Contents

IntroductionPrerequisitesRequirementsQualified ServiersMinimum Firmware VersionsSupported PCiE CardsSupported Hypervisor versionsSupported Browser VersionsConfigureDeploying Cisco IMC SupervisorChanging the Default PasswordLicensing InformationDiscovering a ServerAdding A Rack GroupAdding a Rack AccountMail Setup ConfigurationFirmware UpgradeExporting Technical Support Data to a Remote ServerVerifyTroubleshootRelated Cisco Support Community Discussions

Introduction

Cisco Integrated Management Controller (IMC) Supervisor is a management system that allowsyou to manage rack mount servers on a large scale.

You can use Cisco IMC Supervisor to perform the following tasks for a rack mount server:

Support for logical grouping of servers and summary views per group●

Collect inventory for the servers●

Provide monitoring capabilities for servers and groups●

Firmware management including firmware download, upgrade, and activation●

Manage standalone server actions including power control, LED control, log collection,Keyboard/Video/Mouse (KVM) launch, CIMC User Interface launch and e-mail alerts

●

Role Based Access Control (RBAC) to restrict access and capabilities.●

Prerequisites

Cisco recommends that you have knowledge of Cisco C-Series and E-Series servers.

Requirements

Qualified Serviers

UCS C-Series Servers

Cisco UCS C-220 M3●

Cisco UCS C-240 M3●

Cisco UCS C-220 M4●

Cisco UCS C-240 M4●

Cisco UCS C-22 M3●

Cisco UCS C-24 M3●

Cisco UCS C-420 M3●

Cisco UCS C-460 M4●

UCS E-Series Servers

Cisco UCS E-140S M2●

Cisco UCS E-160D M2●

Cisco UCS EN120E M2●

Cisco UCS EN120S M2●

Cisco UCS E-180D M2●

Cisco UCS E-140S M1●

Cisco UCS E-140D M1●

Cisco UCS E-160D M1●

Cisco UCS E-140DP M1●

Cisco UCS E-160DP M1●

Minimum Firmware Versions

Servers MinimumFirmwareVersion

UCS C-series Servers 1.5(4) and laterUCS E-series Servers 2.3.1 and later

Supported PCiE Cards

Cisco UCS Virtual Interface Card (VIC) 1225●

Cisco UCS VIC 1225T●

Supported Hypervisor versions

ESXi 5.1●

Supported Browser Versions

Cisco IMC Supervisor supports the following browsers:

Internet Explorer 8 or higher●

Google Chrome 4.1 or higher●

Firefox 3.5 or higher●

Safari 4.0 or higher (for Apple Mac or Microsoft Windows)●

Browsers require the Adobe Flash Player plug-in version 11 or higher.

Configure

Deploying Cisco IMC Supervisor

1. Complete these steps to deploy Cisco IMC Supervisor

a.  In order to download the zip file for Cisco IMC Supervisor from Cisco com, navigate toProducts > Servers-Unified 

    Computing > Integrated Management Conroller (IMC) Supervisor

 b.  Select IMC Supervisor 1.0

c.  Click Download

 d. In order to deploy the OVA, click File, and select Deploy OVF Template

 e. Continue through the step-by-step process in order to deploy the Open Virtualization Format(OVF) Template as shown:

Note: In the Disk Format pane, choose one of the following radio buttons and click Next

Thin Provisioned format—To allocate storage on demand as data is written to disk.●

Thick Provisioned (Lazy Zeroed) format —To allocate storage immediately in thick format.●

Thick Provisioned (Eager Zeroed) format —To allocate storage in thick format. It might takelonger to create disks using this option.

●

 f. Select the appropriate port-group for the Virtual Machine (VM) networking

g. Click Finish

h. Open the console of the VM and accept the License agreement

i. Once done, enter y to configure a static IP.

j. If you want to use DHCP, enter n to ensure that IP addresses are assigned automatically.  

k. If you want to use static IP address, enter y and then you will be prompted to select IPV4 orIPV6. Enter V4 to configure 

  IPV4 and then enter the following information:

IP addressGatewayNetmask●

Note    Currently, only IPv4 is supported for configuring static IP addresses.

 l. After the appliance has booted up, transfer the Cisco IMC Supervisor IP address into asupported web browser to access

    the l page.

On the Login page, enter admin as the username and admin for the login password.

Note    You can change your admin password after this initial login.

 This is how the UI of Cisco IMC Supervisor looks

Changing the Default Password

2. Complete the following steps to change the default password.

a. Navigate to  Administration > Users

b. Click the Login Users tab

c. From the list of users, select the user role for which you want to change the password.

d. C Change Password

e. After specifying the new password, click Save and Click OK on the Submit Result.

Licensing Information

3. Cisco IMC Supervisor requires you to have the following valid licenses:

•A Cisco IMC Supervisor base license.•A Cisco IMC Supervisor bulk endpoint enablement license that you install after the Cisco IMCSupervisor base license

Note:  Unless we have these licenses, tasks like grouping servers into a Rack Account etc.,cannot be performed.

