This section describes how to use the N1 System Manager to discover servers through their OS. The N1 System Manager provides a limited level of support for managed servers that are discovered using OS-based discovery. For more information, see Capability of Managed Servers Based on Discovery.
Use OS-based discovery to allow the N1 System Manager to find and manage servers that have an operating system already installed, even if the manageable servers are running on a configuration where access to their service processors is not possible. For details on the configuration of provisioning and management networks, see Sun N1 System Manager Connection Information in Sun N1 System Manager 1.3 Site Preparation Guide.
To enable OS-based discovery, use the n1smconfig script. See Configuring the N1 System Manager in Sun N1 System Manager 1.3 Installation and Configuration Guide for details about running the n1smconfig script.
By default, the OS-based discovery feature is turned off.
To avoid discovering the same server more than once, do not issue the discover commands within the OS IP address space once OS-based discovery has been enabled. Only issue these commands, for example, if you have a platform itself whose service processor is not supported by the N1 System Manager, or have networking constraints that prohibit the use of a management network. For details about discovering duplicate servers, see Discovering and Identifying Duplicate Servers.
Using OS-based discovery, you can discover a manageable server through its provisioning network interface (its provisioning IP address, referred to as its OS IP address). After the server is discovered, you can change the OS IP address using the set server command with the ip configuration attribute.
For OS-based discovery of a server, the server's OS must be supported by the N1 System Manager. All of the operating systems listed in Manageable Server Requirements in Sun N1 System Manager 1.3 Site Preparation Guide are supported for OS-based discovery by the N1 System Manager, with the exception of Microsoft Windows.
OS-based discovery of managed servers that run the Microsoft Windows operating system is not possible in this release.
OS-based discovery for each supported operating system has been officially qualified on supported hardware models for that operating system. The hardware supported by the N1 System Manager for each OS is described in Sun N1 System Manager Hardware and OS Requirements in Sun N1 System Manager 1.3 Site Preparation Guide.
The N1 System Manager can provision an OS on a managed server that was discovered by OS-based discovery, only if that managed server and target OS combination is supported by the N1 System Manager.
The To Discover Manageable Servers Using OS-Based Discovery Using the Command Line procedure shows how to use the command line to execute the task. You can also use the browser interface to execute this procedure. Use the discover button in the Servers table to call the Discover Servers wizard. See the Sun N1 System Manager 1.3 Online Help for details.
As shown by Table 2–6, you cannot execute the discover command without having the JobRead privilege.
Servers discovered through their OS are not monitored for hardware health, as indicated in Table 4–1.
Before you discover a new hardware component, read Chapter 2, Sun N1 System Manager System and Network Preparation, in Sun N1 System Manager 1.3 Site Preparation Guide for details on setting up a server for discovery.
This procedure focuses on using the command line of the N1 System Manager.
The manageable server must be powered on and have a running OS before being discovered. The OS must be supported by the N1 System Manager. See Software Requirements for OS-Based Discovery for details.
Before attempting to discover a manageable server using OS-based discovery, the OS-based discovery feature must be enabled. To enable OS discovery, use the n1smconfig script. See Configuring the N1 System Manager in Sun N1 System Manager 1.3 Installation and Configuration Guide for details about running the n1smconfig script.
Do not use the N1 System Manager to discover servers that have system management software installed on them such as Sun Management Center, Sun Control Station, and any other system management applications including the N1 System Manager.
Use the discover command to discover a server through its OS.
N1-ok> discover IP,IP-IP,subnet/mask [group group] ssh username/password |
IP addresses, IP address ranges, and IP subnets can be input as a comma-separated list. Overlapping IP address ranges are allowed. See Sun N1 System Manager 1.3 Site Preparation Guide for information about the default accounts.
For OS-based discovery, SSH credentials should be provided. If not specified, default SSH credentials of root/admin are read.
When you specify the range of IP addresses for discovery, ensure that the IP address range does not include the IP addresses of the N1 System Manager management server.
See discover in Sun N1 System Manager 1.3 Command Line Reference Manual for more details about the syntax used in the discover command.
After successful completion of the Discovery job, a managed server is identified by its management name. If the server was discovered using OS-based discovery, its management name is initially set to the server's provisioning (or OS) IP address. You can rename discovered servers at any time.
The following example of the discover command shows how to discover manageable servers through their OS. The servers have the following OS (or provisioning network) IP addresses: 192.168.1.1–192.168.1.3, 192.168.1.5-192.168.1.95, and 192.168.1.107.
