Configuring Network Boot on Fujitsu Primergy

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 AN!Wiki :: How To :: Configuring Network Boot on Fujitsu Primergy

Note: This mini-tutorial was written as a compendium to the Anvil! m2 Tutorial.

This tutorial will show you how to boot a Fujitsu server off of a PXE server, as is often done when using a Striker dashboard as an install target.

Enter the BIOS

Note: There may be slight variations in the appearance and layout of your BIOS, though you should have no trouble finding what you need.
Fujitsu Primergy S8 - BIOS - Press <F2> during initial POST.

When you first power on a Fujitsu Primergy server, it will take a minute or so for anything to show on the screen. This is normal, particularly after AC was disconnected.

When it does show the first screen, you will see a prompt to press <F2> to enter the BIOS.

Press <F2> and then wait.

The machine will continue to boot, scanning the RAID controller in the process. Once done, it will enter the BIOS scree.

Fujitsu Primergy S8 - BIOS - Main page

The first page you will see is the Main BIOS page.

Enabling 'PXE' (Network) Booting

Most Anvil! systems use three separate dual-port network cards. The first two ports are usually built into the server and the other two are add-in cards.

If you aren't sure which is which, you can simply enable all of them as bootable cards.

The goal of this tutorial is to make life easy, if not efficient, so we will cover how to enable all interfaces as bootable devices.

Enabling Booting from onboard NICs

Note: To navigate the BIOS pages, use your left and right arrow keys. One you are on the page you want, press the up and down keys to moved between the items. Press '<enter>' to edit an item's value.
Fujitsu Primergy S8 - BIOS - Advanced page

Press the 'right' arrow key to switch to the 'Advanced' page.

Fujitsu Primergy S8 - BIOS - Onboard Devices Configuration page

Press the 'down' key to highlight "Onboard Devices Configuration" and press '<enter>'.

Fujitsu Primergy S8 - BIOS - LAN Oprom settings

You will an option to enable or disable the onboard LAN (network) interfaces followed by an option to set if each is bootable and, if so, using what protocol.

Select each 'LAN X Oprom' that is not set to 'PXE', press '<enter>' and select the 'PXE' option. Press '<enter>' again to make the change.

Some trivia;

  • Oprom is short for "Option ROM" (itself an acronym for "Read Only Memory) and is used by the hardware to determine where to look for bootable devices.
  • iSCSI is a way to use raw storage from a device on the network as if it was a local hard drive. Setting a NIC to 'iSCSI' boot mode tells the system to reach out over the network to find its "hard drive" to boot from.
Fujitsu Primergy S8 - BIOS - PXE booting enabled

Now we can select either onboard interface to boot off of!

Note: It's outside the scope of this tutorial, but if you have hardware RAID and no optical drive, you can disable the onboard SATA to reduce boot times.
Fujitsu Primergy S8 - BIOS - Save and Exit page

Now to save and exit.

Press the '<esc>' key to return to the 'Advanced' page and then use the right arrow key to navigate to the 'Save and Edit' page. Select 'Save changes and Reset' and press '<enter>'.

Enabling booting from add-in NICs

Note: Most Anvil! systems use one of the onboard NICs for the connection to the Back-Channel Network, which is what we will use to boot the node off of the Striker dashboard. So for most people, this section is not needed.

If you want to enable booting off of add-in network cards, you will need to tell the BIOS to look at them during boot.

Fujitsu Primergy RX200 S8 - Mainboard layout label

To do this, you need to know which PCIe slot the add-in card is plugged into. Depending on your hardware server model, this should either be stamped into the metal near each expansion slot and/or shown on a label inside the server itself.

Once you know which PCIe slots your add-in network cards are in, you're ready to enable them!

Boot the computer and press <F2> to go back into the BIOS as before.

Fujitsu Primergy S8 - BIOS - Advanced -> Option ROM Configuration

Navigate to the 'Advanced' menu and go down to the "Option ROM Configuration" item and press '<enter>'.

