This is freeipmi-faq.info, produced by makeinfo version 6.5 from
freeipmi-faq.texi.

This manual is for FreeIPMI (version 1.6.18, 27 January 2024).
Copyright (C) 2006-2012 FreeIPMI Core Team

     Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this
     document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License,
     Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software
     Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and
     no Back-Cover Texts.
INFO-DIR-SECTION Platform Management
START-INFO-DIR-ENTRY
* FreeIPMI FAQ: (freeipmi-faq).  FreeIPMI - Frequently Asked Questions
END-INFO-DIR-ENTRY

   Copyright (C) 2003-2012 FreeIPMI Core Team.


File: freeipmi-faq.info,  Node: Top,  Next: What is IPMI?,  Prev: (dir),  Up: (dir)

Frequently Asked Questions on *FreeIPMI*

   This edition of the documentation was last updated on June 2, 2026
for release 1.6.18 of the FreeIPMI.

* Menu:

* What is IPMI?::
* What is FreeIPMI?::
* How did FreeIPMI start?::
* What operating systems does FreeIPMI run on?::
* FreeIPMI vs OpenIPMI vs Ipmitool vs Ipmiutil::
* What is special about FreeIPMI?::
* Does my system support IPMI?::
* How do I compile FreeIPMI?::
* libgcrypt requirement::
* x86-64 Compilation::
* Installing FreeIPMI on FreeBSD::
* What are some IPMI terminology or acronyms I should be aware of?::
* What setup is needed for FreeIPMI to communicate over LAN?::
* What setup is needed for Serial over LAN (SOL) or Ipmiconsole?::
* Do I need to install or configure a driver to perform IPMI inband?::
* SSIF Driver Configuration::
* How do you setup Powerman with ipmipower?::
* How do you setup Conman with ipmiconsole or libipmiconsole?::
* How do you setup Conserver with libipmiconsole?::
* How do you setup Ganglia or Nagios to monitor IPMI sensors via FreeIPMI?::
* Why are times reported by FreeIPMI tools wrong?::
* Why is the IPMI kernel driver faster than the KCS driver?::
* Why is the output from FreeIPMI different than another software?::
* Why are there so many IPMI compliance bugs?::
* How do I get around an IPMI compliance bug on my motherboard?::
* Why am I seeing so many 'internal IPMI error' or 'driver busy' messages?::
* How do I program with the FreeIPMI libraries?::
* Where can I get additional help or support?::


File: freeipmi-faq.info,  Node: What is IPMI?,  Next: What is FreeIPMI?,  Prev: Top,  Up: Top

1 What is IPMI?
===============

The IPMI specifications define standardized, abstracted interfaces to
the platform management subsystem.  IPMI includes the definition of
interfaces for extending platform management between the board within
the main chassis and between multiple chassis.

   The term platform management is used to refer to the monitoring and
control functions that are built in to the platform hardware and
primarily used for the purpose of monitoring the health of the system
hardware.  This typically includes monitoring elements such as system
temperatures, voltages, fans, power supplies, bus errors, system
physical security, etc.  It includes automatic and manually driven
recovery capabilities such as local or remote system resets and power
on/off operations.  It includes the logging of abnormal or out-of-range
conditions for later examination and alerting where the platform issues
the alert without aid of run-time software.  Lastly it includes
inventory information that can help identify a failed hardware unit.


File: freeipmi-faq.info,  Node: What is FreeIPMI?,  Next: How did FreeIPMI start?,  Prev: What is IPMI?,  Up: Top

2 What is FreeIPMI?
===================

FreeIPMI is a collection of Intelligent Platform Management IPMI system
software.  It provides in-band and out-of-band software and a
development library conforming to the Intelligent Platform Management
Interface (IPMI v1.5 and v2.0) standards.  FreeIPMI also supports
IPMI-related specifications such as the Data Center Management Interface
(DCMI) and Intel Node Manager.


File: freeipmi-faq.info,  Node: How did FreeIPMI start?,  Next: What operating systems does FreeIPMI run on?,  Prev: What is FreeIPMI?,  Up: Top

3 How did FreeIPMI start?
=========================

In October 2003, California Digital Corp.  (CDC) was contracted by
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) for the assembly of
Thunder, a 1024 node Itanium2 cluster.  This led to software developers
from CDC and LLNL merging the IPMI software developed by both
organizations into FreeIPMI.

   Anand Babu, Balamurugan and Ian Zimmerman at CDC contributed the
in-band KCS driver, 'ipmi-sensors', 'ipmi-sel', 'bmc-info', core
portions of 'ipmi-config', and portions of libfreeipmi.  Albert Chu and
Jim Garlick at LLNL contributed 'ipmipower', 'bmc-watchdog', 'ipmiping',
'rmcpping', portions of libfreeipmi, and IPMI support in Powerman.  In
October 2004, FreeIPMI 0.1.0 was officially released.

   Since the 0.1.0 release, Z Research developers have contributed
'ipmi-chassis', 'ipmi-raw', 'ipmi-locate', and PEF portions of
'ipmi-config'.  LLNL has contributed IPMI 2.0 support, hostrange
support, 'ipmiconsole', libipmiconsole, 'ipmidetect', 'bmc-device',
'ipmi-oem', 'ipmi-dcmi', libipmimonitoring, and the chassis and sensor
portions of 'ipmi-config'.

   (Note: The original FreeIPMI developers from California Digital Corp.
are now at Zresearch Inc.)


File: freeipmi-faq.info,  Node: What operating systems does FreeIPMI run on?,  Next: FreeIPMI vs OpenIPMI vs Ipmitool vs Ipmiutil,  Prev: How did FreeIPMI start?,  Up: Top

4 What operating systems does FreeIPMI run on?
==============================================

FreeIPMI was originally developed on GNU/Linux.  It has been confirmed
to be built on most major GNU/Linux distributions such as Redhat,
Fedora, Suse, and Debian.  FreeIPMI has been ported and confirmed to
work on atleast FreeBSD, OpenBSD, Solaris, OpenSolaris, and Windows via
Cygwin.  We imagine it would build cleanly on other operating systems.
If it doesn't, it should be easily portable to them.  Please contact the
maintainers on the <freeipmi-devel@gnu.org> mailing lists.


