[Beowulf] KVM to a compute node - ssh

[Dan Kidger]

On Thursday 03 June 2004 8:03 pm, Brian D. Ropers-Huilman wrote:
> On 2004-06-03 17:15 (+0100), Guy Coates <gmpc at sanger.ac.uk> wrote:
> ] That holy grail does just about exist.  I was plesantly surprised with
> the ] latest intel server offering from HP.  As well as a serial port it
> comes ] with an integrated management processor (ILO), basically just
> another rj45 ] port which you plug into your LAN. You can talk to the ILO
> via telnet or a ] web interface, and do remote power, hard reset etc by
> firing carefully ] crafted bits of XML at it.
>
> Obviously this would be on a private LAN. The security implications of this
> are staggering!

Not really.

We have had these HP nodes with a Baseboard Management Controller ('ILO' in 
HP/Compaq speak) for a long time. I can happily read temperatures, power them 
on/off and even upgrade the firmware of all nodes in the cluster using an XML 
script that I can fire to each node in parallel

The XML includes a username and password for the BMC. (I haven't checked if 
this is sent in plain text or not).
viz:
<RIBCL VERSION="2.0">
  <LOGIN USER_LOGIN="root" PASSWORD="secret">
  <SERVER_INFO MODE="write">
    <SET_HOST_POWER HOST_POWER="No"/>
  </SERVER_INFO>
  </LOGIN>
</RIBCL>

I use this to power off nodes if the aircon fails. 
If it is set up correctly - this will attempt  to shut the O/S down cleanly 
(ACPI?) before pulling the virtual power cord.

The downer on all of this is that the host tool that sends the XML: 
'CPQLOCFG.EXE'  only exists as an MSDOS binary!
Last time asked HP 6 months ago they said that they were going to do a Linux 
version - but since then I have heard and seen nothing. :-(


Yours,
Daniel.

--------------------------------------------------------------
Dr. Dan Kidger, Quadrics Ltd.      daniel.kidger at quadrics.com
One Bridewell St., Bristol, BS1 2AA, UK         0117 915 5505
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