Weblog – Thomas S. Iversen

More and more servers is Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) capable. Using IPMI you can control, set and query information about hardware as long as the hardwares baseboard management controller (BMC) is online. Normally the BMC will be online when power is present and IPMI is thus suitable for controlling power to the server itself. Since version 1.5 of the specificatino IPMI also provides support for Serial Over Lan (SOL), that is redirection of the serial port over a LAN interface. When running an OS that can redirect the console to the serial port, you will be able to log in through the console remotely using SOL and/or retrieve the console log remotely.

A couple of examples (on an IBM x3650):

# ipmitool -I lan -H 10.1.0.107 -U USERID -P PASSW0RD sdr list

Ambient Temp | 22 degrees C | ok
AVG Power | 340 Watts | ok
Fan 1 Tach | 4050 RPM | ok
Fan 2 Tach | 4500 RPM | ok
Fan 3 Tach | 4350 RPM | ok
Fan 4 Tach | 4725 RPM | ok
Fan 5 Tach | 4500 RPM | ok
Fan 6 Tach | 4050 RPM | ok
Fan 7 Tach | 4125 RPM | ok
Fan 8 Tach | 4650 RPM | ok
Fan 9 Tach | 4275 RPM | ok
Fan 10 Tach | 4050 RPM | ok
CPU 1 Temp | disabled | ns
Fan 1 Present | 0×00 | ok
Fan 2 Present | 0×00 | ok
Fan 3 Present | 0×00 | ok
Fan 4 Present | 0×00 | ok
Fan 5 Present | 0×00 | ok
Fan 6 Present | 0×00 | ok
Fan 7 Present | 0×00 | ok
Fan 8 Present | 0×00 | ok
Fan 9 Present | 0×00 | ok
Fan 10 Present | 0×00 | ok
CPU 2 Temp | disabled | ns
Planar 5V | 5.13 Volts | ok
Planar 12V | 12.14 Volts | ok
Planar VBAT | 2.92 Volts | ok
Riser Detect | 0×00 | ok
RSA II Detect | 0×01 | ok
FP Cable Detect | 0×00 | ok
PS 2 Status | 0×01 | ok
SCSI BP Detect | 0×00 | ok
Planar 3.3V | 3.33 Volts | ok
CPU 1 Status | 0×80 | ok
ABR Status | 0×00 | ok
CPU 2 Status | 0×80 | ok
USB Cable Detect | 0×00 | ok
NMI State | 0×00 | ok
Voltage Fault | 0×00 | ok
Power 12V Fault | 0×00 | ok
Power 5V Fault | 0×00 | ok
PS 1 Fan Fault | 0×00 | ok
PS 2 Fan Fault | 0×00 | ok
PS 1 Status | 0×01 | ok
Drive 1 Status | 0×01 | ok
Drive 2 Status | 0×01 | ok
Drive 3 Status | Not Readable | ns
Drive 4 Status | Not Readable | ns
Drive 5 Status | Not Readable | ns
Drive 6 Status | Not Readable | ns
Drive 7 Status | Not Readable | ns
Drive 8 Status | Not Readable | ns
RAID Error | 0×00 | ok
CPU Fault Reboot | 0×00 | ok
SEL Fullness | 1 messages | ok
Sys pwr monitor | 0×00 | ok
Watchdog | 0×00 | ok
VRD Status | 0×00 | ok
VRM Status | 0×01 | ok
Pwr Planar Fault | 0×00 | ok
Critical Int | 0×00 | ok
CPU 1 OverTemp | 0×00 | ok
CPU 2 OverTemp | 0×00 | ok

Getting more information about a sensor:

$ ipmitool -I lan -H 10.1.0.107 -U USERID -P PASSW0RD sensor get “Ambient Temp”
Locating sensor record…
Sensor ID : Ambient Temp (0×32)
Entity ID : 12.1
Sensor Type (Analog) : Temperature
Sensor Reading : 22 (+/- -128) degrees C
Status : ok
Lower Non-Recoverable : na
Lower Critical : na
Lower Non-Critical : na
Upper Non-Critical : na
Upper Critical : na
Upper Non-Recoverable : na
Assertion Events :
Assertions Enabled :

To open an console over lan:

$ ipmitool -I lanplus -U USERID -P PASSW0RD -H 10.1.0.107 sol activate
[SOL Session operational. Use ~? for help]

… man ipmitool will show you more. As will reading the specs.