File: freeipmi-faq.info,  Node: FreeIPMI vs OpenIPMI vs Ipmitool vs Ipmiutil,  Next: What is special about FreeIPMI?,  Prev: What operating systems does FreeIPMI run on?,  Up: Top

5 FreeIPMI vs OpenIPMI vs Ipmitool vs Ipmiutil
==============================================

There are multiple implementations, APIs, interfaces, end user
requirements, etc.  that one can choose when developing IPMI drivers,
libraries, and tools.  FreeIPMI has taken some different approaches than
other open-source projects.

   The section below points out a number of the reasons why we feel
FreeIPMI is particularly special compared to the other projects.

   The Ipmiutil project has a good chart describing many of the
differences between the projects:
<http://ipmiutil.sourceforge.net/docs/ipmisw-compare.htm>.


File: freeipmi-faq.info,  Node: What is special about FreeIPMI?,  Next: Does my system support IPMI?,  Prev: FreeIPMI vs OpenIPMI vs Ipmitool vs Ipmiutil,  Up: Top

6 What is special about FreeIPMI?
=================================

In our eyes, there are several reasons why FreeIPMI is particularly
special.

  1. Support for HPC, clusters, and large data centers

     A number of features have been added into the tools to support HPC,
     clusters, and/or large data centers.  Much of this original support
     was added to support the large cluster environments at Lawrence
     Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL).

     Scalable parallel execution of many FreeIPMI tools ('ipmi-sensors',
     'ipmi-sel', 'bmc-info', etc.)  across a cluster is supported
     through hostranged input and output.  For example:

          # > bmc-info -h "pwopr[0-5]" -u XXX -p XXX --get-device-id -C
          ----------------
          pwopr[0-1,5]
          ----------------
          Device ID             : 34
          Device Revision       : 1
          Device SDRs           : unsupported
          Firmware Revision     : 1.0c
          Device Available      : yes (normal operation)
          IPMI Version          : 2.0
          Sensor Device         : supported
          SDR Repository Device : supported
          SEL Device            : supported
          FRU Inventory Device  : supported
          IPMB Event Receiver   : unsupported
          IPMB Event Generator  : unsupported
          Bridge                : unsupported
          Chassis Device        : supported
          Manufacturer ID       : Peppercon AG (10437)
          Product ID            : 4
          Auxiliary Firmware Revision Information : 38420000h
          ----------------
          pwopr[2-4]
          ----------------
          Device ID             : 34
          Device Revision       : 1
          Device SDRs           : unsupported
          Firmware Revision     : 1.17
          Device Available      : yes (normal operation)
          IPMI Version          : 2.0
          Sensor Device         : supported
          SDR Repository Device : supported
          SEL Device            : supported
          FRU Inventory Device  : supported
          IPMB Event Receiver   : unsupported
          IPMB Event Generator  : unsupported
          Bridge                : unsupported
          Chassis Device        : supported
          Manufacturer ID       : Peppercon AG (10437)
          Product ID            : 4
          Auxiliary Firmware Revision Information : 38420000h

     In the above example, its clear to see that pwopr[2-4] have
     different firmware than pwopr[0-1,5].  More information about
     hostrange support can be found in the document
     'freeipmi-hostrange.txt'
     (<http://www.gnu.org/software/freeipmi/freeipmi-hostrange.txt>).

     'Ipmipower' is capable of scaling to large nodes for cluster
     support and is supported by Powerman
     (<https://github.com/chaos/powerman>) for scalable power
     management.  At LLNL, in conjunction with Powerman, ipmipower is
     used for power control on clusters ranging from sizes of 4 to 2000.
     It has been used to determine power status or power control LLNL's
     largest clusters in under a second.

     'libipmiconsole' is currently supported by Conman
     (<https://github.com/dun/conman>) and Conserver
     (<http://www.conserver.com/>) for scalable console management.

     'Ipmi-sensors' and libipmimonitoring are capable of interpreting
     sensor readings as well as just reporting them.  It can be used for
     host monitoring IPMI sensor severity on a cluster.  By mapping
     sensor readings into NOMINAL, WARNING, or CRITICAL states, it makes
     monitoring sensors easier across large numbers of nodes.  Skummee
     (<http://sourceforge.net/projects/skummee>) currently uses
     libipmimonitoring to monitoring sensors on LLNL clusters of up to
     2000 nodes in size.  FreeIPMI sensor monitoring plugins for Ganglia
     (<http://ganglia.info/>) and Nagios (<http://www.nagios.org/>) have
     also been developed and made available for download
     (<http://www.gnu.org/software/freeipmi/download.html>).

     'Ipmi-sel' and libipmimonitoring are capable of interpreting system
     event log (SEL) entries as well as just reporting them.  It can be
     used for host monitoring IPMI event severity on a cluster.  By
     mapping events into NOMINAL, WARNING, or CRITICAL states, it makes
     monitoring system events easier across large numbers of nodes.
     Skummee (<http://sourceforge.net/projects/skummee>) currently uses
     libipmimonitoring to monitoring the SEL on LLNL clusters of up to
     2000 nodes in size.

     The 'ipmi-config' configuration file and command-line interface are
     used to easily copy the BMC configuration from one node to every
     other node in a cluster quickly.  It has been used to modify the
     BMC configuration across large LLNL clusters in a few minutes.
     They also have the capability to verify (via the diff option) that
     the desired configuration has been properly stored to firmware.

     'Ipmidetect' can be used to enhance the efficiency of the
     hostranged input by eliminating those nodes in the cluster that
     have been temporarily removed for servicing.

     FreeIPMI is supported within Slurm for energy consumption
     monitoring.

