Asus ASMB4-SOL PLUS- User Manual

systems management

DELL POWER SOLUTIONS

| November 2007

1

Reprinted from

Dell Power Solutions,

November 2007. Copyright © 2007 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.

T

he Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI)
specification defines standards for monitoring server
hardware characteristics such as system tempera-

tures, voltages, fans, power supplies, bus errors, and physi-
cal system security; logging abnormal conditions; generating
platform alerts; and providing inventory information.
IPMItool, an open source utility for managing and configuring
IPMI-compliant devices, enables administrators to monitor,
log, recover, inventory, and control hardware in Dell
PowerEdge servers through a simple baseboard management
controller (BMC) command-line interface (CLI). However, the
number of CLI options limits the BMC features available
through this interface. To help maximize the available BMC
capabilities, administrators can instead access hardware
functions using raw commands.

This article provides step-by-step guidance on configuring

IPMI, installing and using IPMItool, enabling and using Serial
Over LAN (SOL), and using IPMItool raw commands. The
instructions in this article are based on the IPMI 2.0 specifica-
tion available at

developer.intel.com/design/servers/

ipmi/spec.htm

, and are designed to apply to Dell PowerEdge

1950 and PowerEdge 2950 servers running the Red Hat

®

Enterprise Linux

®

OS. Other configurations may require

administrators to modify these instructions.

Configuring Intelligent Platform Management
Interface

Administrators can use IPMItool to manage IPMI-based serv-
ers either locally (within the servers themselves) or remotely
(from another computer on which IPMItool is installed). Local
management requires that OpenIPMI device drivers be
installed on the servers. Remote management does not
require these drivers, but does require that IPMI Over LAN
be set up using the Remote Access Configuration Utility on
Dell PowerEdge servers.

Installing OpenIPMI drivers for local management

The OpenIPMI drivers provide an open source IPMI library
for Linux operating systems, and are typically included
in major Linux distributions. If the drivers are not
installed, administrators can download the latest
versions from

sourceforge.net/projects/openipmi

or

linux.dell.com/files/openipmi

. Before installation, they

should first flash the latest versions of the BIOS and BMC
firmware (available from

support.dell.com

). Then, if they are

using a .tar.gz driver file, they can extract the file contents
using the command

tar zxvf filename.tar.gz

,

and install it by executing install.sh or by using the follow-
ing commands:

Related Categories:

Baseboard management

controller (BMC)

Dell PowerEdge servers

Intelligent Platform Management

Interface (IPMI)

Systems management

Visit

DELL.COM/PowerSolutions

for the complete category index.

Using iPMitool raw

coMMands for reMote

ManageMent of dell

Poweredge servers

Although IPMItool provides a useful way to monitor and
configure Intelligent Platform Management Interface
(IPMI)–compliant devices, its limited number of command-
line options restricts access to some capabilities of the
baseboard management controllers in Dell™ PowerEdge™
servers. To help maximize these capabilities, administra-
tors can instead access hardware functions using IPMItool
raw commands.

By SeShadri N.

raghaveNdra BaBu