Document how to use ILOs

[jbs@bbn.com]

​http://groups.geni.net/geni/wiki/GENIRacksHome/InstageniRacks/AcceptanceTestStatus/IG-ADM-1#Step3G:GPOrequestsaccesstoiLOremotemanagementinterfacesforexperimentalnodes tests that site admins can access the compute nodes' ILOs. Are there docs about how to do this?

[jbs@bbn.com]

I figured some things out from notes that Chaos had written up, but it should presumably be documented on a wiki page somewhere. Some particular things:

• How do you find the IP addresses of the ILOs?
• What username and password to use to log in?
• What are some useful commands? (e.g. "connect to the text console" and "reboot the system")
• How do you log in to the control node ILO, since you don't have a password there?

I wasn't able to work out that last one: After connecting to the control node's ILO, and using the 'textcons' command, I saw a bunch of syslog messages, hit return a few times, and found myself at a "gpolab.control-nodes.geniracks.net login:" prompt. I wasn't able to log in as 'jbs' with my ProtoGENI password, which makes sense; how would my password have gotten set? So I set one on the control node itself, but still wasn't able to log in; and the login prompt seemed to change from "gpolab.control-nodes.geniracks.net login:" to "gpolab login:", and back again, at seemingly random times, so I'm not sure what all is going on with that.

I was also able to connect to the ILO on pc3, but it was in boot wait mode, so I didn't try logging in or anything. I did try power-cycling it with 'power reset', which seemed to work (I watched it boot back up, on the text console, back to boot wait mode).

[jbs@bbn.com]

Also, the experiment nodes' ILO IP addresses aren't in DNS; should they be?

[jbs@bbn.com]

Leigh says:

From: Leigh Stoller <lbstoller@gmail.com> 
To: instageni-design@geni.net 
Subject: Re: [instageni-design] [GENI: instageni] #72: Document how to use 
        ILOs 
Date: Fri, 21 Dec 2012 06:21:21 -0800 
 
> #72: Document how to use ILOs  
 
I threw together a wiki page. See: 
https://users.emulab.net/trac/protogeni/wiki/InstaGeni/ILO 
 
> to log in; and the login prompt seemed to change from "gpolab.control- 
> nodes.geniracks.net login:" to "gpolab login:", and back again, at 
> seemingly random times, so I'm not sure what all is going on with that. 
 
This is Linux virtual console being whacky. 
 
> Also, the experiment nodes' ILO IP addresses aren't in DNS; should they 
> be? 
 
Sure, we can do that.  
 
Aside; since the Utah rack came online, I think I've logged into an ilo 
maybe twice to look at the console, to get an image working. About the only 
thing needed on a (not very) regular basis is to power cycle the node, and 
that is handled with Emulab's power command (see the wiki page), and of 
course that is plumbed through to ProtoGENI.  

This looks pretty good, although there are some typos, e.g.

For example, on the BBN rack, this would be ​https://boss.instageni.gpolab.bbn.com/shownode.php3?node_id=pc2.

(why is the link twice?) and

In general, there is no need to log into the iLo except to look at the console. To reboot

(was there supposed to be some more text there?)

I agree with the aside, that admins shouldn't have to do this very often. In our ProtoGENI instance at BBN, we do have to hop onto consoles very now and then to figure out why a machine is wedged, and I imagine that's the most common use of the ILOs in the racks too.

If you can clean up those typos, I think that's it for this one.

[jbs@bbn.com]

Leigh cleaned this up, but there are still a few glitches. (Also, it's now at ​http://www.protogeni.net/ProtoGeni/wiki/InstaGeni/ILO.)

The example link now says "For example, on the BBN rack, this would be ​https://https://boss.instageni.gpolab.bbn.com/shownode.php3?node_id=pc2.", which has to many "​https://" bits.

It says "If you just want to reboot the ilo, this is easier:" -- this will actually reboot the system, not just the ILO, right? If so, I might say "system" rather than "ILO" here, lest someone unfamiliar with this stuff become confused, and think that this just resets the ILO itself or something.

Looks good to me otherwise.

[jbs@bbn.com]

Leigh says:

From: Leigh Stoller <lbstoller@gmail.com> 
To: instageni-design@geni.net 
Subject: Re: [instageni-design] [GENI: instageni] #72: Document how to use 
        ILOs 
Date: Tue, 15 Jan 2013 11:53:44 -0800 
 
> It says "If you just want to reboot the ilo, this is easier:" -- this will  
> actually reboot the system, not just the ILO, right? If so, I might say  
> "system" rather than "ILO" here, lest someone unfamiliar with this stuff  
> become confused, and think that this just resets the ILO itself or  
> something.  
 
Oops, I meant to say "reboot the node" ... I fixed the page. 

Looks good; one last tiny thing, the "​https://https://boss.instageni.gpolab.bbn.com/shownode.php3?node_id=pc2" typo with the double "​https://" -- snip that, and I think we can finally close this one.

[jbs@bbn.com]

The typo is fixed, so this is all set.