Server support for the /dev/ipmi interface

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Abstract

On HP partitionable servers, the DMI or IPMI interfaces are used by several products, including ICAP a STM to collect partition status configuration according on the system embedded administration interface.

DMI stands for Desktop Management Interface. "Due to the rapid development of DMTF technologies, such as Common Information Model (CIM), the DMTF defined an "End of Life" process for DMI, which ended on March 31, 2005." It was used on several partitionable servers: hp 9000 SuperDome (cells based on the ZX1 chipset), hp 9000 rp8400, and hp 9000 rp7410 to provided access to hardware information.

IPMI stands for Intelligent Platform Management Interface. This standard replaces the previous DMI on newer partitional servers, like Integrity Superdome, hp Integrity rx8620, hp Integrity rx7650, hp 9000 Superdome, hp 9000 rp8420, and hp 9000 rp7420.

Check current IPMI device configuration

# ioscan -fnC ipmi
Class     I  H/W Path  Driver S/W State   H/W Type     Description
=================================================================
ipmi      0  16        ipmi   CLAIMED     INTERFACE    IPMI Controller
                      /dev/ipmi

# ll /dev/ipmi
crw-------   1 root       root        32 0x000000 Sep 23 18:34 /dev/ipmi

Recreate IPMI device special device file

If the file is not present on servers that support the IPMI interface, like systems cloned Ignite-UX recovery tools (rp7410 cloned to rp7420), create the device special file To create the device special file manually, use mknod command: 

# mknod /dev/ipmi c 32 0x000000

Sometimes is necessary to run the insf command, to refresh the kernel and informed it that the device exists: 

# insf -e

Remove IPMI device special device file

On systems that don't support the IPMI occasionally the device special file /dev/ipmi exists, like systems cloned Ignite-UX recovery tools (rp7420 cloned to rp7410). When this occurs, commands like parstatus fails because it cannot query the system administration interfaces. This tools are hard coded to try to use IPMI if the device special file exists.

Also, in this case, the ICOD daemon will fail to start with the following error register in the /etc/rc.log file: 

----------------------------
Initialize Instant Capacity
Output from "/sbin/rc2.d/S602icod start":
----------------------------
ERROR:   The following low-level error occurred:
 
HPNPAR4:@4:Software error.[A time-out occurred waiting for a response from the IPMI request 6:1(NetFn:Cmd). status codes returned were -1:0:6(ioctl function return:cCode:errno).
]No such device or address
ERROR: /etc/inittab is missing the required entry for
       the Instant Capacity daemon (icapd).
       Refer to the icapd (1m) man page for more
       information.
ERROR:   The following low-level error occurred:
 
HPNPAR4:@4:Software error.[A time-out occurred waiting for a response from the IPMI request 6:1(NetFn:Cmd). status codes returned were -1:0:6(ioctl function return:cCode:errno).
]No such device or address
ERROR: The Instant Capacity (iCAP) Agent
       was unable to reconcile the number of active
       processors with the intended number of active
       processors.  For further information about
       the Instant Capacity status, run icapstatus (1m).
"/sbin/rc2.d/S602icod start" FAILED

Remove the /dev/ipmi device special file and reboot the partition. 

# rm /dev/ipmi

Reference

Authors

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