Provided by: freeipmi-tools_1.4.11-1.1ubuntu4.1_amd64 
NAME
ipmipower - IPMI power control utility
SYNOPSIS
ipmipower [OPTION...]
DESCRIPTION
ipmipower allows users to remotely power on, off, cycle, hard reset, get a power status query, perform a
pulse diagnostic interrupt, or initiate a soft-shutdown of the OS via ACPI through the IPMI over LAN
protocol.
When a power command (--on, --off, --cycle, --reset, --stat, --pulse, or --soft) is specified on the
command line, ipmipower will attempt to run the power command on all hostnames listed on the command line
then exit.
If no power commands are specified on the command line, ipmipower will run in interactive mode.
Interactive mode gives the user a command line interface to enter various commands. Details of the
interactive command line interface can be found below under INTERACTIVE COMMANDS.
Listed below are general IPMI options, tool specific options, trouble shooting information, workaround
information, examples, and known issues. For a general introduction to FreeIPMI please see freeipmi(7).
GENERAL OPTIONS
The following options are general options for configuring IPMI communication and executing general tool
commands.
-D IPMIDRIVER, --driver-type=IPMIDRIVER
Specify the driver type to use instead of doing an auto selection. The currently available
outofband drivers are LAN and LAN_2_0, which perform IPMI 1.5 and IPMI 2.0 respectively.
-h IPMIHOST1,IPMIHOST2,..., --hostname=IPMIHOST1[:PORT],IPMIHOST2[:PORT],...
Specify the remote host(s) to communicate with. Multiple hostnames may be separated by comma or
may be specified in a range format; see HOSTRANGED SUPPORT below. An optional port can be
specified with each host, which may be useful in port forwarding or similar situations.
-u USERNAME, --username=USERNAME
Specify the username to use when authenticating with the remote host. If not specified, a null
(i.e. anonymous) username is assumed. The user must have atleast OPERATOR privileges to run the
--on, --off, --reset, --cycle, --pulse, or --soft power control commands. The user must have
atleast USER privileges to determine the power status of the machine through --stat.
-p PASSWORD, --password=PASSWORD
Specify the password to use when authenticationg with the remote host. If not specified, a null
password is assumed. Maximum password length is 16 for IPMI 1.5 and 20 for IPMI 2.0.
-P, --password-prompt
Prompt for password to avoid possibility of listing it in process lists.
-k K_G, --k-g=K_G
Specify the K_g BMC key to use when authenticating with the remote host for IPMI 2.0. If not
specified, a null key is assumed. To input the key in hexadecimal form, prefix the string with
'0x'. E.g., the key 'abc' can be entered with the either the string 'abc' or the string '0x616263'
-K, --k-g-prompt
Prompt for k-g to avoid possibility of listing it in process lists.
--session-timeout=MILLISECONDS
Specify the session timeout in milliseconds. Defaults to 20000 milliseconds (20 seconds) if not
specified.
--retransmission-timeout=MILLISECONDS
Specify the packet retransmission timeout in milliseconds. Defaults to 400 milliseconds (0.4
seconds) if not specified.
-a AUTHENTICATION-TYPE, --authentication-type=AUTHENTICATION-TYPE
Specify the IPMI 1.5 authentication type to use. The currently available authentication types are
NONE, STRAIGHT_PASSWORD_KEY, MD2, and MD5. Defaults to MD5 if not specified.
