IPMI Serial Port Access via ssh on FreeNAS Mini - idiot's guide?

[DaPlumber]

So I'm back from vacation and my brain is mush and my search-fu is weak...

I'm looking for the idiots guide for the following:

I'd like to access the FreeNas Mini (ASRock C2550D mobo) console via ssh to the service processor/IPMI. I vaguely recall I need to switch the console in the BIOS and then tick the checkbox in the FreeNAs GUI (9.3 STABLE). Does someone have/know of a step by step guide?

Note that I don't currently have a access to the regular console, although the Service Processor is set up and working. The JAVA craplet barfs (starts but doesn't do anything) when I try and run it on any of the available systems. (All Mac OS 10.10.1 with latest Java). "ipmitool" it'll have to be.

Oh, and Happy new NAS Year! :D

 

[demon]

I have my own box I built with the C2750D4I, and was wondering the same thing. I can (obviously) use the Java console GUI app, but the Java serial console app doesn't seem to work, and I couldn't find the right command via SSH (I can SSH into the embedded Linux environment that runs the BMC, but there was no indication I could find about the command to use to access the serial console business). SuperMicro's IPMIView lets me access the serial port (I don't have a getty running on it, but it's definitely ttyu2 in FreeNAS), though it only supports 9600 and 19200 bps modes.

If anyone has further info, I'd be interested in it as well. Thanks!

 

[Ericloewe]

Somewhat related:

https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...hat-is-a-native-application-to-windows.26786/

 

[DaPlumber]

OK, so I now have ipmitool sol working and I can connect to the serial port. Unfortunately checking the "Use Serial Console" box doesn't appear to be resulting in anything going to the serial port just yet.

Please don't tel me I have to find a monitor and keyboard to make the BIOS changes? Hopefully there's some other magic CLI approach?

BTW neither an updated viewer.jar or the iKVM from SuperMicro will connect to the ix Mini's MegaRAC console redirection. The Java applets ARE running and I disable all firewalls for testing, but that wasn't it either. Really beginning to loathe badly written old Java craplets...

 

[Ericloewe]

One does wonder why they bother with Java if the resulting applets don't even work across platforms...

 

[DaPlumber]

It's more like they don't work across newer Java versions on all platforms. Write once, run only on obsolete insecure platforms.

 

[DaPlumber]

After a bit of digging it appears that the "Use Serial Console" checkbox is not making any of the supposedly needed changes to /boot.config and /boot/loader.conf. I manually added:

Code:

#Added for Serial Console
boot_multicons="YES"
boot_serial="YES"
console="comconsole,vidconsole"
comconsole_port="0x248"
hint.uart.0.flags="0x00"
hint.uart.2.flags="0x10"

to the /boot/loader.conf and it persisted across reboots, but adding:

Code:

-Dh -S115200

to /boot.config did not.

Does anyone know how to change the BIOS settings to serial port console without having to plug in a keyboard and monitor (i.e. "headless")?

 

[Ericloewe]

After a bit of digging it appears that the "Use Serial Console" checkbox is not making any of the supposedly needed changes to /boot.config and /boot/loader.conf. I manually added:

Code:

#Added for Serial Console
boot_multicons="YES"
boot_serial="YES"
console="comconsole,vidconsole"
comconsole_port="0x248"
hint.uart.0.flags="0x00"
hint.uart.2.flags="0x10"

to the /boot/loader.conf and it persisted across reboots, but adding:

Code:

-Dh -S115200

to /boot.config did not.

Does anyone know how to change the BIOS settings to serial port console without having to plug in a keyboard and monitor (i.e. "headless")?

Only with the IPMI viewer and/or serial console. Since you're trying to work around the former and get the latter to work, you'll have to get up.

 

[DaPlumber]

Damnit. I really am going to have to figure out some kind of crash cart to connect to the Mini that's in a completely inconvenient space to do so. I retrieved an ancient Windows XP VM with Java 6 and STILL Jviewer won't connect. ARRRRRRGGHHHH!

 

[Ericloewe]

I think it worked alright with Java 7, though that was on Windows 7 x64.

 

[DaPlumber]

Only with the IPMI viewer and/or serial console. Since you're trying to work around the former and get the latter to work, you'll have to get up.

