Changing boot order in BIOS on IBM xSeries servers without RSAII (using ASU)

April 25, 2012

Today I faced challenge where I had to reinstall some IBM xSeries servers in a datacenter far far away using PXE boot. These servers did not have an RSA/RSAII card, but that is really not a problem using PXE. I prepared the kickstart on the first of the servers and did some reinstalls to get it right. And then I issued an ipmi command to reboot the rest of the servers. … and then nothing happened. Well the rest of the servers rebooted back into the old OS instance. It was ofcourse an issue with the boot order in the BIOS on the servers.

Now what? Either drive to the DC or call someone there to get it fixed. …. or use the IBM ASU tool to change the BIOS settings from within an OS instance. It is quite a useful tool

Without further ado

[root@biomd1 ~]# /opt/ibm/toolscenter/asu/asu show | grep Boot
CMOS_AlternateBootDevice4=Hard Disk 0
CMOS_AlternateBootDevice3=CD ROM
CMOS_AlternateBootDevice2=Diskette Drive 0
CMOS_AlternateBootDevice1=Network
CMOS_PrimaryBootDevice4=Network
CMOS_PrimaryBootDevice3=Hard Disk 0
CMOS_PrimaryBootDevice2=Diskette Drive 0
CMOS_PrimaryBootDevice1=CD ROM
CMOS_PostBootFailRequired=Enabled
CMOS_PCIBootPriority=Planar SAS
CMOS_RemoteConsoleBootEnable=Disabled

[root@biomd1 ~]# /opt/ibm/toolscenter/asu/asu set CMOS_PrimaryBootDevice4 “Hard Disk 0″
IBM Advanced Settings Utility version 3.60.69K
Licensed Materials – Property of IBM
(C) Copyright IBM Corp. 2007-2010 All Rights Reserved
CMOS_PrimaryBootDevice4=Hard Disk 0
[root@biomd1 ~]# /opt/ibm/toolscenter/asu/asu set CMOS_PrimaryBootDevice3 “Network”
IBM Advanced Settings Utility version 3.60.69K
Licensed Materials – Property of IBM
(C) Copyright IBM Corp. 2007-2010 All Rights Reserved
CMOS_PrimaryBootDevice3=Network

[root@biomd1 ~]# /opt/ibm/toolscenter/asu/asu show | grep Boot
CMOS_AlternateBootDevice4=Hard Disk 0
CMOS_AlternateBootDevice3=CD ROM
CMOS_AlternateBootDevice2=Diskette Drive 0
CMOS_AlternateBootDevice1=Network
CMOS_PrimaryBootDevice4=Hard Disk 0
CMOS_PrimaryBootDevice3=Network
CMOS_PrimaryBootDevice2=Diskette Drive 0
CMOS_PrimaryBootDevice1=CD ROM
CMOS_PostBootFailRequired=Enabled
CMOS_PCIBootPriority=Planar SAS
CMOS_RemoteConsoleBootEnable=Disabled

Nifty, right?

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i just can’t thank you enough for this post. so i will just say: thank! you! best, /mstelios

Weblog – Thomas S. Iversen

Changing boot order in BIOS on IBM xSeries servers without RSAII (using ASU)

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