Batch configure HP ILO from laptop

  • You could PXEboot or USB boot the systems into a thin linux image and use the hponcfg utility to set the ILO devices via XML config file.
  • You could ask HP or your vendor to preset the ILOs. I offer that service to clients.
  • Hire/contract a datacenter technician.
  • If your systems are co-located, use Smart Hands services.
  • You could enable DHCP (limit to a list of MAC addresses, or to your dedicated management network).
  • Buy a laptop USB crash cart and set the ILO manually as the systems are being racked.
  • You could use the embedded Intelligent Provisioning feature of Gen8 servers to copy/preload system settings.
  • Experiment with the HP Scripting Toolkit for your deployments.

You're going to need some way to update firmware, set BIOS config and prepare these systems anyway... E.g. How will you set the Smart Array RAID controller configuration? If you're not doing this already, you're going to have problems with these servers!

Edit: When I encounter companies that have no DHCP facilities, I do wonder what's going on. Provisioning and builds become infinitely more difficult.