IPMI on Dell PowerEdge C6100

[danb35]

About a month ago, I bought a used four-node Dell PE C6100 (-TY3 model) server, specifically to run as a Proxmox host on one or two nodes, and I still haven't decided what to do with the other nodes (I'd like to put FreeNAS on one, but I don't see a way that I could get both a 10 GbE card and a SAS controller with an external port into a single node).

They support IPMI, but I'm having a bit of trouble with it, and the fact that I'm on a Mac probably makes it worse. I'd like to be able to log in to IPMI and use the remote console. Here's what I've tried:

• When I use Chrome 47 to browse to the IPMI IP address, it redirects to https, gives a warning which it allows me to bypass, and allows me to log in. I can browse to the various areas of the web GUI, view parameters, and change settings. However, I can't launch the Java console--as far as I can tell, Java/Chrome/Mac just don't work together.
• When I use Firefox 43, it refuses to load the page with an error of "The server certificate included a public key that was too weak. (Error code: ssl_error_weak_server_cert_key)". I can understand that--not only is it a weak cert (RSA/MD5, 512-bit public key), it expired 10 years ago. I don't see any option to let me proceed. Java/Firefox/Mac do work together ordinarily, but they obviously won't if I can't log in. Firefox 43 on Windows gives the same result.
• When I use Safari 9, it gives me a certificate warning, but then lets me proceed to the login screen. I can log in, but once I'm logged in I can't do anything--clicking on any of the menu options gives no result.
• When I use IE 11 on Windows 7, I get an error page that says, "The security certificate presented by this website is not secure", again with no option to continue.
• I have IPMIView installed for my SuperMicro servers, so I tried using that. I can log in and view all the system parameters, but the KVM Console option isn't visible like it is when I'm logged into one of my SuperMicro servers.

The obvious solution, as far as I can tell, would be to disable SSL and use Firefox--but I don't see any configuration setting to disable SSL. I have what I believe is the latest IPMI firmware (version 1.33) installed. Any ideas how I can get around this, so I can use the remote console?

 

[solarisguy]

Use ancient Java (install the oldest Java that would properly install on your system), and lower its security settings.

You can have more than one Java version installed.

 

[Fuganater]

That server looks sweet. Do report how it goes once you get your issues sorted.

At first I had to download the latest Java Runtime Environment to get things working. I'm using Windows 10 with Chrome latest version and I have no issue getting into IPMI on my Supermicro Servers or iDRAC for my Dell Servers. I always get a pop up for the IPMI Supermicro servers asking if I want to install java but I just hit ok on that and nothing happens. Once I click on the preview window, it downloads the lauch.soemthing (I'm not at home to get the extension) and then I am in.

Do you have a Windows machine you can use?

 

[danb35]

I do have a Windows 7 VM, and once I installed Chrome 47 on it, I was able to reach the IMPI page and launch the virtual console, once I'd added that IP to the exception list in the Java control panel. Woot! I'd rather not have to spin up the VM to do this, but at least I know it can be done.

I'm thinking, rather than installing an old version of Java, I should try installing an old version of Firefox, if I can run that alongside the current version.

The server is pretty nice--each node has 2x Xeon X5650s and 48 GB of RAM. However, each gets only three drive bays (if you get the 2.5" version, each node gets six bays). I've seen some threads elsewhere complaining about noise, but I don't find that it's worse than my SuperMicro SC-826 (though the fans do spin up like a jet engine when it's first powered on). It definitely burns more power than newer gear, though--I haven't measured it, but the temperature inside the server closet gets a lot warmer than before I put that machine in there.

 

[danb35]

Further investigation reveals that 512-bit public keys were declared weak, with no option to bypass, in Firefox 33. The same fate befell 1024-bit keys in Firefox 38. So, I downloaded a copy of Firefox 32 which, after bypassing a few security warnings, and disabling automatic updates, does allow me to log in to the IPMI. And once I set my Mac to run software from anywhere (not just identified developers), added the IP of the IPMI interface to the Java exception list, and clicked Continue through a few Java security warning screens, the remote console app does launch and work. Performance is abysmal--it's showing either 0 or 1 fps in the title bar--but at least it's something. I think I saw 5-6 fps when I was accessing it through the Windows VM, FWIW.

It also looks like the inactivity timeout is really short--looking like about 5 minutes. Of course, activity on the virtual console doesn't count to keep the session from timing out.

BTW, at least on a Mac, it's definitely possible to have two copies/versions of Firefox installed side-by-side, but only one can be running at a time.