Selfmade IPMI/BMC with Raspberry PI


mgutt

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My server is located in a remote location, it is behind a router without port forwarding, I do not have access to any clients and the boards has not IPMI (which wouldn't help as I do not have VPN or Client access). At the moment I access my server remotely through a VM, but if the Unraid array stops I'm not able to access the server anymore. I thought about using wireshark and try a server to server connection in hope the remote server does not need any open ports, but finally I didn't test it because the external location uses the same IP range as my local network (which must be different to use wireshark).

 

So I came of with this idea

- Raspberry PI with the default Raspbian and Real VNC Viewer Connect (is preinstalled)

- Use an PCIe Slot Bracket Adapter to install the RPI into the case

 471958056_2020-10-1222_48_14.png.73bf032c33443a38922b810c7cf47903.png

- Connect the RPI to the server's power supply through ATX plug Pin 9 (+5VSB)

- Connect both, Mainboard and RPI with the Switch/Router

- Connect GPIO with F-Panel Power +/- (to be able to power on / hard power off the server)

- RPI stays powered on or is time controlled through Witty Pi if low energy consumption is required

 524911413_2020-10-1223_07_19.png.47f6f76e8ecfa626d2e1d9c717233e36.png

 

Upgrade:

- Install an HDMI Capture Adapter and Pi-KVM (or TinyPilot?) to control even the BIOS

 

What do you think about the idea?

 

 

 

Edited by mgutt
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If the Pi is connected to the PC, and it is behind a router without port forwarding, how would you connect to it?  RealVNC would require an open port.
 
@gfjardim just posted this on the forum, and seems very much like what you want to do... have not looked into it deeply but I bookmarked it for future reading because it was interesting.  https://pikvm.org/
 
 
If you need remote access, take a look into https://tailscale.com/

It works like LogMeIn Hamachi but a lot easier to configure.

Enviado de meu SM-N970F usando o Tapatalk

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5 hours ago, mdevaev said:

It's almost BMC.

TinyPilot is better, because it's cheaper, can be switched off, can be moved to the next server, works without VPN, works without port forwarding, etc

 

But I think I'll start with idea B and use it at first only for the Unraid WebGUI.

 

 

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TinyPilot is better, because it's cheaper, can be switched off, can be moved to the next server, works without VPN, works without port forwarding, etc
 
But I think I'll start with idea B and use it at first only for the Unraid WebGUI.
 
 
For US$ 170 you can have a full featured PiKVM, you can use it with the web interface, with Tailscale, with IPMI or VNC. You can also change between servers, even attach it into a normal KVM switch and control multiple machines with it.

You can start, reset, power off the server, not just the Pi itself. With the CSI HDMI bridge, you have half the latency (100ms) and you can control the bandwidth of video.

At this date, TinyPilot has half the functionality of PiKVM. Let's see the future.

Enviado de meu SM-N970F usando o Tapatalk

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  • 2 months later...

Good news, just finished mounting my V2 Pi-KVM and this thing works flawlessly, much better than my old Supermicro motherboard IPMI.
Ok, hardware monitoring is absent, so no hardware errors etc, BUT media mount and live CD boot works, you can easily setup your BIOS, power on, power off or reset your machine, use virtual keyboard and mouse etc.

1223188904_Capturadetela2021-01-06135128.thumb.png.165bfe9845515431666b248e6422baab.png

 

247735909_Capturadetela2021-01-06135809.thumb.png.7814331eb6592f5d96756086699aabff.png

 

 

So far so good.

Edited by gfjardim
  • Like 1
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9 hours ago, gfjardim said:

Good news, just finished mounting my V2 Pi-KVM and this thing works flawlessly, much better than my old Supermicro motherboard IPMI.
Ok, hardware monitoring is absent, so no hardware errors etc, BUT media mount and live CD boot works, you can easily setup your BIOS, power on, power off or reset your machine, use virtual keyboard and mouse etc.

1223188904_Capturadetela2021-01-06135128.thumb.png.165bfe9845515431666b248e6422baab.png

 

247735909_Capturadetela2021-01-06135809.thumb.png.7814331eb6592f5d96756086699aabff.png

 

 

So far so good.

Very neat, just to clarify, which one did you use? PiKVM?

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 1/7/2021 at 12:54 AM, gfjardim said:

Good news, just finished mounting my V2 Pi-KVM and this thing works flawlessly, much better than my old Supermicro motherboard IPMI.

Ok, hardware monitoring is absent, so no hardware errors etc, BUT media mount and live CD boot works, you can easily setup your BIOS, power on, power off or reset your machine, use virtual keyboard and mouse etc.

V3 prototype review is out for those interested

 

 

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  • 4 months later...
On 1/6/2021 at 8:57 PM, gfjardim said:

Hey I was just looking into pikvm for my use case. Do run an Intel CPU with an iGPU? 

I'm not sure if pikvm would work for me since I'm running a Ryzen 2600, and my only GPU is reserved for transcoding. As far as I know, Unraid won't allow that GPU to be passed through if an output is connected to it upon reboot. Other than that, I'm not sure where the pikvm video in would be connected to for me. 

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6 hours ago, crazykidguy said:

I'm not sure where the pikvm video in would be connected to for me. 

It emulates a physical keyboard, mouse and monitor. Whatever comes up on a monitor connected locally is what you will see with a pikvm. It doesn't change any capabilities of the connected system.

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9 hours ago, jonathanm said:

It emulates a physical keyboard, mouse and monitor. Whatever comes up on a monitor connected locally is what you will see with a pikvm. It doesn't change any capabilities of the connected system.

 

Thanks, I was referring to the issue of having only 1 GPU in the system. I remember that it was necessary that no video out was connected to the GPU if I wanted to pass it through to a VM or Docker -- which is why my server is running headless actually. My understanding is that if I plug in the pikvm to that GPU, Unraid will use that GPU for video out and I may not be able to use it for other things. 

 

Is that tracking or am I misunderstanding? I've always ran Unraid headless so I don't know if certain things have changed that would mitigate this. 

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