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SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT

Dell OpenManage IT Assistant 8.0 enables administra-

tors to manage Dell and non-Dell agentless servers that

support Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI)

1.5 and later. IPMI provides autonomous monitoring and

recovery features implemented directly in platform manage-

ment hardware and firmware, without requiring additional

instrumentation agents. Its inventory, monitoring, logging,

and recovery control functions are available independent

of a system’s main processors, BIOS, and OS, so platform

management functions can be available when the system

is powered down, and administrators can obtain platform

status information and initiate recovery actions when sys-

tems management software and normal in-band manage-

ment mechanisms are unavailable.

IT Assistant 8.0 uses IPMI Over LAN Remote Man-

agement and Control Protocol (RMCP) messaging in con-

junction with the Simple Network Management Protocol

(SNMP) and Common Information Model (CIM) to connect

to baseboard management controllers (BMCs). The IPMI

out-of-band channel can be available even when the system

is powered down or has no OS installed.

Using IT Assistant, administrators can discover sys-

tems, monitor system health, view hardware logs, and

perform power control tasks. The example usages of IT

Assistant described in this article do not require third-

party components (for example, Dell OpenManage Server

Administrator) to be installed on the managed systems.

Discovering systems

Administrators can configure IT Assistant to obtain system

inventory, status, and hardware log information through the

IPMI protocol based on the system and BMC IP addresses.

This information adds to that provided by other in-band

agents, such as the Dell OpenManage Server Administrator

agent, SNMP management information base 2 (MIB2), and

Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) provider.

After configuration, IT Assistant can use the creden-

tials provided in the discovery range to retrieve system

information from the BMC using IPMI Over LAN. This pro-

cess does not require a Server Administrator agent on the

server, but if one has been installed, IT Assistant can col-

lect information from the BMC and agent asynchronously,

BY SURESH JOHN

Monitoring and Managing Agentless Servers Using Dell OpenManage IT Assistant 8.0 with IPMI

Dell OpenManage™ IT Assistant 8.0 introduces several features, including support for

system discovery using the Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) proto-

col. This article explores how IT Assistant IPMI capabilities can be used to remotely

monitor and manage Dell™ and non-Dell agentless servers.

Related Categories:

Benchmarks

Dell OpenManage

Dell PowerEdge servers

Intelligent Platform

Management Interface (IPMI)

Remote management

Systems management

Visit www.dell.com/powersolutions

for the complete category index.

SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT

DELL POWER SOLUTIONS Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, November 2006. Copyright © 2006 Dell Inc. All rights reserved. November 200694

then use the host name or service tag to map the information from

both sources to a single server. Figure 1 illustrates this discovery

process. (Although Server Administrator agents provide more infor-

mation than the BMC, that information is not available if the system

is powered down.)

Administrators can configure IT Assistant to discover a system

through IPMI using the New Discovery Wizard, which they can

access by selecting Discovery and Monitoring>Ranges, right-clicking

“Include Ranges” in the left pane, and selecting “New Include

Range.” They can then add the BMC IP address to the discovery

ranges, enable IPMI discovery, and provide the BMC username and

password (see Figure 2). For systems supporting IPMI 2.0 (such

as ninth-generation Dell PowerEdge™ servers), they can also pro-

vide a key generator (KG) key—a security mechanism that enables

encrypted traffic between the BMC and management station.

Note: IPMI Over LAN uses the UDP-based RMCP, which

communicates over port 623. For firewall-protected systems,

administrators should ensure that this port is available for IPMI

Over LAN traffic.

Monitoring system health

In addition to basic inventory information such as service tag, host

name, OS, and firmware version, IT Assistant can monitor system

health over IPMI—for example, if the

server temperature is above normal,

the health status displays a warning.

In addition to obtaining regular system

health updates using scheduled status

polls, IT Assistant can obtain health

updates dynamically whenever the

health status changes. To use this fea-

ture, administrators must set the BMC

Platform Event Trap (PET) destination

to the management station IP address.

After receiving a PET, IT Assistant car-

ries out a status polling of the system,

connects to the BMC to retrieve the

chassis status, and displays a warning

with the device health status.

