Video: IP Setup, Network and Host Name

Last updated 6 August 2026

Steps

Everything else about a server is reached over the network, so this is the setting that comes first. The Hub's IP Configuration dialog covers all of it in one place: the host name, each network adapter's address, and the IPMI/BMC management interface.

It is also the tool that works when nothing else does — the Hub finds Brainsalt servers over the local switch rather than by IP, so it can configure a machine it could never have browsed to.

Before you start

The server must be physically connected to the same network switch as the machine running the Hub. That is the only hard requirement — a matching subnet is not needed.
Know the addressing the site expects: IP address, subnet mask, gateway, DNS, or that DHCP is in use.
Changing the host name means a reboot. Do it before the server is carrying a show, not during.

1. Open IP Configuration

Select the server in the Servers list on the right, then click IP Config in the button row beneath the server name. The dialog is titled with the server it is pointed at, so check that name before changing anything.

2. Name the adapter

Under NETWORK ADAPTERS, each adapter is listed by MAC address. Type a meaningful label into Connection name and click Rename.

Name the adapters before you need to tell them apart. A server with several NICs shows several MAC addresses and nothing else to distinguish them. Control, Media, Lan 1 — anything is better than picking the right row by hex string under time pressure.

3. Set the address

Either tick DHCP for that adapter, or fill in IP address, Subnet mask, Gateway and DNS server and click Apply. The dialog confirms in place — OK: Configuration applied successfully — rather than closing.

Each section has its own Apply. Host name, network adapter and IPMI/BMC are applied separately — pressing one does not commit the others.

4. Servers on the wrong network are still reachable

This is the part worth remembering, because it is the case where everything else fails. A Brainsalt server is discovered over the local switch, so the Hub finds it even on a different subnet, and even with no IP address at all.

Such a server appears in the list marked yellow, flagging that it is on a different network; hovering its name shows the address it currently has.

From that state you have two ways out: set the server's address to something on your network, or read its address and move your own laptop onto the network it is already on.

A freshly imaged or misconfigured server is not lost. No browser can reach it and no ping will answer, but as long as it is on the same switch the Hub can see it and set its address. Reach for this before reaching for a keyboard and monitor at the rack.

5. Set the IPMI / BMC network

The IPMI / BMC section configures the management controller's own network interface — its DHCP, IP address, Subnet mask and Gateway, plus VLAN and a VLAN ID where the management network is tagged. It has its own Apply.

6. Set the host name, then reboot

At the top of the dialog, HOST NAME holds the server's name with its own Apply. The dialog states the consequence directly: A reboot is required to apply a new host name.

Trigger the reboot with the Restart button in the server's button row.

The host name is why this belongs in commissioning, not in a show week. Address changes take effect immediately; the name does not take until the machine has restarted, and until then the server answers to its old name.

Done when

The adapter carries the address the site expects, each section has confirmed its own Apply, and — after the restart — the server appears in the Hub under its new host name.

What this depends on

Depends on	Why
Shared network switch	Discovery is what lets the Hub configure a server it cannot route to.
The site's addressing plan	Address, mask, gateway and DNS have to come from somewhere.
A reboot window	Required for a host name change to take effect.
BMC present on the host	The IPMI / BMC section only applies to servers that have a management controller.