Discovering a Server

4. Perform the following actions to discover server(s)

a. Navigate to System > Physical Accounts > Discovered Devices

b. Click on Configure 

c. In the Discovery Configuration Criteria dialog box you can either create a new profile or editan existing profile.

d. Creation of a new profile is as shown

e. In the Search Criteria, you could choose the appropriate method for discovering the servers.

f. Choosing IP Address List, for this example

g. Enter the IP Address of the server you want to discover.

h. Enter the User Name and the Password that you use to login to the server. (CIMC credentials)

 i. Once the profile is created, click on Discover and choose the profile.

j. After selecting the appropriate profile, click Submit and cick OK on Submit Result.

k. If the device(s) in your profile don't match the minimum supported criteria, the reason for thedevice not being discovered is

   listed in the status section.

Adding A Rack Group

5. Perform this procedure when you want to add a new Rack Group in Cisco IMC Supervisor

a. Navigate to Systems > Physical Accounts > Rack Groups

b. Click Create.

c. Specify a Group Name and a Description.

d. Click Create.

d. Once created, the group name should show up

Adding a Rack Account

6. Perform this procedure when you want to add a new Rack Group in Cisco IMC Supervisor

Step 1   From the menu bar, choose System > Physical AccountsStep 2   Click the Rack Accounts tab.Step 3   Click Add (+)Step 4   In the Create Account dialog box, complete the following fields

Field DescriptionAccount Name field A descriptive name for the Rack Account.Server IP field The IP address of the rack mount server.Description field (Optional) A description of the Rack Account.Use Credential Policycheck box

(Optional) If you have already created credential policies, then check this box to selectthe policy from the drop-down list.

If you check Use Credential Policy check boxCredential Policy drop-down list

Choose a policy from the drop-down list.

If you uncheck Use Credential Policy check boxUser Name field Login ID for the rack mount server.Password field Password for the login ID for the rack mount server.Protocol drop-down list Choose https or http from the list.Port field The port number associated with the selected protocol.Rack Group drop-downlist

Choose a rack group from the list.

Contact field (Optional) The contact email address for the account.Location field (Optional) The location of the account.

a. In the drop down for Rack Group, we could either choose the Default Group or the Group wedefined earlier.

b. Once this action is complete, the specified servers should fall under the Rack Group we select.

Mail Setup Configuration

7. Perform this procedure to configure your setup mail

a. Navigate to Administration > Mail Setup

b. Fill the details requested.

c. You could select the Send Test Email check box and check if you got the test mail on the mailaddress you provided.

 d. You should then receive the test mail.

e. In the same section, navigate to Email Alert Rules and check the Enable Alert check box.

Note: At this point in time (with release 1.0 of Cisco IMC Supervisor) , we support notification foronly critical and higher level faults.

 f. If your system were to encounter a critical fault, you should get a mail as such, provided yourmail setup is working fine.

Firmware Upgrade

8. Perform this procedure when you want to upgrade the firmware.

a. Navigate to Systems > Physical Accounts

b. Click the Firmware Upgrades tab

c. Click Configure Profile.

d. In the Download Firmware dialog box you can either create a new profile or edit an existingprofile.

Field DescriptionSelect Profile drop-down list Select <New> from the drop-down list.Profile Name Field A descriptive name for the profile.

Download Option drop-down list Choose one of the following options:Local HTTP Server—The .iso image is stored in the local Cisco IMCSupervisor.● Network Path—The .iso image is stored in the network.●

User Name (cisco.com) field Enter your Cisco login user name.Password (cisco.com) field Enter your Cisco login password.Enable Proxy Configurationcheckbox

(Optional) Check this checkbox to enable proxy configuration andcomplete the following:Host Name field - Enter a host name for the proxy configuration.● Port field - Enter the port for the proxy configuration.●

Enable Proxy Authenticationcheckbox

(Optional) Check this checkbox to enable proxy authentication andcomplete the following:Proxy User Name field - Enter a proxy user name for the proxyauthentication.● Proxy Password field - Enter the password for the proxy user name.●

Platform drop-down list Choose a platform from the drop-down list.Available Image drop-down list Choose the .iso image from the drop-down list.

e. Configuring a new profile in this example.

f. Choosing Network Path as the Download Option for this example. (You have CIFS and NFS asoptions)

g. Click Submit

h. Click Upgrade Image

i . Click on Select Servers to selct the server(s) that we want to upgrade

j. Selecting a single server for this example.

k. Click Select.

l. The selected server is shown.

m. Click Submit.

 Note: If you are upgrading to Cisco IMC version 2.0(x), you must change the default Cisco IMCpassword.

n. To check the status of the upgrade, navigate to System > Inventory and Fault Status

o. Expand Rack Groups, choose the appropriate group into which the servers were populatedearlier.

p. Click on Rack Servers and choose the appropriate server.

q. Once this is done, an additional row with remote options should pop up.

r. Choose KVM Console from this row and you should be able to see the upgrade in action.

Exporting Technical Support Data to a Remote Server

9. Perform the following actions to extract Technical Support Data.

a. Navigate to Systems > Inventory and Fault Status.

b. Expand Rack Groups and select the Rack Group which contains the server(s).

c. Select the Rack Servers tab.

d. Double-click the sever from the list to view the details or click the sever from the list and click

the down arrow on the far

   right and choose View Details.

e. Click the Tech Support tab.

f. Choose the appropriate method to upload the files.

g. Choosing TFTP for this example.

h. Click Submit.

i. The snap shot shows that the logs were successfully uploaded to the specified location.