This section provides information on how to use Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI), also known as Out-of Bands Management Interface, to boot a physical machine. In the following example, a Supermicro SYS-E200-8D server is used.

This is an alternative method to the VMware Edge Compute Stack USB media. For example, Supermicro machine is physically remote (no access to USB port), however it is accessible over network.

Supermicro IPMI supports mounting, a CD ROM image (for example, ISO) as a virtual CD ROM to the machine. This CD ROM image is accessed by the Supermicro IPMI through an SMB network protocol. In this case, the Supermicro IPMI uses an old version of SMB, CIFS v1.0, with older authentication mechanism NTLMv1.

Modern computing devices (for example, Mac OS built-in file sharing, NAS boxes, and so on) do not support older SMB versions and purposefully deactivate the known-to-be insecure NTLMv1 authentication mechanism.

Note:

  • Run steps 1 through 4 on the helper machine.

  • Run steps 5 through 7 on the Supermicro machine server.

Prerequisites

1) A Supermicro server:

  • Network cable is plugged into IPMI network port and an IP address is assigned (for example, through DHCP).

  • IPMI management access credentials to access the IPMI web UI.

2) A helper machine:

  • Docker running on this machine.

  • Root access to run a docker container (to run it at privileged TCP port).

  • Internet access to pull docker container images.

Procedure

  1. Note down the IP address of this machine.
    Note:

    This IP must be network-accessible to Supermicro machine.

  2. Download the VMware Edge Compute Stack ISO media to a directory.
  3. Open the terminal and change location to the directory where you saved the VMware Edge Compute Stack ISO media file.
  4. Run the Samba Docker Container to serve this directory over the SMB/CIFSv.1 file, sharing with NTLMv1 auth enabled:
    1. The following command configures SMB server to use user / password as kes / kes, for the Supermicro to use. You can change the user name and password as required.
    2. The following command also configures the SMB server to serve the current directory as ec share name, for Supermicro to use. You can change the directory name as required.
    3. Container arg -g "ntlm auth = yes" -S makes the SMB server to allow older CIFS versions and NTLMv1 auth.
    4. Command prefix sudo is required to run the container at privileged ports (for example - 139, 445 for SMB/NMB protocols). 
      sudo docker run --rm -it --name samba -p 139:139 -p 445:445 -v $(pwd):/mount -d dperso n/samba -p -u "ec;ec" -s "ec;/mount" -n -g "log level = 2" -g "ntlm auth = yes" -S 
# In case of SMB access issues, run the following command to get logs for the machine to help diagnose: # docker logs samba
  5. Log in to the Web interface running on the Supermicro IPMI network port (for example, default credentials for ADMIN/ADMIN). VMware recommends changing this password.
  6. Go to Virtual Media > CD ROM Image.
  7. Input the following values, and then click Save:

    Option

    Value

    Share Host

    IP of helper machine

    Path to Image

    \ec\ESXi-ec-0.1.0-00000-boot2live-cdrom.iso

    Note:

    Change the ISO file name as required.

    User

    ec (or the value used when setting up the SMB server.)

    Password

    ec (or the value used when setting up the SMB server.)
  8. Click Mount, and then click Refresh Status if the status entry does not appear. There is an ISO file mounted text. Use the helper machine docker container log to diagnose.
  9. Go to Remote Control > iKVM/HTML5. Ensure that your browser settings allow pop-ups.
  10. Click Power Control, and then select Set Power On (or any appropriate action depending on the state of the machine.
  11. Click Virtual Keyboard, and then click F11 on the virtual keyboard. This is useful if you are using a Mac OS.
  12. After the Supermicro BIOS screen appears on the console, click F11.
    Caution:

    This is a very narrow time window and it gets challenging to click the key at the right time. Ensure to keep clicking before and after.

  13. In the boot menu, select the UEFI: ATEN Virtual CD ROM ... option and press Enter.
  14. The installer takes relatively long time (up to 15 minutes) in the post-install step, which is copying the worker OVA image over SMB.
  15. After installation, the installer attempts to reboot, but the machine selects the BIOS mode by default, throwing an error.
  16. Click Power Control and Set Power Reset.
  17. Click Virtual Keyboard and click F11 on the virtual keyboard to select the boot menu again.
  18. Select UEFI OS (... : ) as the booting option.