-I CIPHER-SUITE-ID, --cipher-suite-id=CIPHER-SUITE-ID
Specify the IPMI 2.0 cipher suite ID to use. The Cipher Suite ID identifies a set of
authentication, integrity, and confidentiality algorithms to use for IPMI 2.0 communication. The
authentication algorithm identifies the algorithm to use for session setup, the integrity
algorithm identifies the algorithm to use for session packet signatures, and the confidentiality
algorithm identifies the algorithm to use for payload encryption. Defaults to cipher suite ID 3 if
not specified. The following cipher suite ids are currently supported:
0 - Authentication Algorithm = None; Integrity Algorithm = None; Confidentiality Algorithm = None
1 - Authentication Algorithm = HMAC-SHA1; Integrity Algorithm = None; Confidentiality Algorithm =
None
2 - Authentication Algorithm = HMAC-SHA1; Integrity Algorithm = HMAC-SHA1-96; Confidentiality
Algorithm = None
3 - Authentication Algorithm = HMAC-SHA1; Integrity Algorithm = HMAC-SHA1-96; Confidentiality
Algorithm = AES-CBC-128
6 - Authentication Algorithm = HMAC-MD5; Integrity Algorithm = None; Confidentiality Algorithm =
None
7 - Authentication Algorithm = HMAC-MD5; Integrity Algorithm = HMAC-MD5-128; Confidentiality
Algorithm = None
8 - Authentication Algorithm = HMAC-MD5; Integrity Algorithm = HMAC-MD5-128; Confidentiality
Algorithm = AES-CBC-128
11 - Authentication Algorithm = HMAC-MD5; Integrity Algorithm = MD5-128; Confidentiality Algorithm
= None
12 - Authentication Algorithm = HMAC-MD5; Integrity Algorithm = MD5-128; Confidentiality Algorithm
= AES-CBC-128
15 - Authentication Algorithm = HMAC-SHA256; Integrity Algorithm = None; Confidentiality Algorithm
= None
16 - Authentication Algorithm = HMAC-SHA256; Integrity Algorithm = HMAC_SHA256_128;
Confidentiality Algorithm = None
17 - Authentication Algorithm = HMAC-SHA256; Integrity Algorithm = HMAC_SHA256_128;
Confidentiality Algorithm = AES-CBC-128
-l PRIVILEGE-LEVEL, --privilege-level=PRIVILEGE-LEVEL
Specify the privilege level to be used. The currently available privilege levels are USER,
OPERATOR, and ADMIN. Defaults to OPERATOR if not specified.
--config-file=FILE
Specify an alternate configuration file.
-W WORKAROUNDS, --workaround-flags=WORKAROUNDS
Specify workarounds to vendor compliance issues. Multiple workarounds can be specified separated
by commas. A special command line flag of "none", will indicate no workarounds (may be useful for
overriding configured defaults). See WORKAROUNDS below for a list of available workarounds.
--debug
Turn on debugging.
-?, --help
Output a help list and exit.
--usage
Output a usage message and exit.
-V, --version
Output the program version and exit.
IPMIPOWER OPTIONS
The following options are specific to ipmipower.
-n, --on
Power on the target hosts.
-f, --off
Power off the target hosts.
-c, --cycle
Power cycle the target hosts.
-r, --reset
Reset the target hosts.
-s, --stat
Get power status of the target hosts.
--pulse
Send power diagnostic interrupt to target hosts.
--soft Initiate a soft-shutdown of the OS via ACPI.
--on-if-off
The IPMI specification does not require the power cycle or hard reset commands to turn on a
machine that is currently powered off. This option will force ipmipower to issue a power on
command instead of a power cycle or hard reset command if the remote machine's power is currently
off.
--wait-until-on
The IPMI specification allows power on commands to return prior to the power on actually taking
place. This option will force ipmipower to regularly query the remote BMC and return only after
the machine has powered on.
--wait-until-off
The IPMI specification allows power off commands to return prior the power off actually taking
place. This option will force ipmipower to regularly query the remote BMC and return only after
the machine has powered off.
--oem-power-type=OEM-POWER-TYPE
This option informs ipmipower to initiate power control operations via an IPMI OEM specific power
control extension. The currently available POWERTYPEs are NONE and C410X. Please see OEM POWER
EXTENSIONS below for additional information.
IPMIPOWER ADVANCED NETWORK OPTIONS
The following options are used to change the networking behavior of ipmipower.
