IPMI frustration

[Ericloewe]

The Java viewer has (had?) that indication on the title bar or something.

 

[Redcoat]

The Java viewer has (had?) that indication on the title bar or something.

Yes, it does - thanks. I never recognized the significance of that. Mine's at 22/23 FPS on both my servers:

 

[Ericloewe]

Yeah, that's pretty typical.

 

[danb35]

Since my main computer is a Mac, and I haven't yet been able to get this working there, I've decided to just install VirtualBox and a Windows 7 VM for this purpose. Keep it at IE8, Java8, don't bother installing any updates (IE8 doesn't support modern TLS anyway), and put shortcuts on the desktop for the IPMI pages I need. Crude, but it seems to work. So much for that "universal binary" thing Java was supposed to have...

 

[Jailer]

Since my main computer is a Mac, and I haven't yet been able to get this working there, I've decided to just install VirtualBox and a Windows 7 VM for this purpose. Keep it at IE8, Java8, don't bother installing any updates (IE8 doesn't support modern TLS anyway), and put shortcuts on the desktop for the IPMI pages I need. Crude, but it seems to work. So much for that "universal binary" thing Java was supposed to have...

That's a great idea, I'm going to try that with my troublesome X9 board.

 

[Jailer]

Well after several hours of fudging around with a VM it's an utter failure for me. Still completely unusable. BUT, I was able to find a download link for IPMIview and install it on my desktop and that looks like it will at least be a functional option for me for my X9 board.

 

[danb35]

IPMIview

That's kind of funny--once I set up the VM, that's the first thing I installed. The installer ran just fine, but the application itself didn't even launch. No error message, nothing--just wouldn't start. But since I need to support Dell systems too, I didn't put any more effort into that.

 

[Jailer]

The installer ran just fine, but the application itself didn't even launch.

Right click and run as administrator. It did the same thing for me after I installed but once I ran it like that it ran fine each successive time.

 

[danb35]

Right click and run as administrator.

That worked. So now I can run IPMIView and connect to both Supermicro and Dell systems, but only get the KVM with Supermicro. Or I can just have desktop shortcuts for all of them to log in using the browser.

I don't recall if it was needed for the Supermicro system, but I definitely had to make the changes described up-thread to allow insecure ciphers in order to connect to the Dell systems. I'm glad they're now on an isolated VLAN.

 

[awasb]

On any client install ...

ipmiutil - IPMI Management Utilities

IPMI Management Utilities Project provides a series of common utilities for IPMI server management locally or via LAN. The utilities provide source and scriptable command binaries for automating server management functions.

ipmiutil.sourceforge.net

But you'll need some network attached. If your server is sitting at/beneath your desk, use some usb2serial-converter:

https://www.amazon.com/Female-Serial-Adapter-Supports-Windows/dp/B017CZ3FZ2

This thing never let me down. (And I could just pull the ether plug from that rotten Realtek service port.) The Prolific Technology driver for the chip ships with MacOS AFAICR. It's plug'n'play. Just do some

Code:

screen /dev/tty.usbserial-14410 115200

in terminal.

 

[danb35]

If your server is sitting at/beneath your desk

They're in another building, ~100' away from my desk, but of course they are connected to my network, as are their IPMI interfaces. But as best I can figure from the website, ipmiutil doesn't have a KVM remote console, right? Just serial?

 

[awasb]

Well ... it's enough for BIOS and GRUB etc., since it's SOL. Do you need any more "graphics"/input for reinstall and installation media management? (Maybe I didn't understand your exact use case.)

Here is a feature comparison:

Comparison of Linux IPMI Software

 

[Jailer]

Well ... it's enough for BIOS and GRUB etc., since it's SOL. Do you need any more "graphics"/input for reinstall and installation media management? (Maybe I didn't understand your exact use case.)

Here is a feature comparison:

Comparison of Linux IPMI Software

One of IPMI's most useful features (to me anyway) is the ability to mount an iso for OS or program installation purposes without having to physically plug media into the machine. The KVM console allows that where SOL doesn't. And for the record SOL from the IPMI web GUI functions fine on my X9 board, it's just the KVM console that is problematic.

 

[danb35]

Do you need any more "graphics"/input for reinstall and installation media management?

I have used IPMI to access a GUI, but admittedly not very often, and there are usually better tools for that task. But aside from the virtual media @Jailer mentions, SOL might handle what I need--it just isn't what I've been used to.

Comparison of Linux IPMI Software

Apparently they don't figure this is a product space that's moving very quickly; last update to that page was almost 12 years ago.

 

[awasb]

Yes. But the principle features didn't change[TM]. It's still the widely used comparison overview.

Cocerning your needs: What about circumventing "direct access" with java-crap?

Docker

@github:

GitHub - solarkennedy/ipmi-kvm-docker: A Dockerfile to make it easy to use the ipmi kvm on hosts

A Dockerfile to make it easy to use the ipmi kvm on hosts - solarkennedy/ipmi-kvm-docker

github.com

and the even better alternative (IMHO):

GitHub - sciapp/nojava-ipmi-kvm-server: NoJava-IPMI-KVM-Server is a python-based server designed to centrally provide instances of [sciapp/nojava-ipmi-kvm](https://github.com/sciapp/nojava-ipmi-kvm) via the browser.

NoJava-IPMI-KVM-Server is a python-based server designed to centrally provide instances of [sciapp/nojava-ipmi-kvm](https://github.com/sciapp/nojava-ipmi-kvm) via the browser. - sciapp/nojava-ipmi-...

github.com

 

[awasb]

One of IPMI's most useful features (to me anyway) is the ability to mount an iso for OS or program installation purposes without having to physically plug media into the machine. The KVM console allows that where SOL doesn't. And for the record SOL from the IPMI web GUI functions fine on my X9 board, it's just the KVM console that is problematic.

Sure. On first installation (bare metal) that's nice. But for VMs or just even programs ... once the "hypervisor" is up (Proxmox, ESXi, OmniOS, TrueNAS whatever), net storage path is available, isn't it? For me it's not worth the hassle having to deal with Java "compatibility" and broken management "implementations" with expired keys etc. etc.

 

[danb35]

GitHub - solarkennedy/ipmi-kvm-docker: A Dockerfile to make it easy to use the ipmi kvm on hosts

A Dockerfile to make it easy to use the ipmi kvm on hosts - solarkennedy/ipmi-kvm-docker

github.com

That looks like a Docker way of doing, more or less, what I did using a VM--but that would likely be more portable than my solution.

But for VMs or just even programs ... once the "hypervisor" is up (Proxmox, ESXi, OmniOS, TrueNAS whatever), net storage path is available, isn't it?

Sure--unless something dies. Maybe a process chokes, maybe a NIC dies. Though I expect the serial console could still handle those scenarios.

 

[artlessknave]

I had the same problem. openwebstart solved it (you have to open the jnlp manually, though, firefox at least presents NO way to autoload it anymore - annoying but usable)
I uninstalled every other java version, and just install openwebstart, it installs adoptiums openjdk, and icedtea (open java web start replacment), which should fulfill any java requirements.

the only supermicro I can't get the java to work on are 2 really old x8dt6's. I have an x8dth that works (the power isnt in the java, but eh) and every x9 works great with openwebstart, which is intended for this exact purpose.
I only use the x8dt6 for screwing around, so the IPMIview way works acceptably until I decom them.

I don't have any dell or HP older than an r730, which has the much better html5, but I would think openwebstart should help with those as well, since that is it's purpose.
it also autoupdates if you're into that kind of thing.

as usual, oracron is killing java like it kills everything else it acquires.