3 ms·

They’re special firmware blobs because generally the OEMs aren’t building their BMCs from scratch as they might with their main boards and other components. The

They’re special firmware blobs because generally the OEMs aren’t building their BMCs from scratch as they might with their main boards and other components. They’re generally getting the bmc SoC from the likes of Aspeed and others who are the ones keeping them closed up. I’ve tried to get the magic binaries and source for various projects but have given up because there are so many layers of NDAs and sales gatekeepers. I’m not entirely sure who makes the dell bmcs but I know supermicro bundles Aspeed (at least they did with older generations of their main boards.) I agree with you that you should be able to run whatever since in the end it’s just another computer, but the manufacturers believe otherwise since there’s “valuable IP” or whatever nonsense (insert rollseyes emoji here). There are open specs like redfish but still doesn’t get to the heart of the matter.

jebr224 3y ago
It is complicated. AMI sells a bmc software stack, https://www.ami.com/megarac/ https://www.ami.com/megarac/ Intel and small manufacturer were unhappy, about always paying the ami tax. So intel created openbmc, as a hedge against ami's monopoly for small manufacturers. I have heard Openbmc has user from facebook, google, ibm, bytdance, and ali. Dell owns their own stack in idrac, I have heard most of their systems are nuvoton based. I am suspect dell pays some big bucks to keep their systems at feature parity with the other options, and they view it as a an investment. There are also silicon devices on the motherboard, that have drivers that are not able to be shared. So it not surprising that companies don't share source in a way that would be useful. If you wanted a system that as a bmc that could be tested try the asrock-e3c246d4c, it looks like there are hobbyist, that have it running coreboot, and openbmc. (impressively) https://9esec.io/blog/coreboot-on-the-asrock-e3c246d4c/ https://9esec.io/blog/coreboot-on-the-asrock-e3c246d4c/
mkj 3y ago
Aspeed aren't the ones keeping them closed - OpenBMC running on Aspeed chips is an option chosen by some system vendors. It's a vendor choice whether to go with an open platform or a closed BMC from AMI etc. https://github.com/AspeedTech-BMC/openbmc https://github.com/AspeedTech-BMC/openbmc (or see the upstream OpenBMC tree) HPE are adding some OpenBMC support https://www.hpe.com/us/en/compute/openbmc-proliant-servers.html https://www.hpe.com/us/en/compute/openbmc-proliant-servers.h... This work from Supermicro looked promising https://lore.kernel.org/openbmc/CACPK8XdE0sRmt4x54YJVJO2wDT5cm2AkRfGBoyn+h9P668K5mg@mail.gmail.com/T/ https://lore.kernel.org/openbmc/CACPK8XdE0sRmt4x54YJVJO2wDT5...

jebr224 3y ago

It is complicated. AMI sells a bmc software stack, https://www.ami.com/megarac/ https://www.ami.com/megarac/ Intel and small manufacturer were unhappy, about always paying the ami tax. So intel created openbmc, as a hedge against ami's monopoly for small manufacturers. I have heard Openbmc has user from facebook, google, ibm, bytdance, and ali. Dell owns their own stack in idrac, I have heard most of their systems are nuvoton based. I am suspect dell pays some big bucks to keep their systems at feature parity with the other options, and they view it as a an investment. There are also silicon devices on the motherboard, that have drivers that are not able to be shared. So it not surprising that companies don't share source in a way that would be useful. If you wanted a system that as a bmc that could be tested try the asrock-e3c246d4c, it looks like there are hobbyist, that have it running coreboot, and openbmc. (impressively) https://9esec.io/blog/coreboot-on-the-asrock-e3c246d4c/ https://9esec.io/blog/coreboot-on-the-asrock-e3c246d4c/

mkj 3y ago

Aspeed aren't the ones keeping them closed - OpenBMC running on Aspeed chips is an option chosen by some system vendors. It's a vendor choice whether to go with an open platform or a closed BMC from AMI etc. https://github.com/AspeedTech-BMC/openbmc https://github.com/AspeedTech-BMC/openbmc (or see the upstream OpenBMC tree) HPE are adding some OpenBMC support https://www.hpe.com/us/en/compute/openbmc-proliant-servers.html https://www.hpe.com/us/en/compute/openbmc-proliant-servers.h... This work from Supermicro looked promising https://lore.kernel.org/openbmc/CACPK8XdE0sRmt4x54YJVJO2wDT5cm2AkRfGBoyn+h9P668K5mg@mail.gmail.com/T/ https://lore.kernel.org/openbmc/CACPK8XdE0sRmt4x54YJVJO2wDT5...