--retransmission-wait-timeout=MILLISECONDS
Specify the retransmission wait timeout length in milliseconds. The retransmission wait timeout is
similar to the retransmission timeout above, but is used specifically for power completion
verification with the --wait-until-on and --wait-until-off options. Defaults to 500 milliseconds
(0.5 seconds).
--retransmission-backoff-count=COUNT
Specify the retransmission backoff count for retransmissions. After ever COUNT retransmissions,
the retransmission timeout length will be increased by another factor. Defaults to 8.
--ping-interval=MILLISECONDS
Specify the ping interval length in milliseconds. When running in interactive mode, RMCP (Remote
Management Control Protocol) discovery messages will be sent to all configured remote hosts every
MILLISECONDS to confirm their support of IPMI. Power commands cannot be sent to a host until it is
discovered (or re-discovered if previously lost). Defaults to 5000 milliseconds (5 seconds). Ping
discovery messages can be disabled by setting this valu to 0. RMCP ping discovery messages are
automatically disabled in non-interactive mode.
--ping-timeout=MILLISECONDS
Specify the ping timeout length in milliseconds. When running in interactive mode, RMCP (Remote
Management Control Protocol) messages discovery will be sent to all configured remote hosts to
confirm their support of IPMI. A remote host is considered undiscovered if the host does not
respond in MILLISECONDS time. Defaults to 30000 milliseconds (30 seconds). The ping timeout cannot
be larger than the ping interval.
--ping-packet-count=COUNT
Specify the ping packet count size. Defaults to 10. See the --ping-percent-fR option below for
more information on this option.
--ping-percent=PERCENT
Specify the ping percent value. Defaults to 50. Since IPMI is based on UDP, it is difficult for
ipmipower to distinguish between a missing machine and a bad (or heavily loaded) network
connection in interactive mode. when running in interactive mode. For example, suppose a link
consistently drops 80% of the packets to a particular machine. The power control operation may
have difficulty completing, although a recent pong response from RMCP makes ipmipower believe the
machine is up and functioning properly. The ping packet acount and percent options are used to
alleviate this problem. Ipmipower will monitor RMCP ping packets in packet count chunks. If
ipmipower does not receive a response to greater than ping percent of those packets, ipmipower
will assume the link to this node is bad and will not send power control operations to that node
until the connection is determined to be reliable. This heuristic can be disabled by setting
either the ping packet count or ping percent to 0. This feature is not used if ping interval is
set to 0.
--ping-consec-count=COUNT
Specify the ping consecutive count. This is another heuristic used to determine if a node should
be considered discovered, undiscovered, or with a bad connection. If a valid RMCP pong response
was received for the last COUNT ping packets, a node will be considered discovered, regardless of
other heuristics listed above. Defaults to 5. This heuristic can be disabled by setting this value
to 0. This feature is not used if other ping features described above are disabled.
HOSTRANGED OPTIONS
The following options manipulate hostranged output. See HOSTRANGED SUPPORT below for additional
information on hostranges.
-B, --buffer-output
Buffer hostranged output. For each node, buffer standard output until the node has completed its
IPMI operation. When specifying this option, data may appear to output slower to the user since
the the entire IPMI operation must complete before any data can be output. See HOSTRANGED SUPPORT
below for additional information.
-C, --consolidate-output
Consolidate hostranged output. The complete standard output from every node specified will be
consolidated so that nodes with identical output are not output twice. A header will list those
nodes with the consolidated output. When this option is specified, no output can be seen until the
IPMI operations to all nodes has completed. If the user breaks out of the program early, all
currently consolidated output will be dumped. See HOSTRANGED SUPPORT below for additional
information.
-F NUM, --fanout=NUM
Specify multiple host fanout. Indicates the maximum number of power control operations that can be
executed in parallel.
-E, --eliminate
Eliminate hosts determined as undetected by ipmidetect. This attempts to remove the common issue
of hostranged execution timing out due to several nodes being removed from service in a large
cluster. The ipmidetectd daemon must be running on the node executing the command.
