify an alternate port by editing the /opt/mx/icle/icle.properties file
to set the following parameter:
REPOSITORY_HTTPS_PORT=port-number
Where port-number is the number of the alternate port.
• If port 60002 (HTTPS) on the CMS (or an alternate port that you specified) is closed and if
DHCP is configured in your environment, the server can fail to boot using virtual media
and boot using PXE boot instead.
Virtual media requires initial preparation, which is described in “Preparing for virtual media”
(page 64)
Using virtual media requires that you predefine network configuration parameters so that they
are incorporated into the ISO image. Insight Control for Linux provides two tools, Define
Networks and the Network Configuration Editor, to enable you to specify the network
configuration parameters for servers that are not PXE-booted.
6.1 Introduction 63