If you purchase a Supermicro based server from ET, you can manage the system remotely via the built-in IPMI interface. This is useful if your system locks up and you're 20 miles away, or if you need to change a bios setting and you don't feel like walking plugging into the system on the rack.
Manage Via GUI
The latest version of the ET/BWMGR allows you to set the IPMI address in the GUI. This feature was added in v5.0.39, so if you have an older version you can upgrade to simplify setting up IPMI. Under the Admin button, the following menu is available.
Manually Setting up IPMI in the BIOS
By default, IPMI tries to get an address via DHCP. It's not easy to figure out which one it gets, so we recommend that you give it a static address. In order to configure it, you'll have to find it in the Bios. Every MB is different. You'll need to change DHCP to Static, after which the address fields will become modifiable. Change it to static and then enter in the IP info that you want to use.
Once you've set it up and reboot, you'll get a login where you need to enter ADMIN/ADMIN in caps. That should get you into the main screen.
The Preview is a Java Application that runs better on some systems than others. The most important buttons are the Power Down and Reset. Power Down does an organized shutdown and should be used if you need to reset the system. Reset is like pushing the reset button, which will cause your disks to need to be repaired. Don't worry about Power Down; you'll be able to power it back up. You can also select the power control under
You need to change the passwords on the default account. Go into Configuration->Users and modify both Anonymous and ADMIN. You can set those to "No access" and add your own user names.
Highlight the user you want to change and press Modify User. You'll need to check the Change Password box and then you can enter a new password.
There are a lot of interesting things to look at; the most useful perhaps is the Sensors under system health.
Note that the Chassis Intrusion will stay red until you reset it. You can turn on the Event log if you want to see the times when the chassis was opened or other events occur. You can even tell it to email you.
If you're lucky, the JAVA console will work. Use Remote Control -> Console Redireaction and press the Launch Console button. If it works, you'll get the system console in a Java Window.
You can do just about everything remotely; even change BIOS settings.
IP Access Control
Because IPMI runs on firmware at the hardware level, you cannot firewall the IPMI console with the ET/BWMGR. Ideally, you will firewall out at your main router, but if you can't, you'll need to use the IP Access feature in the IPMI software.
Under Configuration, select IP Access.
Check Enable; IP Access is disabled by default.
Click Add, and enter an IP that you want to allow. You'll need to enter the slash mask as well.
Save the setting and you should see the table with all of the entries you've entered. Repeat this with other addresses and networks you want to allow.
After all of the IPs allowed have been entered, enter the global drop rule, which is 0.0.0.0/0. 0.0.0.0/32 WILL NOT WORK. Also, make sure you allow the address you're working on before saving the drop rule, otherwise you'll lose access to the panel.
When done, you should see your IP Access table. This table will only allow 10.1.1.1 to access IPMI.
