5.5.1 Requirements for Enabling IPMI

Review these hardware and software requirements for enabling cluster nodes to be managed with Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI).

• For this release, Oracle Grid Infrastructure supports IPMI version 2.0.
• Each cluster member node requires a Baseboard Management Controller (BMC) running firmware compatible with IPMI version 2.0, which supports IPMI over local area networks (LANs), and configured for remote control using LAN.
• Each cluster member node requires an IPMI driver installed on each node.
• The cluster requires a management network for IPMI. This can be a shared network, but Oracle recommends that you configure a dedicated network.
• Each cluster member node's Ethernet port used by BMC must be connected to the IPMI management network.
• Each cluster member must be connected to the management network.
• Some server platforms put their network interfaces into a power saving mode when they are powered off. In this case, they may operate only at a lower link speed (for example, 100 megabyte (MB), instead of 1 GB). For these platforms, the network switch port to which the BMC is connected must be able to auto-negotiate down to the lower speed, or IPMI will not function properly.
• To support IPMI 2.0, you must download a third party tool, IPMIUTIL on every node of the cluster. You can download the IPMIUTIL tool from: http://ipmiutil.sourceforge.net/
• After you configure Oracle Grid Infrastructure on the cluster and install the IPMIUTIL utlity, you must set the path to the utility using the crsctl set ipmi binaryloc command on every node of the cluster. You must restart Oracle Grid Infrastructure stack for changes to take effect.

Note:

IPMI operates on the physical hardware platform through the network interface of the Baseboard Management Controller (BMC). Depending on your system configuration, an IPMI-initiated restart of a server can affect all virtual environments hosted on the server. Contact your hardware and OS vendor for more information.