System management

A clustered system is managed by using a command-line session or the management GUI over an Ethernet connection.

Each system node can have zero to four management IP addresses. You can assign up to two Internet Protocol Version 4 (IPv4) addresses and up to two Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) addresses.

At any time, only one node in the system can operate as the focal point for configuration and monitoring requests. This node is called the configuration node. It is the only node that activates one or two management IP addresses. You can use one or more of these addresses to access the system through the management GUI or the command-line interface (CLI).

The first two Ethernet ports of each node canister can be used for management. The IBM SSR configures Ethernet port 1 of the configuration node with a primary management IP address.

Depending on the configuration, each system node has one or two management IP addresses and an internet Small Computer System Interface over Internet Protocol (iSCSI IP) address per onboard Ethernet node.

Note: Management IP addresses that are assigned to a system are different from iSCSI IP addresses and are used for different purposes. If iSCSI is used, iSCSI addresses are assigned to node ports. On the configuration node, a port has multiple IP addresses active at the same time.

In addition to the management IP address, you can optionally add one service IP address per node to provide access to the service assistant.

You can access the service assistant GUI through a service IP address or the technician port on the configuration node.