Using IPMI tool from Romulus

Question

How to run IPMI tool from the openBMC romulus image. I was successful in running the Hello World program as per the tutorials. I want to run IPMI tool command from the romulus to the BMC of another server. Is there is any method of doing this? As ipmitool command is not included. Is there any way of including it in the romulus Image.

Answer 1

Romulus does not have ipmitool in it OpenBMC firmware image, as do some other OpenBMC platforms; not all platforms have the SPI FLASH space supply many utilites. You can use ipmitool from a remote machine to a Romulus like below.

ipmitool -I lanplus -C 17 -p 623 -U root -H <server> -P <password> bmc info

or

ipmitool -I lanplus -C 17 -p 623 -U root -H <server> -P <password> raw 0x06 0x01

I chose to use -C 17 for cipher suite 17 as ipmitool defaults to cipher suite 3 and modern platforms have deprecated cipher suite 3 for security reasons. Cipher suites 3 and 17 were last 2 suites that had any security strength, and 17 is the stronger (do not read that as strong) and now suite 3 is considered weak.

and here are the ipmitool commands:

usage: ipmitool [options...] <command>
       -h             This help
       -V             Show version information
       -v             Verbose (can use multiple times)
       -c             Display output in comma separated format
       -d N           Specify a /dev/ipmiN device to use (default=0)
       -I intf        Interface to use
       -H hostname    Remote host name for LAN interface
       -p port        Remote RMCP port [default=623]
       -U username    Remote session username
       -f file        Read remote session password from file
       -z size        Change Size of Communication Channel (OEM)
       -S sdr         Use local file for remote SDR cache
       -D tty:b[:s]   Specify the serial device, baud rate to use
                      and, optionally, specify that interface is the system one
       -4             Use only IPv4
       -6             Use only IPv6
       -a             Prompt for remote password
       -Y             Prompt for the Kg key for IPMIv2 authentication
       -e char        Set SOL escape character
       -C ciphersuite Cipher suite to be used by lanplus interface
       -k key         Use Kg key for IPMIv2 authentication
       -y hex_key     Use hexadecimal-encoded Kg key for IPMIv2 authentication
       -L level       Remote session privilege level [default=ADMINISTRATOR]
                      Append a '+' to use name/privilege lookup in RAKP1
       -A authtype    Force use of auth type NONE, PASSWORD, MD2, MD5 or OEM
       -P password    Remote session password
       -E             Read password from IPMI_PASSWORD environment variable
       -K             Read kgkey from IPMI_KGKEY environment variable
       -m address     Set local IPMB address
       -b channel     Set destination channel for bridged request
       -t address     Bridge request to remote target address
       -B channel     Set transit channel for bridged request (dual bridge)
       -T address     Set transit address for bridge request (dual bridge)
       -l lun         Set destination lun for raw commands
       -o oemtype     Setup for OEM (use 'list' to see available OEM types)
       -O seloem      Use file for OEM SEL event descriptions
       -N seconds     Specify timeout for lan [default=2] / lanplus [default=1] interface
       -R retry       Set the number of retries for lan/lanplus interface [default=4]

Interfaces:
        open          Linux OpenIPMI Interface [default]
        lan           IPMI v1.5 LAN Interface
        lanplus       IPMI v2.0 RMCP+ LAN Interface
        serial-terminal  Serial Interface, Terminal Mode
        serial-basic  Serial Interface, Basic Mode

Commands:
        raw           Send a RAW IPMI request and print response
        i2c           Send an I2C Master Write-Read command and print response
        spd           Print SPD info from remote I2C device
        lan           Configure LAN Channels
        chassis       Get chassis status and set power state
        power         Shortcut to chassis power commands
        event         Send pre-defined events to MC
        mc            Management Controller status and global enables
        sdr           Print Sensor Data Repository entries and readings
        sensor        Print detailed sensor information
        fru           Print built-in FRU and scan SDR for FRU locators
        gendev        Read/Write Device associated with Generic Device locators sdr
        sel           Print System Event Log (SEL)
        pef           Configure Platform Event Filtering (PEF)
        sol           Configure and connect IPMIv2.0 Serial-over-LAN
        tsol          Configure and connect with Tyan IPMIv1.5 Serial-over-LAN
        isol          Configure IPMIv1.5 Serial-over-LAN
        user          Configure Management Controller users
        channel       Configure Management Controller channels
        session       Print session information
        dcmi          Data Center Management Interface
        nm            Node Manager Interface
        sunoem        OEM Commands for Sun servers
        kontronoem    OEM Commands for Kontron devices
        picmg         Run a PICMG/ATCA extended cmd
        fwum          Update IPMC using Kontron OEM Firmware Update Manager
        firewall      Configure Firmware Firewall
        delloem       OEM Commands for Dell systems
        shell         Launch interactive IPMI shell
        exec          Run list of commands from file
        set           Set runtime variable for shell and exec
        hpm           Update HPM components using PICMG HPM.1 file
        ekanalyzer    run FRU-Ekeying analyzer using FRU files
        ime           Update Intel Manageability Engine Firmware
        vita          Run a VITA 46.11 extended cmd
        lan6          Configure IPv6 LAN Channels

Answer 2

ipmitool is really meant to be used outside of the BMC to control it. So in most use cases you install the ipmitool package on your computer (sudo apt install ipmitool), and then use it to talk to the server.

i.e.:

ipmitool -I lanplus -U root -H <server> -P <password> chassis power status

If you're using QEMU, then I believe you need to hostfwd port 623 for this to work. I personally have not gotten ipmitool to talk to a QEMU session before though.

If you really want ipmitool in your BMC image, then you could add it as a RDEPENDS to the packagegroup file similar to what facebook does in https://github.com/openbmc/meta-facebook/blob/master/meta-tiogapass/recipes-fbtp/packagegroups/packagegroup-fb-apps.bb