Server Management Guide

Introduction
4 Intel
®
Server Boards and Server Platforms Server Management Guide
the OS.
Before IPMI messaging can work on a LAN connection, administrators must enable\configure the
system for IPMI over LAN mode. By default, the IPMI over LAN mode is disabled to prevent
unauthorized access. However, even if IPMI over LAN is disabled, other related attributes can still be
configured through Server Administrator and will take effect whenever IPMI over LAN is finally
enabled.
From the IPMI point-of-view, the interface to the network controller is dedicated to the BMC. That is,
there are no special commands for coordinating the sharing of the network controller between system
software access and BMC access, as there are with Serial Port Sharing.
BMC provides the following features through IPMI over LAN:
o Remote power on\off\reset
o Access to SEL
o Access to FRU (asset information)
o Access to system sensor data
Serial over LAN (SOL)
Another key IPMI feature of OOB is the text-based console redirection through Serial over LAN
(SOL). Serial over LAN (SOL) is the name for the redirection of baseboard serial controller traffic over
an IPMI session. The SOL feature provides remote connection to the system serial console.
SOL can be used to provide a user at a remote console a means to interact with serial text-based
interfaces such as operating system command-line interfaces, serial redirected BIOS interfaces, and
serial text-based applications over an IPMI LAN session. A single remote console application can use
SOL to simultaneously provide LAN access to IPMI platform management and serial text redirection
under a unified user interface. For example, access to Red Hat
*
Enterprise Linux serial console
interfaces by using serial over LAN.
Access privileges for SOL are managed under the same user configuration interfaces that are used for
IPMI management. This simplifies the creation of configuration software, remote management
applications, and cross-platform configuration utilities.
Before SOL can work on a LAN connection, administrators must enable the system for SOL. By
default, SOL is disabled to prevent unauthorized access.
Alerting
BMC supports two types of alerts: SNMP traps also called LAN alerts, and Email Alerts. Both alerts
can be configured using the Intel
®
Deployment Assistant or System configuration utility.
SNMP Traps (LAN alerts)
BMC supports LAN Alerting in the form of Small Network Management Protocol (SNMP) Traps that
follows the Platform Event Trap (PET) format. SNMP Traps are typically sent as unreliable datagrams.
However, IPMI includes PET Acknowledge and retry options that allow an IPMI-aware remote
application to provide a positive acknowledge that the trap was received.
Alert-over-LAN notifies remote system management application about Platform Event filter (PEF)
selected events, regardless of the state of the server’s operating system. LAN alerts can be sent over
any of the LAN channels supported by a system.