Getting to the LOM / using the IPMITOOL

[#1]

We would like to see if members of the community are using the LOM / IPMITOOL for managing their Infoblox appliances. 

We are in the process of deploying a grid architecture for DNS and are working out remote management, etc.

We are concerned about accessing the grid members remotely if there are network issues or power issues.

We have the following hardware deployed at many remote locations where we may not have touch labor at the remote site:

Advanced Appliance 4000 ADP and Grid -PT-4000-1GE-ADNSGRID-AC

Advanced Appliance 1400 series ADP and Grid - PT-1400-1GE-ADNSGRID-AC

How do people acess the LOM, is it used very often?

Are people using the IDMITOOL? Which one? Is it using port 623 or is this configurable?

Is there another tool to access the LOM?

Is there web access to the LOM?

Any help is appreciated.

[#2]

Good post! I recently deployed a grid where the customer wanted to use LOM. Unfortunately their team mainly uses Windows, so we looked at using the ipmiutil tool from sourceforge but really struggled to get it working, I think it had something to do with a missing driver. I ran out of time on the project and wasn't able to resolve this.

It worries me that customers wanting to deploy LOM have such difficulty using it. When you are used to iLO and DRAC on HP & Dell the IPMI/LOM functionality seems a bit of a backward step.

Maybe it's just me, has anyone else got this working successfully without having to jump through hoops?

[#3 · Accepted solution]

Here is an IPMI utility for Windows that may be worth taking a look at:

https://www.supermicro.com/solutions/SMS_IPMI.cfm

Keep in mind the iLO is not actually supported but what you do have access to via LOM is LAN based serial access (CLI) and power.

[#4]

I'm late to the game, but wanted to share what I figured out for a NIOS 7.2.2 Grid

1. Make sure you have LOM credentials set up in Grid Properties > LOM

2. Make sure you have the LOM NIC/IP configured on each member

3. Download IPMIUTIL from here:

http://ipmiutil.sourceforge.net/FILES/ipmiutil-2.9.8-win64.zip

4. After unzipping, used this command line:

C:\>ipmiutil sol -a -N <nodename> -U <username> -Y

Escape sequence is (~.) tilde + period

And I agree that this is tough to use for a person who has been spoiled by iLo, DRAC, and RSA management.

[#5]

I think the issue I had was we were trying to use IPMI Util specifically on Windows 7 (http://ipmiutil.sourceforge.net/) but there is some issue with getting the IPMI driver installed on Windows 7. The driver is apparently pre-installed on Windows 2008 but not Windows 7, so if you are an IT/network support technician trying to use LOM to reach an Infoblox appliance you can't use your own PC but have to RDP into a Windows Server or ssh into Linux, and then get that set up so it works, which then freaks the servers guys out (they want to know WTF you are doing with their servers!). I have not been able to successfully utilise IPMI/LOM yet.

It would be nice to be able to use IPMI from a desktop OS, I haven't tried the tool that @SSalo suggested yet, does this also need the IPMI driver to be installed (on Windows 7)? If it does then I'm back to square one - maybe there is an easy way to do it but I have googled it and not been able to find a solution yet.

[#6]

I've been trying to get to the LOM for a couple of days.  I've tried from Linux and Windows.  I've tried ipmitool, ipmiutil, SMCIPMITool, and IPMIView.  I've tried accounts with user and operator security levels.  Nothing seems to work.  I've even tried to log in to the web interface and apparently user and operator security levels aren't high enough for that.

Has anyone had any success?

[#7]

This is biting me again, customer is refusing to install ipmitool on their laptops/desktops because it's not a standard tool used by their ops/support guys, they are asking for web access similar to iLO/iDRAC.

Currently I am getting them to cable up the serial ports to a console server, but now they are complaining about the DB9 connectors that Infoblox uses, saying how archaic that is... I kinda feel like they have a point!

So any plans to introduce remote web based console? Come on Infoblox it's the 21st century! :-)

[#8]

But did you manage to get any of those tools to work? Customer is adamantly refusing to install anything that is not part of their standard build. :-(

[#9]

ubuntu's ipmitool worked fine with:

ipmitool -H <lom ip> -U <username> -P <password> -L OPERATOR -I lanplus sol activate

[#10]

Hi Paul,

I am in a similar situation, looking for a workable solution to use the LOM ports for remote power up/down situations.    I see your last post in here was last March, were you ever able to find an acceptable solution?

Thank you,

John Gennaro

[#11]

Hi All,

I have been trying to use the IPMIUTIL (from sourceforge) with no success so far under WIN10. I strongly suspect that the installed drivers are fighting against my system somehow.

I decided then to install IPMITOOL under UBUNTU which I have activated under WIN10 and ... all worked in a few minutes.

Few simple steps:

- have Linux under win10 installed (so you can run the command UBUNTU from the WIN10 CMD interface to access the linux environment)

- install IPMITOOL 

   - sudo apt update

   - sudo apt install ipmitool

- run the command Decerowit suggested time ago: 

  ipmitool -H <lom ip> -e ^ -U <username> -P <password> -L OPERATOR -I lanplus sol activate

I have added the -e ^ to change the default escapae characted ~ to ^ as i do not have tilde as default character available.

What you'll get is the SERIAL interface (at the speed of an SSH connection) available on your CLI.

Power check/on/off commands are:

$ ipmitool -H 192.168.1.2 -U admin -P infoblox -L OPERATOR -I lanplus power status
Chassis Power is on
$ ipmitool -H 192.168.1.2 -U admin -P infoblox -L OPERATOR -I lanplus power off
Chassis Power Control: Down/Off
$ ipmitool -H 192.168.1.2 -U admin -P infoblox -L OPERATOR -I lanplus power on

Good documentation can be found here:

https://docs.infoblox.com/display/N83EA2/About+Lights+Out+Management

Hope this will be useful.

Ciao

Giancarlo