Fujitsu Primergy S8 - BIOS - Option ROM Configuration menu

Change the 'Launch Slot X OpROM' to 'Enabled' for the slots with NICs installed in them.

Once done, as above, press '<esc>' to return to the 'Advanced' menu, then use the arrow keys to go to the 'Save and Exit' page and then choose the 'Save changes and Reset' option.

Booting from the network

Note: The screen prompting for you to press '<F12>' to select boot might pass quickly. You can start pressing '<F12>' before seeing the prompt and it will still provide the boot selection menu.
Fujitsu Primergy S8 - BIOS boot prompt

During the boot of the machine, you will see a prompt to press '<F12>' to "enter Boot Menu".

Press '<F12>' and then wait. The machine needs to scan a few things, like the RAID controller, before the boot device selection window appears.

Fujitsu Primergy S8 - Boot device menu

And there you have it!

Missing NICs in Boot Menu

In some cases, the add-in Intel-based cards have their PXE booting disabled. In these cases, simply enabling the OpROM in the BIOS is not enough to enable PXE booting.

If, after following the earlier steps. you still don't see your Add-In cards as bootable options when you press <F12>, you will need to enable the controller's boot firmware.

Note: This next process requires RHEL or CentOS be installed. If you do not have an OS yet, please use a USB DVD drive to install EL6 64-bit traditionally.

Downloading the Intel BootUtil

We are going to need to use a tool from Intel called BootUtil to change the controller's firmware.

Visit the Intel Boot Agent download page and then click on "Download Intel Ethernet Flash Firmware Utility" and then click on "Preboot.tar.gz". Agree to the EULA and then save the file.

Copy the Preboot.tar.gz file to your node.

Go to the directory you saved it to on the node and extract it:

