Setup IPMI in FreeBSD 10

Recently, I had to try to setup IPMI in FreeBSD 10 to reproduce an issue with the BMC(baseboard management controller) on my company’s platform. I was required to run a test on stock FreeBSD (10.3 in this case). However, the documentation on getting the IPMI modules and drivers loaded and functioning, was a little lacking. For reference, this was for an Intel S2600CP motherboard.

First things first: Install openipmi and ipmitool

# pkg install ipmitool

# pkg install openipmi

Next, configure loader.conf to load the IPMI kernel module at boot:

# vi /boot/loader.conf

Add the following line:

ipmi_load=”YES”

Next, you have to add a few lines to /boot/device.hints

# vi /boot/device.hints

Add the following:

hint.ipmi.0.at=”isa”
hint.ipmi.0.port=”0xCA2″
hint.ipmi.0.spacing=”8″
hint.ipmi.0.mode=”KCS”

Now reboot:

# shutdown -r now

When your host comes back up, you can verify that the kernel module is loaded by running:

# kldstat

It should return something similar to the following text(look for ‘ipmi.ko’):

Id Refs Address            Size     Name
1   12 0xffffffff80200000 17bc6a8  kernel
2    1 0xffffffff819bd000 113b0    ipmi.ko
3    2 0xffffffff819cf000 23d0     smbus.ko
4    1 0xffffffff81c11000 358d     ums.ko

Now try running any ipmi command:

# ipmitool lan print
Set in Progress         : Set Complete
Auth Type Support       : MD5 PASSWORD
Auth Type Enable        : Callback : MD5 PASSWORD
: User     : MD5 PASSWORD
: Operator : MD5 PASSWORD
: Admin    : MD5 PASSWORD
: OEM      :
IP Address Source       : Static Address
IP Address              : 0.0.0.0
Subnet Mask             : 0.0.0.0
MAC Address             : 00:1e:67:53:b5:b3
SNMP Community String   : public
IP Header               : TTL=0x00 Flags=0x00 Precedence=0x00 TOS=0x00
BMC ARP Control         : ARP Responses Enabled, Gratuitous ARP Disabled
Gratituous ARP Intrvl   : 0.0 seconds
Default Gateway IP      : 0.0.0.0
Default Gateway MAC     : 00:00:00:00:00:00
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     : 0,1,2,3,4,6,7,8,9,11,12,13,15,16,17,18
Cipher Suite Priv Max   : caaaaaaaaaaaaaa
:     X=Cipher Suite Unused
:     c=CALLBACK
:     u=USER
:     o=OPERATOR
:     a=ADMIN
:     O=OEM
Bad Password Threshold  : Not Available

Boom.