NAME
ipmipower - IPMI power control utility
SYNOPSIS
ipmipower [OPTION...]
DESCRIPTION
ipmipower allows users to remotely power on, off, cycle, hard reset,
get a power status query, perform a pulse diagnostic interrupt, or
initiate a soft-shutdown of the OS via ACPI through the IPMI over LAN
protocol.
When a power command (--on, --off, --cycle, --reset, --stat, --pulse,
or --soft) is specified on the command line, ipmipower will attempt to
run the power command on all hostnames listed on the command line then
exit.
If no power commands are specified on the command line, ipmipower will
run in interactive mode. Interactive mode gives the user a command line
interface to enter various commands. Details of the interactive command
line interface can be found below under INTERACTIVE COMMANDS.
See EXAMPLES below for examples of how ipmipower is commonly used.
GENERAL OPTIONS
The following options are general options for configuring IPMI
communication and executing general tool commands.
-D, --driver-type=IPMIDRIVER
Specify the driver type to use instead of doing an auto
selection. The currently available outofband drivers are LAN
and LAN_2_0, which perform IPMI 1.5 and IPMI 2.0 respectively.
-h, --hostname=IPMIHOST1,IPMIHOST2,...
Specify the remote host(s) to communicate with. Multiple
hostnames may be separated by comma or may be specified in a
range format; see HOSTRANGED SUPPORT below.
-u, --username=USERNAME
Specify the username to use when authenticating with the remote
host. If not specified, a null (i.e. anonymous) username is
assumed. The user must have atleast OPERATOR privileges to run
the --on, --off, --reset, --cycle, --pulse, or --soft power
control commands. The user must have atleast USER privileges to
determine the power status of the machine through --stat.
-p, --password=PASSWORD
Specify the password to use when authenticationg with the remote
host. If not specified, a null password is assumed. Maximum
password length is 16 for IPMI 1.5 and 20 for IPMI 2.0.
-P, --password-prompt
Prompt for password to avoid possibility of listing it in
process lists.
-k, --k-g=K_G
Specify the K_g BMC key to use when authenticating with the
remote host for IPMI 2.0. If not specified, a null key is
assumed. To input the key in hexadecimal form, prefix the string
with ’0x’. E.g., the key ’abc’ can be entered with the either
the string ’abc’ or the string ’0x616263’
-K, --k-g-prompt
Prompt for k-g to avoid possibility of listing it in process
lists.
--session-timeout=MILLISECONDS
Specify the session timeout in milliseconds. Defaults to 20000
milliseconds (20 seconds) if not specified.
--retransmission-timeout=MILLISECONDS
Specify the packet retransmission timeout in milliseconds.
Defaults to 400 milliseconds (0.4 seconds) if not specified.
-a, --authentication-type=AUTHENTICATION-TYPE
Specify the IPMI 1.5 authentication type to use. The currently
available authentication types are NONE, STRAIGHT_PASSWORD_KEY,
MD2, and MD5. Defaults to MD5 if not specified.
-I, --cipher-suite-id=CIPHER-SUITE-ID
Specify the IPMI 2.0 cipher suite ID to use. The Cipher Suite ID
identifies a set of authentication, integrity, and
confidentiality algorithms to use for IPMI 2.0 communication.
The authentication algorithm identifies the algorithm to use for
session setup, the integrity algorithm identifies the algorithm
to use for session packet signatures, and the confidentiality
algorithm identifies the algorithm to use for payload
encryption. Defaults to cipher suite ID 3 if not specified. The
following cipher suite ids are currently supported:
0 - Authentication Algorithm = None; Integrity Algorithm = None;
Confidentiality Algorithm = None
1 - Authentication Algorithm = HMAC-SHA1; Integrity Algorithm =
None; Confidentiality Algorithm = None
2 - Authentication Algorithm = HMAC-SHA1; Integrity Algorithm =
HMAC-SHA1-96; Confidentiality Algorithm = None
3 - Authentication Algorithm = HMAC-SHA1; Integrity Algorithm =
HMAC-SHA1-96; Confidentiality Algorithm = AES-CBC-128
6 - Authentication Algorithm = HMAC-MD5; Integrity Algorithm =
None; Confidentiality Algorithm = None
7 - Authentication Algorithm = HMAC-MD5; Integrity Algorithm =
HMAC-MD5-128; Confidentiality Algorithm = None
8 - Authentication Algorithm = HMAC-MD5; Integrity Algorithm =
HMAC-MD5-128; Confidentiality Algorithm = AES-CBC-128
11 - Authentication Algorithm = HMAC-MD5; Integrity Algorithm =
MD5-128; Confidentiality Algorithm = None
12 - Authentication Algorithm = HMAC-MD5; Integrity Algorithm =
MD5-128; Confidentiality Algorithm = AES-CBC-128
-l, --privilege-level=PRIVILEGE-LEVEL
Specify the privilege level to be used. The currently available
privilege levels are USER, OPERATOR, and ADMIN. Defaults to
OPERATOR if not specified.
