Ubuntu Manpage: FreeIPMI - FreeIPMI overview

Provided by: freeipmi-common_1.4.11-1.1ubuntu4.1_amd64

NAME

       FreeIPMI - FreeIPMI overview

Introduction

       FreeIPMI provides in-band and out-of-band IPMI software based on the IPMI v1.5/2.0 specification.

What is IPMI?

       The IPMI specification defines a set of interfaces for platform management and is implemented by a number
       vendors for system management. The features of IPMI that most users will  be  interested  in  are  sensor
       monitoring,  system  event  monitoring,  power control, and serial-over-LAN (SOL). The FreeIPMI tools and
       libraries listed below should provide users with the ability to access and utilize these and  many  other
       features of IPMI.

Getting Started with IPMI

IPMI can be used in-band (i.e. running on a machine locally) or out-of-band (i.e. connecting remotely).

Most FreeIPMI tools can operate in-band by using one of the in-band drivers included. These in-band
drivers include a userspace KCS interface driver, a SSIF driver through the Linux SSIF device (i.e.
/dev/i2c-0), the OpenIPMI Linux kernel driver (i.e. /dev/ipmi0), the Sun/Solaris BMC driver (i.e.
/dev/bmc), and the Intel DCMI/MEI driver (i.e. /dev/dcmi). If your system requires the use of installed
drivers, those appropriate modules must be installed ahead of time. However, most systems should
automatically load these drivers when appropriate.

Under most scenarios, the FreeIPMI tools should automatically discover which in-band interface to use and
the proper settings to use. Users may execute the tools on the command line to begin using them. Some
motherboards may require you to determine driver type, addresses, paths, etc. on your own and pass them
as command line options to the tools. You may use ipmi-locate(8) to help determine this information.
Other tools such as dmidecode(8) may also provide this information.

To use IPMI out-of-band with tools such as ipmipower(8) or ipmi-sensors(8), the remote machine's BMC must
first be configured for out of band communication. Typically, this involves setting a username, password,
IP address, MAC address, and a few other parameters. This can be done using the tool ipmi-config(8).
Additional information on how to configure with ipmi-config(8) can be found in the ipmi-config.conf(5)
manpage. Some vendors may pre-configure their motherboards with default values so that ipmi-config(8) can
be used remotely to configure the machine. However, most of the time, the BMC must be configured in-band
before out-of-band access can be allowed (for example, the correct IP address and MAC address must be
configured).

In order to remotely connect to a machine, you typically must specify the host, username, and password
for the tool in order to connect. Depending on configuration settings, a K_g key, privilege level,
authentication type, cipher suite id, or protocol version may need to be specified.

Some vendors may have not implemented IPMI properly and a workaround must be specified into FreeIPMI to
ensure the tool can execute properly. For example, a fair number of vendors have populated their FRU
records with invalid checksums. To properly ignore these set of checksums a skipchecks workaround has
been added to ipmi-fru(8). Please see each of the tool manpages to see a list of available workarounds.

Additional information, examples, and general trouble-shooting can be found in each of the tool manpages.

General Use

       The primary tools that most users of FreeIPMI will  be  interested  in  for  system  management  are  the
       following:

       Ipmi-sensors

       A tool to read IPMI sensor readings to aid in system monitoring.

       Ipmi-sel

       A tool to read and manage IPMI System Event Log (SEL) records to aid in system debugging.

       Ipmipower

       A tool for remote power control.

       Ipmiconsole

       A tool for Serial-over-Lan (SOL) console access.

       Many other tools and libraries are listed below that cover additional features and areas of IPMI.

       Additional information, examples, and general trouble-shooting can be found in each of the tool manpages.

Configuration

       In  order  to  avoid  typing  in  a  long  list  of  command  line  options to specify IPMI communication
       requirements everytime a command  is  executed  (e.g.  driver  paths,  usernames,  passwords,  etc.),  an
       alternate  set  of  default values can be set for most FreeIPMI tools in the FreeIPMI configuration file.
       See freeipmi.conf(5) for more information.

HPC Support

       Much of FreeIPMI was written with HPC support in  mind.   Ipmi-config(8)  comes  with  file  input/output
       support  so  that  configuration  can  be copied and verified across nodes in a cluster. Most tools (like
       ipmipower(8) and ipmi-sensors(8) ) come with hostrange support so multiple hosts can be specified on  the
       command  line  at the same time and IPMI can be executed against the hosts in parallel. See tool manpages
       for more information.  Also see the document freeipmi-hostrange.txt for detailed usage  and  explanation.
       Ipmi-sensors(8)  and the libipmimonitoring(3) library support the ability to interpret sensor readings as
       well as just reporting them. By mapping sensor readings into NOMINAL, WARNING,  or  CRITICAL  states,  it
       makes monitoring sensors easier across large numbers of nodes.

Development

       For  information  on  the  libraries  that  can  be  used  to  program IPMI applications with, please see
       libfreeipmi(3), libipmiconsole(3), libipmimonitoring(3),  and  libipmidetect(3).   Or  see  the  document
       freeipmi-libraries.txt.

Project Tools

The following tools are distributed and supported by FreeIPMI.

Bmc-info

A tool to read information about a BMC such as device version numbers, device support, and globally
unique IDs (guids).

Bmc-watchdog

A tool/daemon to manage a BMC Watchdog. This tool is typically used for system timeout management and
automatic system restarts in the event of a system crash.

Ipmi-chassis

A tool to manage/monitor a chassis, such as chassis power, identification (i.e. LED control), and status.

Ipmi-fru

A tool to read field replaceable unit (FRU) information from a motherboard/machine.

Ipmi-sel

A tool to read and manage IPMI System Event Log (SEL) records. SEL records store system event information
and may be useful for debugging problems.

Ipmi-sensors

A tool to read IPMI sensor readings and sensor data repository (SDR) information.

Ipmipower

A tool for remote power control.

Ipmiconsole

A tool for Serial-over-Lan (SOL) console access.

Ipmi-config

A tool to configure BMC and IPMI information. In can be used to configured usernames, passwords,
networking information, security, Serial-over-LAN (SOL), Platform Event Filtering (PEF), boot devices,
power restoration policy, sensor thresholds, sensor events, and many more configuration options.

Ipmi-raw

A tool that provides hex input/output of IPMI commands.

Ipmi-locate

A tool that can probe for information about the location of a BMC device, such as device addresses.

Ipmi-pet

A tool to parse and interpret Platform Event Traps (PET).

Ipmi-dcmi

A tool to perform Data Center Manageability Interface (DCMI) IPMI extension commands. Supports extensions
for asset management and power usage management.

Bmc-device

A tool to perform advanced BMC commands, such as resetting the BMC, configuring ACPI, configuring SDR/SEL
time, manually generating events, re-arming sensors, and configuring manufacturer settings.

Ipmiping

An IPMI ping tool for debugging.

Rmcpping

A RMCP ping tool for debugging.

Ipmi-oem

An IPMI tool for OEM specific commands.

Ipmidetect/Ipmidetectd

A tool and daemon for IPMI node detection.

Ipmiseld

A daemon that regularly polls the SEL and stores the events to the local syslog.