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FREEIPMI(7)                                   Overview                                   FREEIPMI(7)



NAME
       FreeIPMI - FreeIPMI overview

Introduction
       FreeIPMI provides in-band and out-of-band IPMI software based on the IPMI v1.5/2.0 specifica‐
       tion.

What is IPMI?
       The IPMI specification defines a set of interfaces for platform management and is implemented
       by  a  number vendors for system management. The features of IPMI that most users will be in‐
       terested in are sensor monitoring, system event monitoring, power control,  and  serial-over-
       LAN  (SOL). The FreeIPMI tools and libraries listed below should provide users with the abil‐
       ity to access and utilize these and many other features of IPMI.

Getting Started with IPMI
       IPMI can be used in-band (i.e. running on a machine locally) or out-of-band (i.e.  connecting
       remotely).

       Most  FreeIPMI  tools can operate in-band by using one of the in-band drivers included. These
       in-band drivers include a userspace KCS interface driver, a SSIF  driver  through  the  Linux
       SSIF  device  (i.e.  /dev/i2c-0),  the  OpenIPMI  Linux  kernel driver (i.e. /dev/ipmi0), the
       Sun/Solaris BMC driver (i.e. /dev/bmc), and the Intel DCMI/MEI driver  (i.e.  /dev/dcmi).  If
       your  system  requires  the  use  of installed drivers, those appropriate modules must be in‐
       stalled ahead of time.  However, most systems should automatically load  these  drivers  when
       appropriate.

       Under  most  scenarios, the FreeIPMI tools should automatically discover which in-band inter‐
       face to use and the proper settings to use. Users may execute the tools on the  command  line
       to  begin  using them. Some motherboards may require you to determine driver type, addresses,
       paths, etc. on your own and pass them as command line options to the tools. You may use ipmi-
       locate(8)  to help determine this information. Other tools such as dmidecode(8) may also pro‐
       vide this information.

       To use IPMI out-of-band with tools such as ipmipower(8) or ipmi-sensors(8),  the  remote  ma‐
       chine's  BMC must first be configured for out of band communication. Typically, this involves
       setting a username, password, IP address, MAC address, and a few other parameters.  This  can
       be done using the tool ipmi-config(8).  Additional information on how to configure with ipmi-
       config(8) can be found in the ipmi-config.conf(5) manpage.  Some  vendors  may  pre-configure
       their motherboards with default values so that ipmi-config(8) can be used remotely to config‐
       ure the machine. However, most of the time, the BMC must be configured in-band before out-of-
       band  access can be allowed (for example, the correct IP address and MAC address must be con‐
       figured).

       In order to remotely connect to a machine, you typically must specify the host, username, and
       password  for  the tool in order to connect.  Depending on configuration settings, a K_g key,
       privilege level, authentication type, cipher suite id, or protocol version  may  need  to  be
       specified.

       Some  vendors  may have not implemented IPMI properly and a workaround must be specified into
       FreeIPMI to ensure the tool can execute properly. For example, a fair number of vendors  have
       populated their FRU records with invalid checksums. To properly ignore these set of checksums
       a skipchecks workaround has been added to ipmi-fru(8).  Please see each of the tool  manpages
       to see a list of available workarounds.

       Additional  information,  examples,  and general trouble-shooting can be found in each of the
       tool manpages.

General Use
       The primary tools that most users of FreeIPMI will be interested in for system management are
       the following:

       ipmi-sensors

       A tool to read IPMI sensor readings to aid in system monitoring.

       ipmi-sel

       A tool to read and manage IPMI System Event Log (SEL) records to aid in system debugging.

       ipmipower

       A tool for remote power control.

       ipmiconsole

       A tool for Serial-over-Lan (SOL) console access.

       Many  other  tools and libraries are listed below that cover additional features and areas of
       IPMI.

       Additional information, examples, and general trouble-shooting can be found in  each  of  the
       tool manpages.

Configuration
       In order to avoid typing in a long list of command line options to specify IPMI communication
       requirements every time a command is  executed  (e.g.  driver  paths,  usernames,  passwords,
       etc.),  an alternate set of default values can be set for most FreeIPMI tools in the FreeIPMI
       configuration file. See freeipmi.conf(5) for more information.

HPC Support
       Much of FreeIPMI was written with HPC support in mind.  Ipmi-config(8) comes  with  file  in‐
       put/output  support  so that configuration can be copied and verified across nodes in a clus‐
       ter. Most tools (like ipmipower(8) and ipmi-sensors(8) ) come with hostrange support so  mul‐
       tiple  hosts  can  be specified on the command line at the same time and IPMI can be executed
       against the hosts in parallel. See tool manpages for more information.  Also see the document
       freeipmi-hostrange.txt  for detailed usage and explanation.  Ipmi-sensors(8) and the libipmi‐‐
       monitoring(3) library support the ability to interpret sensor readings as well  as  just  re‐
       porting  them. By mapping sensor readings into NOMINAL, WARNING, or CRITICAL states, it makes
       monitoring sensors easier across large numbers of nodes.

Development
       For information on the libraries that can be used to program IPMI applications  with,  please
       see  libfreeipmi(3),  libipmiconsole(3),  libipmimonitoring(3), and libipmidetect(3).  Or see
       the document freeipmi-libraries.txt.