  2. Additional OEM support

     FreeIPMI contains support for a number of OEM extensions and OEM
     sensors and/or events.  'Ipmi-oem' currently supports OEM command
     extensions for motherboards made by Dell, Fujitsu, IBM, Intel,
     Inventec, Quanta, Sun Microsystems, Supermicro, and Wistron.
     'Ipmi-sensors' and 'ipmi-sel' support OEM sensors and/or events for
     motherboards made from Dell, Fujitsu, HP, Intel, Inventec, Quanta,
     Sun Microsystems, Supermicro, and Wistron.  (Some of the
     motherboards may have been rebranded by vendors, see manpages for
     official list of confirmed supported motherboards.)

  3. Additional flexibility and features

     By implementing various IPMI sub-sections into multiple tools, each
     tool is capable of providing the user with more flexibility and
     ultimately more features in addition to those listed above.  It may
     not be as easy (or architecturally possible) to do in an all-in-one
     tool.

  4. Extra IPMI support

     In addition to the features listed above, FreeIPMI also supports
     specifications related to IPMI.  The Data Center Management
     Interface, or DCMI, is supported via the FreeIPMI tool 'ipmi-dcmi'.
     Some aspects of the Intel Power Node Manager are supported in
     'ipmi-oem'.

  5. Easy setup

     By implementing drivers in userspace libraries, there is no need to
     build/setup/manage any kernel modules/drivers.

  6. Portability

     Likewise, by implementing everything in userspace libraries and
     tools, portability to multiple operating systems and architectures
     should be easier.


File: freeipmi-faq.info,  Node: Does my system support IPMI?,  Next: How do I compile FreeIPMI?,  Prev: What is special about FreeIPMI?,  Up: Top

7 Does my system support IPMI?
==============================

Unfortunately, there are no universally defined mechanisms for
determining if a system supports IPMI via Inband communication.
Assuming IPMI is set up correctly for over LAN communication, a fairly
reliable mechanism exists out-of-band.  Here are some suggestions.

  1. FreeIPMI's 'ipmi-locate' can be used to determine if IPMI can be
     found on your system.  Users are cautioned though, the failure to
     discover IPMI via 'ipmi-locate' is not sufficient to disprove that
     IPMI exists on your system.  Your system may not publish such
     information or may expect clients to communicate at default
     locations.

  2. 'dmidecode' may be similarly used to probe for devices that support
     IPMI on your system.  You may grep for IPMI or specify the IPMI DMI
     type on the command line.

          # > dmidecode --type 38
          # dmidecode 2.10
          SMBIOS 2.5 present.

          Handle 0x0049, DMI type 38, 18 bytes
          IPMI Device Information
                  Interface Type: KCS (Keyboard Control Style)
                  Specification Version: 2.0
                  I2C Slave Address: 0x10
                  NV Storage Device: Not Present
                  Base Address: 0x0000000000000CA2 (I/O)
                  Register Spacing: Successive Byte Boundaries

  3. FreeIPMI's 'ipmi-ping' can be used to see if a machine has an IPMI
     service at a specific host/IP address.  For more wide scale IPMI
     discovery, the 'ipmi-detectd' daemon and 'ipmi-detect' tool can be
     used.

   Again, the failure to find an IPMI supported device is not sufficient
to show lack of IPMI support.

   Ultimately, some amount of information from product documents or
trial and error may be necessary to determine if IPMI is supported on
your system.


File: freeipmi-faq.info,  Node: How do I compile FreeIPMI?,  Next: libgcrypt requirement,  Prev: Does my system support IPMI?,  Up: Top

8 How do I compile FreeIPMI?
============================

Please see the README.build instructions provided with FreeIPMI or on
the FreeIPMI website's documentation
(<http://www.gnu.org/software/freeipmi/README.build>).


File: freeipmi-faq.info,  Node: libgcrypt requirement,  Next: x86-64 Compilation,  Prev: How do I compile FreeIPMI?,  Up: Top

9 libgcrypt requirement
=======================

FreeIPMI requires the libgcrypt library to be installed for a variety of
encryption requirements in IPMI 2.0.  If you are building FreeIPMI and
receive a 'libgcrypt required to build libfreeipmi' error, please
install libgcrypt.  For Linux users, this may require the install of the
libgcrypt-devel package as well.  For those who do not need IPMI 2.0
encryption, FreeIPMI may be built without it by specifying
'--without-encryption' when executing configure.


File: freeipmi-faq.info,  Node: x86-64 Compilation,  Next: Installing FreeIPMI on FreeBSD,  Prev: libgcrypt requirement,  Up: Top

10 x86-64 Compilation
=====================

By default, FreeIPMI's build autotools (e.g.  configure) should detect
if you are on a 64 bit system and should build against 64 bit libraries.
However, some multi-architecture installs (e.g.  you have 32 bit and 64
bit libraries installed) may lead to builds and installs of 32 bit
instead of 64 bit.  For those noticing this, pass libdir appropriately
to the configure script to workaround this problem.  (e.g.
'--libdir=/usr/lib64')

   Example:
       # ./configure  --prefix=/usr --libdir=/usr/lib64


File: freeipmi-faq.info,  Node: Installing FreeIPMI on FreeBSD,  Next: What are some IPMI terminology or acronyms I should be aware of?,  Prev: x86-64 Compilation,  Up: Top

11 Installing FreeIPMI on FreeBSD
=================================

You can install a binary package of freeipmi or use the port, located in
ports/sysutils/freeipmi, to build it from the source.  See ports(7) and
'Packages and Ports' section
(<http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/ports.html>)
in The FreeBSD Handbook.

   Please contact port maintainer (MAINTAINER line in the port's
Makefile), if you have problems building from the port.


File: freeipmi-faq.info,  Node: What are some IPMI terminology or acronyms I should be aware of?,  Next: What setup is needed for FreeIPMI to communicate over LAN?,  Prev: Installing FreeIPMI on FreeBSD,  Up: Top

12 What are some IPMI terminology or acronyms I should be aware of?
===================================================================

Good question, here are some terms and acronyms with general definition
you might want to know.

