Forum Discussion

Lynne_Seamans's avatar
Lynne_Seamans
Level 6
10 years ago

5220 appliance IPMI confusion and mystery

Have a 5220 netbackup appliance which acts as master and media server.

Recently upgraded to latest software, 2.6.1.1.  Also, purchased additional memory and another storage shelf, which was successfully installed.

Running along just fine, when i get a call from one of our "Networking Guys',  tracing packets for some other problems, but see an awful lot of traffic for a certain MAC addr.   And it's one - off from what's listed as the main interface for my 5220.  Not mine, I say.

Well, he assigned the mac address a name and IP number and now, when I https to it, VOILA, IPMI interface for my 5220.

How did this happen?  I looked at the back, and there is an ethernet-looking connection labelled IPMI, but there's no cable in it. 

Not causing any trouble, but I would like to know if this is something new, or somethings that's been broadcasting a while and someone just noticed it.  Besides the "solving the mystery" aspect, I do have another appliance which I might like to get IPMI going on, and would really like to know what happened here.

 

Backup and Recovery
HP-UX
NetBackup Appliance
  • chashock's avatar
    chashock
    10 years ago

    Lynne

    I can't tell you why this suddenly started happening, none of my customers have reported this behavior to me and I haven't heard of it before, sorry.

    I would suggest a support ticket perhaps just to review that the upgrade all completed properly given this odd behavior, but if you aren't seeing any other issues it's probably not a rush to it kind of thing.  It could help us identify if there is some sort of problem in our upgrade process, though.

    As to changing the address back to static 0.0.0.0, yes, if you make that change through the GUI, you'll then lose connectivity.

    What I'd suggest is getting the IPMI port cabled and assigning an address to the RMM3 port first, then attaching to that IP to make the change.  I'm a huge advocate of the use of the IPMI port and strongly suggest this method.

    If that's not possible at this time, you could go into the CLISH and elevate to the shell (I don't normally recommend this but you clearly know how to do it already -- this might be something to have support assist you with, however).  Once there, you can use ipmitool to set the IP address the same way you used it to print out the configuration.  You'd use

    ipmitool lan set 1 ipsrc static

    ipmitool lan set 1 ipaddr 0.0.0.0

    ipmitool lan set 1 netmask 0.0.0.0

    ipmitool lan set 1 defgw ipaddr 0.0.0.0

    bmc reset cold

    ipmitool lan print 1 (to validate the change took place).

    The IPMI menu of the CLISH is set to handle the RMM channel, so you can't use the CLISH to do this, only the shell.  I'm also working off the top of my head on those commands.  You may not need the netmask and defgw commands since you're essentially turning the port off with that address.

    If any of this is confusing or you're uncomfortable with it, I'd suggest logging a ticket with support.

  • chashock's avatar
    chashock
    Level 6
    10 years ago

    This is very, very odd behavior.  The closest thing I can think of is that the chipset provides a BMC and RMM controller, and possibly the BMC is operating on a shared NIC configuration, but I don't have a 5220 immediately available to even see if this is a possibility for the 5220 implementation (it is on other motherboards).

    I'd take a look at the BIOS configuration the next time you have an opportunity to reboot it, and make sure that the BMC controller is unconfigured.  

  • Andrew_Madsen's avatar
    Andrew_Madsen
    Level 6
    10 years ago

    Are you certain that you are at the IPMI instead of the appliance web page? They are different and use different users to access them.

  • Lynne_Seamans's avatar
    Lynne_Seamans
    Level 6
    10 years ago

    Yup, positive.  The one you need to log in as "sysadmin" rather than "admin".  To be sure, though, here's what it looks like:

     

    ipmi.JPG

  • Lynne_Seamans's avatar
    Lynne_Seamans
    Level 6
    10 years ago

    thanks for that suggestion.  think i saw the instructions for that in the 5220 admin guide...   will check it out.

  • Andrew_Madsen's avatar
    Andrew_Madsen
    Level 6
    10 years ago

    That is perplexing. The IPMI is on a daughter board so there is no sharing of the Ethernet connection. Here are some things to like at:

    From the CLISH: Support > IPMI Network Show

    This should give us SOME idea as to how this is happening. 

    On the back of the box there should be Eth1, Eth2, Eth3, Eth4, IPMI, and Serial see which ones have cables installed. I know you said IPMI did not but which ones do?

  • Lynne_Seamans's avatar
    Lynne_Seamans
    Level 6
    10 years ago

    bladerunner.Support> IPMI Network show
    IP Address Source    : Static
    IP Address           : 192.168.0.10
    Subnet Mask          : 255.255.255.0
    Gateway IP Address   : 0.0.0.0

     

    pretty boring... and not the ip number i can access it on. 

  • sdo's avatar
    sdo
    Moderator
    10 years ago

    To confirm the MAC address of the IPMI:

    > Support > Maintenance >
P@ssw0rd
/opt/Symantec/scspagent/IPS/sisipsoverride.sh
P@ssw0rd
...then select option 1. Overrride prevention except for Self Protection
...then option:   6. 8 hours
...enter a comment, or your name, or a case number, anything...
maintenance-!> elevate
nb-appliance: # /usr/bin/ipmitool lan print 3

    HTH

  • chashock's avatar
    chashock
    Level 6
    10 years ago

    That is the default address for the IPMI.

    On the Configuration tab, is there a drop-down for BMC?  See if that has the IP address you can access it on.  If not the Configuration tab, look at the System Information tab (I'm going off the top of my head here).

     

  • Lynne_Seamans's avatar
    Lynne_Seamans
    Level 6
    10 years ago

    Here's what my "Configuration" tab looks like, the drop down I see is for "LAN Channel", and the only option besides the "Baseboard Mgmt" that's showing is Intel(R) RMM3

     

    ipmi-config.JPG