This one will probably end up in the top 10 n00b posts ...

 

Quite a lot of unRAIDers value the fact that the serverboard has IPMI on board, mine has too. But I yet have to discover why this is such a cool option. I did some googling but no real practical guidance on this feature. Maybe I'm missing a point because I am Mac only? Would be grateful if you could share some pointers to good reading material.

 

Thanks for reading. 

Because some people run their unRAID server headless (w/o a monitor) it gives them a remote keyboard/video interface to the system even when it is down ... i.e. to get to the BIOS settings w/o having to hook up a monitory and keyboard.

 

OTOH, systems that have IPMI are not as common, and you may have to compromise on other features.  Most mobos with IPMI are more expensive.

 

I find that an inexpensive KVM over IP box is more practical - it will give you much of the same ability, and it is portable and you can use it on any system.

Thanks!

 

My board (X8SIL-F) has 3 LAN ports, one of which is IPMI dedicated. The manual is very brief, but I guess I could also use the IPMI port for regular LAN traffic - nevermind I'll try in a minute. The software that came with the board is Windows only, would I need something specific to get this running on a Mac?

 

I'm probably wrong, but would it be possible to power on the server with this feature?

 

Thanks again.

 

edit: must be the fact that I am not a native English speaker, but now I understand "dedicated", no regular LAN over that port ... Still, would I be able to "IPMI" also over the regular LAN port from a Mac?

 

Thanks!

 

My board (X8SIL-F) has 3 LAN ports, one of which is IPMI dedicated. The manual is very brief, but I guess I could also use the IPMI port for regular LAN traffic - nevermind I'll try in a minute. The software that came with the board is Windows only, would I need something specific to get this running on a Mac?

 

I'm probably wrong, but would it be possible to power on the server with this feature?

 

Thanks again.

 

edit: must be the fact that I am not a native English speaker, but now I understand "dedicated", no regular LAN over that port ... Still, would I be able to "IPMI" also over the regular LAN port from a Mac?

 

 

IPMI on your board (I have the same) does work over the regular LAN port.  It will have a different IP address then the one unRAID is using (two IP's on the single port.)  I have also not found it to be completely reliable for accessing the system when down, sometimes it works and sometimes not.  I am guessing this reliability is improved when using the dedicated port.  Sorry, I have no answer for you on Mac use.

IPMI works fantastic on my headless server.

 

I've never had a problem connecting to IPMI on my Supermicro X7SPA-HF ... works when my machine is on or off.  I use IPMI mostly for access to the console, in lieu of telnet.  If you want to run a long process, you need to leave your telnet session open until the process completes.  That's a problem when you're telnet-ed into your unRAID server from your laptop and you need to take your laptop with you when you leave the house.  With IPMI, I can connect, start up a process, shut down the connection and the process will continue to run. yeah!

 

 

 

IPMI works fantastic on my headless server.

 

I've never had a problem connecting to IPMI on my Supermicro X7SPA-HF ... works when my machine is on or off.  I use IPMI mostly for access to the console, in lieu of telnet.  If you want to run a long process, you need to leave your telnet session open until the process completes.  That's a problem when you're telnet-ed into your unRAID server from your laptop and you need to take your laptop with you when you leave the house.  With IPMI, I can connect, start up a process, shut down the connection and the process will continue to run. yeah!

 

 

 

 

The better option around this is to get and use screen.  With screen, you start the session, launch your process(es), detach the session and then you can log off of your telnet session.  Then telnet in later and re-attach your session to pick up where you left off.  You can also have multiple subsessions that you can page between.

Aha, got it! For other who may stumble upon this thread. My IPMI works on the server's static IP -/- 1 (e.g. 192.168.1.100, then IPMI connects on 192.168.1.99), not sure whether this is standard... I can indeed power up my server through the IPMI console, this could prove to be very useful. Still need tot take a closer look but I guess you can essentially configure the server remotely, indeed awesome!

 

Thanks for the feedback!

On mine you can configure the the IPMI IP to use DHCP or be static.  If it is using DHCP it can float around, mine did when I had it set up for DHCP.

IPMI works fantastic on my headless server.

 

I've never had a problem connecting to IPMI on my Supermicro X7SPA-HF ... works when my machine is on or off.  I use IPMI mostly for access to the console, in lieu of telnet.  If you want to run a long process, you need to leave your telnet session open until the process completes.  That's a problem when you're telnet-ed into your unRAID server from your laptop and you need to take your laptop with you when you leave the house.  With IPMI, I can connect, start up a process, shut down the connection and the process will continue to run. yeah!

