Inspur OS User manual

Inspur Server
OS Installation Guide
Document Version: V2.3
Release Date: January 19, 2022

Copyright © 2021-2022 Inspur Electronic Information Industry Co., Ltd. All rights
reserved.
No part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any
means without prior written consent of Inspur.
Disclaimer
The purchased products, services and features shall be bound by the contract made
between Inspur and the customer. All or part of the products, services and features
described herein may not be within your purchase or usage scope. The information in
this document is subject to change without notice. Unless otherwise specified in the
contract, this document is offered as a guide only. All statements, information and
recommendations in this document do not constitute a warranty of any kind, express
or implied. Inspur shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions
contained in this manual.
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Inspur and Inspur Logo are registered trademarks of Inspur.
All the other trademarks or registered trademarks mentioned herein are the property of
their respective holders.
Statement of Use
Please read through the following statements carefully before using our server. You
may only start using this server after you have read the following statements and
agreed to the terms below. For any questions on the terms below, please contact your
supplier or contact us directly. If you have not raised any questions on the terms below
and start using this server, it is assumed that you have agreed to the following terms.
DO NOT alter any parameters in the BIOS of this server at any time, except for the
parameters we promote that you can alter.
Contact Inspur Customer Service and provide detailed hardware configurations of
the server in case of a hardware failure or upgrade. DO NOT remove the top cover
or any hardware inside on your own.
The memories, CPUs, CPU heatsinks, fans, drive trays, drives and PSUs are of
particular specifications and cannot be mixed with the components of other server
models.
In case of any software problems, we recommend you to contact the software

provider first. The software provider and we can work together to solve your
problems. We strongly recommend you to do so when you encounter installation
or operation problems of databases, network management software or other
network products.
Please read over the
Rack Server Installation Guide before installing the server into
the rack. The manual may not include up-to-date information on some features
and operations as Inspur is committed to improving product features and
performance. But this will not affect your use. If you have any problems during
use, please contact our Customer Service.
Back up data properly during use.
This is a Class A product, and may cause radio interference. In such case, users
may need to take necessary measures to mitigate the interference.
Please read over and follow the safety rules and regulations in the manual.
The logos and name copyrights of software and hardware mentioned in this
manual belong to their respective holders.
"We" or "us" refers to Inspur Electronic Information Industry Co., Ltd. We reserve the
final right to interpret the statements above.
Technical Support
Technical Service Hotline: [phone]
Address: No. 1036 Langchao Road, Jinan, PRC
Inspur Electronic Information Industry Co., Ltd.
Postal Code: 250101
Email: [e-mail]

Foreword
Abstract
This guide helps users to gain a good understanding of installation, application and
cautions of the Inspur server OS.
Target Audience
The guide is intended for:
•Technical support engineers
•Product maintenance engineers
It is recommended that server installation, configuration, and maintenance is
performed by experienced technicians only.
Symbol Conventions
The symbols that may be found in this document are defined as follows.
Symbol Description
A potential for serious injury, or even death if not properly
handled
A potential for minor or moderate injury if not properly
handled
A potential loss of data or damage to equipment if not
properly handled
Operations or information that requires special attention
to ensure successful installation or configuration
Supplementary description of manual information

Revision History
Version Date Description of Changes
V1.0 2021/03/24 Initial release
V2.0 2021/04/30 Added the content related to Whitley platform
V2.1 2021/06/30 Updated the symbols and optimized the
document format
V2.2 2021/10/08

Added the VMware installation method
Added notes about the CentOS
installation method
V2.3 2022/01/19
Added notes about the RAID array
configuration of different RAID controller
cards