Oh, I'm happily using:

ipmitool -I lanplus -H <IP of SP> -U mouser -C 3 sol activate

and it connects correctly with no errors. But it's not showing squat or responding to input either.

This is a current ipmitool (1.8.12) grabbed from MacPorts and happily reads the SEL, shows and manipulates power/sensors, etc.

I discovered that the AMD Megarac SP has an ipmitool built in, so as soon as this works the easiest way will be to ssh to the Megarac and run ipmitool there.

 

[DaPlumber]

Java install on Win7 x64 VM in progress...

Since it's been a while there's a bazillion updates for it as well...

 

[demon]

The Java remove console app works for me with Java 7 and 8 on Linux Mint 17, and with Java 7 on Mac OS 10.9 (haven't upgraded to 10.10, it's a work laptop). The only thing I ran into on OS X is that a) the GUI won't allow me to directly launch .jnlp's, because "app security", so I have to turn off the signature checking BS, and b) I had to have X11 installed (what the what now) to run the Java remote console app. I use my Linux workstation and laptop most of the time (particularly for non-work things), so I didn't know Java on OS X was such a crapfest.

 

[Ericloewe]

Double post, my apologies.

 

[DaPlumber]

Since I can't find a single system the Java Console will work on, I'm on pause until I can scrape up a monitor and either bring it to the mini or bring the mini to it. Ugh either way.

 

[Ericloewe]

Really makes me look forward to installing Java just so I can install FreeNAS 9.3. /s

I've been so happy without Java this past month! :(

 

[DaPlumber]

Java is kind of like the Dancing Bear: You're amazed when it works at all, not annoyed that it doesn't work well.

 

[DaPlumber]

Update: After a bit of tweaking of the VM it was running on (Network issue, don't ask) I was able to get the Jviewer running on The XP/JVM6 VM I mentioned earlier. I've also upgraded BMC to 0.23.0 and BIOS to 2.80 per the ASRock site. This plus dealing with some persistent Marvell errors has burned up all my available FreeNAS playtime for now. But now that I at least have a way into the BIOS, I'll look at getting it switched to serial shortly.

 

[Vick Khera]

I just got a new FreeNAS Mini last week. It has the ASRock ipmi controller in it. I was able to configure the SoL quite easily. It is very similar to how I configure the SoL on supermicro motherboards.

In the BIOS configuration "Advanced" tab, make sure SOL Serial Port is enabled and the Console Redirection for SOL is enabled. I also set the "Redirection after BIOS" to always enable and port speed 115200.

On the FreeNAS Network -> IPMI tab it will tell you the IP address your IPMI controller was given by DHCP. You can find/configure this in the BIOS as well.

In FreeNAS-9.3-STABLE-201506292130, in the System -> Advanced tab, select Serial Console port address 0x248, port speed 115200, and turn on the serial console. Save and reboot to enable it.

On another nearby server, run the command:

ipmitool -I lanplus -H <IPADDRESS> -U admin sol set non-volatile-bit-rate 115.2

to tell the SoL that you want 115200 baud rate. For some reason it still wants to use 38.4 which is slow and does not match the BIOS settings. I also set the volatile-bit-rate. I'm not sure that was necessary but I did it first to test it out.

Finally, to connect to the console:

ipmitool -I lanplus -H <IPADDRESS> -U admin sol activate

and you're in. You can watch the BIOS (and interact with it) and all the kernel boot messages and all the startup scripts and finally you get the main menu.

The default password for the admin account is "admin". You can change that via the web UI for the IPMI controller.

 

[DaPlumber]

Vick, thank you for the tips. I finally got a "crash cart" connected to my Mini. (Ugh.) After the BIOS changes I'm now able to access the serial console for BIOS settings etc.

BTW For the ipmitool I have under OS X I had to add a "-C 3" for a compatible encryption type.
I also had to set "volatile-bit-rate" to 115.2 as well. ;)

Unfortunately it's not useful for the installer or anything else that doesn't know to redirect OOB but that's not a FreeNAS issue. I'm presuming I can set the kernel options for this on GRUB , but for now having the "crash cart" connected will suffice for what I need to do right now.