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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 specification.

What is	IPMI?
       The IPMI	specification defines a	set of interfaces for platform manage-
       ment  and is implemented	by a number vendors for	system management. The
       features	of IPMI	that most users	will be	interested in are sensor moni-
       toring,	system	event  monitoring,  power control, and serial-over-LAN
       (SOL). The FreeIPMI tools and libraries	listed	below  should  provide
       users  with the ability to access and utilize these and many other fea-
       tures 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	inter-
       face  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 installed 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  interface  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 provide this information.

       To use IPMI out-of-band with tools such as  ipmipower(8)	 or  ipmi-sen-
       sors(8),	 the  remote machine's BMC must	first be configured for	out of
       band communication. Typically, this involves setting a username,	 pass-
       word,  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 configure the ma-
       chine. 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 configured).

       In order	to remotely connect to a machine, you typically	 must  specify
       the host, username, and password	for the	tool in	order to connect.  De-
       pending on configuration	settings, a K_g	key, privilege level,  authen-
       tication	 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 prop-
       erly. For example, a fair number	of vendors have	 populated  their  FRU
       records	with invalid checksums.	To properly ignore these set of	check-
       sums 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 everytime 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 con-
       figuration 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  input/output	support	 so  that configuration	can be
       copied and verified across nodes	in a cluster.  Most  tools  (like  ip-
       mipower(8)  and ipmi-sensors(8) ) come with hostrange support so	multi-
       ple 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 libipmimoni-
       toring(3) library support the ability to	interpret sensor  readings  as
       well  as	 just reporting	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 ap-
       plications with,	please see libfreeipmi(3), libipmiconsole(3), libipmi-
       monitoring(3),  and libipmidetect(3).  Or see the document freeipmi-li-
       braries.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 management and automatic system restarts in the event of
       a system	crash.

       ipmi-chassis

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

       ipmi-fru

       A tool to read field replaceable	unit (FRU) information from a  mother-
       board/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 config-
       ured  usernames,	 passwords,  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  de-
       vice, such as device addresses.

       ipmi-pet

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

       ipmi-dcmi

       A  tool	to perform Data	Center Manageability Interface (DCMI) IPMI ex-
       tension commands. Supports extensions for asset	management  and	 power
       usage management.

       bmc-device

       A  tool	to  perform  advanced BMC commands, such as resetting the BMC,
       configuring ACPI, configuring SDR/SEL time, manually generating events,
       re-arming sensors, and configuring manufacturer 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 lo-
       cal 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 utilities, and utilities for
       reading/interpreting/managing IPMI. This	library	is for programmers in-
       timately	 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 descriptor.

       libipmimonitoring

       A library for sensor and	system event log  (SEL)	 monitoring  that  ab-
       stracts	away  most  IPMI  details. 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@gnu.org> or <freeipmi-devel@gnu.org>.

COPYRIGHT
       Copyright (C) 2003-2015 FreeIPMI	Core Team.

       FreeIPMI	is free	software; you can redistribute it and/or modify	it un-
       der  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),  libipmimonitor-
       ing(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),	 ipmi-
       console(8), ipmidetect(8), ipmiping(8), ipmipower(8), rmcpping(8)

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

FreeIPMI 1.6.6			  2020-09-03			   FREEIPMI(7)

NAME | Introduction | What is IPMI? | Getting Started with IPMI | General Use | Configuration | HPC Support | Development | Project Tools | Project Libraries | REPORTING BUGS | COPYRIGHT | SEE ALSO

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