Table of Contents
1Installation Introduction ............................................................................. 1
1.1 How to Install an Operating System (OS) ........................................................ 1
1.2 How to Log in to the Server ............................................................................. 1
2Installation Process .................................................................................... 2
3Selecting an Installation Method ................................................................3
3.1 Identifying the Compatible OS Versions .......................................................... 3
4Installing an OS via BMC (for Purley Platform).............................................6
4.1 Preparing the Installation Image..................................................................... 6
4.2 Logging in to the BMC Web GUI ....................................................................... 6
4.3 Configuring the RAID Arrays (Legacy Mode).................................................. 10
4.3.1 Logging in to the Config Utility Screen................................................ 10
4.3.2 Creating a RAID Array (RAID 1 for example)........................................ 14
4.4 Loading the OS Image................................................................................... 18
4.5 Selecting the BIOS Boot Device...................................................................... 19
4.6 Installing the OS (Windows Server 2016)....................................................... 20
4.7 Installing the OS (VMware ESXi 7.0 Update 1) ............................................... 29
5Installing an OS via BMC (for Whitley/Cedar Island Platform).................... 50
5.1 Preparing the Installation Image................................................................... 50
5.2 Logging in to the BMC Web GUI ..................................................................... 50
5.3 Configuring the RAID Arrays (UEFI Mode)...................................................... 54
5.3.1 Logging in to the Configuration Screen .............................................. 55
5.3.2 Creating a RAID Array (RAID 5 for example)........................................ 60
5.4 Setting the BIOS Time and Boot Device ......................................................... 65
5.5 Loading the OS Image................................................................................... 67
5.6 Selecting the BIOS Boot Device...................................................................... 71

5.7 Installing the OS (RHEL 8.3) ........................................................................... 72
5.8 Installing the OS (VMware ESXi 6.7 Update 3) ............................................... 84
6Installing an OS via a USB Flash Drive/CD-ROM (for Purley Platform)...... 102
6.1 Preparing the Installation Image................................................................. 102
6.2 Configuring the RAID Arrays (UEFI Mode).................................................... 102
6.2.1 Logging in to the Configuration Screen ............................................ 102
6.2.2 Creating a RAID Array (RAID 5 for example)...................................... 105
6.3 Selecting the BIOS Boot Device.................................................................... 109
6.4 Installing the OS (RHEL 7.4) ......................................................................... 110
6.5 Installing the OS (VMware ESXi 7.0 Update 1) ............................................. 122
7Installing an OS via a USB Flash Drive/CD-ROM (for Whitley/Cedar Island
Platform) ...................................................................................................... 143
7.1 Preparing the Installation Image................................................................. 143
7.2 Configuring the RAID Arrays (UEFI Mode) .................................................... 143
7.2.1 Logging in to the Configuration Screen ............................................ 143
7.2.2 Creating a RAID Array (RAID 1 for example)...................................... 147
7.3 Setting the BIOS Time and Boot Device ....................................................... 155
7.4 Selecting the BIOS Boot Device.................................................................... 157
7.5 Installing the OS (Windows Server 2019)..................................................... 158
7.6 Installing the OS (SLES 15 SP2) .................................................................... 166
7.7 Installing the OS (VMware ESXi 6.7 Update 3) ............................................. 180
8Installing/Updating the Drivers and Firmware........................................ 200
8.1 Preparations ............................................................................................... 200
8.2 Checking the Driver and Firmware Versions ................................................ 201
8.2.1 Checking the Driver Versions on Windows........................................ 201
8.2.2 Checking the Driver and Firmware Versions on Linux ....................... 202
8.3 Installing/Updating the Driver .................................................................... 203

