Description of problem: IPMI do not work on Dell PowerEdge 2850 with the default kernel from RHEL 3. According to <URL: http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/power/ps4q04-20040204-Murphy.pdf > these machines need OpenDPMI driver versjon 33 or newer and the ipmi_si_drv kernel module. This driver is available from <URL: http://sourceforge.net/projects/openipmi >. IPMI is needed to get HW status info from the machine. We need this to be able to monitor and detect problems with this type of machine. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): kernel-2.4.21-20.EL How reproducible: This fails every time. Steps to Reproduce: 1. modprobe ipmi_si_drv - fail 2. modprobe ipmi_kcs_drv - fail 3. modprobe ipmi_devintf - loads, but fail to find the correct IP port Actual results: I got these messages in /var/log/messages Nov 30 18:17:59 delltest kernel: ipmi: message handler initialized Nov 30 18:18:00 delltest kernel: ipmi: device interface at char major 253 Nov 30 18:22:02 delltest kernel: ipmi_kcs: SPMI table not found. Nov 30 18:22:02 delltest kernel: ipmi_kcs: No KCS @ port 0x0ca2 Nov 30 18:22:02 delltest kernel: ipmi_kcs: Unable to find any KCS interfaces According to the article, the port to use is 0xca8, and not 0x0ca2. The newer driver will detect the correct port to use using DMI information. Expected results: I expected a working kernel driver and access to a ipmi device. Additional info: There is a command line tool to access the IPMI device available from <URL:http://ipmitool.sourceforge.net/>. It can be used to test the device and driver.
This bug has had "NEW" status for quite some time... Confirmed that it still doesn't work with kernel 2.4.21-32.0.1. Excepting lm_sensors, IPMI is the only _open_ standard for hardware monitoring that I know of, and IPMI is far better than lm_sensors and proprietary vendor software, which tends to be large and intrusive. Providing of course that the machine has an IPMI device, which expensive servers like the Dell PE2850 usually do. Any chance that Red Hat will appreciate working IPMI support in the kernel and upgrade the modules? IMO one should expect an enterprise OS to be able to harness enterprise-type hardware, also when it comes to monitoring features, especially if the hardware complies to open standards.
This bug is filed against RHEL 3, which is in maintenance phase. During the maintenance phase, only security errata and select mission critical bug fixes will be released for enterprise products. Since this bug does not meet that criteria, it is now being closed. For more information of the RHEL errata support policy, please visit: http://www.redhat.com/security/updates/errata/ If you feel this bug is indeed mission critical, please contact your support representative. You may be asked to provide detailed information on how this bug is affecting you.