Good Bye, Folks!

As you may have heard, Fujitsu has completely discontinued Data Center Products and Solutions business in North America on April 1st, 2021. Therefore I no longer work for the company. Since I don't have a PRIMERGY server at home, I will not post any new blog entries. I will leave this blog as is, but I may not be able to answer your questions.

Thank you for reading my blog over the past years. I really appreciate it. Although Fujitsu closed the data center business in the US, they still sell PRIMERGY/PRIMEQUEST/PRIMEFLEX/ETERNUS in other regions and support is provided in all regions including North America (for NA via Tech Data/Synnex), so you should be good.

Anyway, if you have or know a job opportunity, please let me know.

Thank you,
Masa

Fujitsu PRIMERGY: Get iRMC Advanced Video Redirection (AVR) Console via CLI

I was asked how to get an iRMC AVR Console window from command line on GitHub. That may be useful for others, so I am sharing the information on my blog.

To get a JNLP file from iRMC S2, S3, and S4, you just need to download avr.jnlp using curl like this

$ curl -s -k -u <iRMC user>:<iRMC password> --digest https://<iRMC address>/avr.jnlp -o avr.jnlp

Example

$ curl -s -k -u admin:admin --digest https://192.168.10.10/avr.jnlp -o avr.jnlp

If you would like to lauch console in one line, you just need to use a pipe to run javaws.

$ curl -s -k -u admin:admin --digest https://192.168.10.10/avr.jnlp -o avr.jnlp |javaws avr.jnlp

For iRMC S5, the above may not work. In that case, get a session token and then download a JNLP file.

$ TOKEN=`curl -i -s -k -u admin:admin -H "Accept: application/json" -H"Content-Type: application/json" https://192.168.10.10/redfish/v1/SessionService/Sessions -d '{"UserName":"admin", "Password":"admin"}' |grep "X-Auth-Token" |awk -F':' '{print $2}'`
$ curl -k -s -H "X-Auth-Token: ${TOKEN}" https://192.168.10.10/avr.jnlp -o avr.jnlp

You can create a small script to automate the above. Here is a sample bash script.

#!/bin/bash

CURL=`which curl`
JAVAWS=`which javaws`

function show_usage() {
    echo ""
    echo "Usage:"
    echo "    $(basename $0) -i  [-u ] [-p ]"
    echo ""
    exit 1
}

function get_irmcs4_console() {
    local irmc=$1
    local user=$2
    local password=$3

    if [ -f avr.jnlp ]; then
        rm -f avr.jnlp
    fi

    ${CURL} -k -s -u ${user}:${password} --digest https://${irmc}/avr.jnlp -o avr.jnlp

    if [ $? -eq 0 -a -f avr.jnlp ]; then
        ${JAVAWS} avr.jnlp
    fi
}

function get_irmcs5_console() {
    local irmc=$1
    local user=$2
    local password=$3

    if [ -f avr.jnlp ]; then
        rm -f avr.jnlp
    fi
    TOKEN=$(${CURL} -i -s -k -u admin:admin -H "Accept: application/json" -H"Content-Type: application/json" https://${irmc}/redfish/v1/SessionService/Sessions -d "{\"UserName\": \"${user}\", \"Password\": \"${password}\"}" |grep "X-Auth-Token" |awk -F':' '{print $2}')

    if [ -z ${TOKEN} ]; then
        echo "ERROR: Could not get the auth token from iRMC"
        exit 1
    else
        ${CURL} -k -s -H "X-Auth-Token: ${TOKEN}" https://${irmc}/avr.jnlp -o avr.jnlp
    fi

    if [ $? -eq 0 -a -f avr.jnlp ]; then
        grep "jnlp" avr.jnlp
        if [ $? -ne 0  ]; then
            echo "ERROR: HTML5 Viewer is used in iRMC"
        else
            ${JAVAWS} avr.jnlp
        fi
    fi
}

while getopts 'i:u:p:h' OPT
do
    case ${OPT} in
        i) iRMC_ADDR=${OPTARG}
            ;;
        u) iRMC_USER=${OPTARG}
            ;;
        p) iRMC_PASS=${OPTARG}
            ;;
        h) show_usage
            ;;
        \?) show_usage
            ;;
    esac
done
shift $((OPTIND - 1))

if [ -z ${iRMC_ADDR} ]; then
    echo "ERROR: iRMC address/name/FQDN is not provided. Please use the '-i' option."
    exit 1
fi

if [ -z ${iRMC_USER} ]; then
    iRMC_USER="admin"
fi

if [ -z ${iRMC_PASS} ]; then
    iRMC_PASS="admin"
fi


${CURL} -s -k https://${iRMC_ADDR}/ | grep "iRMC S5" > /dev/null

if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
    get_irmcs5_console ${iRMC_ADDR} ${iRMC_USER} ${iRMC_PASS}
    exit
fi