8.3.1 Installing/ Updating the Driver on Windows .................................... 203
8.3.2 Installing/Updating the Driver on Linux ........................................... 207
8.4 Updating the Firmware ............................................................................... 207
9Common Operations .............................................................................. 208
9.1 Transferring Files by Mounting a Local Folder via BMC ............................... 208
9.2 Transferring Files via WinSCP ...................................................................... 211
9.3 Configuring the JRE Environment ................................................................ 212
9.4 Mounting a CD Image via BMC H5Viewer .................................................... 216
10 OS Fault Location ................................................................................... 218
10.1 Configuring the Memory Dump Tools.......................................................... 218
10.1.1 Related Concepts.............................................................................. 218
10.1.2 Configuring Kdump on RHEL ............................................................ 219
10.1.3 Configuring Kdump on SLES ............................................................. 229
10.1.4 Configuring Kdump on Ubuntu......................................................... 232
10.1.5 Configuring the Memory Dump Service on Windows ........................ 237
10.1.6 Configuring the Memory Dump Service on VMware ESXi .................. 245
10.2 Configuring the Serial Port Redirection ....................................................... 247
10.2.1 Configuring the Serial Port Output on Linux ..................................... 250
10.2.2 Configuring the Serial Port Output on Windows ............................... 253
10.2.3 Verifying the Serial Port Configuration ............................................. 254
10.3 Configuring the NMI .................................................................................... 255
10.4 Configuring the Linux Magic SysRq Key....................................................... 256
10.5 Changing the Linux System Log Levels........................................................ 257
10.6 Disabling the Screen Saver ......................................................................... 258
10.7 Deploying and Verifying the Fault Locating Tools on Linux......................... 259
10.8 Troubleshooting.......................................................................................... 259
10.8.1 An Unknown Error Reported during the RHEL 7.4 OS Installation ..... 259

10.8.2 An Error Reported during the Windows Server 2016 OS Installation. 261
10.8.3 Error “COMRESET failed” Reported during the RHEL 7.4 OS Installation
.........................................................................................................262
10.8.4 Entering the Dracut CLI during the RHEL 7 OS Installation ................ 262
11 How to Obtain Help ................................................................................ 264
11.1 Preparations before Contacting Inspur ....................................................... 264
11.2 How to Obtain Help..................................................................................... 264
Appendix Acronyms and Abbreviations ........................................................ 265

1
1Installation Introduction
1.1 How to Install an Operating System (OS)
An OS can be installed via BMC or a USB flash drive/CD-ROM.
1.2 How to Log in to the Server
You can log in to the server using a PC or KVM.
When remotely logging in to the BMC Web GUI of the server on a PC, you
can mount the ISO image in the physical drive of the PC or the system CD-
ROM in the physical CD-ROM drive through the virtual console. See 4.2
Logging in to the BMC Web GUI for details.
When logging in to the server through a local KVM (Keyboard, Video, and
Mouse), you can install the OS using an external CD-ROM or a USB flash
drive.

2
2Installation Process
The following figure shows the installation process of the server OS.
Figure 2-1 OS Installation Process

3
3Selecting an Installation Method
The OS installation methods and component drivers to be installed vary with the
OS, RAID/SAS controller card or NIC card type. This chapter guides you on how to
query OS versions compatible with the server from the Inspur official website and
how to install the OS.
You can install the OS using either of the following 2 methods, as shown below.
Table 3-1 OS Installation Methods
Methods Features
Install via BMC
No external video or keyboard is needed, but a remote PC
is required to communicate with the network where the
BMC management network port is located. You can directly
use the ISO image in the physical drive of the PC to install
the OS.
Install via a USB
flash drive/CD-
ROM
Install the OS using the system CD-ROM or the USB
flash drive with the image. Do not create the boot
partition to the USB flash drive during the OS
installation.
The server generally has no built-in CD-ROM drive, so
an external CD-ROM drive is required if you choose to
install the OS via a CD-ROM.
3.1 Identifying the Compatible OS Versions
Each of the server products on the Inspur official website comes with a White
Paper. You can identify compatible OS versions by checking the OS Compatibility
List in the White Paper of a specific product. The procedure is as below:
1. Go to the Inspur official website (https://en.inspur.com), and select Products
& Solutions > Rack Servers to enter the rack server selection page, as shown
below.

4
Figure 3-1 Logging in to the Inspur Official Website
Figure 3-2 Viewing Products
2. Select a server and view the White Paper. NF5280M5 is used in this example.
Select Inspur NF5280M5 > White Paper to view
NF5280M5 Product Technical
White Paper.pdf.

