Blade Move

This is a step by step plan for moving a blade from one bladecenter to another. The hardware used is an IBM Bladecenter H and an IBM Blade JS22. These power blades are installed with AIX V5.3L. The reason of this article is we also want to change the network the blade is in. Which means we have to change the IP configuration of the blade and of the IO Ethernet Module in the bladecenter. Steps to take are:

1. Change IP address
2. Change the bladecenter IO module
3. Move the blade
4. Check everything
5. Troubleshooting

Log in to the blade as root and enter the command:

• smit mktcpip

This will start up smitty:
on the TCPIP Minimum Configuration & Startup page. You have to edit the fields that are marked:

• Hostname
• Internet Address (IP Address)
• Network Mask (Subnet Mask)
• Nameserver Internet Address
• Nameserver Domain Name
• Default Gateway

After you changed these settings, press <enter> and smitty will perform the configuration changes for you. This could take up to 10 minutes.

Make a ssh connection to the module and log in to enable mode. These modules are regular cisco switches so the cisco commands will work. Give the command:

• show run

to see the currently running config. After you know and have decided what to change enter the following commands:

config t
int g0/9

enter your changes

end
show run (optional to check your changes)
write

In the above example you're editing gigabit port 9. Which means, that if you're connected to the first IO module, you're editing the first ethernet port for blade 9.
The changes you make can just be entered as a whole, for example:

description blade5
switchport access vlan 2
switchport mode access

To remove config lines enter the exact lines preceded by 'no', for example:

no switchport mode access

You can shutdown AIX with the command

• shutdown -F

After AIX has shut down you can take the blade out by first folding out the blue handles, and then pull out the blade by these blue handles. Put the blade into the other bladecenter and turn it on. To turn it on you have to press the white power button that is beneath the monitor and cdrom buttons. You can pull the plastic cover towards you, so you can access the power button.

Check AIX for booting smoothly, check if you can still telnet / ssh to the box and if all the services are running.

In case AIX is taking a really really really long time to boot the network is probably not available. To speed up the bootprocess in case of a disfunctional network you could disable NFS. This service is causing the longest timeout. To do so, enter this command:

• smit rmnfs

You will be able to choose if you want to disable it for the running state or when booting or both. Choose at least when booting. Doing so will save you a lot of time. To enable after you're done enter this command:

• smit mknfs