--config-file=FILE
Specify an alternate configuration file.
-W, --workaround-flags=WORKAROUNDS
Specify workarounds to vendor compliance issues. Multiple
workarounds can be specified separated by commas. See
WORKAROUNDS below for a list of available workarounds.
--debug
Turn on debugging.
-?, --help
Output a help list and exit.
--usage
Output a usage message and exit.
-V, --version
Output the program version and exit.
IPMIPOWER OPTIONS
The following options are specific to ipmipower.
-n, --on
Power on the target hosts.
-f, --off
Power off the target hosts.
-c, --cycle
Power cycle the target hosts.
-r, --reset
Reset the target hosts.
-s, --stat
Get power status of the target hosts.
-j, --pulse
Send power diagnostic interrupt to target hosts.
-m, --soft
Initiate a soft-shutdown of the OS via ACPI.
-g, --on-if-off
The IPMI specification does not require the power cycle or hard
reset commands to turn on a machine that is currently powered
off. This option will force ipmipower to issue a power on
command instead of a power cycle or hard reset command if the
remote machine’s power is currently off.
-A, --wait-until-on
The IPMI specification allows power on commands to return prior
to the power on actually taking place. This option will force
ipmipower to regularly query the remote BMC and return only
after the machine has powered on.
-G, --wait-until-off
The IPMI specification allows power off commands to return prior
the power off actually taking place. This option will force
ipmipower to regularly query the remote BMC and return only
after the machine has powered off.
IPMIPOWER ADVANCED NETWORK OPTIONS
The following options are used to change the networking behavior of
ipmipower.
-q, --retransmission-wait-timeout=MILLISECONDS
Specify the retransmission wait timeout length in milliseconds.
The retransmission wait timeout is similar to the retransmission
timeout above, but is used specifically for power completion
verification with the --wait-until-on and --wait-until-off
options. Defaults to 500 milliseconds (0.5 seconds).
-b, --retransmission-backoff-count=COUNT
Specify the retransmission backoff count for retransmissions.
After ever COUNT retransmissions, the retransmission timeout
length will be increased by another factor. Defaults to 8.
-i, --ping-interval=MILLISECONDS
Specify the ping interval length in milliseconds. When running
in interactive mode, RMCP (Remote Management Control Protocol)
discovery messages will be sent to all configured remote hosts
every MILLISECONDS to confirm their support of IPMI. Power
commands cannot be sent to a host until it is discovered (or re-
discovered if previously lost). Defaults to 5000 milliseconds (5
seconds). Ping discovery messages can be disabled by setting
this valu to 0. RMCP ping discovery messages are automatically
disabled in non-interactive mode.
-z, --ping-timeout=MILLISECONDS
Specify the ping timeout length in milliseconds. When running in
interactive mode, RMCP (Remote Management Control Protocol)
messages discovery will be sent to all configured remote hosts
to confirm their support of IPMI. A remote host is considered
undiscovered if the host does not respond in MILLISECONDS time.
Defaults to 30000 milliseconds (30 seconds). The ping timeout
cannot be larger than the ping interval.
-v, --ping-packet-count=COUNT
Specify the ping packet count size. Defaults to 10. See the
--ping-percent-fR option below for more information on this
option.
