Owner's Manual

Bare Metal Provisioning 1.5 | 17
Auto-configuring Switches
Bare Metal Provisioning provides various ways (modes) in which a switch can be
automatically configured when it boots up.
By default, at initial power-up, a Dell Force10 switch running BMP boots up in an
auto-configuration mode called DHCP-Client mode (auto-configuration mode C
below). When the system boots up, it connects to a DHCP server on which the
required FTOS image and startup configuration files are stored. These files are
downloaded to the system and the system reloads with these images. Each switch has
its own startup configuration file on the DHCP server and automatically connects to
the management network (when configured).
The auto-configuration mode used to boot up a switch remains in the non-volatile
memory. When an auto-configured reload is performed, the switch boots up in the
mode stored in non-volatile memory.
Using BMP, you can configure a switch to reload in the auto-configuration modes
described below. The new mode is retained in non-volatile memory. To display the
current auto-configuration mode, enter the
show system brief command.
Figure 3-1. Displaying Auto-Configuration Mode: show system brief
BMP 1.5 supports the following auto-configuration modes to reload a switch:
• Factory-Default switch (Mode A): A switch boots up with the factory-default
FTOS image and startup configuration to permit a local installer to connect a PC
to its management port (or other port) to configure the switch or stack. The
system has a temporary IP address.
• DHCP-Server mode (Mode B): The switch loads the FTOS image from flash
memory with the factory-default configuration and acts as DHCP server with a
temporary management IP address, allowing connectivity to a user device to
configure the startup configuration.
• DHCP-Client mode (Mode C): Default auto-configuration mode on a new
switch that arrives from Dell Force10. The system loads without using the startup
configuration in flash memory and connects to a DHCP server where the required
FTOS and configuration files are stored. These files are downloaded to the
switch, which reloads with these images. If no DHCP server responds, the system
reloads in factory-default mode A.
FTOS# show system brief
Stack MAC : 00:01:e8:82:09:b0
Reload Type : normal-reload