11.3. Using the bios
plugin¶
The bios
plugin is used to configure a server to a specific set of BIOS values. To
use the BIOS plugin, you must be running a supported hardware platform by Digital Rebar.
Supported platforms will have a Catalog content pack named (generally) for the hardware
manufacturer. For example dell-support
, hpe-support
, or lenovo-support
.
11.3.1. Installation¶
You must install (from the Catalog), the following items:
bios
plugin
hardware-tooling
contentone of the Vendor support content packs (eg
dell-support
)
The above items can be installed from the Catalog in the Portal, or via the following command line installation:
# change 'vendors' variable to supported vendor(s) name (all lowercase, space separated) vendors="dell hpe lenovo" drpcli catalog item install bios drpcli catalog item install hardware-tooling for vendor in $vendors; do drpcli catalog item install ${vendor}-support; done
11.3.2. General Process¶
The BIOS configuration subsystem of Digital Rebar Platform is designed (and only tested) to run in the Sledgehammer environment. RackN does not support use of the tooling outside of this environment.
Warning
Ensure you boot your machines in to Sledgehammer to perform the following process.
The general process for using the BIOS plugin utilizes three separate Stages, in the following usage flow:
use
bios-inventory
- collects detailed information on supported values on the system that the Stage runs on; populates the Parambios-current-configuration
use
bios-baseline
- populates thebios-target-configuration
compatible Param of the current system’s BIOS configurationModify the
bios-target-configuration
to support any desired BIOS configuration changesuse
bios-configure
- applies the values found in the Parambios-target-configuration
to the system
The bios-target-configuration
Param is the settings that will be applied to a system.
Use the output of the bios-baseline
Stage to create a “copy” of the current systems
configuration values. This can be used after an operator has manually set a number of
values through the vendors BMC configuration settings, or by using it as a starting point,
and modifying the values of the results of the bios-baseline
Stage.
11.3.3. The bios-current-configuration
¶
The bios-current-configuration
records both the current settings of the various
bios values that may be set on a given platform, and it also provides “type definition”
information on the potential data that a given setting may potentially require to for
use. If you have questions on what values should be placed in the fields, refer to
the bios-current-configuration
for clues, or the Vendors documentation.
Ultimately, however, it is the bios-target-configuration
which is used to apply
updated settings to the systems BIOS.
11.3.4. The bios-target-configuration
¶
Note that the bios-target-configuration
structure is slightly different than what the
bios-inventory
stage produces in the bios-current-configuration
. The bios-baseline
stage produces a validly formatted bios-target-configuration
for actually making changes
to the system BIOS.
Once you have produced a version of the bios-target-configuration
settings values, it may
safely be used ONLY with those Vendor specific Model/Version, and Firmware level systems.
Vendors regularly change the BIOS supported configuration values and details between model/platform
versions, and potentially from older to newer versions of Firmware that is flashed on the system.
11.3.5. Legacy -vs- UEFI¶
If you have the same vendor model and version of hardware, there are often substantial differences
in the BIOS configuration values, dependent on the system being in either Legacy or UEFI BIOS
boot modes. You are advised to ensure you re-run bios-baseline
for each of Legacy and UEFI BIOS
boot modes to verify values for the boot mode are correct.
In particular - the Boot Order semantics are often very different between Legacy and UEFI BIOS boot modes.
11.3.6. The bios-skip-config
¶
The bios-skip-config
Param allows for all BIOS related tasks to “skip” running, if this Params
value is set to true
. This is often used in Discovery type default workflows to turn off the
BIOS sub-system, without using customized Workflows for different use cases. Verify that this value
is not set to true
on the machine if you see the BIOS tasks just skipping, and exiting with zero
(success) value.
11.3.7. Video Example¶
The following is an example of using the BIOS subsystem in video form. This video example shows the above outlined process on a fleet of Dell R730xd server platforms. Only a very minimal BIOS setting value has been changed via use of editing the Param value.
Generally speaking, you should extract the bios-target-configuration
produced in this example,
and incorporate it in to a Content Pack. See the Color Demo training content pack and
video references for more details: