HP ILO 3 gives XML syntax errors with hponcfg utility

Question

I have an HP ProLiant DL360 G7 server running VMWare ESX 4.1. The system board on the server was changed months ago following a lightning strike at the facility.

The HP technician reprogrammed the ILO3 interface and provided a login/password to access following the system board replacement. This worked at the time.

I'm now in a situation where those given credentials do not work. I'm trying to rebuild the system as an ESXi server, but I am unable to login via the ILO.

Since I do have shell and VMWare Service Console access, I thought I could use the well. known. trick. of resetting the password from within the running operating system. I loaded the hponcfg utility and first made sure that I could communicate with the ILO via the host's channel driver:

[root@esx2 ~]# hponcfg -w ilo.xml 
HP Lights-Out Online Configuration utility
Version 4.0.1 Date 09/24/2012 (c) Hewlett-Packard Company, 2012
Firmware Revision = 1.16 Device type = iLO 3 Driver name = 
Management Processor configuration is successfully written to file "ilo.xml"

Good. Now to use a simple ILO modify_user XML script and run hponcfg -f mod_user.xml to read it.

<RIBCL VERSION="2.22">
   <LOGIN USER_LOGIN="Administrator" PASSWORD="password">
      <USER_INFO MODE="write">
         <MOD_USER USER_LOGIN="Administrator">
            <USER_NAME value="admin"/>
            <USER_LOGIN value="admin"/>
            <PASSWORD value="neener-nanner-poo-poo"/>
            <ADMIN_PRIV value="Yes"/>
            <REMOTE_CONS_PRIV value="No"/>
            <RESET_SERVER_PRIV value="Yes"/>
            <VIRTUAL_MEDIA_PRIV value="Yes"/>
            <CONFIG_ILO_PRIV value="Yes"/>
         </MOD_USER>
      </USER_INFO>
   </LOGIN>
</RIBCL>

and the command line:

[root@esx2 ~]# hponcfg -f mod_user.xml 
HP Lights-Out Online Configuration utility
Version 4.0.1 Date 09/24/2012 (c) Hewlett-Packard Company, 2012
Firmware Revision = 1.16 Device type = iLO 3 Driver name = 
</-- ERROR :      STATUS= 0x0001
     MESSAGE= Error: Line #1: syntax error near "?>". -->
Script failed

Hmm... an error. How about reimporting the ilo.xml file I exported.

[root@esx2 ~]# hponcfg -f ilo.xml 
HP Lights-Out Online Configuration utility
Version 4.0.1 Date 09/24/2012 (c) Hewlett-Packard Company, 2012
Firmware Revision = 1.16 Device type = iLO 3 Driver name = 
</-- ERROR :      STATUS= 0x0001
     MESSAGE= Error: Line #1: syntax error near "?>". -->
Script failed 

Same error. No matter what I try to feed into the ILO 3, I receive an "Error: Line #1: syntax error near "?>"" message.

This is covered in a few HP support forum questions, but there's no resolution noted.

There's a chance that this is just a poor firmware revision, but I've encountered this same set of XML error on three unrelated systems in recent weeks. However, without physical access, ILO media access or a valid username, I can't upgrade the firmware easily, and it seems like the benefit of the scripting interface is lost...

-- edit --

I managed to get the ILO firmware from version 1.16 to 1.50. Same errors... Am I doing something wrong?

Solution 1

All of HP's example scripts use <RIBCL VERSION="2.0">, but that's the only difference I see. I'm also not sure whether renaming a user in this way will actually work, so maybe that's it. Try just changing the password:

<RIBCL VERSION="2.0">
   <LOGIN USER_LOGIN="Administrator" PASSWORD="does-not-matter">
      <USER_INFO MODE="write">
         <MOD_USER USER_LOGIN="Administrator">
            <PASSWORD value="new-password"/>
         </MOD_USER>
      </USER_INFO>
   </LOGIN>
</RIBCL>

Also be aware that characters <>"& are not supported properly in passwords (iLO's don't quite parse XML correctly).

If that still fails, try using hpilo_cli, which can generate XML for you and pipe it through hponcfg.

Solution 2

I have nothing definitive here....but here are some things that I might try in your situation.

Anything on the HP support sites? What does HP say?

I know that when I have had such a problem on other systems, there is a reset button on the card for resetting the ILO to a default configuration. You need physical access to the machine of course.

Is the hponcfg version you are using might not be compatible with the underlying hardware installed?

Maybe try a reinstallation of the hponcfg program?

BTW, the error being displayed might be some unfortunate general catchall.

What about a full power cycle (including the ILO module) of the system and then retrying the situation again? the ILO module might have some electrical hic-up. Of course, in your situation, you'd have to reach out and get somebody else to do it for you.

Solution 3

The "Error: Line #1: syntax error near "?>"" message is probably due to the .xml file being written encoded as Unicode and it needs to be ASCII/ANSI. Open the file in Notepad and do a "save as". See what encoding it is saving it as.

Comments

[ewwhite]

The hponcfg has an option to reset to factory default. Since this is a new system board, the default ILO password won't match the one listed on the chassis. I've rebooted the ILO as part of the firmware update process. I've tried three revisions of the hponcfg program and two set of ILO drivers for ESX. Since this happened on two other systems I manage (DL380 G6), it's definitely an ILO3/XML interaction... but I can't figure out what's unique... Maybe hponcfg isn't fully compatible with VMWare.

[ewwhite]

This seems to be firmware or software-related. I had to do some ugliness to get firmware updated on the hosts in question (ESXi systems). The same XML code works on many systems, but managed to fail on a handful of servers.

[Dennis Kaarsemaker]

Interesting. There's an old advisory about some versions of hponcfg not doing the right thing here (can't find it now). Maybe try a different (older/newer) version.

[ewwhite]

The issue was the language and capabilities of that revision of the ILO3 firmware. A firmware update fixed this.