*BMC*

     The *Baseboard Management Controller* is the management chip on the
     system that is responsible for IPMI.  It is common to refer to
     configuring the "BMC" as synonymous for configuring IPMI.

*inband*

     *inband* IPMI communication refers to communication on a system
     locally (i.e.  not over a network).

*outofband*

     *outofband* and *IPMI over LAN* refer to IPMI communication over a
     network, typically ethernet.

*SDR*

     The *Sensor Data Repository* is a database of system information
     that is needed by many other IPMI functions.  It is commonly read
     before some IPMI action can be taken.  For example, it contains a
     list of all sensors on a system, so it must be downloaded before
     sensors on a system can be read.  In FreeIPMI, the SDR is cached in
     a common location and can be used by a number of tools, such as
     'ipmi-sensors', 'ipmi-sel', and 'ipmi-fru'.

*SEL*

     The *System Event Log* is a log of events stored on the system for
     later diagnostics.  In FreeIPMI, 'ipmi-sel' can be used to read the
     SEL.

*FRU*

     The *Field Replaceable Unit* is a general computing term referring
     to a replaceable unit of electronics.  In IPMI it is common to
     refer to the "FRU" as the database of all FRU components on a
     system.  In FreeIPMI, 'ipmi-fru' can be used to read the FRU
     components on a system.

*PEF*

     *Platform Event Filtering* refers to the rules that determine when
     PETs are generated and where they are sent.  In FreeIPMI, PEF can
     be configured via 'ipmi-config'.

*PET*

     *Platform Event Trap* refers to a trap that can be sent by a system
     to an SNMP agent to indicate an event has occurred on the system.
     In FreeIPMI, a PET trap can be interpreted via 'ipmi-pet'.

*DCMI*

     The *Data Center Management Interface* is a management interface
     defined by a group of vendors that use IPMI as the backend for
     their system management definition.  In FreeIPMI, 'ipmi-dcmi' can
     be used to read/configuring DCMI.

*SOL*

     *Serial over LAN* refers to the forwarding of serial system traffic
     over a network, typically an ethernet network.  It is typically
     used to access a remote system console.  In FreeIPMI, ipmiconsole
     is used to access a remote console via SOL.

*RMCP*

     The *Remote Management Control Protocol* protocol is another remote
     management protocol which IPMI is defined within for outofband
     communication.  For most IPMI users, you will never need to know
     about RMCP.


File: freeipmi-faq.info,  Node: What setup is needed for FreeIPMI to communicate over LAN?,  Next: What setup is needed for Serial over LAN (SOL) or Ipmiconsole?,  Prev: What are some IPMI terminology or acronyms I should be aware of?,  Up: Top

13 What setup is needed for FreeIPMI to communicate over LAN?
=============================================================

Please see the ipmi-config.conf(5) manpage provided with FreeIPMI for
details, or you can read it on the FreeIPMI website's documentation
(<http://www.gnu.org/software/freeipmi/manpages/man5/ipmi-config.conf.5.html>).


File: freeipmi-faq.info,  Node: What setup is needed for Serial over LAN (SOL) or Ipmiconsole?,  Next: Do I need to install or configure a driver to perform IPMI inband?,  Prev: What setup is needed for FreeIPMI to communicate over LAN?,  Up: Top

14 What setup is needed for Serial over LAN (SOL) or Ipmiconsole?
=================================================================

The setup of Serial-over-LAN (SOL) and/or 'Ipmiconsole' is highly
dependent on your system.  However, most motherboardss require the
following:

  1. Adjust the BIOS COM port for serial redirection over SOL instead of
     the normal serial port and set the appropriate baud rate.  If you
     do not know which port is the SOL port, you may need to play around
     and guess.  It is likely a non-default setting, since many
     manufacturers may still assume the default redirection is out of
     the normal serial port.  If you do not have a serial port on your
     motherboard, this part can probably be skipped.

  2. Configure IPMI on the motherboard to use SOL.  Many motherboards
     may have this enabled by default, however you may wish to verify
     with FreeIPMI's 'ipmi-config'.  More information can be found in
     the ipmi-config.conf(5) manpage on the settings.  However, the key
     settings are to enable SOL on the system, enable SOL for individual
     users, and select the appropriate baud.  On many motherboards, the
     selected baud must match what is configured in the BIOS.

  3. Adjust your operating systems serial console settings to use the
     appropriate COM port.  For Linux, the following guide
     (<http://www.vanemery.com/Linux/Serial/serial-console.html>)
     provides a pretty good overview of setting of a serial console on
     Linux.  The only difference for setting up a serial console with
     'Ipmiconsole' or SOL, is the ttySX terminal may need to be changed.


File: freeipmi-faq.info,  Node: Do I need to install or configure a driver to perform IPMI inband?,  Next: SSIF Driver Configuration,  Prev: What setup is needed for Serial over LAN (SOL) or Ipmiconsole?,  Up: Top

15 Do I need to install or configure a driver to perform IPMI inband?
=====================================================================

For most people the answer is no.

   FreeIPMI includes a userspace driver that works on most motherboards
without any driver installation, loading, or configuration required.
FreeIPMI also includes support of a Linux SSIF driver through the SSIF
device (i.e.  '/dev/i2c-0'), the OpenIPMI Linux kernel driver (i.e.
'/dev/ipmi0'), the Sun/Solaris BMC driver (i.e.  '/dev/bmc'), and the
Intel DCMI/MEI driver (i.e.  '/dev/dcmi').  If you communicate through
one of these mechanisms, the appropriate drivers for them should be
loaded.  Most systems should automatically load the appropriate drivers
you need.

   Under most scenarios, the FreeIPMI tools should automatically
discover which in-band interface to use and the proper settings to use.
Some motherboards may require you to determine alternate configurations
for addresses, paths, etc.  on your own and pass them as command line
options to the tools.

   Every system is different and your situation may differ.  Please see
your manufacturer and operating system instructions.