--always-prefix
Always prefix output, even if only one host is specified or communicating in-band. This option is
primarily useful for scripting purposes. Option will be ignored if specified with the -C option.
INTERACTIVE COMMANDS
ipmipower provides the following interactive commands at the ipmipower> prompt. Before any power
commands (on, off, cycle, reset, stat, pulse, or soft) can be used, hostnames must be configured into
ipmipower, either through the command prompt or the hostname command below. The parameters and options to
the commands below mirror their appropriate command line options.
hostname [IPMIHOST(s)]
Specify a new set of hosts. No input to unconfigure all hosts.
username [USERNAME]
Specify a new username. No input for null username.
password [PASSWORD]
Specify a new password. No input for null password.
k_g [K_G]
Specify a new K_g BMC Key. No input for null key. Prefix with '0x' to enter a key in hexadecimal
ipmi-version IPMIVERSION
Specify the ipmi version to use.
session-timeout MILLISECONDS
Specify a new session timeout length.
retransmission-timeout MILLISECONDS
Specify a new retransmiision timeout length.
authentication-type AUTHENTICATION-TYPE
Specify the authentication type to use.
cipher-suite-id CIPHER-SUITE-ID
Specify the cipher suite id to use.
privilege-level PRIVILEGE-LEVEL
Specify the privilege level to use.
workaround-flags WORKAROUNDS
Specify workaround flags.
debug [on|off]
Toggle debug output.
on [IPMIHOST(s)]
Turn on all configured hosts or specified hosts.
off [IPMIHOST(s)]
Turn off all configured hosts or specified hosts.
cycle [IPMIHOST(s)]
Power cycle all configured hosts or specified hosts.
reset [IPMIHOST(s)]
Reset all configured hosts or specified hosts.
stat [IPMIHOST(s)]
Query power status for all configured hosts or specified hosts.
pulse [IPMIHOST(s)]
Pulse diagnostic interrupt all configured hosts or specified hosts.
soft [IPMIHOST(s)]
Initiate a soft-shutdown for all configured hosts or specified hosts.
identify-on [IPMIHOST(s)]
Turn on physical system identification.
identify-off [IPMIHOST(s)]
Turn off physical system identification.
identify-status [IPMIHOST(s)]
Query physical system identification status.
on-if-off [on|off]
Toggle on-if-off functionality.
wait-until-on [on|off]
Toggle wait-until-on functionality.
wait-until-off [on|off]
Toggle wait-until-off functionality.
retransmission-wait-timeout MILLISECONDS
Specify a new retransmission wait timeout length.
retransmission-backoff-count COUNT
Specify a new retransmission backoff count.
ping-interval MILLISECONDS
Specify a new ping interval length.
ping-timeout MILLISECONDS
Specify a new ping timeout length.
ping-packet-count COUNT
Specify a new ping packet count.
ping-percent PERCENT
Specify a new ping percent.
ping-consec-count COUNT
Specify a new ping consec count.
buffer-output [on|off]
Toggle buffer-output functionality.
consolidate-output [on|off]
Toggle consolidate-output functionality.
fanout COUNT
Specify a fanout.
always-prefix [on|off]
Toggle always-prefix functionality.
help Output help menu.
version
Output version.
config Output the current configuration.
quit Quit program. ipmipower.
OEM POWER EXTENSIONS
Some motherboards include IPMI OEM extensions for alternate power control mechanisms. For example, these
power control mechanisms may allow you to power control a sub-device within the system rather than the
entire system itself.
By specifying an OEM power type via --oem-power-type on the command line or freeipmi.conf(5), you can
instruct ipmipower to execute alternate power control implementations over the standard ones. Depending
on the OEM extension, some power control commands may no longer be available. For example, an OEM
extension may allow on but not cycle. Specific ipmipower options may not longer function either.