${CURL} -s -k https://${iRMC_ADDR}/ | grep "iRMC S[2-4]" > /dev/null

if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
    get_irmcs4_console ${iRMC_ADDR} ${iRMC_USER} ${iRMC_PASS}
    exit
fi

echo "ERROR: Could not access the iRMC"
exit 1

Fujitsu PRIMERGY: iRMC Redfish sample Python scripts

In the following Blog post, I showed some Redfish examples using the curl command.

Fujitsu iRMC Redfish Examples

I created some sample Python scripts for iRMC Redfish that perform the following operations:

• Power on/off/reset
• Reset iRMC
• Check the current firmware versions
• Backup BIOS/iRMC configuration
• Change boot device
• Get/Clear SEL/iEL
• Get/Set iRMC time configuration
• Get/Set System ID LED status
• iRMC Auto Discovery

The scripts are available on GitHub.

Fujitsu iRMC Redfish samples scripts

I will add more samples later.

Fujitsu PRIMERGY: Configuring the initial iRMC network using iRMC auto discovery and Redfish

As you probably know, iRMC S5 supports auto discovery. Fujitsu has management software like Infrastructure Manager (ISM) that supports iRMC auto discovery, so when a new iRMC S5 based system like PRIMERGY M4 or M5 is installed in a rack, and power and network cables are attached to the server, management software automatically sees the new server on the network, and you can configure the iRMC network without bringing up BIOS Setup to set the management IP address to iRMC on a crash cart or a KVM.

iRMC S5 auto discovery feature is based on SSDP (Simple Service Discovery Protocol). It's a standard protocol, so you don't have to use proprietary software to use the auto discovery feature in fact.

To show how to use auto discovery feature, I created a sample small script in Python that lists discovered systems on the network using SSDP, and configure iRMC network for a new system. You can get the script on GitHub.

In the 'show' mode, it lists all 'auto discovered' systems on the network. If the address shows '0.0.0.0', it does not have an address yet. It's like the initial state just after it's racked and cabled. In the following example, two RX2540 M5 servers are newly installed in a rack, and both don't have iRMC addresses configured. Others already have iRMC configured, so the IP addresses are shown.

$ python irmc-auto-discovery.py show
Model: PRIMERGY CX2560 M5, S/N: MAAG001111, IPv4: 192.168.71.59
Model: PRIMERGY CX2550 M5, S/N: MAAF002222, IPv4: 192.168.71.63
Model: PRIMERGY RX2540 M5, S/N: MASQ001234, IPv4: 0.0.0.0
Model: PRIMERGY RX2540 M5, S/N: MASQ002345, IPv4: 0.0.0.0
Model: PRIMERGY RX2530 M5, S/N: MALU005432, IPv4: 192.168.71.27
Model: PRIMERGY RX4770 M5, S/N: MATJ006543, IPv4: 192.168.71.37

In the 'configure' mode with the network information specified, the script assigns the supplied address to iRMC. In the example, it assigns 192.168.71.29/24 and gateway 192.168.71.1 to the RX2540 M5 S/N: MASQ001234. After the script completes the configuration, it will take a few minutes for iRMC to update the network settings. Once iRMC completes the update, you can access the iRMC with the IP address you set.

$ python irmc-auto-discovery.py configure -s MASQ001234 -a 192.168.71.29 -m 255.255.255.0 -g 192.168.71.1 
The iRMC network has been configured successfully. Please wait for a few minutes for iRMC to activate the new configuration.

Fujitsu PRIMERGY: Change the boot device via Redfish

This post will explain how to change the boot device with the next boot only option enabled through iRMC Redfish interface. This is equivalent to the IPMI command like "ipmitool chassis bootdev <bootdevice>".
For example, if you want to do a PXE boot to perform an OS installation, you probably execute "ipmitool -H <iRMC address> -U <iRMC username> -P <iRMC password> chassis bootdev pxe". You can request the same to iRMC via Redfish in case you can't use IPMI like for security reasons.

To do this, first you need to check the current settings and the etag information, and then send a request in JSON to iRMC. See below for the steps.

1. Send a GET request to the "Systems/0/Oem/ts_fujitsu/BootConfig" endpoint to see the current options and the Etag information.

