Supermicro IPMI LAN Failover

[eccevery]

I'd like to use a single network cable to my NAS at home, letting IPMI share the physical cable with the data. The LAN Mode is set to "Failover", and as far as I know, if IPMI at boot does not sence a carrier on a dedicated NIC is switches IPMI traffic though LAN 1. I can't get it to work... just the dedicated NIC works.

I assume the interface ix0 is LAN 1, but to make sure I tried connecting the other interface also (ix1).

I tried the "Shared" setting, and regreted it instantly, since it made IPMI unavailable on ALL NICs. Took me a while to get that fixed...

Any ideas? Anything I'm doing wrong?

 

[Dice]

A wild guess - isn't the 'fail over setting' located in the proximity of the IPMI settings, rather than LAN setting?
You might have enabled failover between the two NICs and not the IPMI.

 

[joeschmuck]

Well my first thing to ask would be what motherboard are you using?

If you want to setup IPMI to work over the non-dedicated LAN port, leave it in Failover and assign a static IP. During the bootup process, my screen tells me the IP address and you need to ensure you are using that one. If no IP address shows up then of course you won't be getting into the IPMI.

 

[eccevery]

A wild guess - isn't the 'fail over setting' located in the proximity of the IPMI settings, rather than LAN setting?
You might have enabled failover between the two NICs and not the IPMI.

That wouldn't affect the dedicated IPMI port. The IP address and so on all belong to the IPMI port. I think they name it like that because it's the BMC LAN port. I used IPMIViewer to change the setting, under the BMC tab, I changed it from Failover to "On Board LAN 1". On reload I checked BIOS settings and it just says "Shared, No Connection".

Well my first thing to ask would be what motherboard are you using?

X10SDV-2C-TLN2F

If you want to setup IPMI to work over the non-dedicated LAN port, leave it in Failover and assign a static IP. During the bootup process, my screen tells me the IP address and you need to ensure you are using that one. If no IP address shows up then of course you won't be getting into the IPMI.

I've set a static IP. I can see it in the BIOS settings, not sure about the POST but I can check that. It's reachable on that IP, but only on the dedicated interface.


I've noticed something, probably not related to this though: All FRU readings are empty. Also, the serial number is 0123456789.

 

[joeschmuck]

I assume the interface ix0 is LAN 1, but to make sure I tried connecting the other interface also (ix1).

Refer to your user manual vice guessing and use LAN 1. Reboot and try again. If that doesn't work, do you have the latest IPMI firmware and BIOS firmware?

 

[eccevery]

Refer to your user manual vice guessing and use LAN 1. Reboot and try again. If that doesn't work, do you have the latest IPMI firmware and BIOS firmware?

It's not the latest, but only a minor number off. I think I'll stick with the dedicated port, settings things back was a bit tricky. Btw if someone gets stuck like it did, use ipmitool locally and do this:

ipmitool raw 0x30 0x70 0x0c 1 2

 

[eccevery]

I've noticed something. I don't have a LAN1 or 2 according to IPMI, I have LAN3 and 4:

System LAN1 MAC address : 00:00:00:00:00:00
System LAN2 MAC address : 00:00:00:00:00:00
System LAN3 MAC address : 0c:c4:7a:c9:43:da
System LAN4 MAC address : 0c:c4:7a:c9:43:db

I have another supermicro motherboard with 2 NICs, and it just shows LAN1 and 2. This starts to feel like the motherboard has pre-mature software or something. No readable model name, no FRU data, S/N is 0123456789....

Should I firmware upgrade?

 

[joeschmuck]

Have you reset the BIOS to "Default" and you know my opinon, update to the current BIOS and IPMI firmware. Remember, that is two different pieces of firmware, or it was for my Supermicro motherboard.

Also since I have been unable to locate a User Manual for your motherboard, look at it and see if there are any jumpers for selecting the LAN 1/2 and 3/4. This also could be in the BIOS. Not having the motherboard in front of me or no user manual makes it a bit more difficult to help out.

 

[joeschmuck]

I found a similar manual. Do you have 4 LAN ports on your board? Looks like you have disabled LANs 1 & 2. Enable them. This could be the jumper on the motherboard JPL1 (might not be on you MB), or in the BIOS.

 

[eccevery]

I found a similar manual. Do you have 4 LAN ports on your board? Looks like you have disabled LANs 1 & 2. Enable them. This could be the jumper on the motherboard JPL1 (might not be on you MB), or in the BIOS.

No I only have two LAN ports. According to the paper delivered with the motherboard, LAN1 and 2 are 1 Gbps NICs, and 3 and 4 are 10 Gbps. There are no jumper to Enable/Disable LAN1&2 on this particular model (if you have all four NICs there are such a jumper). So that explains why LAN1 & 2 have no MAC address, but not the IPMI shared issue.

Since Supermicro so clearly warns you about firmware upgrades (nullifying warranty, only do of you have a confirmed issue and so on), I think I'll rather use the dedicated port. Supermicro's aren't cheap. I emailed Supermicro tech support and asked about the shared port issue.

 

[joeschmuck]

Since Supermicro so clearly warns you about firmware upgrades (nullifying warranty, only do of you have a confirmed issue and so on),

This is just a warning that you could brick your motherboard if you are not careful, like if you didn't use an UPS during the reprogramming. You should contact Supermicro Tech Support and ask them the question.

But before that happens, try this:
1) Boot from Ubuntu Live CD and see if the LAN1 port works.
2) Install FreeBSD 10 and see if your LAN1 port works.

Based on your posting above your LAN ports 1 & 2 fail to work so you have an issue that needs to be fixed. Maybe you bought a bad MB? Or are you saying that LNA port 1 and 2 work for everything except the IPMI Failover? Based on no mac addresses I assume LAN 1 & 2 are dead.

Also did you perform a Factory Reset on the BIOS?

 

[eccevery]

Based on your posting above your LAN ports 1 & 2 fail to work so you have an issue that needs to be fixed. Maybe you bought a bad MB? Or are you saying that LNA port 1 and 2 work for everything except the IPMI Failover? Based on no mac addresses I assume LAN 1 & 2 are dead.

The LAN1 and LAN2 are physically not there. I assume the same code is used for 2NIC and 4NIC MBs.

Also did you perform a Factory Reset on the BIOS?

No. To really test this I need to also change the IPMI LAN setting to Shared, and I'm a bit scared I won't be able to change it back (yeah I managed once already, but still...). There are a few settings to fiddle with in BIOS, I thought I should read up on a few things before trying stuff out.

BIOS screenshot: http://imgur.com/a/PXQT1

 

[eccevery]

I got a response from Supermicro tech support. IPMI Shared is hard coded to use LAN1. If no sush port exists, the Shared option cannot be used, but it is still selectable in the settings.

 

[Ericloewe]

I got a response from Supermicro tech support. IPMI Shared is hard coded to use LAN1. If no sush port exists, the Shared option cannot be used, but it is still selectable in the settings.

Wait a second, what motherboard are we talking about?

 

[eccevery]

Wait a second, what motherboard are we talking about?

X10SDV-2C-TLN2F