Tag: LAN

After the previous howto “SUPERMICRO IPMI to use one of the one interfaces or dedicated LAN port” (in the howto is showed how to install the needed tool for managing the IPMI/KVM unit under console) of setting the network configuration there are a couple of interesting and important tips when working with the IPMI/KVM module. Here are they are:

1. Reset IPMI/KVM module – sometimes it happen the keyboard or mouse not to work when the Console Redirection is loaded, it is easy to reset the unit from the web interface, but there are case when the web interface is not working – so ssh to your server and try one of the following commands:
   * warm reset – it’s like a reboot, inform the IPMI/KVM to reboot itself.

   ipmitool -I open bmc reset warm
   

   It does not work in all situations! So try a cold reset
   * cold reset – resets the IPMI/KVM, it’s like unplug and plug the power to the unit.

   ipmitool -I open bmc reset cold
   

2. Reset the configuration of an IPMI/KVM module to factory defaults. It is useful when something goes wrong when upgrading the firmware of the unit and the old configuration is not supported or it says it is, but at the end the unit does not work properly. In rare cases it might help when the KVM (Keyboard, Video, Monitor part aka Console redirection does not work)
   Here is the command for resetting to factory defaults:

   ipmitool -I open raw 0x3c 0x40
   

3. Reset admin password – reset the password for the administrator login of the IPMI/KVM unit. It’s trivial losing the password so with the help of the local console to the server you can reset the password to a simple one and then change it from the web interface.

   ipmitool -I open user set password 2 ADMIN
   

   The number “2” is the ID of the user, check it with:

   [root@srv0 ~]# ipmitool -I open user list
   ID  Name             Callin  Link Auth  IPMI Msg   Channel Priv Limit
   1                    true    false      false      Unknown (0x00)
   2   ADMIN            true    false      false      Unknown (0x00)
   3                    true    false      false      Unknown (0x00)
   4                    true    false      false      Unknown (0x00)
   5                    true    false      false      Unknown (0x00)
   6                    true    false      false      Unknown (0x00)
   7                    true    false      false      Unknown (0x00)
   8                    true    false      false      Unknown (0x00)
   9                    true    false      false      Unknown (0x00)
   10                   true    false      false      Unknown (0x00)
   

   Sometimes if a hacker got to your IPMI/KVM you could see the user table with the above command. There was a serious bug aka backdoor in some of these units, the ID of the ADMIN user or even the username could be changed, so you should use the list command to list the current user table.
   Use set name to set the username of the user.

   ipmitool -I open user set name 2 ADMIN
   

4. Set a new network configuration. It’s worth mentioning again the howto for this purpose – “SUPERMICRO IPMI to use one of the one interfaces or dedicated LAN port”

All commands using the network option of the ipmitool

ipmitool -I lanplus -H 192.168.7.150 -U ADMIN -P ADMIN bmc reset warm
ipmitool -I lanplus -H 192.168.7.150 -U ADMIN -P ADMIN bmc reset cold
ipmitool -I lanplus -H 192.168.7.150 -U ADMIN -P ADMIN raw 0x3c 0x40
ipmitool -I lanplus -H 192.168.7.150 -U ADMIN -P ADMIN user set password 2 ADMIN
ipmitool -I lanplus -H 192.168.7.150 -U ADMIN -P ADMIN user list

The IP 192.168.7.150 is the IP of your IPMI/KVM module, which you want to change with the above commands.