[SOLVED] IPMI newbie don't know how to connect

bucovaina78 · 08-13-2010, 03:40 PM

Hi Everyone,

I was struggeling with IPMI on my Debian Squeeze Supermicro 5014C-T server.

I solved this issue and kept the original opening post in small font. This is what I had to do to make this work on my supermicro 5014C-T to get the IPMI controller working:

Code:

# create the device
mknod -m 0600 /dev/ipmi0 c 254 0

#install necessary software.
apt-get update && apt-get install openipmi ipmitools

#load the modules into the kernel

modprobe ipmi_devintf
modprobe ipmi_msghandler
modprobe ipmi_watchdog
modprobe ipmi_poweroff
modprobe ipmi_si type="kcs" ports="0xca8" regspacings="4"

ipmitool -I open lan set 1 ipaddr 192.168.1.100 # choose the IP-address
ipmitool -I open lan set 1 defgw ipaddr 192.168.1.1 # default gateway
ipmitool -I open lan set 1 netmask 255.255.255.0 # netmask
ipmitool -I open lan set 1 access on # make accessible ?
ipmitool -I open lan set 1 snmp TypeCommunityStringHere
ipmitool -I open lan set 1 snmp TypeAPasswordHere # set the null user password to something
ipmitool -I open user set password 2 RememberThisPassword # set password for root user!!!
ipmitool -I open lan print 1 #finally check all settings.
export IPMI_PASSWORD="RemberThisPassword"


check for power status(from a remote host):


ipmitool -I lan -u ADMIN -H 192.168.1.100 -a chassis power status

In a turorial I was told to use the user name "root" but I got dropped out of the shell telling me it didn't recognize the username. So I tried root/Root/amdin/ADMIN and for me ADMIN did the job. To check the valid usernames do this:

Code:

ipmitool user list 1

Pleas feel free to comment on things that are possibly not right/complete/unsecure ... . As the topic title says I'm a total IPMI newbie :-)

Hi everyone,

My story on this thread?:

Recently I got an "old" 1U Supermicro server from the IT-manager of the company where I work (property of the IT-manager, not my company's

).

Well, old, it's just fine since it's running Linux (d'oh!!

) and it isn't supposed to run heavy databases, Just filesharing/webserver/ftpserver/sshserver. Things like that. I'm planning to put in 2 x 2TB-discs in RAID 0 so it isn't old anymore. But that's offtopic isn't it?

.

The only "exotic" hardware to me is an IPMI-controller. The IT-guy was so kind to explain what it is and can do. I have no previous experience with physical servers so err

.

Anyway, I'm trying to access the IPMI controller but have no clue how to get there.

The best I could come up with is:

Code:

root@Ganeymedes:/home/wannes# ipmiconsole -h localhost
[error received]: connection timeout
root@Ganeymedes:/home/wannes# apt-cache search ipmi
...
...[other packages]
...
freeipmi-tools - GNU implementation of the IPMI protocol - Tools
...
...[other packages]
...
root@Ganeymedes:/home/wannes# apt-get install freeipmi-tools 2>&1 /dev/null
root@Ganeymedes:/home/wannes# ipmiconsole -h localhost
[error received]: connection timeout
root@Ganeymedes:/home/wannes#

So I figured out there should be some kind of deamon running to answer incoming requests or can't you access ipmi from the same host? Errrrr no, no deamon: a deamon can't be running if the box is completely off... .

Well some help to get me going would be appreciated

Thanks

Wannes

btmiller · 08-14-2010, 04:22 PM

You should be able to use "ipmitool" to query and set the IP address of the IPMI card (assuming it's supported by Linux -- most are). The IPMI card has its own processor (this is how you can access it and do stuff even if the box is shut down so long as the IPMI card has power). You should carefully read the man page for ipmitool as the options are a bit convoluted IMO and I don't remember the exact command to set the card's IP. Depending on what exact card you have, once you have assigned the card an IP address, you can ssh to it or access it via a Web interface to get to its functionality. The default user name and password on Supermicro IPMI cards are both "ADMIN" (all caps, no quotes). Hopefully you have a card that supports IPMI 2.0. We have a bunch of Supermicro servers at my work and we've noticed flakiness with the cards implementing the older 1.5 standard.

bucovaina78 · 08-16-2010, 02:28 AM

I tried it out on my PC, apparently I have an AOC-IPMI20-E IPMI 2.0 controller (http://www.supermicro.com/products/a...C-IPMI20-E.cfm)

It is not recognized by my Debian Squeeze. I can't find any device "/dev/ipmi", nor in lspci can I find it.

bucovaina78 · 08-16-2010, 06:00 AM

i tried

Code:

dmidecode

and it gave me:

Code:

wrong DMI structures length: 1415 bytes announced, structures occupy ...

I'm thinking the IPMI is not set up properly in the BIOS. When I return home I'll check.

UPDATE
IPMI is enabled (it said something like enable terminal forward in bios, I enabled it.

...

Don't know what I'm doing wrong?

bucovaina78 · 08-16-2010, 02:56 PM

Yep, got it up and running, check the first post for what I had to do to get ipmi up and running;

No it's time to see how the command works and how I can access it from my Nokia N900