The Home Lab is Growing - Adding Intel Nuc to the Mix

With focusing on openstack deployments as well as test driven infrastructure as code development comes a welcome excuse for some extra machines in the home office. Looking around got me thinking what I expect from such a node

should be small
low power consumption
out of band management
possible to add > 8GB Ram

Intel NUC Kit DC53427HYE

With this requirements in mind I searched the interwebs and found one possible match. The Intel Nuc product range. Only problem: a hefty price tag for the out-of-band management, cause only one model includes vPro and AMT features.

Hopefully Intel will come up with a additional models providing these features.

So my shopping cart was quickly filled with:

Intel® NUC Kit DC53427HYE
128 GB mSata drive
16 GB RAM

I did not order a power cable as I have lots of them at home, right? Wrong! So my advice to you: check if you really have a Clover-leaf or Mickey Mouse connector ‘cause we in Germany/Austria mostly have shotgun connectors lying around (see IEC_60320).

NUC Hardware Setup

Next up is the hardware assembly. Open up the Nuc and add the memory and disk.

I had to remove and re-add the memory twice as I got flashing power lights indicating a problem with the memory (see NUC BIOS blink codes).

After fixing the memory problem every thing was set. So I thought. Wrong again! Somehow the gods of IT consumer products wanted to remind me why I switched to Apple a decade ago. Entering the Bios? The NUC did not respond to my USB keyboard. I changed the keyboard but that did not help. Searching the community revealed that it probably is a BIOS problem. So to use the NUC I first hat to upgrade the BIOS. Bummer!

NUC BIOS Upgrade

There are several options on how to update the NUC BIOS. I went with the Recovery BIOS Update method as all the other options did not work out for me.

So first download the Recovery BIOS Update [RK0030.BIO] and put it on a usb stick/drive.

Follow the instructions and remove the jumper for the Recovery BIOS Update (see the Technical Product Specification for details on the BIOS Configuration Jumper)

Now attach a monitor and keyboard to watch the process (this takes some time).

NUC Intel AMT Remote Management

Finally we are all set to get the remote access working. Wrong again. At least if you are a OSX user. You will need a Windows machine to get it work. So either get one or use veewee to build a virtual machine running Windows e.g. windows-fromscratch.

You need the IP of the NUC. Either set an IP in the MEBx interface, using Ctrl-P just after BIOS post or find out which IP the NUC got from your DHCP server (see Configuring the Intel AMT IP Address). One thing to note here: as AMT sits on top of your NIC you have to either use a fixed IP for the OS and AMT or use DHCP on both. It is not possible to mix static and dynamic setting. With DHCP the IP is shared on IPv4!

With this preparations set you can follow e.g. this Howto: Intel NUC Remote KVM with AMT (powered by vPro).

Additional Link List for the NUC

Interested in Cloud or Chef Trainings? Have a look at our Commandemy Trainings page. Need help migrating to the cloud? Check out Infralovers.

Intel NUC Kit DC53427HYE

NUC Hardware Setup

NUC BIOS Upgrade

NUC Intel AMT Remote Management

Additional Link List for the NUC

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