VirtualBMC¶

Installation¶

VirtualBMC is available from RDO repositories starting with the Ocata release:

sudo yum install -y python-virtualbmc

It is usually installed and used on the hypervisor where the virtual machines reside.

Creating virtual BMC¶

Every virtual machine needs its own virtual BMC. Create it with:

vbmc add <domain> --port 6230 --username admin --password password

Start the virtual BMCs:

vbmc start <domain>

Test the virtual BMC to see if it’s working. For example, to power on the virtual machine do:

ipmitool -I lanplus -U admin -P password -H 127.0.0.1 -p 6230 power on

Enrolling virtual machines¶

In the undercloud, populate the instackenv.json with new “bare metals” in a similar way to real bare metal machines (see instackenv.json) with two exceptions:

• set pm_port to the port you specified when Creating virtual BMC
• populate mac field even if you plan to use introspection

For example:

{
    "nodes": [
        {
            "pm_type": "ipmi",
            "mac": [
                "00:0a:f2:88:12:aa"
            ],
            "pm_user": "admin",
            "pm_password": "password",
            "pm_addr": "172.16.0.1",
            "pm_port": "6230",
            "name": "compute-0"
        }
    ]
}

Migrating from pxe_ssh to VirtualBMC¶

If you already have a virtual cloud deployed and want to migrate from the deprecated pxe_ssh driver to ipmi using VirtualBMC, follow Creating virtual BMC, then update the existing nodes to change their drivers and certain driver properties:

openstack baremetal node set $NODE_UUID_OR_NAME \
    --driver ipmi \
    --driver-info ipmi_address=<IP address of the virthost> \
    --driver-info ipmi_port=<Virtual BMC port> \
    --driver-info ipmi_username="admin" \
    --driver-info ipmi_password="password"

In the case of bare metal service in the overcloud, you will first have to configure the deployment to include the pxe_ipmitool driver, then rerun the deployment command, for example:

parameter_defaults:
  IronicEnabledDrivers:
      - pxe_ipmitool
      - pxe_ssh

Before updating to Pike release, make sure to remove the pxe_ssh driver from the deployment configuration, as it will be removed from Ironic, then rerun the deployment command, for example:

parameter_defaults:
  IronicEnabledDrivers:
      - pxe_ipmitool

To validate after updating deployment and verify everything is populated properly:

openstack baremetal node validate $NODE_UUID_OR_NAME | grep power