Some OEM extensions may require additional arguments for their power control action, such as a sub-device
identifier. Additional arguments can be provided by appending a plus sign ('+') and the extra information
to the end of the hostname. This can be done on the command line or in interactive mode. For example, the
hostname mynode+18 would indicate the power control operation should be sent to the host mynode, and 18
is the identifier of a possible sub-device to be power controlled. The --consolidate-output option is
commonly disabled when using an OEM power control that requires extra arguments.
Because OEM power control may involve subtypes, it is possible a user may wish to power control multiple
sub-devices on the same host. For example, you might specify the hosts mynode+1,mynode+2, indicating to
power control subdevice 1 and 2 on mynode. Because many BMCs cannot handle multiple IPMI sessions, power
control operations to the same host will be serialized internally by ipmipower.
The following are the current OEM power types available, along with information on the systems they work
with and the power control operations available.
C410X This OEM power type supports the power control of PCIe slots on Dell Poweredge C410x systems. It
supports on, off, and stat. The PCIe slot number ranges from 1-16 and must always be specified
when attempting to power control with this extension. For example, the hostname mynode+2 would
inform ipmipower to operate on slot number 2 on mynode. The C410x appears to have difficulty
handling new slot power control requests until prior ones have completed. Users may wish to
strongly consider using the --wait-until-on and --wait-until-off options if multiple slots will be
power controlled in short succession.
NONE This informs ipmipower that no OEM power type extension is to be used and standard IPMI power
control is used. This is the default.
HOSTRANGED SUPPORT
Multiple hosts can be input either as an explicit comma separated lists of hosts or a range of hostnames
in the general form: prefix[n-m,l-k,...], where n < m and l < k, etc. The later form should not be
confused with regular expression character classes (also denoted by []). For example, foo[19] does not
represent foo1 or foo9, but rather represents a degenerate range: foo19.
This range syntax is meant only as a convenience on clusters with a prefixNN naming convention and
specification of ranges should not be considered necessary -- the list foo1,foo9 could be specified as
such, or by the range foo[1,9].
Some examples of range usage follow:
foo[01-05] instead of foo01,foo02,foo03,foo04,foo05
foo[7,9-10] instead of foo7,foo9,foo10
foo[0-3] instead of foo0,foo1,foo2,foo3
As a reminder to the reader, some shells will interpret brackets ([ and ]) for pattern matching.
Depending on your shell, it may be necessary to enclose ranged lists within quotes.
When multiple hosts are specified by the user, a socket will be created for each host and polled on,
effectively allowing communication to all hosts in parallel. This will allow communication to large
numbers of nodes far more quickly than if done in serial. The -F option can configure the number of
nodes that can be communicated with in parallel at the same time.
By default, standard output from each node specified will be output with the hostname prepended to each
line. Although this output is readable in many situations, it may be difficult to read in other
situations. For example, output from multiple nodes may be mixed together. The -B and -C options can be
used to change this default.
EXAMPLES
Determine the power status of foo[0-2] with null username and password
ipmipower -h foo[0-2] --stat
Determine the power status of foo[0-2] with non-null username and password
ipmipower -h foo[0-2] -u foo -p bar --stat
Hard reset nodes foo[0-2] with non-null username and password
ipmipower -h foo[0-2] -u foo -p bar --reset
GENERAL TROUBLESHOOTING
Most often, IPMI problems are due to configuration problems.
IPMI over LAN problems involve a misconfiguration of the remote machine's BMC. Double check to make sure
the following are configured properly in the remote machine's BMC: IP address, MAC address, subnet mask,
username, user enablement, user privilege, password, LAN privilege, LAN enablement, and allowed
authentication type(s). For IPMI 2.0 connections, double check to make sure the cipher suite privilege(s)
and K_g key are configured properly. The ipmi-config(8) tool can be used to check and/or change these
configuration settings.