5
Figure 3-3 Viewing the White Paper
3. Identify compatible OS versions in the OS Compatibility List of the White Paper,
as shown below.
Figure 3-4 Compatible OS Versions
4. Install the OS.
Refer to the appropriate chapters for different installation methods:
4 Installing an OS via BMC (for Purley Platform)
5 Installing an OS via BMC (for Whitley/Cedar Island Platform)
6 Installing an OS via a USB Flash Drive/CD-ROM (for Purley Platform)
7 Installing an OS via a USB Flash Drive/CD-ROM (for Whitley/Cedar Island Platform)

6
4Installing an OS via BMC (for
Purley Platform)
This chapter describes how to configure BIOS and RAID and install an OS via the
BMC Web GUI. Operations such as installing drivers and compiling installation
sources are not required during the installation.
This chapter demonstrates with the Windows Server 2016 OS and the VMware ESXi
7.0 Update 1 OS. For information on how to install other operating systems, refer to
the installation documents provided by the corresponding OS manufacturers.
4.1 Preparing the Installation Image
Obtain the purchased OS CD-ROM file or download the OS image from the OS
official website.
4.2 Logging in to the BMC Web GUI
Procedure:
1. Configure the IP address of the BMC management network port.
To configure the BMC IP address in the BIOS, you can:
Obtain the IP address automatically
If the DHCP network environment is available, use DynamicBmcDhcp to
automatically obtain the BMC IP address.
Configure the IP address manually
If the DHCP network environment is unavailable, connect the BMC
management network port of the server to the LAN, and manually set the BMC
IP address to a static IP address in the LAN. The procedure is as follows:
a. On the Server Mgmt screen, select BMC network configuration.
b. Set Configuration Address source to Static in Dedicate LAN.
Then, you can set a BMC static IP address by specifying Station IP address,
Subnet mask, and Router IP address.

7
Figure 4-1 Server Mgmt

8
Figure 4-2 Configuration Address Source
Figure 4-3 BMC IP Setting

9
2. Go to the BMC Web GUI.
a. Open a browser and type the IP address (the configured BMC IP address) in the
address bar.
b. When you go to the BMC Web GUI, a security warning will be displayed. In this
case, trust this screen by clicking Proceed to [the IP address] (unsafe), as
shown below.
Figure 4-4 Security Warning
3. Log in to the BMC Web GUI.
a. Go to the login screen.
Figure 4-5 Login Screen

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b. Enter the username and password, and click LOGIN to enter the console
homepage.
Figure 4-6 Console Homepage
4.3 Configuring the RAID Arrays (Legacy
Mode)
This section demonstrates with the Inspur SAS3008IR card to guide you on how to
configure RAID arrays. The Inspur SAS3008IR supports multiple RAID levels
including RAID 0, 1, 1E, and 10. This section guides you on how to configure a RAID
1 array in the Legacy mode.
For the RAID array configuration of different RAID controller cards, please refer to
the corresponding Inspur server RAID controller card configuration manuals.
4.3.1 Logging in to the Config Utility Screen
Logging in to the RAID Config Utility screen requires a server restart, which will
cause business interruption.
Procedure:
1. Restart the server.

11
Log in to the target server remotely via the BMC Web GUI, and select Hard Reset in
Server Power Control, as shown below.
Figure 4-7 Server Restart
2. Click Console Redirection and wait for the server to enter the BIOS setup
screen.
a. Click Launch KVM Java Viewer, download the jviewer.jnlp file, and run it
with Java.
Figure 4-8 Console Redirection
b. After the remote connection is established, wait to enter the BIOS setup
screen. The shortcut keys for entering the BIOS vary with platforms. Please
follow the prompt on the screen. When the blue progress bar appears as
shown below, press <Delete> as prompted to enter the BIOS main menu.