[Beowulf] KVM to a compute node - ssh

[Jim Phillips]

Hi,

An alternative to this is IPMItool http://ipmitool.sourceforge.net/ along
with the OpenIPMI drivers.  Similar functionality, although I'm not sure
if it provides console access.

-Jim


On Thu, 3 Jun 2004, Jerker Nyberg wrote:

> On Thu, 3 Jun 2004, Robert G. Brown wrote:
>
> > The most important of these is WOL/network boot, which I think is likely
> > the way to go for remote manageability.
>
> Do also consider using IPMI for out-of-band management. Here is a small
> HOWTO:
>
>  1. Get a motherboard with IPMI. (For example the Intel SE7501HG2 which I
> use, but I am aware of motherboards from Tyan and servers from Dell with
> IPMI integrated.)
>  2. Configure IP-networking for the BMC (Baseboard Management Controller)
> with the bootable resource CD.
>  3. Download the CLI-RPM from Intel and install it on your Linux
> workstation. (Or use the Windows software.)
>  4. Run "dpcproxy" (from the CLI-RPM) in the background (and configure
> some kind of tool to restart it since it is quite unstable).
>  5. Connect to your server with "dpccli" (from the CLI-RPM). Try these
> commands:
>     * power-on
>     * power-off
>     * reset
>     * sensors
>     * console
>  6. With the console command you can enter BIOS, view Grub and the console
> of the operating system.
>
> No need for extra serial cables! (I know that they aren't needed for
> WOL/network boot either.) Depending on your need for security you might
> want the console traffic on a separate network.
>
> I have found some problems with this, for example I cannot get ENTER-key
> to work inside BIOS, which quite limits the use for entering BIOS. Only
> functions keys from F1 to F10 seem to work and not F11 and F12, and F12 is
> the one used to change boot-device... (It works changing boot-device from
> the Windows-client with help of the service partition, reports a collegue
> of mine.)
>
> I am currently using console=/dev/ttyS0 to redirect the Linux kernel
> console to the virtual serial port over ethernet which works ok, you can
> login as root and all. But it makes the normal KVM-output depressingly
> black. But as far as I know, it should be possible to also use the normal
> VGA for console (it works with Grub) as long as the kernel does not mess
> upp it's video mode.
>
> (Here is somebody with the same problem running FreeBSD
> http://unix.derkeiler.com/Mailing-Lists/FreeBSD/hackers/2003-12/0235.html)
>
> I hope that updated software from Intel or maybe one of the open source
> projects will fix some of these problems - I havn't had the time to look
> into them yet. It currently works good enough for me.
>
> Regards,
> Jerker Nyberg.
> Uppsala, Sweden.
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