X9SRI-F Problems setting bios ipmi ip and logging in

[serverguy]

I know there must be a thousand threads on the x9sri about using ipmi and setting fan speed.
I am a complete newb on servers and their operation.
For some reason I cannot get into the ip address setting function in the bios. ver 3.3
The addresses are set to static. But no matter what I do I can't change them. Set it to yes and reboot does nothing.
I have tried a remote computer attached by cat 5 cable to the dedicated ipmi cat5 port.
Can't set the addresses so I tried pinging the currently set addresses from the remote computer. Not found.
Oh yeah and there is the issue of fans running at 100% speed. No settings in bios for that. The main reason for trying ipmi.
This is a brand new motherboard. All the jumpers are set in the default positions.
The mother board boots and seems to run fine. I've tried win10, linux desktop, ubuntu server. Everything boots and runs perfectly.
It would be nice to reduce the fan speed and be able to access remotely.
Yes the ipmi heartbeat led is flashing.

 

[jgreco]

If the addresses are set to static, it should be telling you what the current static address is. Set up a PC on that network and access it via the IPMI port. Or, install FreeNAS or Linux on the server, and use ipmitool to configure the IPMI address that way.

 

[serverguy]

jgreco is there a certain protocol that I should follow. From another pc attached by cat5 cable straight to the IPMI port I typed in the static address through the browser. Nothing found. Do I need //address or http//address ?!?!?! I literally don't know what I'm doing here. I will try setting up a computer on linux and use the IPMITOOL. Thanks for the reply​

 

[Samuel Tai]

@serverguy, the IPMI often has 2 interfaces. One is titled Share LAN, and is accessed via the server LAN1 port, so it either has to be on the same subnet as LAN1, or you have to enable a VLAN tag to put it on a different subnet, and have a switchport that can create trunk ports to LAN1 to peel off the VLAN tag. The other is titled Dedicate LAN, and is accessed via the management port. You may have configured the Share LAN in your BIOS instead of the Dedicate LAN by accident. If you want to use the management port, configure a static IP, mask, and gateway in the BIOS. In the BIOS, they may also be labeled by number. Typically, channel 1 is the Share LAN channel, and channel 8 is the Dedicate LAN channel.

To access it from a browser, use http://<IP address of IPMI>/.

 

[serverguy]

thanks Sam for your reply. This just shows how little I know about this subject. My understanding of the x9sri-f is that the IPMI is only accessible through the dedicated IPMI Lan port. That port can't be used for any other purpose. But you may be right there may be another way to access it.
Anyway the dedicated lan port is where I am connected to. Another problem I am having is I can't seem to change the IP address in the bios. No matter what I do it stays static and I can't change it. But at least I can see what the address is. I will change the format to http:// and see if I can se it. Also tomorrow I will try IPMITOOL from linux on the remote pc.

 

[Samuel Tai]

Typically when the BMC IP is locked like this, there's an admin password set in the BIOS.

 

[serverguy]

Sam this is a brand new mother board. So according to supermicro the user and pass should be ADMIN ADMIN.
But I haven't even reached the point where anything is asking for a password.

 

[ChrisRJ]

You should check the manual. I am pretty certain that it explains the IPMI configuration

 

[serverguy]

Chris are you familiar with the x9sri-f supermicro ? I have read the manual. Something is preventing me from editing the ipmi ip address in the bios.
It does show me the current static address and that's what I have been trying.
Any I still haven't gotten to the point where it even asks for a password.

 

[Samuel Tai]

If this is indeed a new board, then you should approach SuperMicro for a possible RMA.

 

[jgreco]

So what happens when you configure a PC on the same network as the current static address and try to connect to it?

 

[Redcoat]

What about the status of the two LED's on each of the Ethernet ports into which the Cat5 cable is plugged when connecting the dedicated LAN port to the "remote" computer?

 

[ChrisRJ]

Chris are you familiar with the x9sri-f supermicro ? I have read the manual. Something is preventing me from editing the ipmi ip address in the bios.

Can you please lay out in detail the steps you have done?

 

[serverguy]

This is a brand new board albeit a new old stock. I don't think supermicro would even talk to me.
Yes I have tried to connect to the board by pinging the boards ip address. And through the browser entering that address.
I have also tried ipmitool on linux with no success. I need to setup a dedicated computer to linux. The try out linux does not even load the apt.
This is a board sitting on the bench. None of the cat5 lan ports on the board have status led's. That is a very good idea though.
I think the status led's are brought out on headers. I'll hook up some led's to those headers so I can see the status.
Surprising how many people have had problems setting fan speed on these. And as far as I know it has to happen through ipmi. Anyone ?
Thanks for everyone's input.

 

[Redcoat]

None of the cat5 lan ports on the board have status led's

So your board doesn't have these as described in your manual?:

And similar LED's on your remote computer's ethernet port?

 

[serverguy]

RED The gigabit ports lan1 and lan2 (A and B in your pic) have led pins on the front panel header. The dedicated ipmi lan port (C in your pic) has none that I can find.
No there are no lan port status led's on the mother board itself.
Yes the computer I am using for remote control does have status led's. I should have thought to check those. I will do that.

 

[Redcoat]

You need to look at the port itself - where the cable plugs in - that's where you can see the LED's.

Do you have activity there? And at both ends of the cable - server and PC?

 

[jgreco]

None of the cat5 lan ports on the board have status led's. That is a very good idea though.
I think the status led's are brought out on headers. I'll hook up some led's to those headers so I can see the status.

The X9SRI/F/W boards definitely have status LED's.

Surprising how many people have had problems setting fan speed on these.

Surprising ... how? You've taken a component designed to be deployed in a rackmount server, where it correctly manages fan speeds for the designed chassis, and want to do something DIFFERENT with it, that Supermicro didn't particularly intend.

And as far as I know it has to happen through ipmi. Anyone ?

Yes, because the IPMI system controls and monitors the fans. This is a logical place to do it, because in the datacenter environment these boards are designed to run in, you would normally have a network monitoring system that would receive alerts from the BMC when there was a problem with any of the hundreds or thousands of servers being monitored. It is not practical to do it any other way,

This does have the unfortunate side effect of presenting a new subsystem for newbies who haven't dealt with servers to have to learn about. You may be lucky, though, because Supermicro's implementation is generally friendly (unlike some major server mfrs) and well-documented (because so many sites use Supermicro).

 

[serverguy]

jgreco​

you are right I see the lan led's now. They were molded into the black plastic and hard to see. When I plug in the lan cable the green lights up only.
Yes that is what I'm trying to access, the IPMI monitoring system. You are saying I can't access it with another computer ? Then what ? How ?
From reading the server system manual it looks like the mother board controls all fan speeds and temp monitoring. If you think otherwise could you please show me the circuitry in the chassis that does this. The manual does not mention external circuitry except switched, led's and such.
I need to be able to change the ipmi bios ip address. At this point I can't. I haven't been prompted for passwords. Haven't even got to that point yet. If someone here is familiar with this bios (ver 3.3) I would like to talk to you.

 

[Jailer]

Ok I've read through this thread a couple times now and I'm still not quite understanding how you have this motheboard hooked up to try and access the IPMI interface. In post #3 you said this:

From another pc attached by cat5 cable straight to the IPMI port I typed in the static address through the browser. Nothing found.

Is the motherboard connected to your home network in some fashion or directly via cat5 cable from the IPMI port to your remote computers LAN port?

In the past my practice has been to connect the IPMI port to my home network and let it pull an IP address from my router via DHCP. After it gets assigned an IP address then go to the IPMI web interface log in and make whatever changes you wish to make including setting a static IP address for the IPMI interface.