1FREEIPMI(7) Overview FREEIPMI(7)
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6 FreeIPMI - FreeIPMI overview
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9 FreeIPMI provides in-band and out-of-band IPMI software based on the
10 IPMI v1.5/2.0 specification.
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13 The IPMI specification defines a set of interfaces for platform manage‐
14 ment and is implemented by a number vendors for system management. The
15 features of IPMI that most users will be interested in are sensor moni‐
16 toring, system event monitoring, power control, and serial-over-LAN
17 (SOL). The FreeIPMI tools and libraries listed below should provide
18 users with the ability to access and utilize these and many other fea‐
19 tures of IPMI.
20
22 IPMI can be used in-band (i.e. running on a machine locally) or out-of-
23 band (i.e. connecting remotely).
24 Most FreeIPMI tools can operate in-band by using one of the in-band
26 drivers included. These in-band drivers include a direct KCS interface
27 driver, a Linux SSIF driver through the SSIF device (i.e. /dev/i2c-0),
28 the OpenIPMI Linux kernel driver (i.e. /dev/ipmi0), and the Sun/Solaris
29 BMC driver (i.e. /dev/bmc). If your system requires the use of
30 installed drivers, those appropriate modules must be installed ahead of
31 time. However, most systems should automatically load these drivers
32 when appropriate.
33 Under most scenarios, the FreeIPMI tools should automatically discover
35 which in-band interface to use and the proper settings to use. Users
36 may execute the tools on the command line to begin using them. Some
37 motherboards may require you to determine driver type, addresses,
38 paths, etc. on your own and pass them as command line options to the
39 tools. You may use ipmi-locate(8) to help determine this information.
40 Other tools such as dmidecode(8) may also provide this information.
41 To use IPMI out-of-band with tools such as ipmipower(8) or ipmi-sen‐
43 sors(8), the remote machine's BMC must first be configured for out of
44 band communication. Typically, this involves setting a username, pass‐
45 word, IP address, MAC address, and a few other parameters. This can be
46 done using the tool bmc-config(8). Additional information on how to
47 configure with bmc-config(8) can be found in the bmc-config.conf(5)
48 manpage. Some vendors may pre-configure their motherboards with default
49 values so that bmc-config(8) can be used remotely to configure the
50 machine. However, most of the time, the BMC must be configured in-band
51 before out-of-band access can be allowed (for example, the correct IP
52 address and MAC address must be configured).
53 In order to remotely connect to a machine, you typically must specify
56 the host, username, and password for the tool in order to connect.
57 Depending on configuration settings, a K_g key, privilege level,
58 authentication type, cipher suite id, or protocol version may need to
59 be specified.
60 Some vendors may have not implemented IPMI properly and a workaround
63 must be specified into FreeIPMI to ensure the tool can execute prop‐
64 erly. For example, a fair number of vendors have populated their FRU
65 records with invalid checksums. To properly ignore these set of check‐
66 sums a skipchecks workaround has been added to ipmi-fru(8). Please see
67 each of the tool manpages to see a list of available workarounds.
68 Additional information, examples, and general trouble-shooting can be
71 found in each of the tool manpages.
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75 The primary tools that most users of FreeIPMI will be interested in for
76 system management are the following:
77 Ipmi-sensors
79 A tool to read IPMI sensor readings to aid in system monitoring.
81 Ipmi-sel
83 A tool to read and manage IPMI System Event Log (SEL) records to aid in
85 system debugging.
86 Ipmipower
88 A tool for remote power control.
90 Ipmiconsole
92 A tool for Serial-over-Lan (SOL) console access.
94 Many other tools and libraries are listed below that cover additional
96 features and areas of IPMI.
97 Additional information, examples, and general trouble-shooting can be
99 found in each of the tool manpages.
100
103 In order to avoid typing in a long list of command line options to
104 specify IPMI communication requirements everytime a command is executed
105 (e.g. driver paths, usernames, passwords, etc.), an alternate set of
106 default values can be set for most FreeIPMI tools in the FreeIPMI con‐
107 figuration file. See freeipmi.conf(5) for more information.
108
111 Much of FreeIPMI was written with HPC support in mind. The configura‐
112 tion tools ( bmc-config(8), ipmi-pef-config(8), ipmi-sensors-config(8),
113 and ipmi-chassis-config(8) ) come with file input/output support so
114 that configuration can be copied and verified across nodes in a clus‐
115 ter. Most tools (like ipmipower(8) and ipmi-sensors(8) ) come with hos‐
116 trange support so multiple hosts can be specified on the command line
117 at the same time and IPMI can be executed against the hosts in paral‐
118 lel. See tool manpages for more information. Also see the document
119 freeipmi-hostrange.txt for detailed usage and explanation. Ipmi-sen‐
120 sors(8) and the libipmimonitoring(3) library support the ability to
121 interpret sensor readings as well as just reporting them. By mapping
122 sensor readings into NOMINAL, WARNING, or CRITICAL states, it makes
123 monitoring sensors easier across large numbers of nodes.
