How to reach Supermicro IPMI and the iKVM console remotely

• Find the IPMI port. Most Supermicro boards have a dedicated LAN port above the USB ports for the BMC. If it isn't plugged in, the BMC may fall back to sharing the first network port, depending on its LAN setting.
• Set its address. Press Del as the server starts to open setup, go to the IPMI (or BMC) tab, and set the BMC network configuration to a fixed address or DHCP. From Linux on the server, ipmitool lan print 1 shows what it has.
• Know the sign-in. The user is ADMIN. Boards made in recent years have a unique password on a label on the board or chassis; old ones used a well-known default. If yours still has a default password, change it first.
• Update the BMC firmware from Supermicro's site. Newer firmware has the HTML5 console and closes security holes.

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   Step 1: Add a web panel

   On the Connections page of the RemoteAccessApp app for Windows, add a web panel with the BMC's address, such as https://10.0.0.40. If it only answers on http://, as some older BMCs do, the tab offers to switch in one click and warns you that the page isn't encrypted.

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   Step 2: Trust the certificate once

   The BMC's certificate is self-signed. The tab shows its fingerprint and asks once; trust it for this panel only. If the certificate changes later, the tab warns you and doesn't open the page until you've checked why.

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   Step 3: Save the sign-in

   Save ADMIN (or your own user) and the password with the panel. The password is kept encrypted for your Windows user. Fill sign-in fills in the BMC's form on its own address only, and doesn't submit it.

Sign in, then open the remote console from the dashboard's preview or the Remote Control menu and launch the HTML5 console. It opens as a new tab in the app, with the server's screen live in it.

• Watch the server boot and press Del or F11 for setup or the boot menu.
• Mount an ISO from your PC as virtual media to install an operating system.
• Use the console's power menu to turn the server on, off or reset it.
• Send Ctrl+Alt+Del from the console's keyboard menu.

Paste doesn't reach the console, so use Type text in the tab's toolbar for passwords and long commands. It presses the keys one by one; Careful is slower, for consoles that miss keys.

IPMI over the network (UDP port 623) shouldn't cross the internet, but it's handy inside your network. Save a Linux server or Raspberry Pi on the same network as an SSH host, install ipmitool on it, and run:

ipmitool -I lanplus -H 10.0.0.40 -U ADMIN -a chassis power status
ipmitool -I lanplus -H 10.0.0.40 -U ADMIN -a chassis power on
ipmitool -I lanplus -H 10.0.0.40 -U ADMIN -a chassis power soft    # ask the OS to shut down
ipmitool -I lanplus -H 10.0.0.40 -U ADMIN -a chassis power cycle
ipmitool -I lanplus -H 10.0.0.40 -U ADMIN -a sdr list              # temperatures, fans, voltages
ipmitool -I lanplus -H 10.0.0.40 -U ADMIN -a sel list              # the hardware event log
ipmitool -I lanplus -H 10.0.0.40 -U ADMIN -a sol activate          # text console (leave with ~.)

-a asks for the password instead of leaving it in the shell history. Save these in the terminal's Scripts & History panel. To check power or sensors on several boxes at once with Run on hosts…, where nothing can be typed in, use -E instead of -a: it reads the password from the IPMI_PASSWORD variable. Serial over LAN needs the board's BIOS to send its console to the serial port. The same commands work on Dell iDRAC and HPE iLO when IPMI over LAN is turned on there.

• Through a PC at the site. Open a PC on the same network with RemoteAccessApp, from the app or any browser, and use the BMC in that PC's browser. The PC connects out to our relay, so nothing is forwarded. See remote desktop without port forwarding.
• SSH from the website, through one of your PCs. Open the Linux server with ipmitool on the website and choose Through my PC: power and sensors from a phone or any browser, free.
• Through the RemoteAccessApp server Pro, for a BMC on a public address at a hosting provider: tick Connect through RemoteAccessApp server on the panel. Connections come from our server's fixed address, which every RemoteAccessApp user shares, so a strong password still matters. Private addresses can't be reached this way.

In the RemoteAccessApp app for Linux, a web panel opens in your default browser and its tab keeps the address, user name and saved password at hand. The certificate prompt, Fill sign-in, consoles opening as tabs, Type text in the page and the server option are in the Windows app. SSH and ipmitool work the same on both.

Group each server's BMC, its operating system's SSH or RDP host and the ipmitool box together, and use split view, up to eight panes, for several consoles at once (split view and workspaces). For other brands, see Dell iDRAC and HPE iLO.