In addition to the troubleshooting tips below, please see WORKAROUNDS below to also if there are any
vendor specific bugs that have been discovered and worked around.
Listed below are many of the common issues for error messages. For additional support, please e-mail the
<freeipmi-users@gnu.org> mailing list.
"username invalid" - The username entered (or a NULL username if none was entered) is not available on
the remote machine. It may also be possible the remote BMC's username configuration is incorrect.
"password invalid" - The password entered (or a NULL password if none was entered) is not correct. It may
also be possible the password for the user is not correctly configured on the remote BMC.
"password verification timeout" - Password verification has timed out. A "password invalid" error
(described above) or a generic "session timeout" (described below) occurred. During this point in the
protocol it cannot be differentiated which occurred.
"k_g invalid" - The K_g key entered (or a NULL K_g key if none was entered) is not correct. It may also
be possible the K_g key is not correctly configured on the remote BMC.
"privilege level insufficient" - An IPMI command requires a higher user privilege than the one
authenticated with. Please try to authenticate with a higher privilege. This may require authenticating
to a different user which has a higher maximum privilege.
"privilege level cannot be obtained for this user" - The privilege level you are attempting to
authenticate with is higher than the maximum allowed for this user. Please try again with a lower
privilege. It may also be possible the maximum privilege level allowed for a user is not configured
properly on the remote BMC.
"authentication type unavailable for attempted privilege level" - The authentication type you wish to
authenticate with is not available for this privilege level. Please try again with an alternate
authentication type or alternate privilege level. It may also be possible the available authentication
types you can authenticate with are not correctly configured on the remote BMC.
"cipher suite id unavailable" - The cipher suite id you wish to authenticate with is not available on the
remote BMC. Please try again with an alternate cipher suite id. It may also be possible the available
cipher suite ids are not correctly configured on the remote BMC.
"ipmi 2.0 unavailable" - IPMI 2.0 was not discovered on the remote machine. Please try to use IPMI 1.5
instead.
"connection timeout" - Initial IPMI communication failed. A number of potential errors are possible,
including an invalid hostname specified, an IPMI IP address cannot be resolved, IPMI is not enabled on
the remote server, the network connection is bad, etc. Please verify configuration and connectivity.
"session timeout" - The IPMI session has timed out. Please reconnect. If this error occurs often, you
may wish to increase the retransmission timeout. Some remote BMCs are considerably slower than others.
"internal IPMI error" - An IPMI error has occurred that FreeIPMI does not know how to handle. Please e-
mail <freeipmi-users@gnu.org> to report the issue.
IPMIPOWER TROUBLESHOOTING
When powering on a powered off machine, the client must have a means by which to resolve the MAC address
of the remote machine's ethernet card. While most modern IPMI solutions support the ability to ARP and
resolve addresses when the machine is powered off, some older machines do not. This is typically solved
in one of two ways:
1) Enable gratuitous ARPs on the remote machine. The remote machine will send out a gratuitous ARP, which
advertises the ethernet IP and MAC address so that other machines on the network this information their
local ARP cache. For large clusters, this method is not recommended since gratuitous ARPs can flood the
network with unnecessary traffic.
2) Permanently store the remote machine's MAC address in the local ARP cache. This is the more common
approach on large clusters.
Other methods are listed in the IPMI specification.
WORKAROUNDS
With so many different vendors implementing their own IPMI solutions, different vendors may implement
their IPMI protocols incorrectly. The following describes a number of workarounds currently available to
handle discovered compliance issues. When possible, workarounds have been implemented so they will be
transparent to the user. However, some will require the user to specify a workaround be used via the -W
option.
The hardware listed below may only indicate the hardware that a problem was discovered on. Newer versions
of hardware may fix the problems indicated below. Similar machines from vendors may or may not exhibit
the same problems. Different vendors may license their firmware from the same IPMI firmware developer, so
it may be worthwhile to try workarounds listed below even if your motherboard is not listed.