   Special note: At the time of this writing the Intel DCMI/MEI Linux
device drivers are not distributed widely.  Please work with your vendor
to obtain the Intel MEI and DCMI device drivers.

   There are some additional Linux OpenIPMI kernel driver notes here:
<http://www.gnu.org/software/freeipmi/README.openipmi>.


File: freeipmi-faq.info,  Node: SSIF Driver Configuration,  Next: How do you setup Powerman with ipmipower?,  Prev: Do I need to install or configure a driver to perform IPMI inband?,  Up: Top

16 SSIF Driver Configuration
============================

FreeIPMI's SSIF driver works on top of kernel'2 i2c device interface.

   Under GNU/Linux load these kernel modules: i2c-dev, i2c-i801,
i2c-core before using FreeIPMI.

   To identify SSIF device address:

   Example:
     $> lspci  (in the output look for this entry)
      00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corp. 6300ESB SMBus Controller (rev 01)
            Subsystem: Intel Corp.: Unknown device 342f
            Flags: medium devsel,  IRQ 17
            I/O ports at 0400 [size=32]
                         ----
     $> cat /proc/bus/i2c
     i2c-0   smbus    SMBus I801 adapter at 0400         Non-I2C SMBus adapter
                                            ----
         Make sure the "0400" above matches with the "0400" address under
         proc.  Also make sure "i2c-0" is not different. If it appears
         different then grep for "i2c-0" in this code "ipmitool.c" and
         change. "i2c-X" is the label assigned to each slave device attached on
         the i2c bus.

     BMC address Locator:
         Refer to the SM BIOS IPMI Device Information Record
         Type 38,  record 06h and 08h. Use the value of record
         06h as the IPMBAddress and load the SMBus controller
         driver at the address value read from record 08h.

         Usual values for record 06h -> 0x42
         Usual values for record 08h -> 0x400


File: freeipmi-faq.info,  Node: How do you setup Powerman with ipmipower?,  Next: How do you setup Conman with ipmiconsole or libipmiconsole?,  Prev: SSIF Driver Configuration,  Up: Top

17 How do you setup Powerman with ipmipower?
============================================

There are additional details in the Powerman
(<https://github.com/chaos/powerman>) documentation, however here are
the basics.  In the powerman.conf file, you want to include the
'ipmipower.dev' device file, setup an ipmipower device in co-process
mode, then configure hosts to use that device.

     include "/etc/powerman/ipmipower.dev"

     device "ipmi0" "ipmipower" "/usr/sbin/ipmipower -h mynodes[0-10] |&"

     node "mynodes[0-10]"  "ipmi0" "mynodes[0-10]"

   You may wish to add some additional ipmipower configuration on the
device line:

     device "ipmi0" "ipmipower" "/usr/sbin/ipmipower --wait-until-on --wait-until-off -h mynodes[0-10] -u username -p password |&"

   although you will probably want to do some of this configuration
(especially the username and password) in 'freeipmi.conf'.

   If you use an alternate set of hostnames for IPMI from the primary
hostname, that can configured like this:

     device "ipmi0" "ipmipower" "/usr/sbin/ipmipower -h altname[0-10] |&"

     node "primaryname[0-10]"  "ipmi0" "altname[0-10]"

   Configuration can be trickier if you want to configure Powerman to
use ipmipower with an OEM extension specified through
'--oem-power-type'.  Many OEM extensions in ipmipower must include
additional arguments, which can be passed in via the node argument.  In
addition, while 'ipmipower' can take a host range as an additional
argument, Powerman may not.

   For example, the following would be suitable to configure OEM
extension support the Dell Poweredge C410x.  A specific node identifier
is used to map to a specific node and additional argument (i.e.
mynodes0-1 maps to mynodes0+1).

     include "/etc/powerman/ipmipower.dev"

     device "ipmi0" "ipmipower" "/usr/sbin/ipmipower -h mynodes[0-10]+[1-16] --oem-power-type=c410x -l admin |&"

     node "mynodes[0-10]-1" "ipmi0" "mynodes[0-10]+1"
     node "mynodes[0-10]-2" "ipmi0" "mynodes[0-10]+2"
     node "mynodes[0-10]-3" "ipmi0" "mynodes[0-10]+3"
     node "mynodes[0-10]-4" "ipmi0" "mynodes[0-10]+4"
     node "mynodes[0-10]-5" "ipmi0" "mynodes[0-10]+5"
     node "mynodes[0-10]-6" "ipmi0" "mynodes[0-10]+6"
     node "mynodes[0-10]-7" "ipmi0" "mynodes[0-10]+7"
     node "mynodes[0-10]-8" "ipmi0" "mynodes[0-10]+8"
     node "mynodes[0-10]-9" "ipmi0" "mynodes[0-10]+9"
     node "mynodes[0-10]-10" "ipmi0" "mynodes[0-10]+10"
     node "mynodes[0-10]-11" "ipmi0" "mynodes[0-10]+11"
     node "mynodes[0-10]-12" "ipmi0" "mynodes[0-10]+12"
     node "mynodes[0-10]-13" "ipmi0" "mynodes[0-10]+13"
     node "mynodes[0-10]-14" "ipmi0" "mynodes[0-10]+14"
     node "mynodes[0-10]-15" "ipmi0" "mynodes[0-10]+15"
     node "mynodes[0-10]-16" "ipmi0" "mynodes[0-10]+16"

   As noted in the manpage, the Dell Poweredge C410x appears to have
difficulty handling new slot power control requests until prior ones
have completed.  Users may wish to configure 'ipmipower' with
'--wait-until-on', '--wait-until-off', and consider using the
'ipmipower-serial.dev' device file instead of 'ipmipower.dev'.


File: freeipmi-faq.info,  Node: How do you setup Conman with ipmiconsole or libipmiconsole?,  Next: How do you setup Conserver with libipmiconsole?,  Prev: How do you setup Powerman with ipmipower?,  Up: Top

18 How do you setup Conman with ipmiconsole or libipmiconsole?
==============================================================

There are additional details in the Conman
(<https://github.com/dun/conman>) documentation and manpages, however
here are some basics.