-w, --ping-percent=PERCENT
Specify the ping percent value. Defaults to 50. Since IPMI is
based on UDP, it is difficult for ipmipower to distinguish
between a missing machine and a bad (or heavily loaded) network
connection in interactive mode. when running in interactive
mode. For example, suppose a link consistently drops 80% of the
packets to a particular machine. The power control operation may
have difficulty completing, although a recent pong response from
RMCP makes ipmipower believe the machine is up and functioning
properly. The ping packet acount and percent options are used
to alleviate this problem. Ipmipower will monitor RMCP ping
packets in packet count chunks. If ipmipower does not receive a
response to greater than ping percent of those packets,
ipmipower will assume the link to this node is bad and will not
send power control operations to that node until the connection
is determined to be reliable. This heuristic can be disabled by
setting either the ping packet count or ping percent to 0. This
feature is not used if ping interval is set to 0.
-x, --ping-consec-count=COUNT
Specify the ping consecutive count. This is another heuristic
used to determine if a node should be considered discovered,
undiscovered, or with a bad connection. If a valid RMCP pong
response was received for the last COUNT ping packets, a node
will be considered discovered, regardless of other heuristics
listed above. Defaults to 5. This heuristic can be disabled by
setting this value to 0. This feature is not used if other ping
features described above are disabled.
HOSTRANGED OPTIONS
The following options manipulate hostranged output. See HOSTRANGED
SUPPORT below for additional information on hostranges.
-B, --buffer-output
Buffer hostranged output. For each node, buffer standard output
until the node has completed its IPMI operation. When specifying
this option, data may appear to output slower to the user since
the the entire IPMI operation must complete before any data can
be output. See HOSTRANGED SUPPORT below for additional
information.
-C, --consolidate-output
Consolidate hostranged output. The complete standard output from
every node specified will be consolidated so that nodes with
identical output are not output twice. A header will list those
nodes with the consolidated output. When this option is
specified, no output can be seen until the IPMI operations to
all nodes has completed. If the user breaks out of the program
early, all currently consolidated output will be dumped. See
HOSTRANGED SUPPORT below for additional information.
-F, --fanout
Specify multiple host fanout. Indicates the maximum number of
power control operations that can be executed in parallel.
-E, --eliminate
Eliminate hosts determined as undetected by ipmidetect. This
attempts to remove the common issue of hostranged execution
timing out due to several nodes being removed from service in a
large cluster. The ipmidetectd daemon must be running on the
node executing the command.
--always-prefix
Always prefix output, even if only one host is specified or
communicating in-band. This option is primarily useful for
scripting purposes. Option will be ignored if specified with the
-C option.
INTERACTIVE COMMANDS
ipmipower provides the following interactive commands at the ipmipower>
prompt. Before any power commands (on, off, cycle, reset, stat, pulse,
or soft) can be used, hostnames must be configured into ipmipower,
either through the command prompt or the hostname command below. The
parameters and options to the commands below mirror their appropriate
command line options.
hostname [IPMIHOST(s)]
Specify a new set of hosts. No input to unconfigure all hosts.
username [USERNAME]
Specify a new username. No input for null username.
password [PASSWORD]
Specify a new password. No input for null password.
k_g [K_G]
Specify a new K_g BMC Key. No input for null key. Prefix with
’0x’ to enter a key in hexadecimal
ipmi-version IPMIVERSION
Specify the ipmi version to use.
session-timeout MILLISECONDS
Specify a new session timeout length.
retransmission-timeout MILLISECONDS
Specify a new retransmiision timeout length.
authentication-type AUTHENTICATION-TYPE
Specify the authentication type to use.
cipher-suite-id CIPHER-SUITE-ID
Specify the cipher suite id to use.
privilege-level PRIVILEGE-LEVEL
Specify the privilege level to use.
workaround-flags WORKAROUNDS
Specify workaround flags.
debug [on|off]
Toggle debug output.
on [IPMIHOST(s)]
Turn on all configured hosts or specified hosts.
off [IPMIHOST(s)]
Turn off all configured hosts or specified hosts.
cycle [IPMIHOST(s)]
Power cycle all configured hosts or specified hosts.
reset [IPMIHOST(s)]
Reset all configured hosts or specified hosts.
stat [IPMIHOST(s)]
Query power status for all configured hosts or specified hosts.
