docs(infrastructure): legacy-bmc-tactics — patterns for old enterpris…#40
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docs(infrastructure): legacy-bmc-tactics — patterns for old enterpris…#40JacobPEvans wants to merge 2 commits into
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…e hardware New public page capturing the patterns we've used to bring legacy enterprise server hardware (Dell PowerEdge 11G era, iDRAC 6, etc.) into modern remote-management workflows. Three patterns: 1. Reverse-engineer the hidden HTTP API the BMC's own web UI uses, so we can monitor host VGA output via curl-fetched screenshot PNGs instead of fighting the unsigned Java vKVM applet. 2. Wrap the Java applet in a throwaway container with OpenWebStart + a jar re-signing wrapper, so the host workstation never sees legacy Java or downgraded TLS ciphers. 3. Headless install onto chassis without VGA: custom auto-install ISO + Ventoy USB + IPMI bootdev=floppy + screenshot-polling for progress. Includes the IPMI spec gotcha (`floppy` = USB stick, `cdrom` = optical or vCD), the JNLP `+` URL-encoding round-trip bug in modern Java, and the legacy RC4 video-encryption setting that silently breaks the KVM connect — written in abstract form (no real IPs, hostnames, or BMC serials). Added to the Infrastructure nav after lxc-vs-docker. Mintlify renders fine; markdownlint clean. Assisted-by: Claude <noreply@anthropic.com>
…sort Extends the legacy-BMC-tactics page with the PXE pattern that turned out to be the actual working remote-install path after USB-boot kept falling through to the prior OS on the target chassis. Four sub-points: 1. dnsmasq in proxyDHCP mode on the existing healthy hypervisor — supplements the gateway's DHCP with PXE options without conflict. 2. Custom-built iPXE with EMBED= script — distro-packaged iPXE doesn't auto-execute the DHCP-offered bootfile URL, so the chain has to be baked into the binary. 3. Direct kernel + initrd boot, not sanboot — small (~70 MB), reliable; sanboot of large ISOs is flaky on pre-2010 NICs. 4. Answer-file URL on kernel cmdline — Proxmox auto-installer, Debian preseed, RHEL kickstart all support fetching the answer file from HTTP at install time. Written in the abstract no-real-IPs style — same shape as the existing Patterns 1-3. Assisted-by: Claude <noreply@anthropic.com>
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…e hardware
New public page capturing the patterns we've used to bring legacy enterprise server hardware (Dell PowerEdge 11G era, iDRAC 6, etc.) into modern remote-management workflows. Three patterns:
Includes the IPMI spec gotcha (
floppy= USB stick,cdrom= optical or vCD), the JNLP+URL-encoding round-trip bug in modern Java, and the legacy RC4 video-encryption setting that silently breaks the KVM connect — written in abstract form (no real IPs, hostnames, or BMC serials).Added to the Infrastructure nav after lxc-vs-docker. Mintlify renders fine; markdownlint clean.
Assisted-by: Claude noreply@anthropic.com