IPMI

Inband IPMI

Principle

Inband IPMI allows a system to access its own IPMI subsystem directly without going through the network. With Inband IPMI, the ipmitool command connects to the /dev/ipmi0 internal device instead of the host network interface.

Inband IPMI connection advantages:

• Faster access to IPMI sensors (no network latency)
• Firmware upgrade (especially on LC models which require ipmitool > 1.8.15)

Implementation

• Install required software packages:

  $ yum install OpenIPMI OpenIPMI-tools
  

• Manually load modules:

  $ modprobe ipmi_msghandler
  $ modprobe ipmi_watchdog
  $ modprobe ipmi_poweroff
  $ modprobe ipmi_devintf
  $ modprobe ipmi_powernv
  

• Check that following kernel modules are properly loaded:

  $ lsmod | grep ipmi
  ipmi_devintf           13691  0
  ipmi_powernv            6489  0
  ipmi_msghandler        51075  2 ipmi_powernv,ipmi_devintf
  

• Automate loading of these modules during system boot:

  • RHEL 7 Specify module list:

    # Load ipmi_devintf Module
    ipmi_devintf
    

    inside the following configuration file: /etc/modules-load.d/ipmi-devintf.conf

  • Ubuntu 16.04 Specify module list:

    # /etc/modules: kernel modules to load at boot time.
    #
    # This file contains the names of kernel modules that should be loaded
    # at boot time, one per line. Lines beginning with "#" are ignored.
    ibmpowernv
    ipmi_devintf
    

    inside the following configuration file: /etc/modules

• Check that the Inbound IPMI device is available:

  $ ls -l /dev/ipmi0
  crw-------. 1 root root 244, 0 Jan 27 15:06 /dev/ipmi0
  

• Test that Inbound IPMI works properly:

  $ ipmitool sdr type list
  Sensor Types:
  Temperature (0x01) Voltage (0x02)
  Current (0x03) Fan (0x04)
  

Outbound IPMI

$ ipmitool -H <IPMI Interface Hostname> -I lanplus -P admin -U ADMIN <IPMI Tool Command>`

Miscellaneous IPMI Commands

• sensor:

  ipmitool> sensor
  Fan Power A      | 52.000     | Watts      | ok    | 0.000     | 0.000     | 0.000     | 255.000   | 255.000   | 255.000
  Mem Proc0 Pwr    | 39.000     | Watts      | ok    | 0.000     | 0.000     | 0.000     | 255.000   | 255.000   | 255.000
  Mem Proc1 Pwr    | 38.000     | Watts      | ok    | 0.000     | 0.000     | 0.000     | 255.000   | 255.000   | 255.000
  PCIE Proc0 Pwr   | 67.000     | Watts      | ok    | 0.000     | 0.000     | 0.000     | 255.000   | 255.000   | 255.000
  Mem Cache Power  | 226.000    | Watts      | ok    | 0.000     | 0.000     | 0.000     | 255.000   | 255.000   | 255.000
  Proc0 Power      | 113.000    | Watts      | ok    | 0.000     | 0.000     | 0.000     | 255.000   | 255.000   | 255.000
  CPU VDD Volt     | 1.030      | Volts      | ok    | 0.000     | 0.000     | 0.000     | 2.550     | 2.550     | 2.550
  CPU VDD Curr     | 90.000     | Amps       | ok    | 0.000     | 0.000     | 0.000     | 255.000   | 255.000   | 255.000
  Proc1 Power      | 97.000     | Watts      | ok    | 0.000     | 0.000     | 0.000     | 255.000   | 255.000   | 255.000
  PCIE Proc1 Power | 65.000     | Watts      | ok    | 0.000     | 0.000     | 0.000     | 255.000   | 255.000   | 255.000
  GPU Sense        | 231.000    | Watts      | ok    | 0.000     | 0.000     | 0.000     | 255.000   | 255.000   | 255.000