Setting up Ipmi with Ilo2 over a serial connection through Console Server

eodchop · 11-12-2008, 10:41 AM

Greetings. I was just wondering if someone could point me in the right direction as to how to get started. We would like to be able to monitor Fan RPM and HD temp using IPMI and also as having this as a backdoor in incase of network failure and access a CLI. We'd use a dial in ssh or telnet to the console server. I have several HP dl360g5's that have to be connected to the console server. They are all running RHEL 5. I was told we could daisy chain each server together using serial to cat5 connections. Not sure if this is possible.

marozsas · 11-12-2008, 01:14 PM

The first thing you need to do is set a IP address to IPMI. This is generally done in the BIOS. You may have to set a user and password too to get authenticated access to the IPMI functions.
After the IP is set, test it with ipmiping from freeipmi-0.5.1-3.fc9.i386.rpm package on Fedora 9. Check the IPMI package for your distro.

Code:

[root@babylon5 ~]# ipmiping server-bmc
ipmiping bigslam-bmc (192.168.160.201)
response received from 192.168.160.201: rq_seq=1
response received from 192.168.160.201: rq_seq=2
response received from 192.168.160.201: rq_seq=3
^C--- ipmiping bigslam-bmc statistics ---
3 requests transmitted, 3 responses received in time, 0.0% packet loss

Now you have the basic connection to IPMI, you can test other functions. For example, get the sensors values as you mentioned in your post:

Code:

[root@babylon5 ~]# ipmi-sensors -u my_user -p my_secret_password -h servera-bmc -C
1: Temp (Temperature): 63.00 C (5.00/125.00): [At or Below (<=) Lower Critical Threshold]
2: Planar Temp (Temperature): 26.00 C (3.00/58.00): [OK]
3: CMOS Battery (Voltage): 3.08 V (2.64/NA): [OK]
4: ROMB Battery (Voltage): [State Deasserted]
5: VCORE (Voltage): [State Deasserted]
6: PROC VTT (Voltage): [State Deasserted]
7: 1.5V PG (Voltage): [State Deasserted]
8: 1.8V PG (Voltage): [State Deasserted]
9: Presence (Entity Presence): [Entity Present]
10: Back Fan (Fan): 1824.00 RPM (760.00/NA): [OK]
11: Front Fan (Fan): 988.00 RPM (760.00/NA): [OK]
12: Status (Processor): [Processor Presence detected]
13: VRM (Power Supply): [Presence detected]
14: OS Watchdog (Watchdog 2): [OK]
15: SEL (Event Logging Disabled): [Unknown]
16: Intrusion (Platform Chassis Intrusion): [OK]
17: Temp Interface (Temperature): [OK]
23: ECC Corr Err (Memory): [Unknown]
24: ECC Uncorr Err (Memory): [Unknown]
25: I/O Channel Chk (Critical Interrupt): [Unknown]
26: PCI Parity Err (Critical Interrupt): [Unknown]
27: PCI System Err (Critical Interrupt): [Unknown]
28: SBE Log Disable (Event Logging Disabled): [Unknown]
29: Logging Disable (Event Logging Disabled): [Unknown]
30: Unknown (System Event): [Unknown]
31: PROC Protocol (Processor): [Unknown]
32: PROC Bus PERR (Processor): [Unknown]
33: PROC Init Err (Processor): [Unknown]
34: PROC Machine Ch (Processor): [Unknown]
35: Memory Spared (Memory): [Unknown]
36: Memory Mirrored (Memory): [Unknown]
37: Memory RAID (Memory): [Unknown]
38: Memory Added (Memory): [Unknown]
39: Memory Removed (Memory): [Unknown]
40: PCIE Fatal Err (Critical Interrupt): [Unknown]
41: Chipset Err (Critical Interrupt): [Unknown]
42: Err Reg Pointer (OEM Reserved): [Unknown]
43: Drive (Slot Connector): [OK]
44: SAS Cable (Cable Interconnect): [Cable/Interconnect is connected]
[root@babylon5 ~]#

Other more interesting functions include functions to control the power unit (on/off/cycle) and to reset (soft/hard) the computer, and serial over LAN, to get remote access to the BIOS and boot messages on console through the LAN. This is made by IPMI firmware/software - there is nothing to do with use UDP cables connected to the rs232-c as you mentioned.

eodchop · 11-19-2008, 11:26 AM

What would i use to connect from console server to servers. We are setting up a pots line to access IPMI features. Would i hook the pots line into the console server and then run serial cables to all of my servers

marozsas · 11-19-2008, 11:43 AM

I'm sorry. I didn't understand. There are terms I don't know. What do you mean with "pots line" for instance ?

Anyway, IPMI functions are accessed by local LAN, over TCP/IP, just I did show you above: babylon5 is my linux desktop; servera-bmc and server-bmc are servers on the same lan.

There is nothing to do with serial cables. Just regular network using UDP cables connected between servers's NIC and your switch/hub.

eodchop · 11-19-2008, 11:47 AM

My servers are at a hosting facility. We are setting up via serial access incase of either our pipe in crapping out or nic goes out. The systems architect wants to be able to have serial console access. The pots line is just a phone line. POTS=plain old telephone system.

marozsas · 11-19-2008, 12:18 PM

oh, I see

Well, plugging a dial-in modem in the serial line is not worth for this purpose, because you will have access only to tty (supposed you configure inittab to run getty on the serial port). In case of a severe crash in your system, it is useless.

Dell and other vendors have a board name DRAC which is used for this sole purpose: Authenticated, secure, maintenance access to the BIOS/POWER functions through a serial line, and may be through a modem hooked on POTS (some models have the modem on-board).

You can have both: DRAC for serial access and IPMI for networked access.

eodchop · 11-19-2008, 12:56 PM

What is your suggestion then? We have 17 HPDL360G5's all running RHEL 5. The two requirments are.

A. Ipmi setup and running.
B. Console Access incase of NIC failure.

The servers have ilo2 ports on them. Should we run a pots line to console server then connect to the ilo2 ports?

marozsas · 11-19-2008, 02:06 PM

I'm sorry, I know nothing about ilo2. I will try to read something about it and see if it helps. I hope it provides serial access like Dell's DRAC cards do.

Regarding to IPMI, I think it is just a matter of configure the NIC/BIOS and install ipmi tools on the remote management desktop/console. Did you try to play with the BIOS to enable IPMI ? Do you have ipmi tools installed in some linux desktop ?

Tomorrow is a holly day here where I live. See you Friday, ok ?

cheers,

eodchop · 11-19-2008, 02:37 PM

I appreciate it. I am too green really to know what to do. I have been researching ilo some, but HP man pages are terrible. Nothing to speak of really.

stuart_cherrington · 11-21-2008, 04:28 AM

HP can provide an HP-IPMI package, but this may not help in the issues you've been describing. As Marozsas said, you can use IPMI to interrogate the hardware via the OS and pull information from this, but IPMI probably won't help you if you lose network connectivity. (except you could write a wrapper script around the IPMI calls to advise you when it cannot contact a host).

As ilo/ilo2 is for HP (as DRAC is for Dell), the Hosting company should configure the hosts with 2 different switches, one switch provides LAN access to the Host, the other provides access to the Hosts ILO2.

Using a Serial POTS line won't get you much, and will be REALLY slow.

Stuart.