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 IPMI Implementations

Dell PowerEdge servers have implemented standards-based IPMI hardware monitoring on most of the server line. This table describes the specific implementations by platform.

PlatformIPMI VersionInterfaceComments
PowerEdge x9xx
SC1435
2.0KCS5
PowerEdge x8xx
SC1425
PowerEdge 830
PowerEdge 850
1.5KCS1,5
PowerEdge 8301.51
PowerEdge 3250
PowerEdge 7250
1.xKCS
PowerEdge 6600/6650
PowerEdge 4600
PowerEdge 2600
1.0BT2, 3
PowerEdge 26501.0SMIC4
PowerEdge 750 w/ ERA/O1.0SMIC4
PowerEdge 1650 w/ ERA/O1.0BT4
PowerEdge 1750 w/ ERA/O1.0BT4
PowerEdge 1600SC w/ DRAC3/XT1.0
PowerEdge 700 w/ DRAC31.0
PowerEdge 71501.0
PowerEdge 84500.9SMIC
  1. may set OEM0 Data Available bit, needs kernel 2.6.14-rc1 or higher (driver 33.4 or higher) to resolve, or BMC firmware 1.40 or higher.
  2. firmware doesn't respond to "Get SDR" commands if the length of the SDR = 0x41 bytes. Drivers released after 7-Oct-2005 resolves (35.10.RHEL3, 33.9.RHEL4, 36.4.SLES9).
  3. driver must clear B2H_ATN flag after a timeout, needs kernel 2.6.14-rc5-mm1 or higher to resolve.
  4. may set OEM0 Data Available bit, needs kernel 2.6.14-rc5-mm1 or higher to resolve.
  5. needs kernel command line parameter pnpacpi=off on kernels 2.6.12 - 2.6.16; fixed in 2.6.17.
Note: all of the above fixes are present in the DKMSified driver packages for RHEL3, RHEL4, and SLES9 at files/openipmi.

 Tips and Tricks
  • On x8xx servers with 2.6.12 - 2.6.15 kernels, x86_64 architecture, ipmi_si can't automatically find the KCS interface to the controller. This is fixed in 2.6.16. Until then, put this into your /etc/modprobe.conf file:
    options ipmi_si type="kcs" ports="0xca8" regspacings="4"
    
  • On PowerEdge 7250 Itanium2 servers, the IPMI driver does not autodetect the hardware, for reasons similar to that on x86_64. Put this in your /etc/modprobe.conf file:
    options ipmi_si ports=0x8a2
    
    This is fixed in 2.6.17.
  • On Fedora Core 5, SLES10 i386 (not x86_64) Gold and kernels 2.4.12ish to kernels before 2.6.17-rc5-mm1, the pnpacpi layer may claim the I/O ports on behalf of the IPMI driver, but the IPMI driver doesn't know this. If modprobe ipmi_si fails because it can't allocate the I/O ports, this is your problem. You need fairly new (January 2006) BIOS on your x8xx, 1425SC, or x9xx server to see this.

    The workaround is to disable pnpacpi using the kernel command line parameter:

    pnpacpi=off
    
    This is fixed in 2.6.17-rc5-mm1 and in Linus's tree which will become 2.6.17.
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This webpage is for informational purposes only, may contain typographical errors, technical inaccuracies, and information about configurations which are not officially supported by Dell. The content is provided as is, without express or implied warranties of any kind.
 
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