How to Configure HP ILO from ESXi host

How to Configure HP ILO from ESXi host

Configuration of HP ILO can be done using reboot of your HP server and Press <F8> to configure the ILO settings but you need a down time to your ESXi host and all the virtual machines running on it if it is a standalone host and no option to vMotion to other host. It is really a tough task to get downtime for your virtuali machines just for your ILO configurations like Reset ILO configuration, Reconfigure ILO IP address and reset ILO administrative password.

Now ILO configuration of ESXi host can easily be done without need of host restart using HP ESXi utilities.
HP ESXi Utilities Offline bundle for VMware ESXi 5 will be available as part of HP customized ESXi installer image but if it is not a HP customized ESXi image then you may need to download and install  HP ESXi Utilities Offline bundle for VMware ESXi 5. It downloads the HP ESXi Utilities Offline bundle Zip file.This ZIp file contains 3 different utilities HPONCFG , HPBOOTCFG and HPACUCLI utilities for remote online configuration of servers.

 

HPONCFG can be used to set up and reconfigure the iLO (Integrated Lights-Out) management controller of a server.
HPBOOTCFG can be used to set up the boot configuration for the server.
HPACUCLI can be used in the configuration of HP Smart Array controllers and attached storage

You can directly download  HPONCFG and  Upload the VIB file into your ESXi host and execute the below command to install the HPONCFG utility.

esxcli software vib install -f -v /tmp/hponcfg-04-00.10.vib

Once it is installed. Browse towards the directory /opt/hp/tools and execute  the below commands to perform the below operations. Below are the available help options for HPONCFG utility

Reset the ILO from ESXi host

Browse to /opt/hp/tools and execute the below command to reset the HP ILO configuration.

./hponcfg -r 

Export the ILO configuration of your ESXi host into file

Browse to /opt/hp/tools and execute the below command to export the ILO configuration into text file.

 

/opt/hp/tools # ./hponcfg -w /tmp/ilo-conf.txt

 

Configuring IP address for HP ILO from ESXi host

Edit the exported config file /tmp/ilo-conf.txt from above step and change the following IP address variables

 

vi ilo-conf.txt 

 

    <IP_ADDRESS VALUE = “192.168.0.55”/>

    <SUBNET_MASK VALUE = “255.255.255.0”/>

    <GATEWAY_IP_ADDRESS VALUE = “192.168.0.1”/>

    <DNS_NAME VALUE = “ESXi5-ILO”/>

    <PRIM_DNS_SERVER value = “192.168.0.20”/>

    <DHCP_ENABLE VALUE = “N”/>

 

Commit the updated IP address configuration from the file (ilo-conf.txt) to the ILO cofig  using th below command

 

./hponcfg -f /tmp/ilo-conf.txt

Thats it .You should be able to reach the ILO of the server using the IP address 192.168.0.55 now.

 

Reset the ILO administrator password from ESXi host

Create a file named reset_admin_pw.xml with the below info and add the new password in the password section:

<ribcl VERSION=”2.0″>
<login USER_LOGIN=”Administrator” PASSWORD=”YOUR-NEW-PASSWORD“>
<user_INFO MODE=”write”>
<mod_USER USER_LOGIN=”Administrator”>
<password value=”newpass”/>
</mod_USER>
</user_INFO>
</login>
</ribcl>

 

Commit the Updated administrator password information from the file (reset_admin_pw.xml) to ILO using the below command

 ./hponcfg -f reset_admin_pw.xml

That’s it you should be able to login to ILO of your ESXi host using the password specified in the above xml file.