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This has been the case in Server systems for a while - IPMI[1] has been used for remote KVM, power management, remote mounting of ISOs, etc. on many servers for

This has been the case in Server systems for a while - IPMI[1] has been used for remote KVM, power management, remote mounting of ISOs, etc. on many servers for years. HP's iLO, Dell's iDRAC, and even SuperMicro boards have an implementation. This pattern is pretty standard, but none of it's FOSS. [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_Platform_Management_Interface https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_Platform_Managemen...

plausibilities 7y ago
Wasn't NordVPN recently pwned via an IPMI security hole? iLO is kind of a piece of crap, but I do love my Xen and resource pools
- tyingq 7y ago
  Pretty sure the IPMI software is crap no matter the brand. I know the SuperMicro one requires a very old Java version fat client to interact with it, and is very flaky.
  - petschge 7y ago
    The newer versions finally support a HTML5 console instead of the old java webstart horror they used to ship with.
    - kelleyk 7y ago
      Also, if you need to interact with a Supermicro BMC that doesn't support the HTML5 console (for example, because it's running older firmware), I reverse-engineered the proprietary "iKVM" protocol (along with a lot of other parts of the BMC) and implemented support for it on a branch of noVNC, which you can find here: https://github.com/kelleyk/noVNC https://github.com/kelleyk/noVNC
      - dboreham 7y ago
        Waaaat! Praise be. Now I can justify the last 45min reading HN...
      - phil21 7y ago
        Indeed. We have used this in production for some time now!
      - plausibilities 7y ago
        Thank you for your contribution! Keeping that "Just buy a shitload of cheap-o eBay 2U/4U hand-me-downs" workflow viable for years to come :D
  - gnufx 7y ago
    Yes, but that stuff isn't actually IPMI. You normally only need it if need a graphical console (or haven't re-directed to the IPMI serial link), or need to mount a boot image, which is typically painfully slow. (FreeIPMI and associated tools like conman are good for IPMI management, with a set of workarounds for defective implementations.)
gnufx 7y ago
OpenBMC is free software, used by POWER9 systems, in particular. I haven't used it, but I think it's in the Summit and Sierra supercomputers as well as TALOS systems. IPMI/BMC implementations are a nightmare, and something you can potentially fix has considerable appeal.

plausibilities 7y ago

Wasn't NordVPN recently pwned via an IPMI security hole? iLO is kind of a piece of crap, but I do love my Xen and resource pools

tyingq 7y ago
Pretty sure the IPMI software is crap no matter the brand. I know the SuperMicro one requires a very old Java version fat client to interact with it, and is very flaky.
- petschge 7y ago
  The newer versions finally support a HTML5 console instead of the old java webstart horror they used to ship with.
  - kelleyk 7y ago
    Also, if you need to interact with a Supermicro BMC that doesn't support the HTML5 console (for example, because it's running older firmware), I reverse-engineered the proprietary "iKVM" protocol (along with a lot of other parts of the BMC) and implemented support for it on a branch of noVNC, which you can find here: https://github.com/kelleyk/noVNC https://github.com/kelleyk/noVNC
    - dboreham 7y ago
      Waaaat! Praise be. Now I can justify the last 45min reading HN...
    - phil21 7y ago
      Indeed. We have used this in production for some time now!
    - plausibilities 7y ago
      Thank you for your contribution! Keeping that "Just buy a shitload of cheap-o eBay 2U/4U hand-me-downs" workflow viable for years to come :D
- gnufx 7y ago
  Yes, but that stuff isn't actually IPMI. You normally only need it if need a graphical console (or haven't re-directed to the IPMI serial link), or need to mount a boot image, which is typically painfully slow. (FreeIPMI and associated tools like conman are good for IPMI management, with a set of workarounds for defective implementations.)

gnufx 7y ago

OpenBMC is free software, used by POWER9 systems, in particular. I haven't used it, but I think it's in the Summit and Sierra supercomputers as well as TALOS systems. IPMI/BMC implementations are a nightmare, and something you can potentially fix has considerable appeal.