IPMITOOL on VMware ESXi

The IPMITOOL command is a great tool to configure the local BMC network, get the sensor/FRU information, etc. I use this command a lot on my Linux systems. Since virtualized servers (mostly VMware ESXi) are increasing, I want to use the ipmitool command in ESXi.
There are lots of blog posts talking about creating an ipmitool binary for ESXi out there. I would like to take a (little) further step to integrate the tool to my standard ESXi image so that I can deploy ESXi to my servers with the ipmitool command integrated.
Here is what I did.
  1. Create an ipmitool binary. See the following blogs for details:
  2. Create an ipmitool vib. I used VIB Author on my Linux system (CentOS 6.7 x86_64). If needed, you can download the ipmitool vib I created from here (ipmitool-1.8.15-1.vib).
  3. Create a custom ISO (and an offline bundle) with the ipmitool vib. Read the vSphere manuals on how to create a custom ISO/offline bundle using Image Builder. This VMware blog entry would help:
  4. Deploy the new image to servers.
I used the VIB I created in step 2 with ESXi 5.5 U3 and ESXi 6.0 U1, and it worked on both versions.

Here are some outputs.
~ # vmware -vl
VMware ESXi 5.5.0 build-3248547
VMware ESXi 5.5.0 Update 3
~ # esxcli software vib list |grep ipmitool
ipmitool                       1.8.15-1                               IPMItool  CommunitySupported  2016-01-14
~ # /opt/ipmitool/bin/ipmitool mc info
Device ID                 : 52
Device Revision           : 2
Firmware Revision         : 1.00
IPMI Version              : 2.0
Manufacturer ID           : 10368
Manufacturer Name         : Fujitsu Siemens
Product ID                : 1062 (0x0426)
Product Name              : Unknown (0x426)
Device Available          : yes
Provides Device SDRs      : no
Additional Device Support :
    Sensor Device
    SDR Repository Device
    SEL Device
    FRU Inventory Device
    IPMB Event Receiver
    IPMB Event Generator
    Chassis Device
Aux Firmware Rev Info     :
    0x07
    0x52
    0x00
    0x46
~ # /opt/ipmitool/bin/ipmitool lan print
Set in Progress         : Set Complete
Auth Type Support       : NONE MD2 MD5 PASSWORD OEM
Auth Type Enable        : Callback : MD5 PASSWORD OEM
                        : User     : MD5 PASSWORD OEM
                        : Operator : MD5 PASSWORD OEM
                        : Admin    : MD5 PASSWORD OEM
                        : OEM      : MD5 PASSWORD OEM
IP Address Source       : BIOS Assigned Address
IP Address              : 192.168.14.37
Subnet Mask             : 255.255.255.0
MAC Address             : 90:1b:0e:80:70:a9
SNMP Community String   : public
IP Header               : TTL=0x40 Flags=0x40 Precedence=0x00 TOS=0x10
BMC ARP Control         : ARP Responses Enabled, Gratuitous ARP Disabled
Gratituous ARP Intrvl   : 10.0 seconds
Default Gateway IP      : 192.168.14.1
Default Gateway MAC     : 00:00:0c:07:ac:40
Backup Gateway IP       : 0.0.0.0
Backup Gateway MAC      : 00:00:00:00:00:00
802.1q VLAN ID          : Disabled
802.1q VLAN Priority    : 0
RMCP+ Cipher Suites     : 0,1,2,3,6,7,8,11,12,15,16,17
Cipher Suite Priv Max   : XaaaaaaaaXXaXXX
                        :     X=Cipher Suite Unused
                        :     c=CALLBACK
                        :     u=USER
                        :     o=OPERATOR
                        :     a=ADMIN
                        :     O=OEM
~ # /opt/ipmitool/bin/ipmitool fru print 2
 Chassis Type          : Blade
 Chassis Part Number   : ABN:K1467-V200-54
 Chassis Serial        : YLSR000000
 Chassis Extra         : BX2580M1
 Chassis Extra         : FUJITSU
 Board Mfg Date        : Mon Dec  8 22:02:00 2014
 Board Mfg             : FUJITSU
 Board Product         : D3321
 Board Serial          : SQ1449MA00000
 Board Part Number     : A3C40161777
 Board Extra           : D3A
 Board Extra           : 02
 Board Extra           : BX2580 M1
 Product Manufacturer  : FUJITSU
 Product Name          : PRIMERGY BX2580 M1
 Product Part Number   : ABN:K1467-V200-54
 Product Version       : C
 Product Serial        : YLSR000000
 Product Asset Tag     : 02
 Product Extra         : a26799
 Product Extra         : 0426
Update on 02/26/2016: I changed the link to the VIB package. You should be able to download it without asking me for access permissions.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

I have tested your VIB, and used VIB2ZIP.
When I stage the patch, I get error:
"The host returns esxupdate error code: 14. There is an error when resolving dependancies. Check the Update Manager Log files and esxupdate log files for more details."

I have ESX with Vcenter, 5.5, U3e.

Unknown said...

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Syahrul Fattah said...

Hello Masahiro Murayama,
Thanks for your blog, i have question.
can I reduce fan speed in Fujitsu RX4770 M1. i was login to serverview web.
and in menu sensor FAN cannot to be reduce speed.
can you help me?

Thanks

Masa Murayama said...

Hello Syahrul Fattah,

The FAN speed is defined in the iRMC firmware, so you cannot change it.

Good Bye, Folks!

As you may have heard, Fujitsu has completely discontinued Data Center Products and Solutions business in North America on April 1st, 2021. ...