If you believe your hardware has an additional compliance issue that needs a workaround to be
implemented, please contact the FreeIPMI maintainers on <freeipmi-users@gnu.org> or
<freeipmi-devel@gnu.org>.
authcap - This workaround flag will skip early checks for username capabilities, authentication
capabilities, and K_g support and allow IPMI authentication to succeed. It works around multiple issues
in which the remote system does not properly report username capabilities, authentication capabilities,
or K_g status. Those hitting this issue may see "username invalid", "authentication type unavailable for
attempted privilege level", or "k_g invalid" errors. Issue observed on Asus P5M2/P5MT-R/RS162-E4/RX4,
Intel SR1520ML/X38ML, and Sun Fire 2200/4150/4450 with ELOM.
nochecksumcheck - This workaround flag will tell FreeIPMI to not check the checksums returned from IPMI
command responses. It works around systems that return invalid checksums due to implementation errors,
but the packet is otherwise valid. Users are cautioned on the use of this option, as it removes
validation of packet integrity in a number of circumstances. However, it is unlikely to be an issue in
most situations. Those hitting this issue may see "connection timeout", "session timeout", or "password
verification timeout" errors. On IPMI 1.5 connections, the "noauthcodecheck" workaround may also needed
too. Issue observed on Supermicro X9SCM-iiF, Supermicro X9DRi-F, and Supermicro X9DRFR.
idzero - This workaround flag will allow empty session IDs to be accepted by the client. It works around
IPMI sessions that report empty session IDs to the client. Those hitting this issue may see "session
timeout" errors. Issue observed on Tyan S2882 with M3289 BMC.
unexpectedauth - This workaround flag will allow unexpected non-null authcodes to be checked as though
they were expected. It works around an issue when packets contain non-null authentication data when they
should be null due to disabled per-message authentication. Those hitting this issue may see "session
timeout" errors. Issue observed on Dell PowerEdge 2850,SC1425. Confirmed fixed on newer firmware.
forcepermsg - This workaround flag will force per-message authentication to be used no matter what is
advertised by the remote system. It works around an issue when per-message authentication is advertised
as disabled on the remote system, but it is actually required for the protocol. Those hitting this issue
may see "session timeout" errors. Issue observed on IBM eServer 325.
endianseq - This workaround flag will flip the endian of the session sequence numbers to allow the
session to continue properly. It works around IPMI 1.5 session sequence numbers that are the wrong
endian. Those hitting this issue may see "session timeout" errors. Issue observed on some Sun ILOM
1.0/2.0 (depends on service processor endian).
noauthcodecheck - This workaround flag will tell FreeIPMI to not check the authentication codes returned
from IPMI 1.5 command responses. It works around systems that return invalid authentication codes due to
hashing or implementation errors. Users are cautioned on the use of this option, as it removes an
authentication check verifying the validity of a packet. However, in most organizations, this is unlikely
to be a security issue. Those hitting this issue may see "connection timeout", "session timeout", or
"password verification timeout" errors. Issue observed on Xyratex FB-H8-SRAY, Intel Windmill, Quanta
Winterfell, and Wiwynn Windmill.
intel20 - This workaround flag will work around several Intel IPMI 2.0 authentication issues. The issues
covered include padding of usernames, and password truncation if the authentication algorithm is HMAC-
MD5-128. Those hitting this issue may see "username invalid", "password invalid", or "k_g invalid"
errors. Issue observed on Intel SE7520AF2 with Intel Server Management Module (Professional Edition).
supermicro20 - This workaround flag will work around several Supermicro IPMI 2.0 authentication issues on
motherboards w/ Peppercon IPMI firmware. The issues covered include handling invalid length
authentication codes. Those hitting this issue may see "password invalid" errors. Issue observed on
Supermicro H8QME with SIMSO daughter card. Confirmed fixed on newerver firmware.
sun20 - This workaround flag will work work around several Sun IPMI 2.0 authentication issues. The issues
covered include invalid lengthed hash keys, improperly hashed keys, and invalid cipher suite records.
