[Beowulf] Intel motherboard BMC

Thu Jun 21 03:25:27 PDT 2018

Hi John,

thanks for the reply. I am aware you can install user and admin level, erm, 
users on the BMC. I only install admin-level users as there is only a need for 
an admin to access the BMC GUI. 
However, that does not explain why the IP address is working and the hostname 
is not. 

The only way to get the users installed was using the ipmitool command once 
the node was up and running. I tried in the BIOS but that was not working. I 
got told you will need to enable the 'root' user first before you can install 
users but in the BIOS there was no option for that or we did not find it. 

I guess it is the usual learning initial curve here for me. I actually did 
look into the documentation but I could not find anything we were doing wrong 
at the time. Quite often I found it is a really minor, but important bit one 
is missing out and later you think: why did I miss that.

Thanks for your suggestions!

Jörg

Am Donnerstag, 21. Juni 2018, 12:07:48 BST schrieb John Hearns via Beowulf:
> Jorg, recalling my experience with Intel. I did not come across the problem
> with IP address versus Hostname which you have.
> However I do recall that I had to configure the Admin user and the
> privilege level for that user on the LAN interface. In that case the
> additional BMC modules were being used.
> 
> I might have the commands written up somewhere.
> 
> On 21 June 2018 at 12:02, John Hearns <hearnsj at googlemail.com> wrote:
> > Hello Jorg. As you know I have worked a lot with Supermicro machines.
> > I also installed Intel machines for Greenwich University, so I have
> > experience of setting up IPMI on them.
> > I will take time to try to understand your problem!
> > Also Intel provides excellent documentation for all its products. Really.
> > But you must get the correct part number and search for it.
> > I really recommend finding the BMC manual, as I recall that made things a
> > lot clearer.
> > 
> > One quick question - are you using the on-board ethernet interface for
> > IPMI or are you using the additional hardware module which has its own
> > ethernet port?
> > 
> > > It also has a InfiniBand card which does allow booting from it.
> > 
> > You can PXE boot over a Mellanox Infiniband card. As you probably know
> > this involves installing extra firmware on the card.
> > In my last job we had an IB only cluster, so booting over IB had to work!
> > I guess you do nto need to flash the card, but to be honest running the
> > utility is not scary. You just have to get the exact firmware for your
> > card.> 
> > On 21 June 2018 at 11:20, Tony Brian Albers <tba at kb.dk> wrote:
> >> Does the BMC itself know its own hostname?
> >> 
> >> /tony
> >> 
> >> On 21/06/18 11:13, Jörg Saßmannshausen wrote:
> >> > Dear all,
> >> > 
> >> > I got a bit of a confusing situation with the BMC of some Intel
> >> 
> >> motherboards
> >> 
> >> > which we recently purchased and I am not quite sure what to make out of
> >> 
> >> it.
> >> 
> >> > We have install a generic user via the IPMI commands on the compute
> >> 
> >> nodes and
> >> 
> >> > I can access the BMC remotely, again via the IPMI command like this:
> >> > 
> >> > $ ipmitool -H node105-bmc -U username -P xxx power status
> >> > 
> >> > This is working, Also, this works:
> >> > 
> >> > $ ipmitool -H 10.0.1.105 -U username -P xxx power status
> >> > 
> >> > A nslookup of node105-bmc gives the right IP address as well.
> >> > 
> >> > However, if I want to use the GUI for the BMC, i.e. opening my browser
> >> 
> >> and
> >> 
> >> > put:
> >> > 
> >> > https://node105-bmc
> >> > 
> >> > in the URL, I get the loging page When I enter my login credentials
> >> 
> >> then,
> >> 
> >> > which are the same as above, I have a problem to log in *IF* I am using
> >> 
> >> the
> >> 
> >> > hostname as address but not *IF* I am using the IP address. Just to add
> >> 
> >> to the
> >> 
> >> > confusion more, on one node the hostname was working.
> >> > With problems I mean the browser tells me my login credentials are
> >> 
> >> wrong which
> >> 
> >> > does not happen when I am using the IP address.
> >> > Also, I can only use https and not http and for now I got the generic
> >> 
> >> self
> >> 
> >> > signed certificates. I want to change them at one point but right now
> >> 
> >> that is
> >> 
> >> > more on the bottom of my to-do list.
> >> > 
> >> > I find that really odd and I am not quite sure what is going on here.
> >> 
> >> With all
> >> 
> >> > the Supermicro kit I once had I never had these issues before. I was
> >> 
> >> able to
> >> 
> >> > log in regardless of using the hostname or IP address.
> >> > So clearly Intel does something here Supermicro did not (at the time).
> >> > 
> >> > The boards in question are Intel S2600BPB ones.
> >> > 
> >> > Has anybody seen this before?
> >> > 
> >> > I got a second issue with these boards. I usually do the normal PXE/NFS
> >> 
> >> boot
> >> 
> >> > and the setup is working well for the other, older Supermicro machines.
> >> > However, with the new Intel ones, this is crashing.
> >> > The procedure is you are selecting in the boot-menu you want to do a
> >> 
> >> PXE boot
> >> 
> >> > and not boot from the local hard drive.
> >> > It then boots the initramfs which seems to be fine. From what I can
> >> 
> >> see, both
> >> 
> >> > during the boot process and from the log files of the DHCP-server, it
> >> > is
> >> > getting the right IP address.
> >> > However, when the initramfs hands over to the kernel, it crashes with:
> >> > kernel panic! attempt to kill init
> >> > and you literally have to pull the plug on the machine, i.e. a hard
> >> 
> >> reset.
> >> 
> >> > The only time I have seen that was when I did not specify the NIC and
> >> 
> >> when I
> >> 
> >> > had two NICs, it somehow decided to use the other one. I fixed that
> >> 
> >> problem by
> >> 
> >> > defining the interface in the boot-arguments and also the second NIC is
> >> 
> >> not
> >> 
> >> > connected anyway. It also has a InfiniBand card which does allow
> >> 
> >> booting from
> >> 
> >> > it. Again, it is not connected so in theory it should not matter.
> >> > 
> >> > I am stuck here. I am using a 4.x kernel for the PXE boot, so a fairly
> >> 
> >> recent
> >> 
> >> > one. As I said, it works for the older machines but not for the newer
> >> 
> >> ones.
> >> 
> >> >   I upgraded the whole PXE/NFS boot and that is not working too.
> >> > 
> >> > Does anybody have any ideas here?
> >> > 
> >> > Sorry for asking 2 questions in one email but as they are related I
> >> 
> >> hope that
> >> 
> >> > is ok.
> >> > 
> >> > All the best from a sunny London
> >> > 
> >> > Jörg
> >> > 
> >> > _______________________________________________
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> >> 
> >> 
> >> 
> >> --
> >> Tony Albers
> >> Systems administrator, IT-development
> >> Royal Danish Library, Victor Albecks Vej 1, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark.
> >> Tel: +45 2566 2383 / +45 8946 2316
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