Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI)

A hardware-level interface specification that was designed primarily for out-of-band management of server systems over a number of different physical interconnects. The IPMI specification describes extensive abstractions regarding sensors. This enables a management application running on the operating system (OS) or in a remote system to comprehend the environmental makeup of the system and to register with the system's IPMI subsystem to receive events. IPMI is compatible with management software from heterogeneous vendors. IPMI functionality includes field-replaceable unit (FRU) inventory reporting, system monitoring, logging, system recovery (including local and remote system resets and power-on and power-off capabilities), and alerting.