Ipmitool

Christian Külker

version 0.1.3

2022-06-30

Interaction with the Board Management Controller

The command line tool ipmitool is used to interact with a Board Management Controller (BMC) via the Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI). IPMI is an open standard for monitoring, logging and control of hardware that is implemented independent of the main CPU, BIOS, and OS via a side band access. On some platforms IPMI can also be used to manage hardware inventory information.

SDR - Sensor Data Repository
SEL - System Event Log
FRU - Field Replaceable Unit

History

Version	Date	Notes
0.1.3	2022-06-30	Formatting, changes->history, shell->bash
0.1.2	2020-05-03	Debug `SOL`
0.1.1	2020-05-02	Set MAC address raw
0.1.0	2016-02-12	Initial release

Install

aptitude install ipmitool

When using, make sure some kernel modules are loaded.

ipmi_devintf
ipmi_msghandler
ipmi_poweroff
ipmi_si
ipmi_watchdog

Set DHCP

ipmitool lan set 1 ipsrc dhcp

Reset the BMC

ipmitool mc reset cold

ipmitool mc reset warm

BMC Sensor List

If the BMC supports it (that depends on the OEM) sensors can be listed. Some sensors might be on the BMC SOC, but most likely this sensors are made available to the BMC by various methods. Usually the OEM defines if the value is in or out of specification. Some values are depending on the CPU OEM.

ipmitool -I open sdr list
ACPI State       | 0x01              | ok
LPC Reset        | 0x01              | ok
Chassis          | 0x01              | ok
BMC RST          | 0x00              | ok
CPU0PECI         | 42 degrees C      | ok
CPU1PECI         | 38 degrees C      | ok
+1.1V            | 1.11 Volts        | ok
+1.4V            | 1.41 Volts        | ok
+0.9V            | 0.91 Volts        | ok
+3.0V            | 2.98 Volts        | ok
+1.5V            | 1.51 Volts        | ok
+2.5V            | 2.42 Volts        | ok
CPU0VCCP         | 0.97 Volts        | ok
CPU1VCCP         | 0.96 Volts        | ok
DDRCPU0          | 0.75 Volts        | ok
DDRCPU1          | 0.74 Volts        | ok
+1.8VICH         | 1.79 Volts        | ok
+1.5VICH         | 1.55 Volts        | ok

Set The NAC Address

Setting the MAC address if the BMC can be done via the OS.

ipmitool lan set <channel> macaddr <macaddr>

Sometimes the MAC address can only be set by Vendor specific raw commands. Sometimes the BMC has 2 LAN interfaces. The number depends on the hardware and BMC firmware. The channel number needs usually to be specified.

ipmitool raw 0x0c 0x01 0x01 0xc2 0x00
ipmitool lan set 1 macaddr aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff
ipmitool lan print 1

ipmitool raw 0x0c 0x01 0x08 0xc2 0x01
ipmitool lan set 8 macaddr a0:42:3f:2c:61:a2
ipmitool lan print 8

Activate SOL

To activate the Serial Console Over LAN (SOL). If the OEM configured the BMC in a secure way, a user and password is needed. However, since this is usually not changed, it can be a security problem.

ipmitool -I lanplus -H $REMOTEHOST -U $USER -P $PASSWORD sol activate
ipmitool -I lanplus -H $REMOTEHOST -U $USER -P $PASSWORD -v sol info

Debug SOL

To debug the setup of Serial Over Lan (SOL) add the -v option to enable verbose output and in some case set the privilege level explicit with the -L option.

ipmitool -v -L USER -I lanplus -H 172.20.50.102 -U admin -P admin sol activate

If his does not help use namp. See ipmitool Fails with Authentication Issues

Raw Commands

Sometimes the OEM implements undocumented features into the BMC firmware that can be reach via the raw option. As this commands are not standard it depends on the BMC what the out come will be. This is just an example.

ipmitool raw 0x36 0xc

Testing

Some OEMs implement meaningful self tests. However dummy self tests that always passes have been seen in the wild.

ipmitool mc selftest
Selftest: passed

christian.külker.de