7.4. nodehm: Node Hardware Management

Up to this point we have defined nodes and we have given them IP addresses.  We now need to figure out how to manage them:  E.g: How do we turn them off and on remotely?  How do we collect service processor information?

This may involve defining additional nodes or IP addresses.  The first step is to define the method.  This is done via the nodehm table.  Looking at this table you may see a lot of legacy columns that are rarely used.  Usually the only one you need to fill out is the 'mgt' method for power management.  Ignore the rest for now.  xCAT supports several methods you can see from looking at the man page for nodehm.  The most common is IPMI.  Here are some example:

IPMI devices:

nodech <noderange> nodehm.mgt=ipmi

or

nodegrpch <nodegrp> nodehm.mgt=blade

IBM Blade Center:

nodech <noderange> nodehm.mgt=blade

or

nodegrpch <nodegrp> nodehm.mgt=blade

HP Blade

nodech <noderange> nodehm.mgt=hpblade

or

nodegrpch <nodegrp> nodehm.mgt=blade

Now that you've told xCAT how to manage it, we have to go deeper and find the parameters of how to manage those different types of systems.  For that you will either need to fill out the ipmi table or the mp and mpa tables.