IPMI Quick Start Guide

Rev 1.0

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Brief Description of function ........................................ 1

1 Function Overview ........................................................................................1

2 Hardware Theory ..........................................................................................1

Chapter 2 IPMI Quick Deploy.................................................................. 2

1. Ensure the motherboard support IPMI .......................................................2

2. Enter Bios and Enable the IPMI Fuction ......................................................3

3. Config the IP address for IPMI manually......................................................6

4. debug monitor terminal ................................................................................8

4.1 Choosing monitor platform and preparing softwares needed ...................8

4.2 Config "JAVA Version 8 Update 45" ..........................................................8

Chapter 3 Quick learning instruction of IPMI ......................................12

1.Log on the operating interface ....................................................................12

2.IPMI function overview................................................................................13

2.1 IPMI management interface menu ...........................................................13

2.2 start remote servers .................................................................................14

2.3 Brief description of Remote management ................................................15

Chapter 4 Other way of IPMI connecting ................................... 17

1. IPMI driver .................................................................................................17

2. IPMI tools and other open source softwares ..............................................17

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Chapter 1 Brief Description of Function

1. Function Overview

IPMI(Intelligent Platform Management Interface) is a set of rules proposed byIntel Corporation for server remote management. the latest version is 2.0. A lot ofremote control cards (or KVM over IP equipment) in servers use IPMI interface , Wecan manage servers in the intranet simply, such as monitoring the temperatureinside, fan’s speed, logs of hardware and start or stop the servers, etc.

IPMI is a kind of open standard for hardware management interface, and itdefines the specific method for the communication of the embedded managerialsubsystem.

IPMI information is conducted by a Baseboard Management Controller (BMC)embedded on hardware. it is intelligently managed by the Low-Level hardwaredirectly instead of operating system.

Users can monitor the physical characteristic by IPMI, for example: temperature,voltage, fan’s status, power status, etc. There are two major advantage on IPMI:firstly, it allows for managing the server remotely; secondly, operating systemneedn’t undertake the task of status data in transmitting system

2. Hardware Theory

The core of IPMI is a specific chip/controller that named BaseboardManagement Controller (BMC),and it doesn’t rely on the processor of servers, bios,or the operating system, that is very independent. It is an agentless managerialsubsystem that can work alone in the system, as long as the firmware of BMC andIPMI are available. BMC is an independent chip embedded on the servermotherboard usually. The good autonomous speciality of IPMI overcamemanagement limitation in the past which is based on operating system, for example,power on or power off system,information extraction,and other operations in thecondition of “not responding” on OS or unloaded.

The BMC of Gooxi motherboard use the AST2400 chip from ASPEED Inc.The chipembedded ARM processor has the function of data collecting,analyzing andcalculating.VGA graphics engine is built-in. BMC on board can realize the function asbelow

1） Monitoring systematic Temperature: Including CPU temp, PCH temp, Boardtemp, DRAM temp, it can adjust PWM fans speed according to these temp data.

2） VGA graphic display output, host system output are depend the AST2400;

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3） IKVM SOL function realized ， support server startup, shutdown,resetremotely.

4） independent of system power-supply or the working status.

5） IPMI management function.

Function Block of BMC

Chapter 2 IPMI Quick Deploy

This chapter will guide quick deploy of IPMI functionality in the system .pleasecheck flow chart as below:

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1. Ensure the motherboard support IPMI function

check the manual of motherboard to ensure if it support IPMI, then find thededicated IPMI interface on the mainboard.

You can also find from the “Gooxi Naming Rule” as below:

2. Enter Bios and Enable the IPMI Fuction

Reset the server, press the button “ESC” or “DEL” during the system booting toenter the BIOS

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Press “ESC” or ”DEL” on this page to enter BIOS

The home page of BIOS as above

Entering the BIOS interface, select the “Server Mgmt” by “right” or “left” key,

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then press “Enter” ,you will see the page as below

Select “BMC network configuration”, so we can config the IP address of IPMI.

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As above picture, select “configuration Address source” and press “Enter”

Gooxi IPMI can support “Static” and “DHCP” both. “static” need to assign theaddress by yourself, “DHCP” can assign the address automatically if any sever inthe network support DHCP of TCP/IP V4. running regulation of DHCP sever is notdetailedly discussed in this article.

3. Config the IP address for IPMI manually

After choosing “static” to enable IPMI function, we need to config the IP Addressfor this server, and there are several point need to note as below

1） If there are several servers with IPMI function in the intranet, please keepthe IP of IPMI exclusive, otherwise it will not be able to communicate.

2） If IP address of IPMI is in internal network, the management terminal mustbe in the same network segment.

3） The server with IPMI can be remote controlled from the internet when its IPaddress was mapped to the internet by router.

4） The port of IPMI is able to get IP address for itself through the DHCPprotocol.

5） The IPMI supports both Tcp/ip V4 protocol and Tcp/ip V6 protocol .

Next page we will show you how to demonstrate the configuration with Fixednetwork IP address in Tcp/ip V4 protocol

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select “station IP address” and press “enter”, then input the IP address，192.168.2.18, press “enter” again to confirm.

select “sub-net mask” and press “enter”, then input the Sub-net mask with“255.255.255.0”, after that, press “enter” again to confirm.