   To configure Conman to connect via the ipmiconsole tool, Conman comes
with an expect script named ipmiconsole.exp, typically installed into
'/usr/lib/conman/exec/ipmiconsole.exp'.  Consoles can be setup by adding
lines to 'conman.conf' like:

     CONSOLE name="myserver"   dev="/usr/lib/conman/exec/ipmiconsole.exp myserver myusername mypassword"

   One of the useful aspects of using the ipmiconsole.exp script is that
the same configuration options you may have already configured into
'freeipmi.conf', may be loaded automatically when ipmiconsole is
executed via this expect script.

   However, as can be expected, scalability may be a problem as you must
launch a process for every node in your cluster.

   Conman is also capable of connecting to servers natively through the
libipmiconsole library, so that no additional processes are launched.
They can be configured as follows:

     CONSOLE name="myserver" IPMIOPTS="U:myusername,P:mypassword" dev="ipmi:myserver"

   on some older versions of Conman, you would instead use

     CONSOLE name="myserver" IPMIOPTS="myusername,mypassword" dev="ipmi:myserver"

   Please see the Conman documentation for current version options and
additional configuration options available.  Alternate defaults for
libipmiconsole can also be set via the 'libipmiconsole.conf' file.

   One of the additional advantages of configuring Conman to use the
libipmiconsole library natively is that Conman is able to detect and
manage additional IPMI error cases.


File: freeipmi-faq.info,  Node: How do you setup Conserver with libipmiconsole?,  Next: How do you setup Ganglia or Nagios to monitor IPMI sensors via FreeIPMI?,  Prev: How do you setup Conman with ipmiconsole or libipmiconsole?,  Up: Top

19 How do you setup Conserver with libipmiconsole?
==================================================

You can find more details in the conserver.cf
(<https://www.conserver.com/docs/conserver.cf.man.html>) manpage.

   Here is an example configuration entry from the conserver.cf file
that should illustrate the basics:

     break 3 { string '"\d\z"'; delay 250; }

     default ipmisol {
       break 3;
       motd "Generic IPMI SOL. Use \"Ctrl+E c ?\" for help, \"Ctrl+E c l 0 <key>\" for SysRq, \"Return [ ?\" for ipmi sol help";
       username myusername;
       type ipmi;
     }

     console node42 {
       include ipmisol;
       master conserver.example.com;
       password mypassword;
       host node42.bmc.example.com;
     }


File: freeipmi-faq.info,  Node: How do you setup Ganglia or Nagios to monitor IPMI sensors via FreeIPMI?,  Next: Why are times reported by FreeIPMI tools wrong?,  Prev: How do you setup Conman with ipmiconsole or libipmiconsole?,  Up: Top

20 How do you setup Ganglia or Nagios to monitor IPMI sensors via FreeIPMI?
===========================================================================

Scripts to monitor IPMI via FreeIPMI in Ganglia and Nagios have been
developed and are downloadable on the FreeIPMI homepage
(<http://www.gnu.org/software/freeipmi/download.html>).  Instructions
for setup can be found at the top of the scripts.


File: freeipmi-faq.info,  Node: Why are times reported by FreeIPMI tools wrong?,  Next: Why is the IPMI kernel driver faster than the KCS driver?,  Prev: How do you setup Ganglia or Nagios to monitor IPMI sensors via FreeIPMI?,  Up: Top

21 Why are times reported by FreeIPMI tools wrong?
==================================================

Times reported by various FreeIPMI tools (such as 'ipmi-sel') are
reported under the assumption that timestamps are written in localtime.
This is by definition in the IPMI specification.

   Whether or not a system truly stored the timestamps in localtime
varies on many factors, such as the vendor, BIOS, and operating system.

   If the times reported by the tool are off, there is a strong
likelihood the time may be stored in GMT/UTC and needs to be converted
into localtime.  In FreeIPMI tools that have time outputs, the
'--utc-to-localtime' option can be specified or the 'utc-to-localtime'
option can be specified in 'freeipmi.conf'.


File: freeipmi-faq.info,  Node: Why is the IPMI kernel driver faster than the KCS driver?,  Next: Why is the output from FreeIPMI different than another software?,  Prev: Why are times reported by FreeIPMI tools wrong?,  Up: Top

22 Why is the IPMI kernel driver faster than the KCS driver?
============================================================

Internally the IPMI kernel driver chooses to spin while polling for a
response from the base management controller (BMC) while the KCS driver
elects to sleep between poll attempts.  An operating system's scheduler
granularity may be larger than the time it takes to perform a IPMI
transaction, thus the wall clock time of the KCS driver is far worse
than the IPMI kernel driver.  FreeIPMI's KCS driver implements the sleep
between poll attempts because it is believed to provide better overall
system use.  To force the KCS driver to have similar wall clock response
time to the IPMI kernel driver, users can specify the 'spinpoll'
workaround.


File: freeipmi-faq.info,  Node: Why is the output from FreeIPMI different than another software?,  Next: Why are there so many IPMI compliance bugs?,  Prev: Why is the IPMI kernel driver faster than the KCS driver?,  Up: Top

23 Why is the output from FreeIPMI different than another software?
===================================================================

Due to minor implementation differences and or incorrect IPMI firmware,
the resulting output from FreeIPMI tools can differ from other software.
Here are some of the more common inconsistencies that have been seen
before.  More inconsistencies can be seen/fixed by specifying a number
of the workarounds available to many of the FreeIPMI tools.

   * In FreeIPMI's 'ipmi-sel' and 'ipmi-sensors' there are options for
     FreeIPMI to interpret the SEL or sensor readings and give them a
     NOMINAL, WARNING, or CRITICAL status.  Other IPMI software may have
     different interpretations for their sensors and/or SEL readings
     that map to NOMINAL, WARNING, or CRITICAL differently.  These
     interpretations are configurable in FreeIPMI via the
     'freeipmi_interpret_sel.conf' and 'freeipmi_interpret_sensor.conf'
     configuration files.

