Here are some of the Linux hints and documentation that seems to be woefully lacking or just mis-leading on the greater wider Internet.

This applies to Dell servers of course. First off, install ipmitools:

apt-get update; apt-get install ipmitools

To find out the options available in ipmitools, run:

ipmitools help

and there is a manpage available too.

To set the iDRAC8 System Host Name, you want:

ipmitools mc setsysinfo system_name HOSTNAME

To set the iDRAC8 Operating System, you want:

ipmitools mc setsysinfo os_name OSNAME

To set the iDRAC8 Operating System Version, you want:

ipmitools mc setsysinfo delloem_os_version OSVERSION

And that's it - after that, if you refresh the iDRAC8 Server Overview screen you will see the changes you made.

This will of course depend on the switch model you are using and the IOS version, but I've documented here what works in the installations I've been assisting with.

This example shows the /etc/network/interfaces configuration using two ethernet interfaces on a server to be combined to form a LAG, and using LACP.

Configuration snipped for a Catalyst 2950-48 running '12.1(22)EA13'. Note that the 2950-48 needs the flowcontrol send off command - other switches don't seem to need this.

For security reasons, I've made the native VLAN on the trunk to be 999, rather than the default VLAN of 1. I strongly recommend never to use VLAN1 for anything.

interface Port-channel2
 description V2 Trunk
 switchport trunk native vlan 999
 switchport mode trunk
 load-interval 30
 flowcontrol send off
!
interface FastEthernet0/1
 description LAG-PORT1
 switchport trunk native vlan 999
 switchport mode trunk
 load-interval 30
 channel-group 2 mode active
!
interface FastEthernet0/2
 description LAG-PORT2
 switchport trunk native vlan 999
 switchport mode trunk
 load-interval 30
 channel-group 2 mode active
!

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