Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller 7 (iDRAC7) Version 1.50.50 User's Guide

Configuring Servers and Server Components Using Auto Config

The Auto Config feature allows you to configure and provision all the components in a server (example, iDRAC7, PERC, and RAID) in a single operation by automatically importing an XML configuration file. All the configurable parameters are specified in the XML file. The DHCP server that assigns the IP address also provides the XML file details to configure the iDRAC7.

You can create the XML file based on the service tag of the servers or create a generic XML file that you can use to configure all iDRAC7s serviced by the DHCP server. This XML file is stored in a shared location (CIFS or NFS) that is accessible by the DHCP server and iDRAC(s) of the server being configured. The DHCP server uses a DHCP server option to specify the XML file name, XML file location, and the user credentials to access the file location.

When the iDRAC or CMC obtains an IP address from the DHCP server, the XML file is used to configure the devices. Auto-config is invoked only after the iDRAC7 gets its IP address from the DHCP server. If it does not get a response or an IP address from the DHCP server, then auto-config is not invoked.

NOTE:
- You can enable Auto Config only if DHCPv4 and the Enable IPv4 options are enabled.
- Auto Config and auto-discovery features are mutually exclusive. You must disable auto-discovery for the Auto Config feature to work.

If all the Dell PowerEdge servers in the DHCP server pool are of the same Model type and number, then a single xml file ( config.xml) is required. (This is the default XML file name.)

You can configure individual servers using different configuration files mapped using individual host names. In an environment that has different servers with specific requirements, you can use different XML filenames to distinguish each server. For example, if there are two servers – a PowerEdge R720 and a PowerEdge R520, you must use two XML files, R720-config.xml and R520-config.xml.

The server-config-agent uses the rules in the following sequence to determine which XML file(s) on the File Share to apply for each iDRAC/PowerEdge server:

The filename specified in DHCP option 60.
<ServiceTag>-config.xml - If a filename is not specified in DHCP option 60, use the system service tag to uniquely identify the XML config file for the system. For example, <servicetag>-config.xml
<Model number>-config.xml - If the option 60 filename is not specified and the <ServiceTag>-config.xml file is not found, then use the system Model number as the basis for the XML config file name to use. For example, R520-config.xml.
config.xml – If the option 60 filename, service tag-based, and model number—based files are not available, use the default config.xml file.