$ curl -s -k -u admin:admin -H"Content-Type: application/json" https://irmc address/redfish/v1/Systems/0/Oem/ts_fujitsu/BootConfig |jq '{BootDevice, BootType, NextBootOnlyEnabled, "@odata.etag"}'
{
  "BootDevice": "None",
  "BootType": "UEFI",
  "NextBootOnlyEnabled": false,
  "@odata.etag": "1595025885"
}

As you can see, the BootDevice option shows None, so the system is currently booting from the device that is in the top of the boot device list like a local drive.
The reason why I displayed the @odata.etag option is that changing the boot device is a PATCH request, so the Etag information needs to be included in the request header. See the next step for details.


2. Send a PATCH request to the same endpoint. In this example, I use "PXE" as the boot device for the next boot.

   $ curl -s -k -u admin:admin -H"Content-Type: application/json" -H"If-Match: 1595025885" -X PATCH https://irmc address/redfish/v1/Systems/0/Oem/ts_fujitsu/BootConfig -d '{"BootDevice": "Pxe", "BootType": "UEFI", "NextBootOnlyEnabled": true}' |jq .
   {
     "@odata.context": "/redfish/v1/$metadata#Systems/Members/0/Oem/ts_fujitsu/BootConfig(Name,BootDevice,BootType,NextBootOnlyEnabled)",
     "@odata.id": "/redfish/v1/Systems/0/Oem/ts_fujitsu/BootConfig",
     "@odata.type": "http://ts.fujitsu.com/redfish-schemas/v1/FTSSchema.v1_0_0#FTSBootConfig.v1_0_0.FTSBootConfig",
     "Name": "Boot Configuration",
     "BootDevice": "Pxe",
     "BootType": "UEFI",
     "NextBootOnlyEnabled": true,
     "@Redfish.Copyright": "Copyright 2017-2018 FUJITSU LIMITED",
     "@odata.etag": "1595025925"
   }
   

Note that I included the "If-Match: <etag data>" option in the request. iRMC will change the boot device if the etag information in the request matches the current value.
If you want to change the boot device to CDROM or bring up BIOS Setup during the next boot, you can just use "Cd" or "BiosSetup" respectively for the BootDevice option.

If you would like to use "BootSourceOverrideTarget" in the Systems/0 endpoint instead of "Systems/0/Oem/ts_fujitsu/BootConfig", send a PATCH request with the data like this to Systems/0.

$ curl -s -k -u admin:admin -H"Content-Type: application/json" -H"If-Match: <etag data>" -X PATCH https://irmc address/redfish/v1/Systems/0 -d '{ "Boot": {"BootSourceOverrideTarget": "Pxe",  "BootSourceOverrideEnabled":"Once"}}' |jq '{Boot}'
{
  "Boot": {
    "BootSourceOverrideTarget": "Pxe",
    "BootSourceOverrideTarget@Redfish.AllowableValues": [
      "None",
      "Pxe",
      "Floppy",
      "Cd",
      "Hdd",
      "BiosSetup"
    ],
    "BootSourceOverrideEnabled": "Once",
    "BootSourceOverrideEnabled@Redfish.AllowableValues": [
      "Once",
      "Continuous"
    ],
    "BootSourceOverrideMode": "UEFI"
  }
}

Fujitsu PRIMERGY RX2530 M4 BIOS ASP for Ubuntu (BIOS R1.43.0)

This is related to the iRMC ASP for Ubuntu blog post. I've created RX2530 M4 BIOS R1.43.0 ASP for Ubuntu just to show that it's technically possible to create a BIOS ASP package for Ubuntu if in-band update is required/preferred.

The default package does not support Ubuntu, so you need to run the ASP with the "-nos" option to bypass the OS check.

$ sudo ./RX2530M4_D3383_A1_BiosV50012_R1430.scexe -e -nos

***************** PRIMERGY Autonomous Support Package ***************

Description: Flash BIOS RX2530 M4
VersionMajor: V5.0.0.12
VersionMinor: R1.43.0
VersionBuild: 1.0.0
Software Class - Category: Flash - BIOS
Software Class - Name: (SV) Flash Bios
Vendor: Fujitsu

*********************************************************************

Continue processing this ASP?
Please answer: yes/y or no/n
y
Extracting data into /tmp/sctmpdir6541 ...
done

Like I did for the iRMC ASP, change the shell in the scripts in the package (do_deskflash.sh and do_SelectTool.sh) from sh to bash. For the do_deskflash.sh, some changes are required as this is for RPM-based distributions, so you need to change rpm commands to dpkg, and adjust RPM package names to DEB package names.