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After those progresses ,press “F4” for saving the configuration and exit. Thepicture shows below.

Here we have completed all the operations of IPMI configuration

4. Debug the Terminal of IPMI

4.1 Choosing monitor platform and preparing softwares needed

System on chip of Gooxi IPMI use the common and friendly GUI which named“MegaRAC ® GUI” from AMI, we can monitor and manage it through the webbrowser.

We suggest to use operating system such as windows7/windowsXP/windows2003 server/windows2008 server, etc. for managing and monitoring theIPMI. Certainly we need to install a component that named “JAVA Version 8 Update45” before IPMI running, you can download from web link as below

http://www.java.com/en/

Download and install process of this program is same as others software onwindows, this article won’t expound.

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4.2 Config JAVA Version 8 Update 45

After installing JAVA Version 8 Update 45 we can find the JAVA controller

from the control panel of windows , then open itand we will see the menu as below:

Click the “Security” tab on the top ,then it will show the picture as below:

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On this page, firstly, we need to choose the security class at “High” above, thenclick the “edit site list” to edit the exception web address. Please check as below.

After the dialog box shows above, we need to press “add”, then input the webaddress for monitoring, at last we select “ok”.

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As shown below:

select “continue” on this step

If you find IP address is showed in the “exception website” list which means theconfiguration of Java controller is finished. If there is not only one equipment，wejust need to repeat the steps above.

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Chapter 3 Quick learning instruction of IPMI

You can log on the IPMI interface after previous setting. IPMI managementinterface can be visited by standard web browser, IE explorer or Firefox isrecommended which has better compatibility.

1. Enter into the operation interface

Input the IP of IPMI which we need to visit in the address bar, and press “enter”,then we can visit the management interface of IPMI.

Input IP to the address bar of the IE

The login interface of IPMI is above.

Default User-name and password

The factory default user-name and password are below:

User-name: admin

Password: admin

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Notice:

The default user-name and password are both lowercase.

you will get the whole permissions as the administrator after logining , Wesuggest you change the password for safety.

you can see the interface as below after correct login

2. IPMI function overview

2.1 IPMI management interface menu

Dashboard Showing the basic hardware information of the server, andmaking remote invoking

FRU infomation The basic configuration information of BMC

Server health Showing the healthy information such as voltage of servermotherboard, temperature of the hardware component,etc.

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Configuration All kinds of configuration of networking and ActiveDirectory for BMC management system.

Remote control Configuration of remote controller and remote start or shutdown the machine

Auto video recording Configuration of auto monitor program

Maintenance The kinds of inside maintenance of IPMI

Firmware update Update the firmware of BMC

2.2 start remote servers

Click the “Lunch” button at the left bottom on the dashboard page to open aJava remote controller.

After that, it will popup a reminding window that asks you to execute a javaprogram online, it shows below

Next we need to click “open”, after that there will appear a security window ofjava program, it shows below.

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Select “ I accept risk and hope to run this program”, then click “run” button.

At this point, the starting of remote desktop controller for IPMI has beencompleted.

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The interface of remote control for IPMI

2.3 Brief description of Remote management

The management is mainly divided into 2 parts, one is menu and shortcut button,another is the remote desktop window, which also means the desktop screeninformation remote returned of the server. It shows as below.

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2.3.1 Shortcut button of the remote controller

1.start or pause the frame of remote desktop2.full screen button

simulatedrivers likeUSB, floppydisk, opticaldriver to sendinformation orsetup. Thisfunction isnormally usedfor installingremoteoperation

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system .

1. Call out the soft mouse for operating without a mouse.

2. Call out the soft keyboard for operating without akeyboard.

1. Record the video of remote desktop.

2. Assemble hot-keys for avoiding the conflict with thehot-keys of host system.

1.Switch the management host, make convenience forswitching between the IPMI equipment.

2.Open or shut down the remote monitor.

3.Start or shutdown the remote server.

Adjust the size of the windows.

Chapter 4 Other way for IPMI connecting

The firmware of AST2400 is totally according with IPMI 2.0 standard, so everyuser can use the standard IPMI drivers that the operation system has distributed.

1. IPMI driver

AST2400 supports referenced drivers by Intel , it can be got from the websitebelow:

http://www.intel.com/design/servers/ipmi/tools.htm.Windows Server 2003 R2,Microsoft has also offered the driver package for user

AST2400 supports the Open IPMI driver from Linux kernel, load the driverthrough the commands as below:“modprobeipmi_devintf”“modprobeipmi_si”,and ifyou have used the old version Linux kernel, you need to use“ipmi_kcs” instead of“ipmi_si”component.2. IPMI tools and other open source software

AST2400 supports the open source IPMI tools, you can also use other software,such as Open IPMI, IPMI Utility, etc.

Above mentioned document is written for helping you quickly knowing and

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deploying the IPMI function of system.Regarding the detailed function operatingmanual of IPMI, we will offer the other useful files.