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Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI)IPMI OverviewIntelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) is an industry-standard protocol for heterogeneous management of systems on a network. The specification defines a common set of interfaces to systems hardware and firmware for monitoring and instrumentation functions. The specification, when implemented correctly, allows for out-of-band management and monitoring of systems even at the bare-metal level (no OS installed). Some common monitoring and management functions that can be performed on an IPMI complaint system include:
The specification allows for enhanced IPMI functionality when integrated with an installed OS. An IPMI baseboard management controller (BMC) manages is the circuitry that interfaces management software to the hardware components of a system. Conceptually, it's a clearling house for information coming from several component sensors within the computer system chassis. The sensor information is consolidated in the BMC and forwarded over the network or other communication channel to the IPMI management software which is usually located on a remote system. Any system parameters monitored via the BMC/sensor axis are expected to perform within certain configurable thresholds. Depending on the sophistication of the remote management software, corrective action may be taken automatically or an administrator alerted to the aberrant process or component. Communication between the IPMI BMC and the management utility can occur over a direct serial connection or over a network using TCP/IP. A combination of the two methods exists in that the serial protocol is tunneled through LAN/WAN links. The IPMI specification defines a method for encryption of management data being passed over a network link, and it is highly advisable that any management functions being carried out via the LAN communication interface also make use of authentication features of the BMC. IPMI is a low-cost method of ensuring system health and uptime and reducing total cost of ownership. Almost all Xinit Systems server products either integrate IPMI functionality by default or support it as a low-cost upgrade option. IPMI SoftwareTraditionally, IPMI management software consists of console-based applications driven by either specific commands or a multilevel menu systems. Recently several system vendors and IPMI/BMC OEMs have developed powerful graphical management tools that perform the same tasks and provide a better overview of the state of the systems on the network. IPMItool (offsite link) - IPMItool is a simple command-line interface to systems that support the Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) specification. It provides the ability to read the SDR and print sensor values, display the contents of the SEL, print FRU information, read and set LAN configuration parameters, perform remote chassis power control, and act as a serial over LAN client. It can work with IPMI-over-LAN (both version 1.5 and 2.0) interfaces as well as the system interface provided by a kernel driver such as OpenIPMI. OpenIpmi (offsite link) - OpenIPMI is an effort to create a full-function IPMI system to allow full access to all IPMI information on a server and to abstract it to a level that will make it easy to use. OpenIPMI consists of two main parts: A device driver that goes into the Linux kernel, and a user-level library that provides a higher-level abstraction of IPMI and generic services that can be used on any operating system. AMI Unified Management Server (offsite link) - UMS provides a framework that can be used to manage any hardware devices connected to a network. UMS discovers, configures, monitors, reports and manages events for all the nodes. When used in conjunction with AMIBIOS8 and the AMIBMC, UMS provides advanced IPMI functions such as video redirection and BIOS/firmware flashing.
IPMI HardwareIPMI hardware is consits of a Baseboard Management Controller and system sensors that are embedded within motherboard and chassis components. The BMC is either built-into the motherboard as standard or available as an add-in card. Below is a selection of BMC cards compatible with server solutions from Xinit Systems.
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