   * In some IPMI software, sensor and/or FRU records are bridged by
     default and read off satellite controllers.  In FreeIPMI they are
     not due to the discovery that many vendors do not implement their
     bridging correctly or publish invalid slave addresses in the SDR.
     In order to bridge sensors the '--bridge-sensors' option must be
     specified in 'ipmi-sensors'.  In order to bridge FRU records, the
     '--bridge-fru' must be specified in 'ipmi-fru'.

   * In some IPMI software, shared sensors may be read by default.  In
     FreeIPMI's 'ipmi-sensors', they are not read by default due to
     discovery that too many systems implement this incorrectly.  Shared
     sensors can be read by specifying the '--shared-sensors' option.

   * In vendor provided IPMI software, OEM specific sensors, SEL
     records, or FRU records may be output correctly because the vendor
     is aware of how to properly read/output OEM specific information.
     FreeIPMI may not be able to do this by default.  For the
     motherboards in which OEM information is known, it can be output
     using the '--interpret-oem-data'.  This option is available in
     'ipmi-sensors', 'ipmi-sel', and 'ipmi-fru'.

   * In some vendor IPMI software, sensor "names" are constructured
     through a combination of the multiple data in the SDR, rather than
     just the device name listed in the SDR. This can lead to different
     sensor names listed in tools like 'ipmi-sensors' and 'ipmi-sel'.
     In both tools, this can be alleviated through the use of the
     '--entity-sensor-names' option.

   * On several HP systems (observed on HP Proliant DL380 G7 and HP
     ProLiant ML310 G5), the SDR lists sensors using inconsistent
     information.  Some analog sensors are listed as discrete sensors or
     vice versa.  This inconsistency, and implementation differences
     between 'ipmi-sensors' and other IPMI software lead to different
     outputs.  For example, this is one such sensor that was seen in
     'ipmi-sensors':

          2  | Power Supply 1  | Power Supply | N/A        | N/A   | 'Presence detected'

     but this same sensor was see in 'ipmitool' as

          Power Supply 1   | 120 Watts         | nc

     In this example, 'ipmi-sensors' did not output a Watts reading but
     outputs the proper "Presence Detected" state.  'Ipmitool' outputs
     the correct watts reading, but outputs the invalid non-critical
     "nc" state.

     In FreeIPMI, this problem can be worked around using the
     'discretereading' workaround flag.

   * In FreeIPMI's 'ipmi-fru', all multirecord FRU entries are output by
     default.  In 'ipmitool' and perhaps other software, they are not.
     The resulting output from 'ipmi-fru' is much larger than other
     software.  To get similar output in 'ipmitool', the '-v' option
     must be set.

   * In FreeIPMI's 'ipmi-fru', FRU record checksums are automatically
     checked and errors are output if a FRU record cannot assumed to be
     valid due to a failed checksum check.  Other IPMI software has been
     shown to ignore the checksums and assume records are valid.  If
     your system has invalid checksummed FRU entries, the 'skipchecks'
     workaround can be used to get around them.

   * In FreeIPMI's 'ipmi-sensors', sensors may output an "OK" if no
     events are set.  In other IPMI software (such as 'ipmitool' and the
     command "sdr list"), "OK" means that a sensor was simply read
     correctly.  The "OK" may not mean that the device behind the sensor
     is actually functioning properly.  For example, here is an output
     from an 'ipmitool' sdr list entry.

          PSU 1 Status     | 0x0b              | ok

     The 0x0b indicates that the power supply has errors (you normally
     want to see 0x00 or 0x01), however the sensor outputs "ok" because
     the sensor reading was read correctly.  When using FreeIPMI's
     'ipmi-sensors', the 0x0b is properly converted into the event
     messages indicating an error.

          54  | PSU 1 Status | Power Supply | N/A | N/A | 'Presence detected' 'Power Supply Failure detected' 'Power Supply input lost (AC/DC)'


File: freeipmi-faq.info,  Node: Why are there so many IPMI compliance bugs?,  Next: How do I get around an IPMI compliance bug on my motherboard?,  Prev: Why is the output from FreeIPMI different than another software?,  Up: Top

24 Why are there so many IPMI compliance bugs?
==============================================

The IPMI specification is very large.  At last check, the IPMI
specification was 601 pages.  This does not count the various side
specifications related to IPMI, including DCMI, PET, FRU, and the
various OEM extension specifications (e.g.  Intel Node Manager).  Many
sections of text can be ambiguous.  Many components of IPMI are optional
and aren't required to be implemented.  There is some leeway for
implementation interpretation as well.  Ultimately, bugs will happen.
In all fairness, FreeIPMI has had bugs too.

   A number of the IPMI compliance bugs found by FreeIPMI are documented
in the freeipmi-bugs-issues-and-workarounds.txt document (you can find
it on the website here:
<http://www.gnu.org/software/freeipmi/freeipmi-bugs-issues-and-workarounds.txt>).


File: freeipmi-faq.info,  Node: How do I get around an IPMI compliance bug on my motherboard?,  Next: Why am I seeing so many 'internal IPMI error' or 'driver busy' messages?,  Prev: Why are there so many IPMI compliance bugs?,  Up: Top

25 How do I get around an IPMI compliance bug on my motherboard?
================================================================

Most of the FreeIPMI tools and libraries have flags to workaround a
large number of IPMI compliance bugs found on motherboards.  Please see
the appropriate tool manpages or library header files for details on the
workarounds available and for what motherboards.

   If you believe there is a compliance issue on your motherboard that
has not yet been implemented, please contact the maintainers on the
<freeipmi-devel@gnu.org> mailing list.