tar -xvf Preboot.tar.gz
APPS/
APPS/BootUtil/
APPS/BootUtil/BootIMG.FLB
APPS/BootUtil/Docs/
APPS/BootUtil/Docs/bootutil.txt
APPS/BootUtil/iv.txt
APPS/BootUtil/Linux32/
APPS/BootUtil/Linux32/bootutil32
APPS/BootUtil/Linux32/DRIVER/
APPS/BootUtil/Linux32/DRIVER/install
APPS/BootUtil/Linux32/DRIVER/iqvlinux-1.1.4.12-0.noarch.rpm
APPS/BootUtil/Linux32/DRIVER/iqvlinux.tar.gz
APPS/BootUtil/Linux32/DRIVER/license_gpl.txt
APPS/BootUtil/Linux_x64/
APPS/BootUtil/Linux_x64/bootutil64e
APPS/BootUtil/Linux_x64/DRIVER/
APPS/BootUtil/Linux_x64/DRIVER/install
APPS/BootUtil/Linux_x64/DRIVER/iqvlinux-1.1.4.12-0.noarch.rpm
APPS/BootUtil/Linux_x64/DRIVER/iqvlinux.tar.gz
APPS/BootUtil/Linux_x64/DRIVER/license_gpl.txt
APPS/BootUtil/readme.txt
APPS/iSCSI/
APPS/iSCSI/Linux/
APPS/iSCSI/Linux/RHEL4/
APPS/iSCSI/Linux/RHEL4/HOWTO
APPS/iSCSI/Linux/RHEL4/iSCSIBoot.tar.gz
APPS/iSCSI/Linux/RHEL4/license_gpl.txt
APPS/iSCSI/Linux/SLES9/
APPS/iSCSI/Linux/SLES9/HOWTO
DOCS/
DOCS/Adapter_User_Guide.pdf
DOCS/intelogo.gif
DOCS/nics.jpg
DOCS/QUICK/
DOCS/QUICK/CHS/
DOCS/QUICK/CHS/legaldis.htm
DOCS/QUICK/CHS/license.htm
DOCS/QUICK/CHS/note.gif
DOCS/QUICK/CHS/qi_chs.htm
DOCS/QUICK/CHS/style.css
DOCS/QUICK/CHS/warranty.htm
DOCS/QUICK/chs.gif
DOCS/QUICK/CHT/
DOCS/QUICK/CHT/legaldis.htm
DOCS/QUICK/CHT/license.htm
DOCS/QUICK/CHT/note.gif
DOCS/QUICK/CHT/qi_cht.htm
DOCS/QUICK/CHT/style.css
DOCS/QUICK/CHT/warranty.htm
DOCS/QUICK/cht.gif
DOCS/QUICK/DEU/
DOCS/QUICK/DEU/legaldis.htm
DOCS/QUICK/DEU/license.htm
DOCS/QUICK/DEU/note.gif
DOCS/QUICK/DEU/qi_deu.htm
DOCS/QUICK/DEU/style.css
DOCS/QUICK/DEU/warranty.htm
DOCS/QUICK/deu.png
DOCS/QUICK/ENU/
DOCS/QUICK/ENU/legaldis.htm
DOCS/QUICK/ENU/license.htm
DOCS/QUICK/ENU/note.gif
DOCS/QUICK/ENU/qi_enu.htm
DOCS/QUICK/ENU/style.css
DOCS/QUICK/ENU/warranty.htm
DOCS/QUICK/enu.png
DOCS/QUICK/ESN/
DOCS/QUICK/ESN/legaldis.htm
DOCS/QUICK/ESN/license.htm
DOCS/QUICK/ESN/note.gif
DOCS/QUICK/ESN/qi_esn.htm
DOCS/QUICK/ESN/style.css
DOCS/QUICK/ESN/warranty.htm
DOCS/QUICK/esn.png
DOCS/QUICK/FRA/
DOCS/QUICK/FRA/legaldis.htm
DOCS/QUICK/FRA/license.htm
DOCS/QUICK/FRA/note.gif
DOCS/QUICK/FRA/qi_fra.htm
DOCS/QUICK/FRA/style.css
DOCS/QUICK/FRA/warranty.htm
DOCS/QUICK/fra.png
DOCS/QUICK/ITA/
DOCS/QUICK/ITA/legaldis.htm
DOCS/QUICK/ITA/license.htm
DOCS/QUICK/ITA/note.gif
DOCS/QUICK/ITA/qi_ita.htm
DOCS/QUICK/ITA/style.css
DOCS/QUICK/ITA/warranty.htm
DOCS/QUICK/ita.png
DOCS/QUICK/JPN/
DOCS/QUICK/JPN/legaldis.htm
DOCS/QUICK/JPN/license.htm
DOCS/QUICK/JPN/note.gif
DOCS/QUICK/JPN/qi_jpn.htm
DOCS/QUICK/JPN/style.css
DOCS/QUICK/JPN/warranty.htm
DOCS/QUICK/jpn.gif
DOCS/QUICK/KOR/
DOCS/QUICK/KOR/legaldis.htm
DOCS/QUICK/KOR/license.htm
DOCS/QUICK/KOR/note.gif
DOCS/QUICK/KOR/qi_kor.htm
DOCS/QUICK/KOR/style.css
DOCS/QUICK/KOR/warranty.htm
DOCS/QUICK/kor.gif
DOCS/QUICK/PTB/
DOCS/QUICK/PTB/legaldis.htm
DOCS/QUICK/PTB/license.htm
DOCS/QUICK/PTB/note.gif
DOCS/QUICK/PTB/qi_ptb.htm
DOCS/QUICK/PTB/style.css
DOCS/QUICK/PTB/warranty.htm
DOCS/QUICK/ptb.png
DOCS/QUICK/quick.htm
DOCS/QUICK/style.css
DOCS/Remote_Boot_and_Storage_Guide.pdf
DOCS/style.css
DOCS/ugtitle.gif
RelNotes.rtf
butitle.gif
index.htm
intelogo.gif
legaldis.htm
license.htm
nics.jpg
readme.txt
style.css
verfile.tic
warranty.htm

