IPMI driver

this page last updated: 2018-08-06 11:19:54

IPMI driver

Overview

The ipmi hardware type manage nodes by using IPMI (Intelligent Platform Management Interface) protocol versions 2.0 or 1.5. It uses the IPMItool utility which is an open-source command-line interface (CLI) for controlling IPMI-enabled devices.

Glossary

  • IPMI - Intelligent Platform Management Interface.
  • IPMB - Intelligent Platform Management Bus/Bridge.
  • BMC - Baseboard Management Controller.
  • RMCP - Remote Management Control Protocol.

Enabling the IPMI hardware type

Please see Configuring IPMI support for the required dependencies.

  1. The ipmi hardware type is enabled by default starting with the Ocata release. To enable it explicitly, add the following to your ironic.conf:

    [DEFAULT]
enabled_hardware_types = ipmi
enabled_management_interfaces = ipmitool,noop
enabled_power_interfaces = ipmitool

    Optionally, enable the vendor passthru interface and either or both console interfaces:

    [DEFAULT]
enabled_hardware_types = ipmi
enabled_console_interfaces = ipmitool-socat,ipmitool-shellinabox,no-console
enabled_management_interfaces = ipmitool,noop
enabled_power_interfaces = ipmitool
enabled_vendor_interfaces = ipmitool,no-vendor

  2. Restart the Ironic conductor service.

Please see Enabling drivers and hardware types for more details.

Registering a node with the IPMI driver

Nodes configured to use the IPMItool drivers should have the driver field set to ipmi.

The following configuration value is required and has to be added to the node’s driver_info field:

  • ipmi_address: The IP address or hostname of the BMC.

Other options may be needed to match the configuration of the BMC, the following options are optional, but in most cases, it’s considered a good practice to have them set:

  • ipmi_username: The username to access the BMC; defaults to NULL user.
  • ipmi_password: The password to access the BMC; defaults to NULL.
  • ipmi_port: The remote IPMI RMCP port. By default ipmitool will use the port 623.

Note

It is highly recommend that you setup a username and password for your BMC.

The openstack baremetal node create command can be used to enroll a node with an IPMItool-based driver. For example:

openstack baremetal node create --driver ipmi \
    --driver-info ipmi_address=<address> \
    --driver-info ipmi_username=<username> \
    --driver-info ipmi_password=<password>

Advanced configuration

When a simple configuration such as providing the address, username and password is not enough, the IPMItool driver contains many other options that can be used to address special usages.

Single/Double bridging functionality

Note

A version of IPMItool higher or equal to 1.8.12 is required to use the bridging functionality.

There are two different bridging functionalities supported by the IPMItool-based drivers: single bridge and dual bridge.

The following configuration values need to be added to the node’s driver_info field so bridging can be used:

  • ipmi_bridging: The bridging type; default is no; other supported values are single for single bridge or dual for double bridge.
  • ipmi_local_address: The local IPMB address for bridged requests.
    Required only if ipmi_bridging is set to single or dual. This configuration is optional, if not specified it will be auto discovered by IPMItool.
  • ipmi_target_address: The destination address for bridged requests. Required only if ipmi_bridging is set to single or dual.
  • ipmi_target_channel: The destination channel for bridged requests. Required only if ipmi_bridging is set to single or dual.

Double bridge specific options:

  • ipmi_transit_address: The transit address for bridged requests. Required only if ipmi_bridging is set to dual.
  • ipmi_transit_channel: The transit channel for bridged requests. Required only if ipmi_bridging is set to dual.

The parameter ipmi_bridging should specify the type of bridging required: single or dual to access the bare metal node. If the parameter is not specified, the default value will be set to no.

The openstack baremetal node set command can be used to set the required bridging information to the Ironic node enrolled with the IPMItool driver. For example:

  • Single Bridging:

    openstack baremetal node set <UUID or name> \
    --driver-info ipmi_local_address=<address> \
    --driver-info ipmi_bridging=single \
    --driver-info ipmi_target_channel=<channel> \
    --driver-info ipmi_target_address=<target address>

  • Double Bridging:

    openstack baremetal node set <UUID or name> \
    --driver-info ipmi_local_address=<address> \
    --driver-info ipmi_bridging=dual \
    --driver-info ipmi_transit_channel=<transit channel> \
    --driver-info ipmi_transit_address=<transit address> \
    --driver-info ipmi_target_channel=<target channel> \
    --driver-info ipmi_target_address=<target address>

Changing the version of the IPMI protocol

The IPMItool-based drivers works with the versions 2.0 and 1.5 of the IPMI protocol. By default, the version 2.0 is used.

In order to change the IPMI protocol version in the bare metal node, the following option needs to be set to the node’s driver_info field:

  • ipmi_protocol_version: The version of the IPMI protocol; default is 2.0. Supported values are 1.5 or 2.0.

The openstack baremetal node set command can be used to set the desired protocol version:

openstack baremetal node set <UUID or name> --driver-info ipmi_protocol_version=<version>

Warning

Version 1.5 of the IPMI protocol does not support encryption. Therefore, it is highly recommended that version 2.0 is used.

Static boot order configuration

Some hardware is known to misbehave when changing the boot device through the IPMI protocol. To work around it you can use the noop management interface implementation with the ipmi hardware type. In this case the Bare Metal service will not change the boot device for you, leaving the pre-configured boot order.

For example, in case of the PXE boot:

  1. Via any available means configure the boot order on the node as follows:

    1. Boot from PXE/iPXE on the provisioning NIC.

      Warning

      If it is not possible to limit network boot to only provisioning NIC, make sure that no other DHCP/PXE servers are accessible by the node.

    2. Boot from hard drive.

  2. Make sure the noop management interface is enabled, see example in Enabling the IPMI hardware type.

  3. Change the node to use the noop management interface:

    openstack baremetal node set <NODE> --management-interface noop
this page last updated: 2018-08-06 11:19:54
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