Defining firmware settings

You can specify the baseboard management controller and UEFI firmware settings that are to be applied to target servers when this pattern is deployed.

About this task

The firmware settings are organized into categories that group together related settings. For each category, you can create a category pattern that contains common firmware settings and can be reused by multiple server patterns. Most of the firmware settings that you can configure directly on the baseboard management controller and UEFI can also be configured through category patterns. The firmware settings that are available depend on the server type, your Flex System environment, and the scope of the server pattern.

Category patterns can be predefined, user-defined, or learned from existing servers:
  • Extended category patterns are patterns for some I/O adapter ports, advanced Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI), and baseboard management-controller (BMC) settings that are learned and dynamically created from a specific managed server. Lenovo XClarity Administrator creates these patterns when you create a server pattern from an existing server. You cannot manually create extended category patterns; however, you can edit the patterns after they are created.

  • User-defined category patterns are patterns that you can create, including system information, management interfaces, devices and I/O ports, Fibre Channel boot targets, and I/O adapter ports.

Procedure

Complete the following steps to define firmware settings.

  1. From the New Server Pattern Wizard, click the Firmware Settings tab.

    Illustrates the firmware settings options in the New Server Pattern Wizard.
  2. Choose the category-pattern type that includes the settings that you want to define.
    • System information. Use this category pattern to define automatic system-name generation, contact names, and locations. For more information about system-information patterns, see Defining system-information settings.
    • Management interfaces. Use this category pattern to define automatic host-name generation, management IP-address assignments, domain name system (DNS) settings, and internet speed settings. For more information about management-interfaces patterns, see Defining management-interface settings).
    • Devices and I/O ports. Use this category pattern to define console redirection and COM ports, PCIe speed, onboard devices, adapter option ROM, and option ROM execution order. For more information about device and I/O port patterns, see Defining devices and I/O ports settings.
    • Extended BMC. Use this category pattern to define other baseboard management-controller settings. The extended management-controller patterns are automatically created when you create a server pattern from an existing server. You cannot manually create an extended management-controller pattern. For more information about management-interfaces patterns, see Defining extended management-controller settings.).
    • Extended UEFI. Use this category pattern to define other Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) settings. The extended UEFI patterns are automatically created when you create a server pattern from an existing server. You cannot manually create an extended UEFI pattern. For more information about management-interfaces patterns, see Defining extended UEFI settings).
  3. Create new category patterns by clicking the Create icon (Create icon) next to that category-pattern type.

    You can also edit an existing category pattern by selecting a specific pattern from the drop-down list and clicking the Edit icon (Edit icon) next to that category-pattern type. You can also copy an existing category pattern by editing the pattern and clicking Save As to save it with a new name.