xcat-core icon indicating copy to clipboard operation
xcat-core copied to clipboard

RFC: `bmcport` meaning for Dell servers doesn't match documentation

Open kcgthb opened this issue 2 years ago • 1 comments
trafficstars

In bmcsetup, the meaning of bmcport for Dell servers is not the same as for the rest of IBM hardware, and doesn't match the documentation.

The docs state:

bmcport In systems with selectable shared/dedicated ethernet ports, this parameter can be used to specify the preferred port. 0 means use the shared port, 1 means dedicated, blank is to not assign.

but in the bmcsetup script, we have this: https://github.com/xcat2/xcat-core/blob/43c3a768919ccea0352aadeb5ddaa47ca9f08c7e/xCAT-genesis-scripts/usr/bin/bmcsetup#L262-L267 where 0 means dedicated, and 1 means shared with LOM1.

In a sense, the current script is more specific and flexible, as it allows sysadmins to specify more fine-grained options for their BMC config, but on he other hand, it's opposite to the default 0=shared, 1=dedicated meaning.

What would be the best approach to resolve this contradiction? Include the special case for Dell servers in the documentation, or change the bmcsetup script to use the same meaning for bmcport everywhere?

I believe it would be better to have a consistent way to configure a shared interface across multiple node types, rather than having nodes using bmcport=1 and bmcport=0 for the same configuration, and let users with more specific requirements handle the BMC port configuration separately. It would also make easier to include support for more node types / manufacturers.

What do you think? In both cases, I can submit a PR.

kcgthb avatar Jan 19 '23 19:01 kcgthb

A PR to realign the meaning of bmcport on Dell servers with other system types is in #7317

kcgthb avatar Jan 20 '23 21:01 kcgthb

Merged #7317

Obihoernchen avatar Jul 12 '24 14:07 Obihoernchen