I’m using ElectricEel-24.10.2.2 on an HP Microserver. The Microserver has a second RJ45 port dedicated for iLO (IPMI/iLO/iDRAC are I think equivalent management interfaces from different manufacturers). The iLO port is networked so that I can go in and fiddle with things, especially when upgrading TrueNAS.
I note the networking tab in TN has the following setting
which I haven’t played with, not knowing what to do with it seeing as I already have iLO on a separate physical port (and in the same private IP range as TN itself).
What’s the typical use for this network setting please? I don’t suppose I need to use it as a home / hobby user but I’m interested nonetheless to see what it’s for.
It permits you to configure the IP address and password for the IPMI without having to drop out to the BIOS setup (assuming your IPMI is supported the standard Linux IPMI configuration commands).
It also gives you a quick link to go to the IPMI. Useful if you have more than one TrueNAS and want to get to the IPMI from the TrueNAS interface.
Interesting! Thanks - it looks like iLO has some overlap with IPMI but they aren’t equivalent “standards-compliant” with one another. I suppose IPMI is more frequently encountered than iLO, hence the choice to present the option.
Seeing as my HP box is two feet away from me, it’s easy to maintain but I can imagine a large installation with lots of servers etc. I imagine my wife might not like that …
Supermicro adopted it between the X9 and X10 series of boards, so the X10 boards are IPMI 2.0 while the X9 are not. The early Sun OOB stuff was called LOM (lights out management) and was serial only. There were a lot of different things tried before the spec came out. Most vendors use the IPMI 2.0 spec as a starting point and extend beyond what it requires.
In terms of usefulness, even in a home environment having access to the IMPI is useful. Being able to pull motherboard serial number without opening the case (or even having to visit the server physically) is very nice. Being able to track power usage (beyond just turn off / turn on) is informative. Pulling up all the motherboard sensors and seeing which are within spec is very useful. Lots of useful stuff, many of which you can do other ways, but having them all in one place is nice.
Note that many manufacturers only enable a basic set of IPMI functions unless you (or whoever bought it new) paid for the IPMI / remote management license
This is very interesting - thanks for these replies. It’s something I know little about (along with a long list of other topics!) but luckily for me, my HP server came with an iLO licence and I agree it’s great to be able to log in to “the machine behind the machine”.
Seeing as my iLO port presents itself on my LAN, there doesn’t seem to be any advantage in my case to using the TN the IPMI settings which i drew attention to but it is self-evident that it would be of great utility in many other cases, now that I have read the replies.
(But I might try the IMPI settings anyway to see how much of my iLO is implemented).
Part of the utility of IPMI/iLO etc. is the out-of-band networking. That can and should be a totally different circuit than everything else shares. I walked through a datacenter once and saw a phone line coming out of the back of a rack. What, why? Well, they had a dedicated phone line plugged into a modem. That was all for dialup console access when everything goes sideways (network is down or misconfigured, power outage, etc). Also powered by a small dedicated UPS. In other words, enterprise stuff, where downtime costs big money and connectivity means everything. It was quaint but clever. I bet it’s still there.
Back in the olden times you could “wardial” and stumble across modem tones; they weren’t all fax machines.
