Distr. Power Management

Has anyone got DPM to work on VMWare 4? I get as far as editing the IPMI settings and it just times out.

I first tried configuring an IP address and credentials on the BMC but the Vclient doesn't pick it up. Turns out I couldn't ping it from anywhere, including locally.

The ESX host (IBM x3850 M2) has an RSAII card, so I tried using those details in the Power Management IPMI settings, still times out.

Am I totally on the wrong path here?

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Comments

MentholMoose

The vCenter server will need connectivity to the LOM card in the server for DPM to work. Check routing, firewall, and network configurations and get communication working, then try configuring DPM again with the vSphere client.

IPMI uses udp/623 so make sure a firewall isn't blocking it. Your LOM card probably has a web interface so you can test connectivity with that. Also there are CLI tools to use IPMI (e.g. ipmitool on Linux).

mikedisd2

Cool stuff, thanks for the input. I'll chase up the network guys on Monday. Everything else is correct and I've read up enough on the subject to know that this should just work. It has to be a firewall / VLAN block.

mikedisd2

Bugger, network is fine. Traffic is flowing on 623UDP ok. From the Vclient's Windows console, I can ping the ESX host but not the BMC IP address. The BMC IP is set up correctly from what I can tell and, according to documentation, talks via the first LOM port.

I keep covering the same ground and can't pin point the issue. BMC ought to be as simple as it seems to configure.

MentholMoose

Is there a web interface or anything you can try instead of ping?

mikedisd2

MentholMoose wrote: »

Is there a web interface or anything you can try instead of ping?

Not really, and my VMware knowledge is a bit limited at this point in time.

Howver, I may have pinpointed the issue (maybe). I just noticed that the LOM ports are teamed (duh), and have reason to believe this is preventing BMC traffic. Getting there, I think.

mikedisd2

Well I left this for a while but for the sake of a knowledge base, thought I'd post what the solution was to my issue.

I configured the ESX host's BMC with an IP and although could ping the host IP, couldn't ping the BMC. I yanked out the network cable and connected my laptop directly via a crossover; BMC responded.

A quick chat with the network guys and I learnt about native VLANs. So I put in a request for the BMC IP to go into VLAN x and for the ESX host's physical port to be configured with a native VLAN of x.

IPMI can now be configured in the power mgmt section of VSphere.

Still doesn't work though;

the host won't come out of standby mode.