pulse [IPMIHOST(s)]
Pulse diagnostic interrupt all configured hosts or specified
hosts.
soft [IPMIHOST(s)]
Initiate a soft-shutdown for all configured hosts or specified
hosts.
identify-on [IPMIHOST(s)]
Turn on physical system identification.
identify-off [IPMIHOST(s)]
Turn off physical system identification.
identify-status [IPMIHOST(s)]
Query physical system identification status.
on-if-off [on|off]
Toggle on-if-off functionality.
wait-until-on [on|off]
Toggle wait-until-on functionality.
wait-until-off [on|off]
Toggle wait-until-off functionality.
retransmission-wait-timeout MILLISECONDS
Specify a new retransmission wait timeout length.
retransmission-backoff-count COUNT
Specify a new retransmission backoff count.
ping-interval MILLISECONDS
Specify a new ping interval length.
ping-timeout MILLISECONDS
Specify a new ping timeout length.
ping-packet-count COUNT
Specify a new ping packet count.
ping-percent PERCENT
Specify a new ping percent.
ping-consec-count COUNT
Specify a new ping consec count.
buffer-output [on|off]
Toggle buffer-output functionality.
consolidate-output [on|off]
Toggle consolidate-output functionality.
fanout COUNT
Specify a fanout.
always-prefix [on|off]
Toggle always-prefix functionality.
help Output help menu.
version
Output version.
config Output the current configuration.
quit Quit program. ipmipower.
HOSTRANGED SUPPORT
Multiple hosts can be input either as an explicit comma separated lists
of hosts or a range of hostnames in the general form: prefix[n-m,l-
k,...], where n < m and l < k, etc. The later form should not be
confused with regular expression character classes (also denoted by
[]). For example, foo[19] does not represent foo1 or foo9, but rather
represents a degenerate range: foo19.
This range syntax is meant only as a convenience on clusters with a
prefixNN naming convention and specification of ranges should not be
considered necessary -- the list foo1,foo9 could be specified as such,
or by the range foo[1,9].
Some examples of range usage follow:
foo[01-05] instead of foo01,foo02,foo03,foo04,foo05
foo[7,9-10] instead of foo7,foo9,foo10
foo[0-3] instead of foo0,foo1,foo2,foo3
As a reminder to the reader, some shells will interpret brackets ([ and
]) for pattern matching. Depending on your shell, it may be necessary
to enclose ranged lists within quotes.
By default, standard output from each node specified will be output
with the hostname prepended to each line. Although this output is
readable in many situations, it may be difficult to read in other
situations. For example, output from multiple nodes may be mixed
together. The -B and -C options can be used to change this default.
EXAMPLES
Determine the power status of foo[0-2] with null username and password
ipmipower -h foo[0-2] --stat
Determine the power status of foo[0-2] with non-null username and
password
ipmipower -h foo[0-2] -u foo -p bar --stat
Hard reset nodes foo[0-2] with non-null username and password
ipmipower -h foo[0-2] -u foo -p bar --reset
GENERAL TROUBLESHOOTING
Most often, IPMI over LAN problems involve a misconfiguration of the
remote machine’s BMC. Double check to make sure the following are
configured properly in the remote machine’s BMC: IP address, MAC
address, subnet mask, username, user enablement, user privilege,
password, LAN privilege, LAN enablement, and allowed authentication
type(s). For IPMI 2.0 connections, double check to make sure the cipher
suite privilege(s) and K_g key are configured properly. The bmc-
config(8) tool can be used to check and/or change these configuration
settings.
The following are common issues for given error messages:
"username invalid" - The username entered (or a NULL username if none
was entered) is not available on the remote machine. It may also be
possible the remote BMC’s username configuration is incorrect.
"password invalid" - The password entered (or a NULL password if none
was entered) is not correct. It may also be possible the password for
the user is not correctly configured on the remote BMC.
"password verification timeout" - Password verification has timed out.
A "password invalid" error (described above) or a generic "session
timeout" (described below) occurred. During this point in the protocol
it cannot be differentiated which occurred.
"k_g invalid" - The K_g key entered (or a NULL K_g key if none was
entered) is not correct. It may also be possible the K_g key is not
correctly configured on the remote BMC.