N1-ok> discover 192.168.1.1-192.168.1.3,192.168.1.5-192.168.1.95,192.168.1.107 group dev ssh root/admin Job 3 started. |
The group subcommand adds the successfully discovered servers into a server group called dev. The ssh option specifies the user name and password configured for access on the management port. In this example, the SSH user name root and password admin are used to authenticate OS-based discovery.
The following example command shows how to view the Discovery job and the job status.
N1-ok> show job all Job ID Date Type Status Owner 3 2005-06-28T06:53:53-0700 Discovery Completed root |
The following example command shows how to verify that the discovered servers were added to the server group.
N1-ok> show group all Name us Jobs Servers Spare dev 7 |
The following example command shows how to view the list of managed servers in the group and the power and hardware health status.
N1-ok> show group dev Name Hardware Hardware Health Power OS Usage OS Resource Health 192.168.1.1 V20z Good On -- Uninitialized 192.168.1.2 V20z Good On -- Uninitialized 192.168.1.5 V40z Good On -- Uninitialized 192.168.1.15 NETRA-240 Good On -- Uninitialized 192.168.1.25 X4100 Good On -- Uninitialized 192.168.1.95 X4200 Good On -- Uninitialized 192.168.1.107 SF-V240 Good On -- Uninitialized |
The following example shows how to view the discovered servers.
N1-ok> show server all Name Hardware Hardware Health Power OS Usage OS Resource Health 192.168.1.1 V20z Good On -- Uninitialized 192.168.1.2 V20z Good On -- Uninitialized 192.168.1.5 V40z Good On -- Uninitialized 192.168.1.15 NETRA-240 Good On -- Uninitialized 192.168.1.25 X4100 Good On -- Uninitialized 192.168.1.95 X4200 Good On -- Uninitialized 192.168.1.107 SF-V240 Good On -- Uninitialized 192.168.1.200 V20z Good On -- Uninitialized 192.168.1.245 V40z Good On -- Uninitialized 192.168.1.255 NETRA-240 Good On -- Uninitialized |
The following example of the discover command shows how to discover any manageable servers through their OS, using the netmask. The servers have OS IP addresses assigned in the 192.168.1.0/8 netmask.
N1-ok> discover 192.168.1.0/8 ssh root/admin Job 18 started. |
The discover command credential attributes are used for security. SSH credentials are required for OS-based discovery. If not specified, SSH credentials or root/admin are used by the N1 System Manager.
For information about default credentials, see Setting Up Manageable Servers in Sun N1 System Manager 1.3 Site Preparation Guide.
Discovery might fail due to stale SSH entries on the management server. If the discover command fails with an error message indicating that there are invalid credentials or SSH key changed: Cannot connect to host and no true security breach has occurred, remove the known_hosts file or the specific entry in the file that corresponds to the managed server. Then, retry the discover command. See To Update the ssh_known_hosts File in Sun N1 System Manager 1.3 Troubleshooting Guide for details.
The problem of stale SSH entries on the management server can be avoided if, during the n1smconfig configuration process, you modify SSH policies by accepting changed or unknown host keys. Accepting changed or unknown host keys carries a security risk but avoids the problem of stale SSH entries on the management server. For more information, see To Configure the N1 System Manager in Sun N1 System Manager 1.3 Installation and Configuration Guide.
Some commands are not supported for managed servers that were discovered through OS-based discovery. See Capability of Managed Servers Based on Discovery for details about which features are not available for managed servers that were discovered through OS-based discovery. Unsupported commands generate the following error:
Unsupported operation
This error is displayed either in the job status or immediately in the command line interface.
The OS does not belong to the server in question if the add command fails with the following error:
Internal error: No mac address match found
Discovery can fail with the following error message:
Check the Standard Output field for possible reasons for this failure
To see the Standard Output field, check the job details in the browser interface or by using the show job command with the job number of the discovery job that failed.
Discovery might fail due to a firmware version problem with drivers. See Cannot Discover a Manageable Server in Sun N1 System Manager 1.3 Troubleshooting Guide for details.
Sun N1 System Manager 1.3 Site Preparation Guide and Troubleshooting Discovery.
Open the server's serial console. To view information about accessing a server's serial console, in the Sun N1 System Manager Online Help, find the topic `To Open the Serial Console for a Server'.