Supermicro IPMI Utilities

September 7, 2017 | Provisioning Security

Supermicro provides a set of utilities for configuring IPMI devices on Supermicro servers.

IPMICFG

IPMICFG is an in-band utility for configuring IPMI devices. It is a command line tool providing standard IPMI and Supermicro proprietary OEM commands. This CLI-based utility can be executed on DOS, Windows, and Linux OS and does not require any installation procedures.

We can use IPMICFG (or the standard ipmitool) to mitigate the serious Supermicro IPMI Vulnerability.

  1. To disable DHCP for the IPMI interface:
./IPMICFG-Linux.x86_64 -dhcp off
  1. To set the IPMI interface’s IP address to 0.0.0.0:
./IPMICFG-Linux.x86_64 -m 0.0.0.0

We can also change the option of the IPMI interface, using raw codes.

  • The default is failover:
./IPMICFG-Linux.x86_64 -raw 0x30 0x70 0x0c 0
02
  • Set it to dedicated:
./IPMICFG-Linux.x86_64 -raw 0x30 0x70 0x0c 1 0
  • Verify it:
./IPMICFG-Linux.x86_64 -raw 0x30 0x70 0x0c 0
00

SMCIPMITool

SMCIPMITool is an out-of-band Supermicro utility that allows a user to interface with SuperBlade systems and IPMI devices via CLI (Command Line Interface). Two kinds of user modes are provided when you start the SMCIMPITool: Command Line Mode and Shell Mode.

SMCIPMITool Key Features:

  • Remote IPMI Management
  • Remote NM (Node Manager) 2.0 Management
  • Remote IPMI Sensor and Event Management
  • Remote FRU Management
  • Remote IPMI User/Group Management
  • Remote Blade System Management
  • IPMI Firmware Upgrade
  • Virtual Media Management

Tips:

  • To set boot device to be PXE in next boot:
ipmi power bootoption 1
  • To reset the system and force PXE as the boot device in the next boot only:
ipmi power reset PXE

IPMIView

IPMIView is a GUI-based software application that allows administrators to manage multiple target systems through BMC. IPMIView monitors and reports on the status of a SuperBlade system, including the blade server, power supply, gigabit switch, InfiniBand and CMM modules. IPMIView also supports remote KVM and Virtual Media.

IPMIView Key Features:

  • IPMI System Management
  • KVM Console Redirection
  • Text Console Redirection
  • Virtual Media Management
  • IPMI User/Group Management
  • Trap Receiver
  • Mobile App (Android, iOS)

Tips:

  • On Windows, run IPMIView as administrator;
  • To have a better experience running IPMIView on a Windows 10 system with a High DPI display, right click IPMIView20 icon, choose Properties from the menu, go to the Compatibility tab, check “Override high DPI scaling behavior. Scaling performed by:”, and select System.