User's Manual

Introduction 5
1
Introduction
The Dell™ PowerEdge™ systems baseboard management controller (BMC) monitors the system
for critical events by communicating with various sensors on the system board and sends alerts and
log events when certain parameters exceed their preset thresholds. The BMC supports the
industry-standard Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) specification, enabling you
to configure, monitor, and recover systems remotely. The BMC provides the following features:
• Allows access through the system’s serial port and integrated NIC
• Fault logging and SNMP alerting
• Access to system event log (SEL) and sensor status
• Control of system functions including power on and off
• Support that is independent of the system’s power or operating state
• Text console redirection for system setup, text-based utilities, and operating system consoles
• Access to the Microsoft EMS/SAC and Red Hat Linux serial console interfaces by using serial
over LAN (SOL).
Dell provides several distinct utilities and programs for accessing the BMC to perform
management activities. The following BMC interfaces allow users to configure and manage your
system through the BMC.
• The BMC Management Utility allows remote, out-of-band LAN and/or serial port power
control, event log access, and console redirection.
• The System Maintenance Utility (SMU) is an EFI-based configuration tool that provides the
ability to configure the BMC.
• Dell OpenManage Server Administrator allows remote, in-band access to event logs, power
control, and sensor status information and provides the ability to configure the BMC.
• In addition, the BMC can be accessed by standard, off-the-shelf terminal or terminal
emulator utilities that allow access to sensor status information, and power control.