[CentOS] What is the System Event Log?

[Peter Kjellstrom]

On Tuesday 10 February 2009, Timothy Murphy wrote:
> Peter Kjellstrom wrote:
> > However, with or without /dev/ipmi0 you can access the BMC remotely with
> > (assuming you have an IP configured etc.).
>
> I'd never heard of BMC (I am not an expert in this area, to put it mildly)

BMC, on-board baseboard management controller, IPMI-controller, service 
processor, ...

The piece of hardware that runs independently from the main part of the server 
and that typically does things like:

* keep the SEL
* perform power controll
* monitor temperatures and fan speeds
* provide serial port over LAN functionality

> but on googling for "dell bmc" I found
> <http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/power/ps1q05-20040219-Brumley.pdf>
> where I learnt that
> "The on-board baseboard management controller (BMC)
> is a powerful and flexible device that can be used to effectively manage
> eighth-generation Dell servers such as the
> PowerEdge 1850, PowerEdge 2800, and PowerEdge 2850."
>
> This suggests to me that my modest PowerEdge T105 probably
> does not support this service.

Googling a bit it does seem that the T105 lacks a BMC :-(

Earlier cheap servers from dell (sc1435 for example) did have it...

> How would I access it if it were available?
> I see a large number of BMC-related ports in /etc/services ,
> but none of them seem to be active on my server.

The BMC is independent from the OS, think a small separate server inside your 
real server.

If a server has one you access it in one of the following ways:

* service ipmi start, local access (requires OpenIPMI kernel driver support)
* via LAN to a dedicated management ethernet port on the server
* via LAN to a shared ethernet port on the server

The LAN access way depends on the BMC having a connection to an ethernet port 
and a working TCP/IP configuration.

/Peter
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