[Beowulf] Intel motherboard BMC

[John Hearns]

Jorg, the notes I have for setting up Intel BMCs are not of any use to you,
sorry. See below.

Regarding the PXE booting, t is easy to use the syscfg utility to print out
and to set the boot order.
But I do not think this is your problem.
https://www.intel.com/content/dam/support/us/en/documents/server-products/server-boards/Intel_Syscfg_UserGuide_V1.02.pdf

The IPMI interfaces have three LAN Channels – 1, 2, 3

LAN Channel 3 is the one used by the AXXRMM4LITE add-on management module

http://ark.intel.com/products/55168/Remote-Management-Module-AXXRMM4LITE

To configure LAN channel 3:

*module load ipmitool *

*ipmitool lan print 1* (to show the configuration of Channel 1)

*ipmitool lan set 3 ipaddr 172.16.202.XXX * (to set the IP address the same
as Channel 1)

*ipmitool lan set 3 netmask 255.255.255.0*

*ipmitool lan print 1* (to show the configuration of Channel 1)


The Bright Cluster manager uses user number 4 to access the IPMI interface.
This user is named ‘bright’. You should set the level of access for user 4
on LAN Channel 3:

*module load ipmitool ; ipmitool user priv 4 0x4 3*

*module load ipmitool ; ipmitool channel setaccess 3 4 callin=on ipmi=on
link=on privilege=4*

*ipmitool channel getaccess 3 4*

On 21 June 2018 at 12:25, Jörg Saßmannshausen <sassy-work at sassy.formativ.net
> wrote:

> 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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> Computing
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