"privilege level insufficient" - An IPMI command requires a higher user
privilege than the one authenticated with. Please try to authenticate
with a higher privilege. This may require authenticating to a different
user which has a higher maximum privilege.
"privilege level cannot be obtained for this user" - The privilege
level you are attempting to authenticate with is higher than the
maximum allowed for this user. Please try again with a lower privilege.
It may also be possible the maximum privilege level allowed for a user
is not configured properly on the remote BMC.
"authentication type unavailable for attempted privilege level" - The
authentication type you wish to authenticate with is not available for
this privilege level. Please try again with an alternate authentication
type or alternate privilege level. It may also be possible the
available authentication types you can authenticate with are not
correctly configured on the remote BMC.
"cipher suite id unavailable" - The cipher suite id you wish to
authenticate with is not available on the remote BMC. Please try again
with an alternate cipher suite id. It may also be possible the
available cipher suite ids are not correctly configured on the remote
BMC.
"ipmi 2.0 unavailable" - IPMI 2.0 was not discovered on the remote
machine. Please try to use IPMI 1.5 instead.
"connection timeout" - Initial IPMI communication failed. A number of
potential errors are possible, including an invalid hostname specified,
an IPMI IP address cannot be resolved, IPMI is not enabled on the
remote server, the network connection is bad, etc. Please verify
configuration and connectivity.
"session timeout" - The IPMI session has timed out. Please reconnect.
If IPMI over LAN continually times out, you may wish to increase the
retransmission timeout. Some remote BMCs are considerably slower than
others.
Please see WORKAROUNDS below to also if there are any vendor specific
bugs that have been discovered and worked around.
IPMIPOWER TROUBLESHOOTING
When powering on a powered off machine, the client must have a means by
which to resolve the MAC address of the remote machine’s ethernet card.
This is typically done in one of two ways.
1) Enable gratuitous ARPs on the remote machine. The remote machine
will send out a gratuitous ARP, which advertises the ethernet IP and
MAC address so that other machines on the network this information
their local ARP cache. For large clusters, this method is not
recommended since gratuitous ARPs can flood the network with
unnecessary traffic.
2) Permanently store the remote machine’s MAC address in the local ARP
cache. This is the more common approach on large clusters.
Other methods are listed in the IPMI specification.
If ipmipower is running a tad slow when running a power control command
on the commandline (compared to running a power control command in
interactive mode), hostname IP resolution may be slowing the startup
code down. Hostname resolution tuning may help make ipmipower execute
faster on the commandline. This performance problem should not matter
when running in interactive mode or with powerman, since it is a one-
time setup cost.
WORKAROUNDS
With so many different vendors implementing their own IPMI solutions,
different vendors may implement their IPMI protocols incorrectly. The
following lists the handful of compliance issues discovered and the
workarounds currently supported.
When possible, workarounds have been implemented so they will be
transparent to the user. However, some will require the user to specify
a workaround be used via the -W option.
The hardware listed below may only indicate the hardware that a problem
was discovered on. Newer versions of hardware may fix the problems
indicated below. Similar machines from vendors may or may not exhibit
the same problems.
Intel SR870BN4: BMCs would not respond to retransmissions of a Get
Session Challenge Request if a previous Get Session Challenge response
was lost. Resolved by sending retransmitted Get Session Challenge
requests from a different source port. Automatically handled.
Tyan S2882 with m3289 BMC: After the IPMI session is brought up, packet
responses return empty session IDs to the client. This will likely
cause "session timeout" errors to occur. In order to work around this
issue, the "idzero" workaround must be specified. The option will allow
empty session IDs to be accepted by the client.
Dell PowerEdge 2850,SC1425: When Per-Message Authentication is
disabled, packet responses contain non-null authentication data (when
it should in fact be null). This will likely cause "session timeout"
errors to occur. In order to work around this issue, the
"unexpectedauth" workaround must be specified. The option will allow
unexpected non-null authcodes to be checked as though they were
expected. This compliance bug is confirmed to be fixed on newer
firmware.
IBM eServer 325: The remote BMC will advertise that Per Message
Authentication is disabled, but actually require it for the protocol.
