This is the checklist of steps to do when deploying a new machine. Written with the X8SIL-F in mind, but should be generic. Work in progress, still needs some things filled in.
- Update system firmware to latest version
- Update IPMI BMC firmware to latest version
- In the system BIOS make sure of the following
- Advanced → Boot Feature
- Quiet Boot = Disabled
- Bootup Num-Lock = off
- Wait for ‘F1’ If Error → Disabled
- Power Button Function → 4 second override
- Restore on AC Power Loss → Power ON
- Advanced → SATA/Floppy Configuration
- Configure SATA as = AHCI
- Advanced → PCI/PnP Configuration
- Onboard LAN1 Option Rom Select → PXE
- RISEUP: for atom – lan1 enabled, lan2 disabled; for quad – lan1 disabled, lan2 enabled
- Advanced → Remote Access Configuration
- Serial Port Mode → 115200 8,n,1
- Flow Control = None
- Redirection After BIOS POST = Boot Loader
- Terminal Type = ANSI
- VT-UTF = enabled
- Sredir = No Delay
- ACPI Configuration
- HPET = Enabled
- Aware = Yes
- APIC = Enabled
- SCI IRQ = Disabled
- Headless = Disabled
- Version = ACPI v2.0
- IPMI LAN is setup the way you want it
- Advanced → Boot Feature
- Update ssd firmware to latest version
- Run memtest86+ for at least a couple passes (preferably 24+ hours)
- Boot d-i or debirf to run tests
- run n+1 copies of cpuburn for 24+ hours
- follow the disk testing procedure for new disks (run badblocks, SMART tests, etc)
- for any SSDs that you tested, do the ATA Secure Erase procedure in order to reset them to new performance. If the disks are in “frozen” state there are a couple ways to unlock them.
- If you have physical access you can hotplug them.
- If you don’t have physical access and the system supports suspend to ram (grep mem /sys/power/state) then you can use the rtcwake command (from util-linux) to put the system to sleep and automatically wake back up.
- If you don’t have physical access and the system doesn’t support suspend, you are probably out of luck.
FIXME: finish this list