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127 For information on the libraries that can be used to program IPMI
128 applications with, please see libfreeipmi(3), libipmiconsole(3), libip‐
129 mimonitoring(3), and libipmidetect(3). Or see the document freeipmi-
130 libraries.txt.
131
134 The following tools are distributed and supported by FreeIPMI.
135 Bmc-info
137 A tool to read information about a BMC such as device version numbers,
139 device support, and globally unique IDs (guids).
140 Bmc-config
142 A tool to configure general BMC and IPMI information. Supports configu‐
144 ration of usernames, passwords, networking information, security,
145 Serial-over-LAN (SOL), and other core fields.
146 Bmc-watchdog
148 A tool/daemon to manage a BMC Watchdog. This tool is typically used for
150 system timeout management and automatic system restarts in the event of
151 a system crash.
152 Ipmi-chassis
154 A tool to manage/monitor a chassis, such as chassis power, identifica‐
156 tion (i.e. LED control), and status.
157 Ipmi-fru
159 A tool to read field replaceable unit (FRU) information from a mother‐
161 board/machine.
162 Ipmi-sel
164 A tool to read and manage IPMI System Event Log (SEL) records. SEL
166 records store system event information and may be useful for debugging
167 problems.
168 Ipmi-sensors
170 A tool to read IPMI sensor readings and sensor data repository (SDR)
172 information.
173 Ipmipower
175 A tool for remote power control.
177 Ipmiconsole
179 A tool for Serial-over-Lan (SOL) console access.
181 Ipmi-raw
183 A tool that provides hex input/output of IPMI commands.
185 Ipmi-locate
187 A tool that can probe for information about the location of a BMC
189 device, such as device addresses.
190 Ipmi-chassis-config
192 A tool to configure IPMI chassis information. Supports configuration of
194 boot device, power restore policy, and other chassis related fields.
195 Ipmi-pef-config
197 A tool to configure Platform Event Filtering (PEF) information.
199 Ipmi-pet
201 A tool to parse and interpret Platform Event Traps (PET).
203 Ipmi-sensors-config
205 A tool to configure IPMI sensors. Supports configuration of sensor
207 thresholds, sensor events, and other sensor related fields.
208 Ipmi-dcmi
210 A tool to perform Data Center Manageability Interface (DCMI) IPMI
212 extension commands. Supports extensions for asset management and power
213 usage management.
214 Bmc-device
216 A tool to perform advanced BMC commands, such as resetting the BMC,
218 configuring ACPI, configuring SDR/SEL time, manually generating events,
219 re-arming sensors, and configuring manufacturer settings.
220 Ipmiping
222 An IPMI ping tool for debugging.
224 Rmcpping
226 A RMCP ping tool for debugging.
228 Ipmi-oem
230 An IPMI tool for OEM specific commands.
232 Ipmidetect/Ipmidetectd
234 A tool and daemon for IPMI node detection.
236 Ipmiseld
238 A daemon that regularly polls the SEL and stores the events to the
240 local syslog.
241 Additional information, examples, and general trouble-shooting can be
243 found in each of the tool manpages.
244
247 The following libraries are distributed and supported by FreeIPMI.
248 Libfreeipmi
250 A C library that includes KCS, SSIF, OpenIPMI Linux, and Solaris BMC
252 drivers, IPMI 1.5 and IPMI 2.0 LAN communication interfaces, IPMI
253 packet building utilities, IPMI command utilities, and utilities for
254 reading/interpreting/managing IPMI.
255 Libipmiconsole
257 A library for Serial-over-Lan (SOL) console access. SOL console access
259 is abstracted into a file descriptor interface, so users may read and
260 write console data through a file descriptor.
261 Libipmimonitoring
263 A library for sensor monitoring that abstracts away most IPMI details.
265 Libipmidetect
267 A library for IPMI node detection.
269
271 Report bugs to <freeipmi-users@gnu.org> or <freeipmi-devel@gnu.org>.
272
275 Copyright © 2003-2012 FreeIPMI Core Team.
276 FreeIPMI is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
278 under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the
279 Free Software Foundation; either version 3 of the License, or (at your
280 option) any later version.
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283 libfreeipmi(3), libipmiconsole(3), libipmidetect(3), libipmimonitor‐
284 ing(3), freeipmi.conf(5), bmc-config(8), bmc-device(8), bmc-info(8),
285 bmc-watchdog(8), ipmi-chassis(8), ipmi-fru(8), ipmi-locate(8), ipmi-
286 oem(8), ipmi-pef-config(8), ipmi-pet(8), ipmi-raw(8), ipmi-sel(8),
287 ipmi-sensors(8), ipmi-sensors-config(8), ipmiconsole(8), ipmidetect(8),
288 ipmiping(8), ipmipower(8), rmcpping(8)
289 http://www.gnu.org/software/freeipmi/
291FreeIPMI 1.2.1 2017-03-22 FREEIPMI(7)