IPMItool Raw Commands About Dell PowerEdge System Model Name, Operating System Name and DNS Hostname
Dell PowerEdge systems are “Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI)” compliant systems. IPMItool software provides a set of command line options and arguments to provide both local and remote access to Dell PowerEdge systems (Local Management and Remote Management). Additionally IPMItool also provides raw commands to access hardware functions for additional IPMI compliant system management capabilities. Example IPMItool commands are “chassis power on”, “chassis power cycle”, “list system event log” and so on.
IPMI specification URL: http://www.intel.com/design/servers/ipmi/spec.htm
We can use IPMItool commands to manage a Dell PowerEdge system either locally (from the server) or remotely (from another system on which IPMItool is available). Detailed information about IPMI and IPMItool is available on the Internet. Here we do not explain all IPMItool commands usage.
Dell PowerEdge system with an Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller (iDRAC) provides a powerful, easy-to-use local and remote management and configuration options to support IPMI technology. We can use IPMItool with or without iDRAC IP or iDRAC DNS host name of a Dell PowerEdge server for “Server Remote Management”.
Using PowerEdge R710 Server as an Example
Here we are considering a PowerEdge R710 server as an example to explain how to use IPMItool raw commands to get the details such as system model name, operating system in use (already installed) and the (DNS) host name of the system.
The following is an iDRAC session on PowerEdge R710 server.
From the above figure, we can observe:
1) System model name is PowerEdge R710
2) iDRAC IP is 192.168.0.253
3) Operating system in use or installed is Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Enterprise
4) (DNS) hostname is per710mdev
Assume that we are using another “64bit CentOS v6.3 Linux host” with its host IP as 192.168.0.2.
[root@localhost ravi_a]#
[root@localhost ravi_a]# cat /etc/redhat-release
CentOS release 6.3 (Final)
[root@localhost ravi_a]#
[root@localhost ravi_a]# uname -a
Linux localhost.localdomain 2.6.32-279.el6.x86_64 #1 SMP Fri Jun 22 12:19:21 UTC 2012 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
[root@localhost ravi_a]#
[root@localhost ravi_a]#
[root@localhost ravi_a]# /sbin/ifconfig em1
em1 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 14:FE:B5:CA:AC:8F
inet addr:192.168.0.2 Bcast:192.168.0.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::16fe:b5ff:feca:ac8f/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:84 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:129 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:7585 (7.4 KiB) TX bytes:13763 (13.4 KiB)
Interrupt:36 Memory:e6000000-e6012800
[root@localhost ravi_a]#
[root@localhost ravi_a]#
Let us use IPMItool raw commands from this Linux host to confirm the mentioned system model name, operating system name and (DNS) host name using PER710 system's iDRAC IP 192.168.0.253 with IPMItool raw command and not opening/using PER710 system’s iDRAC session/GUI.
IPMItoolRawCommandWithiDRACIP192.168.0.253(RemoteManagement)
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WeneedtomakesurethatIPMItoolcommand/softwareisavailabletouseasfollows.WemayhavetoinstallIPMIToolrpm,ifnotavailable,fromtherequired“64bitCentOSv6.3LinuxDistribution”installationmediaordownloadrequiredIPMItoolrpmfromtheInternet.
[root@localhostravi_a]#
[root@localhostravi_a]#rpm-qipmitool
ipmitool-1.8.11-13.el6.x86_64
[root@localhostravi_a]#
[root@localhost~]#
[root@localhost~]#whereisipmitool
ipmitool:/usr/bin/ipmitool/usr/share/ipmitool/usr/share/man/man1/ipmitool.1.gz
[root@localhost~]#
[root@localhost~]#whichipmitool
/usr/bin/ipmitool
[root@localhost~]#
NowrunIPMIrawcommandasfollowstogetthePowerEdgesystemmodelname.