This will likely cause "session timeout" errors to occur. In order to
work around this issue, the "forcepermsg" workaround must be specified.
The option will force Per Message Authentication to be used no matter
what is advertised by the remote BMC.
Supermicro H8QME with SIMSO daughter card: The remote BMC will
advertise that Per Message Authentication is disabled, but actually
require it for the protocol. Automatically handled.
Asus P5M2/P5MT-R/RS162-E4/RX4: The motherboard does not properly report
username capabilities and/or K_g status. This will likely cause
"username invalid" or "k_g invalid" errors to occur. In order to work
around this issue, the "authcap" workaround must be specified.
Intel SR1520ML/X38ML: The motherboard does not properly report username
capabilities and/or K_g status. This will likely cause "username
invalid" or "k_g invalid" errors to occur. In order to work around this
issue, the "authcap" workaround must be specified.
Sun ILOM 1.0/2.0: The session sequence numbers returned for IPMI 1.5
sessions are the wrong endian on some systems running ILOM 1.0/2.0.
The incorrect endian depends on the service processor endianness. This
will likely cause "session timeout" errors to occur. In order to work
around this issue, the "endianseq" workaround must be specified.
Sun Fire 2200/4150/4450 with ELOM: The motherboard does not properly
report username capabilities. This will likely cause "username invalid"
errors to occur. In order to work around this issue, the "authcap"
workaround must be specified.
Intel SE7520AF2 with Intel Server Management Module (Professional
Edition): There are a number of Intel IPMI 2.0 authentication bugs.
These problems may cause "username invalid", "password invalid", or
"k_g invalid" errors to occur. They can be worked around by specifying
the "intel20" workaround. The workarounds include padding of usernames,
automatic acceptance of a RAKP 4 response integrity check when using
the integrity algorithm MD5-128, and password truncation if the
authentication algorithm is HMAC-MD5-128.
Supermicro H8QME with SIMSO daughter card: There are several Supermicro
IPMI 2.0 bugs on early firmware revisions which can be worked around
using the "supermicro20" workaround. These problems may cause "password
invalid" errors to occur. These compliance bugs are confirmed to be
fixed on newer firmware.
Sun Fire 4100/4200/4500 with ILOM: There are several Sun IPMI 2.0 bugs.
These problems may cause "password invalid" or "bmc error" errors to
occur. They can be worked around by specifying the "sun20" workaround.
The workarounds include handling invalid lengthed hash keys, improperly
hashed keys, and invalid cipher suite records.
Inventec 5441, Supermicro X8DTH: The privilege level sent during the
Open Session stage of an IPMI 2.0 connection is used for hashing keys
instead of the privilege level sent during the RAKP1 connection stage.
This may cause "password invalid" or "bad rmcpplus status code" errors
to occur. It can be worked around by specifying the "opensesspriv"
workaround.
KNOWN ISSUES
On older operating systems, if you input your username, password, and
other potentially security relevant information on the command line,
this information may be discovered by other users when using tools like
the ps(1) command or looking in the /proc file system. It is generally
more secure to input password information with options like the -P or
-K options. Configuring security relevant information in the FreeIPMI
configuration file would also be an appropriate way to hide this
information.
In order to prevent brute force attacks, some BMCs will temporarily
"lock up" after a number of remote authentication errors. You may need
to wait awhile in order to this temporary "lock up" to pass before you
may authenticate again.
IPMI specifications do not require BMCs to perform a power control
operation before returning a completion code to the caller. Therefore,
it is possible for ipmipower to return power status queries opposite of
what you are expecting. For example, if a "power off" operation is
performed, a BMC may return a successful completion code to ipmipower
before the "power off" operation is actually performed. Subsequent
power status queries may return "on" for several seconds, until the BMC
actually performs the "power off" operation.
REPORTING BUGS
Report bugs to <freeipmi-users@gnu.org> or <freeipmi-devel@gnu.org>.
COPYRIGHT
Copyright (C) 2007-2008 Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC.
Copyright (C) 2003-2007 The Regents of the University of California.
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the
Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your
option) any later version.
SEE ALSO
freeipmi.conf(5), freeipmi(7), bmc-config(8)
http://www.gnu.org/software/freeipmi/