John R Pierce wrote:

Rudi Ahlers wrote:

...

Hi all

I'm trying to get to grips with this one, but just can't figure it out. I recently acquired some 2nd hand Dell Poweredge 860 servers, and noticed that they have built in remote management interfaces. So, I have setup one, and assigned an IP address to it, but have no idea on how to access it remotely. Google'ing for an answer didn't bring me more than general product information about various different IPMI stuff.

So, how do I actually access these servers remotely? If possible, I'd like todo it via another CentOS server at the DC using SSH.

do they have teh DRAC 4/p management module? if so, you configure that (can be done from the BIOS setup, I believe) to have an IP, then you can access them with a web browser. this is done via the seperate ethernet port on the DRAC card. change the default DRAC password on first access (no, I don't recall what the default is, but if you google for site:dell.com drac-4 documentation, I'm sure you'll find it).

if its strictly IPMI, I can't help you, I've never figured out IPMI either.

I'm not 100% sure if there's a DRAC 4 device in. It has 2x NIC's, and I can set the IP on the top NIC as the management IP. I haven't been able to connect to it via a web browser though, nor can I ping it.

nate wrote:

Rudi Ahlers wrote:

...

I'm not 100% sure if there's a DRAC 4 device in. It has 2x NIC's, and I can set the IP on the top NIC as the management IP. I haven't been able to connect to it via a web browser though, nor can I ping it.

Install the OpenIPMI tools, start ipmi, and try to connect using ipmitool shell

You may need to install some dell specific drivers as well.

Once in the ipmi shell try commands like sensor lan print 0 (print's IPMI controller config)

This works for me on the DRAC 5, haven't tried DRAC4, but it works on other non dell IPMI systems as well for me.

nate

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Cool, this worked from my Windows Laptop to the Dell server, but I see it's only a very basic info type setup. Do you run any specific software on your Linux server to give you more control?

I was actually hoping that I could use this as a KVM over IP type thing to manage the server if there's any OS / software problems, but it doesn't seem like it could do that.

nate wrote:

Some management systems have additional options which include full VGA KVM abilities, I have a demo Dell box with DRAC 5 which has this ability though I haven't been able to get it to work. HP systems have this ability as well but require an additional ~$300 license add on(iLO Advanced), whereas remote serial console is free. That and the remote KVM stuff usually requires a browser or a special client, whereas remote serial console can be done in text mode (the before mentioned system running DRAC5 allows me to SSH into it and connect to the serial console that way).

DRAC 4 or 5 remote console shoudl work just fine, I've used it quite regularlly... the client needs a web browser with java 1.4 or 1.5 enabled as they use a java VNC implementation to 'remote' the ATI VGA. this gives you a remote CD and floppy as well as graphical VGA. the remote CD can either be the client systems actual CD drive, or it can be an ISO file.

Les Mikesell wrote:

Rudi Ahlers wrote:

...

Hi all

I'm trying to get to grips with this one, but just can't figure it out. I recently acquired some 2nd hand Dell Poweredge 860 servers, and noticed that they have built in remote management interfaces. So, I have setup one, and assigned an IP address to it, but have no idea on how to access it remotely. Google'ing for an answer didn't bring me more than general product information about various different IPMI stuff.

So, how do I actually access these servers remotely? If possible, I'd like todo it via another CentOS server at the DC using SSH.

Dell's usually come with their openmange suite, so you might google for that. I think a java-enabled browser should connect and get an applet that looks more or less like vnc for console access. But you only need it when installing remotely or if something is wrong so you can't ssh to the main interface.

Dell usually has all their documentation and updates online. If this doesn't help you can probably find the full manual. ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/sysman/readme_160_A00.txt

Thanx, that link was very helpful. I see they mention the word KVM, but I doubt it will give me a full "Keyboard / Video / Mouse" as a KVMoverIP device would, or am I wrong? I would basically like to access the server remotely, as with a KVMoverIP device if there's any problems with the OS, like a kernel update that ran into problems, or something like that. Is it possible with these, out of your experience, or not?

Dell's site is just too big for me to get any proper answers on this matter

On 6/21/08, Les Mikesell lesmikesell@gmail.com wrote: <snip>

I've found their web support to be excellent if you can get past the place where they sort out the individual/small/large business users. Try to find support/downloads and the place where you put in the model number or their tag number which identifies it completely. Then you go directly to everything they have for that device, which might be flash updates, all the manuals, and any utilities they provide. I think they maintain this for everything they have ever sold.

There is also a huge community of users on the Dell support site and many of them have the answers. I find it much easier to use the Dell support site, for our 4 Dimension boxes, than the Compaq support site, for our Compaq EVO.