AFF A800 BMC Web GUI timed-out | NetApp | Page 1

vestal garnet Aug 15, 2025, 4:11 PM

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Good day!
I have an AFF A800 that's being repurposed for resale. I'm trying to access the BMC web GUI so I can perform a proper factory reset of the board.
A little overview of the steps I've done on the unit:
I've performed the set-defaults in the loader prompt. Then wipeconfig at the boot menu, followed by performing option 9 (9a). Encryption sanitized the SED's in maintenance mode. Then returned to the boot menu and performed option 4.
I went through the Cluster setup wizard (create/join failed - possibly due to the system being a standalone). At the login I pressed ctrl+G to access the BMC login and accessed the BMC cli. Elevated privileges to diag and performed bmc wipeclean followed by bmc reboot.

I understand that wipeconfig and wipeclean do not clear the BMC settings, or actually factory restore the BMC for that matter. That needs to be done via the BMC web GUI, right?
I've tried setting the BMC network settings using the ONTAP shell with privileges elevated to advanced. The command I used:
system service-processor network modify -address-family IPv4 -enable true -node localhost -ip-address 192.168.1.20 -netmask 255.255.255.0 -gateway 192.168.1.1
I've provided screen caps of the network settings in the unit. I pinged the IP I set for the BMC (and I made sure my ethernet cable was connected to the BMC port, and not the e0M port). 100% of the packets return with a TTL=64. Yet when I try opening the IP on a web browser, I get a timed-out error. I've tried Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and even resorted to trying Palemoon. All timed-out error.
So I did some reading and learned that the api service needs to be enable. Not sure if that's correct but when I checked the api service it's stated to be disabled. I tried to modify value to true to enable it, but I get this error:
Error: command failed: database sp_api_service_rdb is not open

I've tried accessing an SSH session, but I can't get access through any accounts (admin, diag, bmc). I'm really not sure how to move forward with this. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

zinc lion Aug 15, 2025, 4:19 PM

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The BMC does not have a Web GUI. Never had. I guess you asked an LLM about it and it lied to you

vestal garnet Aug 15, 2025, 4:23 PM

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I would suppose I did ask an LLM. I googled about the NetApp BMC and I got a result mentioning accessing a web GUI. Been scratching my head around it this whole time.

zinc lion Aug 15, 2025, 4:24 PM

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also there are no "diag" or "bmc" accounts on the BMC either. After resetting it, the admin password is simply empty (but SSH won't allow you to log in with an empty password). After you configure a password in ONTAP, that gets synced to the BMC

vestal garnet Aug 15, 2025, 4:25 PM

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I figured that was the case. After I performed the wipeconfig, the admin pw was cleared. So when I entered the BMC cli right after, it prompted for a login. WHich I sued "admin" and left the password blank. I got access and went straight to elevating the privileges to diag

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I did set an admin password in the ONTAP cli using the security login password command. But the SSH wasn't accepting that either.

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nvm, I got in. Sorry about that. I feel very silly now...

zinc lion Aug 15, 2025, 4:33 PM

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it might take a minute or two to sync the password to the BMC

vestal garnet Aug 15, 2025, 4:34 PM

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I see. Good to know.
Is this BMC cli in the SSH the same as the BMC cli from the ontap?

zinc lion Aug 15, 2025, 4:34 PM

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you cannot access the BMC CLI from ONTAP

vestal garnet Aug 15, 2025, 4:35 PM

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so the ctrl+G login is different?

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I did that and got a BMC login with that

zinc lion Aug 15, 2025, 4:35 PM

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BMC is the one you access via serial or via the BMC IP

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ctrl+g works only via serial (or when you're already connected to the BMC and did "system console")

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and if you're connected via serial you're already going through the BMC 😉

vestal garnet Aug 15, 2025, 4:36 PM

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huh

zinc lion Aug 15, 2025, 4:36 PM

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but yeah, that's the same BMC

vestal garnet Aug 15, 2025, 4:36 PM

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so there's no need for the SSH, then (at least for what I'm trying to perform)

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Is there a way to factory restore the BMC via serial? I've looked the command options in both diag and advanced privileges, and all I could find was wipeclean

zinc lion Aug 15, 2025, 4:37 PM

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what do you want to reset that wipeclean does not reset?

vestal garnet Aug 15, 2025, 4:38 PM

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to be honest, I'm not sure what wipeclean doesn't scrub.

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I figured I could just manually change the network settings

zinc lion Aug 15, 2025, 4:38 PM

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it should reset everything, but if ONTAP is running and you already configured it, ONTAP will re-configure the old settings on the BMC after a few minutes

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ONTAP remembers how the BMC is configured and constantly resets it to that state (Which is really helpful when replacing hardware)

vestal garnet Aug 15, 2025, 4:39 PM

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oh I was unaware that ONTAP had that kind of provisioning

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So, in a sense, based on all the info you've given me, there's really nothing left for me to worry about on the unit from the previous owner?

zinc lion Aug 15, 2025, 4:42 PM

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if you really want to make sure the data from the disks is gone, you might want to sanitize them (from maintenance mode). Because if you do the regular option 4 in the boot menu, the disks are not really overwritten. So if the previous owner used neither self-encrypting disks nor volume/aggregate encryption, there might still be data on the disks

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there are some threads in here that have the actual commands for sanitizing

vestal garnet Aug 15, 2025, 4:43 PM

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oh, yes, I did perform that in maintenance mode. I performed the disk encrypt sanitize -all command and all 48 were successfully sanitized. The disks are SED's

zinc lion Aug 15, 2025, 4:44 PM

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yeah okay then you're all set

#AFF A800 BMC Web GUI timed-out