Note: Systems using IPMI 1.5 have limited status capa-

bilities, including no critical state. IPMI 1.5 also does not take

redundancy into account, so it might show a system as healthy

even when one of the redundant power supplies has failed.

Systems using IPMI 2.0 can obtain comprehensive device status

information.

Viewing hardware logs

IT Assistant allows administrators to use IPMI to view BMC

system event logs (SELs) and sensor data records (SDRs), which

contain information about the type and number of sensors in the

platform, sensor threshold support, event-generation capabilities,

and the types of readings the sensor provides. Every managed

node event creates a SEL entry. Managing these logging functions

through IPMI can help ensure that this information is available

following a failure that disables the system processors.

Figure 1. Discovering a system with Dell OpenManage IT Assistant using IPMI

Dell OpenManageIT Assistant

Dell OpenManageServer Administrator agent

BMC

SNMP/CIM

IPMI Over LAN

BMC network

interface card

System network

interface card

Note: The BMC network interface card could be a dedicated card or a LAN on Motherboard in shared mode.

Figure 2. Configuring IPMI discovery with the Dell OpenManage IT Assistant New

Discovery Wizard

Figure 3. Viewing hardware logs in Dell OpenManage IT Assistant using IPMI

SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT

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IT Assistant correlates SELs and SDRs in the hardware logs.

Administrators can easily view an event by clicking the Hardware

Logs tab for the device (see Figure 3).

Performing power control tasks

Administrators can use IT Assistant with IPMI to perform tasks

such as power cycling, power resetting, and powering up or down.

IT Assistant uses the ipmish utility to carry out scheduled power

control tasks; for this utility to be available, the BMC management

utility must be installed on the management station.

Administrators can create a power operations task using the

New Task Wizard by selecting Manage>Tasks, right-clicking

“Command Line Task” in the left pane, and selecting “New Task.”

They can then select “IPMI Command Line” from the Type menu

(see Figure 4) and complete the wizard, choosing whether to

schedule the task or run it immediately, and providing the BMC

username and password along with the KG key for systems sup-

porting IPMI 2.0.

Troubleshooting IPMI connectivity

Administrators may occasionally encounter IPMI connectivity prob-

lems such as the following, which can occur when IT Assistant

cannot contact the device using RMCP or when it is using invalid

credentials:

• IT Assistant discovers a device, but displays it with no category

or inventory information except IP address and name. • IT Assistant discovers a device and categorizes it as a server, but

clicking the Hardware Logs tab for the device returns an error. • IT Assistant discovers and categorizes a device, but displays

its status as unknown. • IT Assistant fails to discover a device.

Administrators can use the IPMI Connectivity test, part of

the IT Assistant Troubleshooting Tool, to help diagnose and

resolve these problems (see Figure 5). This test sends an RMCP

ping packet to the BMC to determine whether it can successfully

reply. If it can, IT Assistant attempts to connect to the BMC using

the credentials provided in the discovery range. If IT Assistant

has discovered the device, administrators can launch the Trou-

bleshooting Tool by right-clicking on the device and selecting

“Troubleshooting Tool”; otherwise, they can do so by selecting

Tools>Troubleshooting Tool.

Monitoring and managing servers flexibly

Dell OpenManage IT Assistant 8.0 enables administrators to carry

out operations such as discovering systems, monitoring system health,

viewing hardware logs, and performing power control tasks on both

Dell and non-Dell agentless servers through IPMI. Using these features

can provide administrators with additional flexibility in carrying out

basic system monitoring and management tasks.

Suresh John is a senior engineering analyst with the Dell OpenManage

Group at the Dell Bangalore Development Center, and has nine years of

experience designing and developing systems management applications.

Suresh has a bachelor’s degree in Electronics and Communication from the

University of Kerala in India.

Figure 4. Creating an IPMI task with the Dell OpenManage IT Assistant New Task Wizard

Figure 5. Using the IPMI Connectivity test in the Dell OpenManage IT Assistant

Troubleshooting Tool

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Dell OpenManage IT Assistant User’s Guide:

support.dell.com/support/edocs/software/smitasst

IPMI specification:

www.intel.com/design/servers/ipmi