[GLLUG] Power control over IP

[John Hearns]

Regarding iDRAC there is a comprehensive overview of the various features
here
Put simply, yes iDRAC supports IPMI.
I always advise getting the Enterprise license - you can get a months trial
license too.

https://www.dell.com/support/manuals/en-uk/oth-r6525/idrac9_4.00.00.00_ug_new/licensed-features-in-idrac9?guid=guid-e8a767a7-3648-48d7-945a-a700da1d5c96&lang=en-us

If that is overwhelming you (it probably does) drop am an email offline.




On Tue, 1 Jun 2021 at 10:57, Marco van Beek via GLLUG <
gllug at mailman.lug.org.uk> wrote:

> As many others have already said. the ideal is if this is part of the
> baseboard management tool of the servers. Although both DELL and HP call
> it by their own names (and often charge extra for additional features)
> the generic term is IPMI, or Intelligent Platform Management Interface
> (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_Platform_Management_Interface).
>
> However, you do have to buy servers that support this, but it gives you
> a lot of control, and is a lot cheaper that a compilation of a networked
> KVM and a networked PDU. In most cases it is brought out as a separate
> Ethernet port on the back of the server, which means you can run it on a
> completely separate network should you wish for security purposes.
>
> IPMI systems usually includes the ability to boot of remote media, like
> the CD-ROM of your own computer, so you can analyse (and often fix)
> corrupt boot drives without leaving home. As long as you have power to
> the server (and the switch the IPMI is plugged in to, of course), you
> have the ability to start fixing it.
>
> These days when I buy a new server, we never even plug a screen or
> keyboard in to it. We just do enough of the install over the KVM
> interface that comes with the IPMI system, and then carry on with SSH as
> an when the server is booted.
>
> Even without a license the HP "integrated Lights Out" system will still
> allow basic troubleshooting until the OS boots. I haven't played with
> Dell's system, but I am sure someone on the list can confirm. We use
> SuperMicro servers and if you get a motherboard with IPMI, they come
> fully featured.
>
> So I suggest looking on the back of the servers you already have and see
> if there are any unexplained Ethernet ports, usually located in a
> different place to the main Etherports the OS uses. As some else said,
> maybe you already have some servers with the functionality you need.
>
> Regards,
>
> Marco
>
> On 29/05/2021 16:19, stuart taylor via GLLUG wrote:
> > Hi all,
> >
> > During the past 15 months I have managed to change various things
> involving our systems, for the better I think. We have also gained various
> part time volunteer admins, who are very good, mostly better than I am. One
> of them showed me how he could power down his servers remotely over IP, and
> restart them again. This looks very useful as we are spending less time at
> the building and mostly working from home. I have previously managed to
> obtain a cabinet, for our servers, change the lock for a padlock based
> system and restrict the key holders to a few people. This means switching
> servers on, or off, is better controlled, but also makes it more difficult
> for the admins to reboot when they are at home. Can anyone point me towards
> a suitable 'power supply over IP' solution? Are there any drawbacks to
> using these?
> >
> > Stuart
> >
>
>
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