Enabling IPMI

From ScotGrid

Enable in Bios

Enter the Bios at start up an enable remote access, make sure to disable redirection after boot so that things filter through properly.

Configure /etc/inittab

Connect a serial port from the Linux to COM2 (the IPMI port) by appending the following line to the terminal settings:

 S1:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty -L 115200 ttyS1 vt100

Configure /boot/grub/grub.conf

Comment out any splash screens as they cannot be shown via serial, ass the following two lines:

serial --unit=1 --speed=115200 --word=8 --parity=no --stop=1
terminal --timeout=10 serial console

Additionally add the following to the end of the kernel boot line

console=tty0 console=ttyS1,115200n8r

An example grub.conf is shown below:

# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE:  You have a /boot partition.  This means that
#          all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
#          root (hd0,0)
#          kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/linuxvg/rootlv
#          initrd /initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/sda
default=0
timeout=5
#splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
serial --unit=1 --speed=115200 --word=8 --parity=no --stop=1
terminal --timeout=10 serial console
hiddenmenu
title Scientific Linux SL (2.6.18-194.32.1.el5)
	root (hd0,0)
	kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.18-194.32.1.el5 ro root=/dev/linuxvg/rootlv console=tty0 console=ttyS1,115200n8r
	initrd /initrd-2.6.18-194.32.1.el5.img
 title Scientific Linux (2.6.18-194.3.1.el5)
	root (hd0,0)
	kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.18-194.3.1.el5 ro root=/dev/linuxvg/rootlv console=tty0 console=ttyS1,115200n8r
	initrd /initrd-2.6.18-194.3.1.el5.img