3 ms·
From the specs: > 2 Broadcom Gigabit Ethernet ports > 1 Isolated BMC Gigabit Ethernet port What does 'isolated' mean in the context? AFAIK ethernet connection
by LeonM 8y ago
From the specs:
> 2 Broadcom Gigabit Ethernet ports
> 1 Isolated BMC Gigabit Ethernet port
What does 'isolated' mean in the context? AFAIK ethernet connections are always isolated using transformers, so I don't suppose they are talking about galvanic isolation here.
Can anyone elaborate?
- pabs3 8y agoSome BMCs have the ability to listen on both the normal ports and the BMC-dedicated port (or just the sole normal port). Some do that all the time and some do that when the BMC-dedicated port isn't plugged in. I think this research was where I heard about this: https://lwn.net/Articles/630778/ https://lwn.net/Articles/630778/
- LeonM 8y agoMakes sense, thanks!
- ZiiS 8y agoThey mean it is a separate physical conector. Some motherboards reuse an Ethernet port.
- deelowe 8y agoThey don't mean electrically isolated. This means there is a dedicated ethernet port that's isolated to just the BMC (physically incapable of speaking to the IBM processor). It's a security feature.
- stewart-ibm 8y agoOn many servers you can have a single physical ethernet port that works for both the service processor (BMC) and host processor. If you want someone to have access to only the host system and not the BMC then you place your trust in a bunch of hardware and firmware that does the sharing of the port. Having the port shared can save in cabling, but you trade that off for trusting some firmware to do the right thing. Isolated ports mean that you can have one cable that goes to the BMC and only the BMC, and one that goes to the host and only the host. i.e. you place trust for isolation in the fact that two cables go to two different places, and don't involve another bit of firmware.