ipmitool and SuperMicro SYS-5027R-WRF

[Paul Mather]

James,


> On Mar 27, 2018, at 8:00 AM, freebsd-questions-request at freebsd.org wrote:
> 
> Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2018 15:37:02 -0400
> From: "James B. Byrne" <byrnejb at harte-lyne.ca>
> To: freebsd-questions at harte-lyne.ca
> Subject: ipmitool and SuperMicro SYS-5027R-WRF
> Message-ID:
> 	<0e099d05e4b2d644b0f8ef7826802133.squirrel at webmail.harte-lyne.ca>
> Content-Type: text/plain;charset=iso-8859-1
> 
> Does anyone here use ipmitool, or anything similar running on
> FreeBSD-11, to establish a serial over lan (sol) console session with
> a supermicro SYS-5027R-WRF or similar vintage SM server chassis?  If
> so, can you provide me with the magic incantation to get this to work?
> 
> I have added 'boot_multicons="YES"' to /boot/loader.conf.  I have
> power-cycled the server.  And I cannot still establish a connection
> using ipmitool.


I am using ipmitool for SOL on a few different Supermicro servers.  I am still basically using the same recipe as I reported to the freebsd-stable list back in 2014 via this posting: https://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-stable/2014-November/080959.html

For example, here is the /boot/loader.conf entries I use on a FreeBSD/amd64 11-STABLE Supermicro server:

#
# System console support: uncomment only one "console=..." line below
#
# Speed and port for serial console
comconsole_speed=115200
comconsole_port=0x2F8
# Uncomment below to enable only serial console
#console="comconsole"
# Uncomment below to enable only VGA console
#console="vidconsole"
# Uncomment below to enable VGA and serial consoles (preference to VGA)
#console="vidconsole,comconsole"
# Uncomment below to enable serial and VGA consoles (preference to serial)
console="comconsole,vidconsole"
boot_multicons="YES"



The above works well enough for me to get a SOL connection using ipmitool as well as providing a system console via SOL.  I did recently have an issue, but that concerned my having changed the IPMI ADMIN password to something that was too long: even though the password change seemed to work, authentication failed because the password had been silently truncated at the Supermicro side to something shorter. :-(



> 
> ipmitool -H 192.168.44.3 -U admin -I lanplus sol activate


That's basically what I use, except I use "-U ADMIN" and change the escape character via "-e ^".


> IPMI LAN send command failed
> IPMI LAN send command failed
> 
> 
> The built in web server works. But the zealots at Mozilla have
> puritanised Firefox to the point where the web console no longer
> works.  I need to have some way to talk to this chassis remotely while
> it is booting. I am open to any reasonable suggestion.


Actually, graphical console redirection still works for me.  I have to download the .jnlp file and then use "javaws /path/to/file.jnlp" via a terminal window to fire up the graphical console viewer.  This works for me most recently using Java 9 and Java 10 on a macOS client.  Note, the stricter security settings of the later Java runtimes mean you have to whitelist the IPMI URLs otherwise the viewer will refuse to run because the application is self-signed.

Note, I can also see/access BIOS settings via SOL when using ipmitool, too.  (That's why I set the preference to serial console.)

I hope this helps.

Cheers,

Paul.