IPMI is an open standard hardware management specification that defines a set of common interfaces to hardware and firmware. System administrators can use IPMI to monitor and manage system’s health. IPMI operates independently of the operating system and thus allows management of systems, even remotely, even in the absence of an operating system or power. IPMI may also work in conjunction with systems management software to provide enhanced functionality. IPMI helps administrators in monitoring systems sensors like temperatures, fans, voltages and memory status. Some products allow for thresholds can be set for each sensor and configured to execute pre-set action incase of an event. Current IPMI implementations can send out alerts to remote clients via LAN, serial or serial-over-LAN connections. Sometimes the interfaces are shared with the on-board LAN port and sometimes there is a dedicated LAN port available. They also provide remote text console redirection via one of the supported interfaces. Some IPMI products provide an added feature of remote graphical console. IPMI implementations across hardware vendors vary but the structure and format of the interfaces are consistent. This allows a single, consistent and uniform management interface in a mixed, multi-vendor environment. Using IPMI compliance devices helps in lowering management costs by eliminating additional training, efforts and software costs. There are many open source software available to manage IPMI compliant devices. More information available at Intel website.

What models of HPC Systems servers and workstations support IPMI?

All models of HPC Systems dual CPU and quad CPU servers and workstations are available with IPMI support.

What is KVM over IP?

KVM over IP is similar to remote graphical console access software such as PCAnywhere or Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection. The main benefit of KVM-over-IP is to allow the administrator to have complete control over the system from anywhere in the world with an internet connection. KVM over IP is ideal for system administrators because it is hardware based, requiring no software to be installed on the remote system. Instead, the IPMI BMC (Baseboard Management Card) obtains video data directly from the graphics chip using the industry standard DVI bus, compress and convert it to IP packets, and send it over an Ethernet link to a remote console application that unpacks and reconstitutes the dynamic graphical image. This KVM over IP is available during the entire BIOS boot process.

What models of HPC Systems servers and workstations support KVM over IP using the IPMI card?

Currently, it is supported on the E1204-SAS and SCSI models, the E2208-SAS and SCSI models, and the E1404W. It is also available on select models by special request.