Some X8SIL-F Motherboard Questions?

[MalVeauX]

Hi all,

I'm curious, anyone that may be familiar with this board (seems well known as an older board). It has a setting in BIOS for "headless." I'm curious, if I enable this, does it change anything, as in, does it turn off VGA output and disable any connected peripherals? Or does it just prevent any halts from not having those items or a display?

Lastly, I'm totally green to the idea of using IPMI, but I'm curious how this is setup so that I can access the server remotely and go completely headless, even to recycle the power, etc. That would be really nice. I'm starting to read about it, but any jump starts on what interface to user, how to easily get into this, etc, would be fantastic.

Thanks!

Very best,

 

[Samuel Tai]

According to the X8SIL-F manual, headless mode merely allows the system to boot without a keyboard, mouse, and monitor connected to the system.
IPMI is an extremely good thing. The IPMI manual for the X8SIL-F is at https://www.supermicro.com/manuals/other/Embedded_BMC_IPMI.pdf.

 

[MalVeauX]

According to the X8SIL-F manual, headless mode merely allows the system to boot without a keyboard, mouse, and monitor connected to the system.
IPMI is an extremely good thing. The IPMI manual for the X8SIL-F is at https://www.supermicro.com/manuals/other/Embedded_BMC_IPMI.pdf.

Thanks; I have the manual but it just wasn't explicit on what it would do to enable headless; as in, I didn't know if it would stop reporting VGA output and no longer display at all or accept local input at all, or would it simply change it to not halt on the lack of display output, etc. Didn't want to lock myself out in some way to the point of having to pull the battery on CMOS/BIOS to the board to reset.

IPMI looks so useful, I just didn't see how to implement. I can see in BIOS how to configure and all. I just don't know how to actually access it remotely, such as, what client, what software, what system, etc. I wasn't sure if it was a software thing that handshakes with it, or something else. It's above my head at the moment. I didn't see an IPMIView utility, so I suppose I need to see where to download that. Or use a web browser and connect via IP and login. I've been reading that manual so trying to solidify how to do it.

Very best,

 

[Samuel Tai]

There should be an IPMI network port on the back panel. Most IPMIs have 2 channels, each with its own IP. There's a dedicated channel corresponding to the IPMI port, and a shared channel, which bridges through the FreeNAS LAN interface. You can run ipmitool print <channel num> to get the IP address of each channel. I can't say which numbers are in use for the X8SIL-F, but on my Asrock, the shared channel is 0, and the dedicated channel is 8. I disable 0 in the IPMI web interface, and only use 8.

The IPMIView utility is a Java JAR download from the IPMI web inteface.

 

[MalVeauX]

There should be an IPMI network port on the back panel. Most IPMIs have 2 channels, each with its own IP. There's a dedicated channel corresponding to the IPMI port, and a shared channel, which bridges through the FreeNAS LAN interface. You can run ipmitool print <channel num> to get the IP address of each channel. I can't say which numbers are in use for the X8SIL-F, but on my Asrock, the shared channel is 0, and the dedicated channel is 8. I disable 0 in the IPMI web interface, and only use 8.

The IPMIView utility is a Java JAR download from the IPMI web inteface.

Thanks, that helps!

I saw that the LAN port next to the USB/Serial ports, read that was the IPMI dedicated link. Saw the settings in BIOS. Just didn't know if I had to download a separate piece of software for Windows (or what if I'm using Linux, etc) to then be able to access over IPMI to get to the BIOS of the FreeNAS box.

So when you point a browser to the IP of the IPMI port, the IPMI View utility comes over as a download from the interface?

Very best,

 

[Samuel Tai]

When you first try to remote control over IPMI, the IPMIView JAR will be downloaded and executed in your JRE of choice.

 

[MalVeauX]

When you first try to remote control over IPMI, the IPMIView JAR will be downloaded and executed in your JRE of choice.

Excellent thanks; I shall try this tonight when I get home and hopefully that'll put this to bed.

Very best,

 

[MalVeauX]

Update:

I successfully got IPMI working and can access it and control the board remotely over my network. Just updating in case anyone else finds this stuff via search in the future and are like me, a novice, just learning this stuff for reinforcement.

In BIOS I went to the IPMI LAN settings and was able to either set a STATIC IP or use DHCP. You can use whatever you're comfortable with. I did STATIC at first, but just to see how it would handle things, I set it to DHCP just to see what it would do on my network. My router saw it and immediately gave it an address and the alias it has is "Super Micro Incorporated" etc. So it's pretty obvious what it is, unless you have several Supermicro boards (in my case, no).

I pointed a web browser at the IP address of the board assigned by DHCP (or your static IP that you gave it if you did). It loaded a login screen for the board. Mine was reset to default, so I went to my user manual and learned what the default login/pass was. You can add users if you wish. I was able to login with default ADMIN. I changed the password since it's on my network and can be found.

I didn't have to do anything special, no software download, it operated like a website. I could see a real time display of what the display was showing if a monitor was connected. I could access all the options of the board and of course power cycle it if needed. Handy!

I'm now completely headless.

Thanks!

Very best,