Question

Unable launch Direct Console in IPMI

  • 15 February 2020
  • 5 replies
  • 3704 views

Hello, first time to use IPMI. Need to mount ISOt to re-install ESXi. So I’m trying to launch Direct Console from IPMI (note that I just reinstalled Java). but still not launching. Any idea? Nutanix Support wasn’t helpful.


This topic has been closed for comments

5 replies

Badge

Hi @Rominee 

I don’t know the answer, but here’s some information for you to consider:

  1. What hardware are you using (that has IPMI)? 
  2. What browser are you using? It might work with one browser and not another.
  3. If you open the developer tools, (Ctrl-Shift-I on Chrome), do you see any error messages on the console? That will tell you more if there’s a browser issue.
Userlevel 3
Badge +4

If you have IPMI (assuming you’re using SuperMicro), use the html5 console instead of the java one, much easier

Badge

HI @Rominee - Its unfortunate that you did not receive help from Nutanix Support. Let me see how I can help. Can you kindly share the below details:

 

1.) Are you able to ping your IPMI IP from the system where you are launching your browser to point to your IPMI IP? If no, then there could be some network issues.

2.) You can also try mounting the ISO from a working CVM provided, you are able to ping the IPMI IP from the CVM that you are trying to mount the ISO from. You can follow the procedure outlined in the below KB:

https://portal.nutanix.com/#/page/kbs/details?targetId=kA032000000bn1xCAA

If you are not able to access the above link, kindly let us know and I shall share the steps.

Userlevel 3
Badge +4

@Rominee you might be seeing the issue described in IPMI Java Console Fails to Open due to Connection Failed

If you want to share the specific error you are getting I may be able to give a direct answer. I would suggest to try that KB article and see if the steps provided are able to resolve your issue. 
I do not normally encounter any issue. I click on the preview image of the console and get a “launch” file which opens in Java. That file has the network address and port, and a currently valid key which is tied to your IPMI browser session, so do not close that or log out when trying to open the console. 
So long as the port isn’t closed on the IPMI and you have a current version of the JRE installed on your workstation this normally should work. 
If you cannot get the Java console working but you have an up to date BMC firmware on your node, you should be able to use the html5 console and then mount the ISO from a neighboring CVM using the methods described at the KB linked in the last post. 

Userlevel 4
Badge +5

Hello @Rominee 

If you’re not able to use the Direct console JAVA Applet, we might have some other options to mount the iso to the host if mounting through another CVM is also not possible.

You can download the SMCIPMITOOL from their website and use your system to connect to the ipmi shell and upload the iso using the steps mentioned in the KB mentioned by Stalin. 
This is sometimes useful if there is no network connectivity between CVM and the node, and we are using a crash kart to install the hypervisor.