Deploy a Chassis Pattern to set IBM Flex System V7000 Storage Node static IP Address completes Wwith errors - IBM Flex Systems

Resolving The Problem

Source

RETAIN tip: H211738

Symptom

Deployment of Chassis Configuration Pattern fails when a Node sub-pattern is included with configuration settings that involve configuring the Internet Protocol (IP) Management Interface of a IBM Flex System V7000 Storage Node to Static IP Addresses only.

The particular errors written to the job log of the pattern deployment process are similar to following messages:

Note: This issue occurs only when the storage system has been set up previously for Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) only addressing. If the storage system has been set up previously for DHCP with fallback to Static IP (the manufacturing default), or Static IP Address only, this issue does not occur.

Affected configurations

The system can be any of the following IBM servers:

• Flex System Manager Node, type 7955, any model
• Flex System Manager Node, type 8731, any model
• Flex System Manager Node, type 8734, any model

This tip is not software specific.

This tip is not option specific.

The following system BIOS/uEFI level is affected:

Management Interface for IBM Flex System V7000 Storage Node

The system has the symptom described above.

Solution

This behavior will be corrected in a future release of IBM Flex System Manager.

The target date for this release is fourth quarter 2014.

The file is or will be available by selecting the appropriate Product Group, type of System, Product name, Product machine type, and Operating system on IBM Support's Fix Central web page, at the following URL:

Workaround

Use the Chassis Management Module (CMM) interfacing to change IBM Flex System V7000 Storage Node to use DHCP with fallback to Static IP Address mode, or to Static IP Address only mode, prior to using Configuration Patterns to manage the static IP addresses. After this change, static IP addresses assigned to the node will be changed successfully.

Additional information

Enabling IBM Flex System V7000 Storage Nodes to use static IP address for its management interface prior to deploying the Chassis Configuration Pattern causes the commands in the profile to be issued in the order listed in the profile, without error.

The issue occurs due to listing ifconfig commands in the chassis profile in improper order. Because the command to assign the static IP address is listed first, and therefore issued first, the command fails if the node is currently in DHCP only mode when the profile is applied.

The manufacturing default configuration is DHCP with fallback to Static IP Address mode, which is not a scenario that exhibits this failure. To experience this problem, the user would have to first set the storage node up for DHCP only addressing, and then use Configuration Patterns to change from DHCP only mode to either DHCP with fallback to Static IP Address mode, or to Static IP Address only mode. This is believed to be an uncommon scenario.