Project Tools
       The following tools are distributed and supported by FreeIPMI.

       bmc-info

       A tool to read information about a BMC such as device version numbers,  device  support,  and
       globally unique IDs (guids).

       bmc-watchdog

       A  tool/daemon  to manage a BMC Watchdog. This tool is typically used for system timeout man‐
       agement and automatic system restarts in the event of a system crash.

       ipmi-chassis

       A tool to manage/monitor a chassis, such as chassis power, identification (i.e. LED control),
       and status.

       ipmi-fru

       A tool to read field replaceable unit (FRU) information from a motherboard/machine.

       ipmi-sel

       A tool to read and manage IPMI System Event Log (SEL) records. SEL records store system event
       information and may be useful for debugging problems.

       ipmi-sensors

       A tool to read IPMI sensor readings and sensor data repository (SDR) information.

       ipmipower

       A tool for remote power control.

       ipmiconsole

       A tool for Serial-over-Lan (SOL) console access.

       ipmi-config

       A tool to configure BMC and IPMI information. In can be used to configured  usernames,  pass‐
       words,  networking  information,  security,  Serial-over-LAN  (SOL), Platform Event Filtering
       (PEF), boot devices, power restoration policy, sensor thresholds,  sensor  events,  and  many
       more configuration options.

       ipmi-raw

       A tool that provides hex input/output of IPMI commands.

       ipmi-locate

       A  tool that can probe for information about the location of a BMC device, such as device ad‐
       dresses.

       ipmi-pet

       A tool to parse and interpret Platform Event Traps (PET).

       ipmi-dcmi

       A tool to perform Data Center Manageability Interface (DCMI) IPMI  extension  commands.  Sup‐
       ports extensions for asset management and power usage management.

       bmc-device

       A tool to perform advanced BMC commands, such as resetting the BMC, configuring ACPI, config‐
       uring SDR/SEL time, manually generating events, re-arming sensors, and  configuring  manufac‐
       turer settings.

       ipmiping

       An IPMI ping tool for debugging.

       rmcpping

       A RMCP ping tool for debugging.

       ipmi-oem

       An IPMI tool for OEM specific commands.

       ipmidetect/ipmidetectd

       A tool and daemon for IPMI node detection.

       ipmiseld

       A daemon that regularly polls the SEL and stores the events to the local syslog.

       Additional  information,  examples,  and general trouble-shooting can be found in each of the
       tool manpages.

Project Libraries
       The following libraries are distributed and supported by FreeIPMI.

       libfreeipmi

       A C library that includes KCS, SSIF, and OpenIPMI Linux, and Solaris BMC  drivers,  IPMI  1.5
       and IPMI 2.0 LAN communication interfaces, IPMI packet building utilities, IPMI command util‐
       ities, and utilities for reading/interpreting/managing IPMI. This library is for  programmers
       intimately  familiar  with  the IPMI protocol and IPMI specification.  Most users may wish to
       use the libraries listed below.

       libipmiconsole

       A library for Serial-over-Lan (SOL) console access. SOL console access is abstracted  into  a
       file  descriptor  interface, so users may read and write console data through a file descrip‐
       tor.

       libipmimonitoring

       A library for sensor and system event log (SEL) monitoring that abstracts away most IPMI  de‐
       tails.  Interpretation of those sensors and events is abstracted into an API with an iterator
       interface.

       libipmidetect

       A library for IPMI node detection.

REPORTING BUGS
       Report bugs to <freeipmi-users AT gnu.org> or <freeipmi-devel AT gnu.org>.

COPYRIGHT
       Copyright © 2003-2015 FreeIPMI Core Team.

       FreeIPMI is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the  terms  of  the
       GNU  General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 3 of
       the License, or (at your option) any later version.

SEE ALSO
       libfreeipmi(3), libipmiconsole(3), libipmidetect(3), libipmimonitoring(3),  freeipmi.conf(5),
       bmc-device(8),  bmc-info(8),  bmc-watchdog(8),  ipmi-chassis(8), ipmi-config(8), ipmi-fru(8),
       ipmi-locate(8), ipmi-oem(8), ipmi-pet(8), ipmi-raw(8), ipmi-sel(8), ipmi-sensors(8), ipmicon‐
       sole(8), ipmidetect(8), ipmiping(8), ipmipower(8), rmcpping(8)

       http://www.gnu.org/software/freeipmi/



FreeIPMI 1.6.9                               2023-06-28                                  FREEIPMI(7)
freeipmi(7)
NAME Introduction
What is IPMI? Getting Started with IPMI General Use ipmi-sensors ipmi-sel ipmipower ipmiconsole
Configuration
HPC Support
Development
Project Tools bmc-info bmc-watchdog ipmi-chassis ipmi-fru ipmi-sel ipmi-sensors ipmipower ipmiconsole ipmi-config ipmi-raw ipmi-locate ipmi-pet ipmi-dcmi bmc-device ipmiping rmcpping ipmi-oem ipmidetect/ipmidetectd ipmiseld Project Libraries libfreeipmi libipmiconsole libipmimonitoring libipmidetect
REPORTING BUGS COPYRIGHT SEE ALSO

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