Argo Connect

Utility to connect to my Dell m1000e "home" lab. Don't ask me why. Very specific to the way I have the server set up. Everything is routed through a Raspberry Pi connected to the OOB management ports.

Example Usage:

./argo_connect.sh - Walks you through all the available options

./argo_Connect.sh 1 kvm - run KVM connection to blade number 1 (see "KVM prerequisites" below)

./argo_connect.sh 1 ssh - open iDRAC SSH connection

./argo_connect.sh 1 web - open web iDRAC GUI

./argo_connect.sh chassis web - open web CMC GUI

./argo_connect.sh chassis ssh - jump into SSH connection to the Chassis Management Controller

./argo_connect.sh chassis ssh "racadm getconfig -g cfgChassisPower -o cfgChassisInPower" - run racadm command on the CMC via SSH.

./argo_connect.sh network web - open web GUI of the network switch

Fallback jumphost (when the OOB Pi is down)

If argo@argo (the Raspberry Pi) is unreachable, everything can be routed through any other host that's wired into the CMC's 192.168.0.0/24 management network — e.g. a Windows box with a NIC on that segment. Override the jumphost and identity files via env vars:

JUMPHOST=<user>@<host> IDENTITY_FILE=~/.ssh/argo_ed25519 IDRAC_IDENTITY_FILE=~/.ssh/argo_rsa1024 \
  ./argo_connect.sh chassis ssh

• IDENTITY_FILE authenticates to the jumphost itself.
• IDRAC_IDENTITY_FILE authenticates to the CMC/iDRAC once tunneled through (defaults to IDENTITY_FILE if unset, matching the original single-key Pi setup). This must be an ssh-rsa key — the CMC's firmware (CMC 6.21, circa 2019) doesn't understand ed25519, and its own docs recommend 1024-bit RSA specifically (it silently accepts other sizes up to 4096 but can fail to actually log in with them).
• Confirm any candidate jumphost actually reaches the CMC first: arping -I <iface> 192.168.0.100 (needs root) is the reliable check — a plain ping can pass through a router while arping proves real L2 adjacency. The blade servers' own NICs (eno1/eno2) are not on this network, confirmed via arping returning zero replies on both.

Adding an SSH key to the CMC's service account (svcacct)

The CMC only accepts SSH keys for a fixed pseudo-user called svcacct (not a numeric user index like other accounts), addressed via racadm sshpkauth, and actually logged into over SSH as service. From an existing authenticated session (argo_connect.sh chassis ssh, or manually):

racadm sshpkauth -i svcacct -k <1-6> -v                     # view a key slot
racadm sshpkauth -i svcacct -k <1-6> -p 0xfff -t "<pubkey>"  # add/replace a key slot
racadm sshpkauth -i svcacct -k <1-6> -d                      # delete a key slot

Gotchas that cost real time figuring out:

• -p 0xfff (privilege mask) is required on write, even though it's undocumented in the in-CLI help — omitting it fails with ERROR: Failed to save key file., which looks identical to a genuine storage fault and has nothing to do with slot occupancy or key format.
• The key must be ssh-rsa; anything else (e.g. ed25519) fails with ERROR: Key text appears to be corrupt.
• Check -v on a slot before deleting it. A working key can sit in slot 1 indefinitely; on this chassis slot 1 held the original argo@argo (Pi) key. Prefer writing to an empty slot (-k up to 6 are available) over clearing one you haven't verified is unused.

KVM prerequisites

bootleg-idrac6-client/kvm.sh (the kvm service) needs the bootleg-idrac6-client submodule checked out (git submodule update --init bootleg-idrac6-client — it's not pulled in by a plain clone) and a working java on PATH.

Despite fetching a .jnlp file, it does not need Java Web Start — the script just curls the .jnlp to scrape launch arguments via awk, then runs a plain java -jar JViewer.jar $args against a downloaded native library (Linux_x86_64.jar, unpacked .so files for video/USB redirection JNI). A regular JRE is all that's required.

Use Java 8 specifically, not a newer LTS — this is circa-2010 Dell code with old JNI bindings that can hit IllegalAccessError/native-lib-loading failures on Java 11+'s module system. On Debian/Ubuntu (including WSL):

sudo apt update && sudo apt install openjdk-8-jre

It's a Swing GUI app, so it needs a display. On WSL2 with WSLg (Windows 11, or updated Windows 10) this works out of the box; otherwise run an X server (e.g. VcXsrv) on the Windows side and set DISPLAY accordingly.

Hardware inventory

argo_inventory.sh pulls a full chassis inventory non-interactively (chassis/CMC info, per-module presence & health, firmware versions for every blade/switch/CMC) — same env var overrides as above:

JUMPHOST=<user>@<host> IDENTITY_FILE=~/.ssh/argo_ed25519 IDRAC_IDENTITY_FILE=~/.ssh/argo_rsa1024 \
  ./argo_inventory.sh