You will also need to add Ubuntu statement in the DF_Packages.txt file like this:

$  diff -Nau work_bios_r1.43.0.orig/DF_Packages.txt work_bios_r1.43.0/DF_Packages.txt
--- work_bios_r1.43.0.orig/DF_Packages.txt      2020-05-28 04:22:41.882733700 -0700
+++ work_bios_r1.43.0/DF_Packages.txt   2020-07-06 18:00:37.689422065 -0700
@@ -8,3 +8,4 @@
 RHEL6.10            DeskFlash_Linux_01.75-0064_old.zip
 RHEL7.5%RHEL7.7     DeskFlash_Linux_01.80-0083.zip
 RHEL8.0%RHEL8.1     DeskFlash_Linux_01.80-0083.zip
+UBUN16.04%UBUN20.04 DeskFlash_Linux_01.80-0083.zip

DeskFlash_Linux_01.80-0083.zip is in the DeskFlash_Linux.zip archive. In DeskFlash_Linux_01.80-0083.zip, the deskflash RPM is included, so this needs to be changed to a DEB file (I created deskflash_1.80-0083_amd64.deb), and zip up all files to DeskFlash_Linux.zip.

The startup script does not support Ubuntu, so you need to add Ubuntu to the OS list so that you don't need to run the ASP with the "-nos" option.

diff -Nau RX2530M4_D3383_A1_BiosV50012_R1430.sh.orig RX2530M4_D3383_A1_BiosV50012_R1430.sh
--- RX2530M4_D3383_A1_BiosV50012_R1430.sh.orig  2020-07-10 17:41:00.597159834 -0700
+++ RX2530M4_D3383_A1_BiosV50012_R1430.sh       2020-07-02 12:36:03.151041117 -0700
@@ -152,6 +152,7 @@
 OS_CHECKLIST[4]="RHEL6.10"
 OS_CHECKLIST[5]="RHEL7.5%RHEL7.7"
 OS_CHECKLIST[6]="RHEL8.0%RHEL8.1"
+OS_CHECKLIST[7]="UBUN16.04%UBUN20.04"
 OS_CHECKLIST_END=""

 _EXCLUDE_32BIT_OS=false;

Once all the changes are made, you can package everything up to the SCEXE file, and run it.

Here are the screenshots when I run the modified/hacked BIOS R1.43.0 ASP for RX2530 M4 on Ubuntu.

Once it is run successfully, you need to reboot the server to enable the new BIOS.

Fujitsu PRIMERGY: How to check BIOS Version through IPMI

This is related to the previous post (How to check iRMC Firmware Version through IPMI). In this post, I explain how to check the BIOS version via IPMI.

If you are in the OS, you can easily get the BIOS version information by a command like dmidecode.

$ dmidecode -t0 |grep Version
        Version: V5.0.0.12 R1.42.0 for D3384-A1x

Remotely, you can use SSH or PowerShell to get the BIOS version, but this requires a running OS on the remote machine, so using iRMC to get the BIOS version is good when an OS is not running or an OS is not yet installed.

To retrieve the BIOS version via IPMI, you can use the "0x2e 0xe0 0x80 0x28 0x00 0x01 0x00 0x02 0x02" command. Below is an example from RX2540 M4.

$ ipmitool -I lanplus -H 192.168.10.10 -U admin -P admin raw 0x2e 0xe0 0x80 0x28 0x00 0x01 0x00 0x02 0x02 |tr '\n' ' '
 80 28 00 1f 56 35 2e 30 2e 30 2e 31 32 20 52 31
 2e 34 32 2e 30 20 66 6f 72 20 44 33 33 38 34 2d
 41 31 78

The BIOS version string can be decoded from the 5th byte. In the above case, it's "56 35 2e 30 2e 30 2e 31 32 20 52 31 2e 34 32 2e 30 20 66 6f 72 20 44 33 33 38 34 2d 41 31 78". You just need to convert the hex values to ascii characters to see the actual string.

Here is an example.

$ for c in $(ipmitool -I lanplus -H 192.168.10.10 -U admin -P admin raw 0x2e 0xe0 0x80 0x28 0x00 0x01 0x00 0x02 0x02 |tr '\n' ' ' | cut -d' ' -f6-); do echo -n $c |xxd -r -p; done; echo ""
V5.0.0.12 R1.42.0 for D3383-A1x

In the above example, as you can see, the response shows the BIOS version is "V5.0.0.12 R1.42.0 for D3383-A1x".