Supermicro IPMI not accessible when powered off

gdarends

Explorer
Joined
Jan 20, 2015
Messages
72
Hi,

I can't seem to access IPMI when the server is powered off.
I've tried searching for solutions and came across this:

Basically it says that is common to have this issue if you set a static ip address, which I did, and that there are 3 ways to possibly fix it.
  • Enable ARP Response.
  • Enable Gratuitous ARPs
  • Manually add IP > MAC on client accessing IPMI.

I used ipmitool to try and configure as the post suggests, but it doesn't seem to work.
I don't know where to post this. I tried going to the ipmitool project first to post the issue, but they don't support version 1.8.18 as it is outdated, and that is the version on TrueNAS SCALE.

I read the ipmitool man page and figured out that I first need to figure out on which channel the lan is set. You have to go through channel numbers to find which one it's on. So I ran the following cmd as per the man page and sure enough it's on channel 1.
root@truenas[~]# ipmitool -I open channel info 1
Channel 0x1 info:
Channel Medium Type : 802.3 LAN
Channel Protocol Type : IPMB-1.0
Session Support : multi-session
Active Session Count : 0
Protocol Vendor ID : 7154
Volatile(active) Settings
Alerting : enabled
Per-message Auth : enabled
User Level Auth : enabled
Access Mode : always available
Non-Volatile Settings
Alerting : enabled
Per-message Auth : enabled
User Level Auth : enabled
Access Mode : always available

I then ran the following cmd to print the current lan config. It shows that ARP Responses is Enabled, but Gratuitious ARP is Disabled.
root@truenas[~]# ipmitool lan print 1
Set in Progress : Set Complete
Auth Type Support : NONE MD2 MD5 PASSWORD
Auth Type Enable : Callback : MD2 MD5 PASSWORD
: User : MD2 MD5 PASSWORD
: Operator : MD2 MD5 PASSWORD
: Admin : MD2 MD5 PASSWORD
: OEM : MD2 MD5 PASSWORD
IP Address Source : Static Address
IP Address : 10.8.8.201
Subnet Mask : 255.255.255.0
MAC Address : 3c:ec:ef:92:e4:18
SNMP Community String : public
IP Header : TTL=0x00 Flags=0x00 Precedence=0x00 TOS=0x00
BMC ARP Control : ARP Responses Enabled, Gratuitous ARP Disabled
Default Gateway IP : 10.8.8.1
Default Gateway MAC : 00:00:00:00:00:00
Backup Gateway IP : 0.0.0.0
Backup Gateway MAC : 00:00:00:00:00:00
802.1q VLAN ID : Disabled
802.1q VLAN Priority : 0
RMCP+ Cipher Suites : 1,2,3,6,7,8,11,12
Cipher Suite Priv Max : XaaaXXaaaXXaaXX
: X=Cipher Suite Unused
: c=CALLBACK
: u=USER
: o=OPERATOR
: a=ADMIN
: O=OEM
Bad Password Threshold : 3
Invalid password disable: yes
Attempt Count Reset Int.: 300
User Lockout Interval : 300

So I figured I would try to enable Gratuitous ARP, since ARP Responses is already enabled.
root@truenas[~]# ipmitool lan set 1 arp generate on
Enabling BMC-generated Gratuitous ARPs

I then printed the lan config and it still shows as disabled. I did a warm reset of the BMC and checked again and there was no change. I then did a cold reset of the BMC and still it's disabled.

So I'm at a loss as to what to do to be able to access the BMC when the server is powered off.
 

WN1X

Explorer
Joined
Dec 2, 2019
Messages
77
Your IPMI network settings pretty much match mine except I am using DHCP (with the DHCP server assigning a fixed IP). Have you tried changing the IPMI to DHCP?
 

gdarends

Explorer
Joined
Jan 20, 2015
Messages
72
Yes, that's what I mentioned in the OP. It seems that this happens when you set a static IP. I wanted to work around the issue and keep the IP static. I have tested it with DHCP and it works fine then.
 
Top