Those hitting this issue may see "password invalid" or "bmc error" errors. Issue observed on Sun Fire
4100/4200/4500 with ILOM. This workaround automatically includes the "opensesspriv" workaround.
opensesspriv - This workaround flag will slightly alter FreeIPMI's IPMI 2.0 connection protocol to
workaround an invalid hashing algorithm used by the remote system. The privilege level sent during the
Open Session stage of an IPMI 2.0 connection is used for hashing keys instead of the privilege level sent
during the RAKP1 connection stage. Those hitting this issue may see "password invalid", "k_g invalid", or
"bad rmcpplus status code" errors. Issue observed on Sun Fire 4100/4200/4500 with ILOM, Inventec
5441/Dell Xanadu II, Supermicro X8DTH, Supermicro X8DTG, Intel S5500WBV/Penguin Relion 700, Intel
S2600JF/Appro 512X, and Quanta QSSC-S4R/Appro GB812X-CN. This workaround is automatically triggered with
the "sun20" workaround.
integritycheckvalue - This workaround flag will work around an invalid integrity check value during an
IPMI 2.0 session establishment when using Cipher Suite ID 0. The integrity check value should be 0
length, however the remote motherboard responds with a non-empty field. Those hitting this issue may see
"k_g invalid" errors. Issue observed on Supermicro X8DTG, Supermicro X8DTU, and Intel S5500WBV/Penguin
Relion 700, and Intel S2600JF/Appro 512X.
ipmiping - This workaround option will inform ipmipower to use IPMI based ping packets instead of RMCP
ping packets. Some motherboards have been observed to not implement RMCP ping/pong support despite being
required by the IPMI specification. Issue observed on Intel Windmill, Quanta Winterfell, and Wiwynn
Windmill.
No IPMI 1.5 Support - Some motherboards that support IPMI 2.0 have been found to not support IPMI 1.5.
Those hitting this issue may see "ipmi 2.0 unavailable" or "connection timeout" errors. This issue can be
worked around by using IPMI 2.0 instead of IPMI 1.5 by specifying --driver-type=LAN_2_0. Issue observed
on HP Proliant DL 145.
DIAGNOSTICS
Upon successful execution, exit status is 0. On error, exit status is 1.
If multiple hosts are specified for communication, the exit status is 0 if and only if all targets
successfully execute. Otherwise the exit status is 1.
When operating in interactive mode, the exit value will be based on the last power operation executed.
KNOWN ISSUES
On older operating systems, if you input your username, password, and other potentially security relevant
information on the command line, this information may be discovered by other users when using tools like
the ps(1) command or looking in the /proc file system. It is generally more secure to input password
information with options like the -P or -K options. Configuring security relevant information in the
FreeIPMI configuration file would also be an appropriate way to hide this information.
In order to prevent brute force attacks, some BMCs will temporarily "lock up" after a number of remote
authentication errors. You may need to wait awhile in order to this temporary "lock up" to pass before
you may authenticate again.
IPMI specifications do not require BMCs to perform a power control operation before returning a
completion code to the caller. Therefore, it is possible for ipmipower to return power status queries
opposite of what you are expecting. For example, if a "power off" operation is performed, a BMC may
return a successful completion code to ipmipower before the "power off" operation is actually performed.
Subsequent power status queries may return "on" for several seconds, until the BMC actually performs the
"power off" operation.
REPORTING BUGS
Report bugs to <freeipmi-users@gnu.org> or <freeipmi-devel@gnu.org>.
COPYRIGHT
Copyright (C) 2007-2014 Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC.
Copyright (C) 2003-2007 The Regents of the University of California.
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU
General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 3 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.
SEE ALSO
freeipmi.conf(5), freeipmi(7), ipmi-config(8), ipmi-oem(8)
http://www.gnu.org/software/freeipmi/