[root@localhostravi_a]#
[root@localhostravi_a]#ipmitool-H192.168.0.253-Uroot-Pcalvinraw0x060x590x000xd10x000x00
1100000f506f77657245646765205237
3130
[root@localhostravi_a]#
[root@localhostravi_a]#
TheoutputofthefirstIPMItoolrawcommandcontainsASCIIhexdecimalnumbers.Thefirstthreehexdecimalnumbers110000havepredefinedmeaningwithrespecttoIPMItoolrawcommandusageonDellPowerEdgesystems.Nexthexdecimalnumber0f(decimalvalue15,includingoneNULLcharacter)indicatesthatthesystemmodelnameisa15characteralphanumericstring,startingfromnexthexdecimalnumber50(ASCIIcode)tolasthexdecimalnumber30(ASCIIcode).Thatmeans,fourteenASCIIcodes”506f776572456467652052373130”formsystemmodelname,whichis“PowerEdgeR710”(includesonespacecharacter).
NowrunanotherIPMIrawcommandasfollowstomakesurethatsystemmodelnameendswithASCIIcode00andnoanotherIPMItoolrawcommandhastobeexecutedforthesystemmodelname.
[root@localhostravi_a]#
[root@localhostravi_a]#ipmitool-H192.168.0.253-Uroot-Pcalvinraw0x060x590x000xd10x010x00
110100
[root@localhostravi_a]#
[root@localhostravi_a]#
TheoutputofthesecondIPMItoolrawcommandcontainsASCIIhexdecimalnumbers.Asmentioned,thefirsttwohexdecimalnumbers1101havepredefinedmeaningwithrespecttoIPMItoolrawcommandusageonDellPowerEdgesystems.Nexthexdecimalnumber00indicatesthatnomoreASCIIcodesexistforsystemmodelnameandwedonothavetorunanotherIPMItoolcommandforthesystemmodelname.
Inthiscase,ifwedon’tobserve00inthesecondIPMItoolrawcommand,thenwehavetoexecutelast(orthird)IPMItoolrawcommandasfollows.
[root@localhostravi_a]#ipmitool-H192.168.0.253-Uroot-Pcalvinraw0x060x590x000xd10x020x00
Nowweknowthatwecaneasilygetrequiredsystemmodelname“PowerEdgeR710”usingthreeIPMItoolrawcommandswithoutPER710system’siDRACsession.
SimilarlywecanusethefollowingthreeIPMItoolrawcommandstogettheoperatingsystemname.
ipmitool-H192.168.0.253-Uroot-Pcalvinraw0x060x590x000x030x000x00
ipmitool-H192.168.0.253-Uroot-Pcalvinraw0x060x590x000x030x010x00
ipmitool-H192.168.0.253-Uroot-Pcalvinraw0x060x590x000x030x020x00
ExplanationabouttheoutputofthementionedthreeIPMItoolrawcommandsforoperatingsystemnameissameastheexplanationfortheoutputofthethreeIPMItoolrawcommandsforsystemmodelname.
SimilarlywecanusefollowingthreeIPMItoolrawcommandstoknow(DNS)hostname.
ipmitool-H192.168.0.253-Uroot-Pcalvinraw0x060x590x000x020x000x00
ipmitool-H192.168.0.253-Uroot-Pcalvinraw0x060x590x000x020x010x00
ipmitool-H192.168.0.253-Uroot-Pcalvinraw0x060x590x000x020x020x00
ExplanationabouttheoutputofthementionedthreeIPMItoolrawcommandsfor(DNS)hostnameissameastheexplanationfortheoutputofthethreeIPMItoolrawcommandsforsystemmodelname.
Note:Theattachedfilefind_poweredge_system_model_os_DNS_host_names_with_iDRAC_IP.txtactuallyaPythonfile.Sopleasetreatthisfileasfind_poweredge_system_model_os_DNS_host_names_with_iDRAC_IP.pyPythonfile.
TheattachedPythonprogramfind_poweredge_system_model_os_DNS_host_names_with_iDRAC_IP.pyexecutestheexplainedIPMItoolrawcommandsanddisplayssystemmodelname,operatingsystemand(DNS)hostnameinsequence.TheprogramoutputiseasytoreadasitdoesnotdisplayASCIIhexdecimalnumbers.
[root@localhostravi_a]#./find_poweredge_system_model_os_DNS_host_names_with_iDRAC_IP.py
SystemModelName=PowerEdgeR710
OperatingSystemName=MicrosoftWindowsServer2003,EnterpriseEdit
System(DNS)HostName=per710mdev
[root@localhostravi_a]#