I have a server room on the other side of campus, and I’d like to be able to reboot my servers (and debug any problems) from my office or from home. Below is what I did to set up remote console access with ipmi. All servers are running either Debian or OpenBSD.
openbsd (7.2)
In the BIOS, make sure “serial port console redirection” is enabled. Here’s what mine looked like:
use delete key to bring up BIOS
Advanced-->Serial Port Console Redirection
-->COM1 Enabled (and set speed to 115200)
Also, if you have the option to edit the BMC Network Config, do that in the BIOS. My BIOS has a “Server Management” tab that allowed me to set the IP address and subnet mask of the BMC (e.g., 10.0.0.1 and 255.255.255.0).
Now edit (maybe a new file) /etc/boot.conf (I use com1 since that what my BIOS said above):
set tty com1
stty com1 115200
And finally add/edit a line in /etc/ttys to allow for a login prompt on this console (again, I used tty01 because my BIOS said we were using COM1):
$ grep tty01 /etc/ttys
tty01 "/usr/libexec/getty std.115200" vt220 on secure
debian (11)
If you don’t already have the ipmi password, you can set it, along with network numbers, using ipmitool. In the example below, I’m setting the password for user #2, and setting the IP address to be 10.0.0.42:
sudo apt-get -y install openipmi ipmitool
sudo modprobe ipmi_si
sudo modprobe ipmi_devintf
sudo modprobe ipmi_msghandler
sudo ipmitool -I open channel info 1
sudo ipmitool user set password 2
sudo ipmitool lan set 1 ipsrc static
sudo ipmitool lan set 1 ipaddr 10.0.0.42
sudo ipmitool lan set 1 netmask 255.255.255.0
sudo ipmitool lan set 1 defgw ipaddr 10.0.0.1
sudo ipmitool lan print 1
Lastly, edit the grub configuration:
sudo vim /etc/default/grub
# changes made:
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=""
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="console=tty0 console=ttyS1,115200n8"
sudo update-grub
cheat sheet
Here’s a good cheat sheet with more commands:
How to list the users:
$ sudo ipmitool user list 1
ID Name Callin Link Auth IPMI Msg Channel Priv Limit
1 true false false Unknown (0x00)
2 ADMIN false false true ADMINISTRATOR
3 true false false Unknown (0x00)
4 true false false Unknown (0x00)
5 true false false Unknown (0x00)
Example of setting the password:
$ sudo ipmitool user set password 2
Password for user 2: makeitsomethinggood
Password for user 2: makeitsomethinggood
Set User Password command successful (user 2)
Examples of usage, from a computer on my ipmi network:
$ sudo ipmitool -I lanplus -U ADMIN -H 10.0.0.128 -f pwfile mc info
Device ID : 32
Device Revision : 1
Firmware Revision : 3.20
IPMI Version : 2.0
Manufacturer ID : 47488
Manufacturer Name : Unknown (0xB980)
Product ID : 47633 (0xba11)
Product Name : Unknown (0xBA11)
Device Available : yes
Provides Device SDRs : no
Additional Device Support :
Sensor Device
SDR Repository Device
SEL Device
FRU Inventory Device
IPMB Event Receiver
IPMB Event Generator
Chassis Device
$ sudo ipmitool -I lanplus -U ADMIN -H 10.0.0.128 -f pwfile sel list
1 | 09/29/2015 | 09:34:57 | Physical Security #0xaa | General Chassis intrusion () | Asserted
2 | 09/29/2015 | 18:13:21 | Physical Security #0xaa | General Chassis intrusion () | Asserted
3 | 02/05/2018 | 23:03:27 | Physical Security #0xaa | General Chassis intrusion () | Asserted
$ sudo ipmitool -I lanplus -U ADMIN -H 10.0.0.128 -f pwfile sdr list
CPU Temp | 0x00 | ok
System Temp | 29 degrees C | ok
CPU Vcore | 0.95 Volts | ok
CPU DIMM | 1.36 Volts | ok
CPU Mem VTT | 0.68 Volts | ok
+1.1 V | 1.10 Volts | ok
+1.8 V | 1.85 Volts | ok
+5 V | 5.09 Volts | ok
+12 V | 12.14 Volts | ok
-12 V | -12.19 Volts | ok
HT Voltage | 1.21 Volts | ok
+3.3 V | 3.31 Volts | ok
+3.3VSB | 3.24 Volts | ok
VBAT | 3.10 Volts | ok
FAN 1 | 9216 RPM | ok
FAN 2 | 8281 RPM | ok
FAN 3 | 8281 RPM | ok
FAN 4 | 8281 RPM | ok
FAN 5 | 9216 RPM | ok
FAN 6 | no reading | ns
Intrusion | 0x01 | ok
PS Status | 0x01 | ok
In the above examples, the -f pwfile gets the ipmi password from the given file.
Use the ipmi command sol activate to start the console, where you can login or watch the boot messages as the server boots.