File: freeipmi-faq.info,  Node: Why am I seeing so many 'internal IPMI error' or 'driver busy' messages?,  Next: How do I program with the FreeIPMI libraries?,  Prev: How do I get around an IPMI compliance bug on my motherboard?,  Up: Top

26 Why am I seeing so many 'internal IPMI error' or 'driver busy' messages?
===========================================================================

In some Linux distributions (atleast with Redhat Enterprise Linux 6.4 /
RHEL 6.4 and CentOS 6.4), the distributions began compiling the IPMI
kernel driver (i.e.  ipmi_msghandler and ipmi_si modules) into the
kernel instead of as loadable modules.  This was apparently due to a
need for the IPMI kernel drivers to work with ACPI.

   Due to compiling the IPMI kernel driver into the kernel, there is the
potential for inband IPMI communication to occur in the kernel w/o any
knowledge of it from outside software in userspace.  Normally, the IPMI
service (i.e.  /etc/init.d/ipmi) is started to create a device file
(i.e.  /dev/ipmi0) so that userspace software will know to communicate
through this device.  However, some of these distros disable the ipmi
service so that a device file is never created.

   Because of this, multiple IPMI software can communicate inband to the
BMC simultaneously, subsequently racing with each other.  Ultimately,
this can lead to communication problems.  In FreeIPMI, this is most
commonly seen through 'internal IPMI error' or 'driver busy' messages.

   There are several possible solutions for this in FreeIPMI. If you
start the ipmi service (i.e.  /etc/init.d/ipmi start), a device file
will be created which FreeIPMI will recognize.  FreeIPMI will
subsequently communicate via inband IPMI through this device file, thus
eliminating racing with the IPMI occurring in the kernel.

   The other option is to disable the IPMI kernel thread so that
FreeIPMI can perform inband communication with the BMC through its own
mechanisms.  The following is from the Linux kernel documentation.

     When compiled into the kernel, the parameters can be specified on the
     kernel command line as:

       ipmi_si.type=<type1>,<type2>...
            ipmi_si.ports=<port1>,<port2>... ipmi_si.addrs=<addr1>,<addr2>...
            ipmi_si.irqs=<irq1>,<irq2>... ipmi_si.trydefaults=[0|1]
            ipmi_si.regspacings=<sp1>,<sp2>,...
            ipmi_si.regsizes=<size1>,<size2>,...
            ipmi_si.regshifts=<shift1>,<shift2>,...
            ipmi_si.slave_addrs=<addr1>,<addr2>,...
            ipmi_si.force_kipmid=<enable1>,<enable2>,...
            ipmi_si.kipmid_max_busy_us=<ustime1>,<ustime2>,...

     ...

     If your IPMI interface does not support interrupts and is a KCS or
     SMIC interface, the IPMI driver will start a kernel thread for the
     interface to help speed things up.  This is a low-priority kernel
     thread that constantly polls the IPMI driver while an IPMI operation
     is in progress.  The force_kipmid module parameter will all the user to
     force this thread on or off.  If you force it off and don't have
     interrupts, the driver will run VERY slowly.


File: freeipmi-faq.info,  Node: How do I program with the FreeIPMI libraries?,  Next: Where can I get additional help or support?,  Prev: Why am I seeing so many 'internal IPMI error' or 'driver busy' messages?,  Up: Top

27 How do I program with the FreeIPMI libraries?
================================================

If you are looking for a high level library to do Serial-over-LAN (SOL)
or IPMI sensor/SEL monitoring, you may wish to look at the
libipmiconsole and libipmimonitoring libraries.  These libraries attempt
to abstract a large amount of the underlying IPMI detail from
developers.  The majority of the documentation can be found in the
header files.  Some examples can be found in the documentation and the
FreeIPMI tools that use them.

   The libfreeipmi library is the core library used by other FreeIPMI
libraries and tools.  However, it is quite detailed in regards to the
IPMI specification and many components of the library will be quite
confusing to those unfamiliar with the finer details of the IPMI
specification.  It is recommended most use the higher level libraries
described above.

   A more detailed description of the available FreeIPMI libraries can
be found in the 'freeipmi-libraries.txt' document (you can find it on
the website here:
<http://www.gnu.org/software/freeipmi/freeipmi-libraries.txt>).


File: freeipmi-faq.info,  Node: Where can I get additional help or support?,  Prev: How do I program with the FreeIPMI libraries?,  Up: Top

28 Where can I get additional help or support?
==============================================

For help, please email the <freeipmi-users@gnu.org> mailing list.



Tag Table:
Node: Top690
Node: What is IPMI?2297
Node: What is FreeIPMI?3439
Node: How did FreeIPMI start?3972
Node: What operating systems does FreeIPMI run on?5337
Node: FreeIPMI vs OpenIPMI vs Ipmitool vs Ipmiutil6089
Node: What is special about FreeIPMI?6894
Node: Does my system support IPMI?13951
Node: How do I compile FreeIPMI?15944
Node: libgcrypt requirement16305
Node: x86-64 Compilation16944
Node: Installing FreeIPMI on FreeBSD17628
Node: What are some IPMI terminology or acronyms I should be aware of?18268
Node: What setup is needed for FreeIPMI to communicate over LAN?21294
Node: What setup is needed for Serial over LAN (SOL) or Ipmiconsole?21886
Node: Do I need to install or configure a driver to perform IPMI inband?23790
Node: SSIF Driver Configuration25503
Node: How do you setup Powerman with ipmipower?27099
Node: How do you setup Conman with ipmiconsole or libipmiconsole?30389
Node: How do you setup Conserver with libipmiconsole?32368
Node: How do you setup Ganglia or Nagios to monitor IPMI sensors via FreeIPMI?33354
Node: Why are times reported by FreeIPMI tools wrong?33995
Node: Why is the IPMI kernel driver faster than the KCS driver?34981
Node: Why is the output from FreeIPMI different than another software?35981
Node: Why are there so many IPMI compliance bugs?41376
Node: How do I get around an IPMI compliance bug on my motherboard?42474
Node: Why am I seeing so many 'internal IPMI error' or 'driver busy' messages?43287
Node: How do I program with the FreeIPMI libraries?46413
Node: Where can I get additional help or support?47756

End Tag Table
