Set BIOS to defaults and set only these settings (that is, everything else should remain at defaults):

- Devices and I/O Ports
    - Remote Console Redirection
        Remote Console Active                        [ Enabled ]
        Remote Console Baud Rate                     [ (1) ]
        Remote Console Text Emulation                [ VT100/VT220 ]
        Remote Console Keyboard Emulation            [ VT100/VT220 ]
        Remote Console Active After Boot             [ Enabled ]
        Remote Console Flow Control                  [ Hardware ]
 
- Start Options
    - Startup Sequence Options
        Third Startup Device                         [ Network ]
        Fourth Startup Device                        [ Hard Disk 0 ]
 
    Planar Ethernet PXE/DHCP                         [ (2) ]
    Boot Fail Count                                  [ Disabled ]
 
- Advanced Setup
    - PCI Settings
        - PCI ROM Control Execution
            Slot 1 ROM Control Execution             [ (3) ]
            Slot 2 ROM Control Execution             [ (3) ]
            Slot 3 ROM Control Execution             [ (3) ]
            Slot 4 ROM Control Execution             [ (3) ]
 
    - Baseboard Management Controller (BMC) Settings
        BMC Serial Port Access Mode                  [ (4) ]
 
        - BMC Network Configuration
            DHCP Control                             [ Use Static IP ]
 
            IP Settings
            IP Address                               [ (5) ]   
            Subnet Mask                                      [ (5) ]   
            Gateway                                  [ (5) ]   
 
        - User Account Settings                              [ (6) ]

 

  1. This should be set to 115200 when using terminal servers, 19200 when using SOL.
  2. This should be set to the on-board Ethernet device the system will boot from only (it can be set to both--"Planar Ethernet 1 and 2" for redundancy but this can cause interruptions in SOL). If problems with SOL are seen at PXE boot time, then this can be set to the NIC that the system is not set to do SOL over, but this will require both NICs to be cabled.
  3. This should be left at the default of "Enabled", except in the case of adapters that have large option ROMs which cause 1801 errors on boot, and are not being used as boot devices. Typically, these will be fibre channel host bus adapters. In those cases, the setting should be changed to "Disabled" for the slots in which those adapters are installed. This may also be set to "Disabled" for slots with Myrinet cards with badly behaved network boot ROMs.
  4. This should be set to “Disabled” for physical serial using a terminal server and should be set to “Dedicated” when using SOL.
  5. These settings should be set according to the network configuration, typically using xCAT stage3 instead of the F1 CMOS setup (or CMOSRAM or ASU). If included in the CMOSRAM setup, for a large number of nodes, the stage3 from xCAT should be run afterwards. If setting here (for a few misconfigured nodes or the like) then make sure to hi-light and press <ENTER> on "Save Network Settings in BMC".
  6. These should be setup using xCAT stage3 instead of the F1 CMOS setup (or CMOSRAM or ASU).



To set BIOS and BMC settings that are in the F1 setup with ASU:

<asu> is either asu or asu64

<asu> batch <settings file>

where <settings file> is the following for nodes using SOL for remote console access

SOL

 

loaddefault all
set CMOS_RemoteConsoleEnable "Enabled"
set CMOS_RemoteConsoleEmulation "VT100/VT220"
set CMOS_RemoteConsoleKybdEmul "VT100/VT220"
set CMOS_RemoteConsoleBootEnable "Enabled"
set CMOS_RemoteConsoleFlowCtrl "Hardware"
set CMOS_PrimaryBootDevice3 "Network"
set CMOS_PrimaryBootDevice4 "Hard Disk 0"
set CMOS_PostBootFailRequired "Disabled"
set CMOS_ENET_PXE_ENABLE "Planar Ethernet 1"
set CMOS_ROMControlSlot1 "Disabled"
set CMOS_ROMControlSlot2 "Disabled"
set CMOS_ROMControlSlot3 "Disabled"
set CMOS_ROMControlSlot4 "Disabled"
set CMOS_BMCSerialConfig "Dedicated"



or <settings file> is as follows for nodes using physical serial (normally through a terminal server) for remote console access

Physical Serial

 

loaddefault all
set CMOS_RemoteConsoleEnable "Enabled"
set CMOS_RemoteConsoleBaud "115200"
set CMOS_RemoteConsoleEmulation "VT100/VT220"
set CMOS_RemoteConsoleKybdEmul "VT100/VT220"
set CMOS_RemoteConsoleBootEnable "Enabled"
set CMOS_RemoteConsoleFlowCtrl "Hardware"
set CMOS_PrimaryBootDevice3 "Network"
set CMOS_PrimaryBootDevice4 "Hard Disk 0"
set CMOS_PostBootFailRequired "Disabled"
set CMOS_ENET_PXE_ENABLE "Planar Ethernet 1"
set CMOS_ROMControlSlot1 "Disabled"
set CMOS_ROMControlSlot2 "Disabled"
set CMOS_ROMControlSlot3 "Disabled"
set CMOS_ROMControlSlot4 "Disabled"
set CMOS_BMCSerialConfig "Disabled"