 

 

 

 

The better option around this is to get and use screen.  With screen, you start the session, launch your process(es), detach the session and then you can log off of your telnet session.  Then telnet in later and re-attach your session to pick up where you left off.  You can also have multiple subsessions that you can page between.

 

 

I'm not familiar with 'screen'.  I just took a peek at the manpage ... WAY too long to read at 2:30am.

Not sure why this would be any better than using IPMI to access the console.  Maybe after I read the manpage I'll see some additional benefits.

 

 

 

 

Thanks!

 

My board (X8SIL-F) has 3 LAN ports, one of which is IPMI dedicated. The manual is very brief, but I guess I could also use the IPMI port for regular LAN traffic - nevermind I'll try in a minute. The software that came with the board is Windows only, would I need something specific to get this running on a Mac?

 

I'm probably wrong, but would it be possible to power on the server with this feature?

 

Thanks again.

 

edit: must be the fact that I am not a native English speaker, but now I understand "dedicated", no regular LAN over that port ... Still, would I be able to "IPMI" also over the regular LAN port from a Mac?

 

 

..not so sure about your board, but with my X7SPA-HF, which has only 2 LAN ports, you can:

 

- use the LAN port for which IPMI is configured in the BIOS for other traffic as well (it will end up with two IPs assigned to it)

- completely access the IPMI features while the server is (soft-)off, including power-on

- access via IPMI SW from Win or Linux or just use a Web-Browser (the IPMI FW contains a JAVA client, which will download and webstart when accessing the board)

- use remote resources like ISO & floppy images ... they appear as a USB CDROM/Floppy drive...during boot and inside the booted OS (even good for remote BIOS updates or OS-installs via floppy/CD)

IPMI works fantastic on my headless server.

 

I've never had a problem connecting to IPMI on my Supermicro X7SPA-HF ... works when my machine is on or off.  I use IPMI mostly for access to the console, in lieu of telnet.  If you want to run a long process, you need to leave your telnet session open until the process completes.  That's a problem when you're telnet-ed into your unRAID server from your laptop and you need to take your laptop with you when you leave the house.  With IPMI, I can connect, start up a process, shut down the connection and the process will continue to run. yeah!

 

 

 

 

 

 

The better option around this is to get and use screen.  With screen, you start the session, launch your process(es), detach the session and then you can log off of your telnet session.  Then telnet in later and re-attach your session to pick up where you left off.  You can also have multiple subsessions that you can page between.

 

 

I'm not familiar with 'screen'.  I just took a peek at the manpage ... WAY too long to read at 2:30am.

Not sure why this would be any better than using IPMI to access the console.  Maybe after I read the manpage I'll see some additional benefits.

 

 

 

 

 

JoeL  gives a good overview of how to install screen and the basics you need to make it effective in the following post:

 

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=2817.msg24827#msg24827

Through the web interface, I can power up my server remotely. Would it be possible to also do this with a script? 

Through the web interface, I can power up my server remotely. Would it be possible to also do this with a script? 

 

Hmmm....when the box is powered down, the regular CPU would not be able to perform/run a script or any other instruction, would it 

I do not know of an option to define additional external triggers (like a macro or else) and store them

somewhere inside the IPMI config on the board.

Best next thing to achieve what you want seems to try WOL.

...here's an interesting thread regarding Wake-On-ARP: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=6729.0

 

 

Thanks! Clearly, I still want to do some more reading on this, but sometimes things are simple - more likely, I was overcomplicating things. My server (X8SIL-F) will power up (from S5) with (I think) a Magic Packet (Wake-on: g). From my main Mac, I can use (also in AppleScripts) WakeOnLan (OSX) for this.

are you talking about an ip address then yes ever computer has one of these. to check what your is goto the start menu and in the search type in config then press enter it will show you your ip address and other info. Or call dell and ask them their real helpful sometimes. as long as you get someone that speaks good english lol.chinabuye.com

 

go away spammer

Thanks! Clearly, I still want to do some more reading on this, but sometimes things are simple - more likely, I was overcomplicating things. My server (X8SIL-F) will power up (from S5) with (I think) a Magic Packet (Wake-on: g). From my main Mac, I can use (also in AppleScripts) WakeOnLan (OSX) for this.

 

Yes, using "Wake-on: a" is even more simpler than using "Wake-on: g", because you do not need to actually create the "Magic Packet" anymore.

However, it requires the use of a VLAN capable switch.