Accessing the Management interface of a Power Systems AC922
There are a number of methods to access the OpenBMC management interface to manage the system hardware management interface.
Before you can do this, you will need to set up your AC922 and assign an IP address for the management interface.
OpenBMC tool
You can download and use the specific OpenBMC tool for multiple operating systems. This allows you to access all of the functionality of the BMC, including accessing low level details of all of the hardware components. This can be downloaded from the IBM Support Website, and is installed on a system with network access to the AC922.
For each command, you need to include details of the server to connect to, as well as a user name and password. For instance:
openbmctool -U <username> -P <password> -H <BMC IP address or host name>
The default username and password for a new AC922 are root and 0penBmc (the first character is zero). As an example, to power on a new server with BMC IP address 123.45.67.89, you would need to run the command:
openbmctool -U root -P 0penBmc -H 123.45.67.89 power on
For further information on how to download the OpenBMC tool and some of the commands that can be run, see the Knowledge Center article online.
IPMI
The Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) is a set of specifications for communicating with things like Management Controllers. The OpenBMC firmware has an IPMI interface, and this can be used to access many functions of the hardware management. As we’ve seen, this includes setting the IP address of the in-built network interface, but it can also be used to control the power of the main system, get information on the status of the system, and even connect to the system console.
To connect this way, you will need an IPMI utility on a system with network access to the management controller. In Linux, the open source ipmitool is commonly available from standard repositories (for Ubuntu, run sudo apt-get install ipmitool to install, for Red Hat Enterprise Linux, run sudo yum install ipmitool to install).
To connect to the IPMI interface, you will need the IP address or hostname of the management controller, as well as the IPMI password. By default this is set to 0penBmc (the first character is zero). For example, with ipmitool you can check the status of the system chassis using the command:
ipmitool -I lanplus -H <BMC IP address or host name> -P <IPMI password> chassis status
SSH
It is also possible to directly access the BMC using SSH. To do this, you can connect to port 22 on the IP address previously set for the BMC interface. You can control a subset of functions using the obmcutil tool.
GUI
There is a comprehensive Graphical User Interface for the OpenBMC management, although it does not yet allow for full access to all functionality. You can connect to this as a secure website, accessed on the IP address set previously:
https://<BMC IP address or host name>
The default username and password for a new AC922 are root and 0penBmc (the first character is zero).
Rest APIs
There are also a series of REST based APIs within the OpenBMC firmware, allowing for more programmatic access to hardware functionality if required. This also allows for the use of third party tools to manage OpenBMC based systems, including the IBM Power Systems Hardware Management Console (HMC).
Next Steps
You can now continue with your installation by:
- Accessing the system console
- Installing an Operating System