Before You Begin

Welcome to the OS Installation Guide for the EnGenius SmartNIC. This guide walks you through the complete process of setting up your SmartNIC device and installing a supported Linux operating system. We’ll help you move from unboxing the hardware to a fully operational system, one clear step at a time.

Who this guide is for

This document is designed for IT professionals and system integrators who are familiar with basic networking and Linux administration concepts but are new to working directly with SmartNIC hardware or out-of-band management tools.

We assume you already understand essential technical concepts (such as IP addresses, console ports, or kernel parameters). Therefore, the guide focuses on the practical, hardware-level steps required to deploy and configure the ESN904 SmartNIC efficiently, covering serial console setup, firmware-level configuration, and operating system installation.

Our goal is to help you bridge theory and practice, to turn your technical knowledge into real-world implementation confidence.

What you'll need

Before starting, make sure you have the following tools, files, and access ready.

Physical Equipment and Access

• Physical access to the SmartNIC device and the host platform it will be installed in (server or system chassis).

• A mini-USB cable for console connection between your workstation and the SmartNIC front panel port.

• A network cable (RJ-45) for connecting your control PC to the BMC management port.

• An enterprise-grade laptop or workstation with administrator privileges.

• Power cables and an available power source for the host system.

Software and files:

• A terminal emulator (such as Tera Term or PuTTY) for serial console communication.

• The OS installation image (ISO) for one of the supported operating systems:

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.4

  • Rocky Linux 9.4

  • Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

  • CentOS Stream 9

• A network connection with internet access for downloading installation packages or updates.

Understanding the SmartNIC Components

Before proceeding, familiarize yourself with several key hardware and firmware components referenced throughout this guide. For a complete list of technical terms,please refer to the Chapter Glossary.

• SmartNIC (Network Interface Card): A high-performance, programmable NIC that integrates computing capabilities directly into the network interface—allowing offload of networking, security, or AI workloads.

• BMC (Baseboard Management Controller): The embedded management microcontroller that allows out-of-band access for system monitoring, iKVM (keyboard, video, mouse over IP), and remote control—even when the host system is powered off.

• Mini-USB Console Port: Provides direct serial access to the SmartNIC CPU console. It’s used for firmware configuration, OS installation, and troubleshooting.

• BIOS (Basic Input/Output System): The low-level firmware interface used to configure hardware settings such as boot order and device initialization. You’ll access it during OS installation to ensure proper boot configuration.

• eMMC Storage: The onboard non-volatile storage (default 8 GB) used for OS installation. You can later extend this partition to utilize the full available capacity.

• Management Port: The dedicated RJ-45 Ethernet interface for BMC network access, using a default IP address of 192.168.1.202.