Now change into the APPS/BootUtil/Linux_x64/ directory.

cd APPS/BootUtil/Linux_x64/

By default, the utility is not executable, so the last step is to fix that. As the root user, run:

chmod 755 bootutil64e 
ls -lah
total 5.9M
drwxr-xr-x. 3 1000 1000 4.0K Jan  9 18:52 .
drwxr-xr-x. 5 1000 1000 4.0K Jan  9 19:12 ..
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 1000 1000 5.9M Sep  6 12:04 bootutil64e
drwxr-xr-x. 2 1000 1000 4.0K Oct 28 16:55 DRIVER

Done!

Using bootutil64e

First, let's look at the current installed adapters:

./bootutil64e -E
Intel(R) Ethernet Flash Firmware Utility
BootUtil version 1.5.32.0
Copyright (C) 2003-2014 Intel Corporation

NIC= 1 MACAddress=901B0E0D044D
NIC= 2 MACAddress=901B0E0D044E
NIC= 3 MACAddress=901B0E0D044D
NIC= 4 MACAddress=901B0E0D039E
NIC= 5 MACAddress=901B0E0D044E
NIC= 6 MACAddress=901B0E0D039E

Port Network Address Location Series  WOL Flash Firmware                Version
==== =============== ======== ======= === ============================= =======
  1   901B0E0D044D     3:00.0 10GbE   YES FLASH Disabled
  2   901B0E0D044E     3:00.1 10GbE   N/A FLASH Disabled
  3   901B0E0D044D     5:00.0 10GbE   YES FLASH Disabled
  4   901B0E0D039E     5:00.1 10GbE   N/A FLASH Disabled
  5   901B0E0D044E     8:00.0 Gigabit YES FLASH Not Present
  6   901B0E0D039E     8:00.1 Gigabit YES FLASH Not Present

In this case, the first four interfaces on our two dual-port 10Gbps adapters. Note that the "Flash Firmware" is listed as "Disabled"? This tells up we need to update their configuration.

We want all to be PXE bootable, so we're going to run:

./bootutil64e -FLASHENABLE -ALL
Intel(R) Ethernet Flash Firmware Utility
BootUtil version 1.5.32.0
Copyright (C) 2003-2014 Intel Corporation

Enabling boot ROM on port 1...Success

Reboot the system to enable the boot ROM on this port

Enabling boot ROM on port 2...Success

Reboot the system to enable the boot ROM on this port

Enabling boot ROM on port 3...Success

Reboot the system to enable the boot ROM on this port

Enabling boot ROM on port 4...Success

Reboot the system to enable the boot ROM on this port

Enabling boot ROM on port 5...
ERROR: Unsupported feature

Enabling boot ROM on port 6...
ERROR: Unsupported feature

Port Network Address Location Series  WOL Flash Firmware                Version
==== =============== ======== ======= === ============================= =======
  1   901B0E0D044D     3:00.0 10GbE   YES Reboot Required
  2   901B0E0D044E     3:00.1 10GbE   N/A Reboot Required
  3   901B0E0D044D     5:00.0 10GbE   YES Reboot Required
  4   901B0E0D039E     5:00.1 10GbE   N/A Reboot Required
  5   901B0E0D044E     8:00.0 Gigabit YES FLASH Not Present
  6   901B0E0D039E     8:00.1 Gigabit YES FLASH Not Present
Note: Ignore the errors on ports 5 and 6, these are the onboard adapters and the command wasn't needed on them.

Now reboot.

reboot
Broadcast message from root@an-c07n01.alteeve.ca
	(/dev/pts/1) at 20:46 ...

The system is going down for reboot NOW!

That's it!

Fujitsu Primergy S8 - BIOS boot prompt - All NICs now PXE bootable

When the node reboots, you should be able to see all adapters as PXE bootable when you press <F12> during the boot process.

Done!

From here, you can pick up what to do next back at the main tutorial:

 

Any questions, feedback, advice, complaints or meanderings are welcome.
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