This describes how to get SSH access to a Linux system on a HP blade system, which requires you to work through the ILO:

First of all, you need to know the ILO IP address. Simply open up an SSH session to this IP address:

# ssh -l ilo-admin 10.250.21.37
ilo-admin@10.250.21.37's password:
User:ilo-admin logged-in to 10.250.21.37
iLO 2 Advanced 1.60 at 16:05:58 Jul 11 2008
Server Name:
Server Power: On

</>hpiLO->

The next thing you need to do is type "VSP", hit ENTER and login to the server:

hpiLO-> VSP
Starting virtual serial port
Press 'ESC (' to return to the CLI Session
</>hpiLO-> Virtual Serial Port active: IO=0x02F8 INT=3
[ENTER]
</>hpiLO-> Virtual Serial Port active: IO=0x02F8 INT=3
Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES release 4 (Nahant Update 8)
Kernel 2.6.9-89.ELsmp on an i686
hostname login:

To make this magic happen, we need to spawn a getty on /dev/ttyS1. You might see somthing like this in /etc/inittab:

mo1::off:/sbin/mgetty -x 0 -D -s38400 -a /dev/ttyS1

The mgetty will not work. That expects a modem. Comment it out (it is off anyways). Add this line:

ilo:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty ttyS1 115200 vt100

Then allows root to login on that tty:

# echo "ttyS1" >> /etc/securetty

Then reread the /etc/inittab and spawn any missing processes, like the new getty:

# kill -HUP 1

Now you should be able to ssh to the servers ILO IP address, login as ilo-admin, run VSP and get a login prompt.



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