Cheap Remote Management/IPMI

[Xulu132]

We are currently building a few machines for colocation next week and are looking for the best way to remotely manage these.

 

Currently running Asus Z170-K boards and found this:

 https://www.asus.com/uk/Commercial-Servers-Workstations/ASMB5iKVM/ (ASMB4-iKVM)

 

From what I can see, this will work. However I wanted to see if anyone else has used these before? Hoping to find something on the cheap side (£30 ($40)~). Looking for remote power control and being able to remotely control it while in the bios etc.

 

[Mikensan]

I could be wrong but I don't think that module is for your motherboard. Some vendors will give you a ipmi (idrac for example) service port, but not enable the features until you have the module (like the one you linked).

 

As far as I can tell the board you mentioned is just a consumer board, and I can't see a header that this would plug in to nor a service/ipmi port on the back. Granted ipmi can share a port and usually gives you the option to do so, best practice is to separate it. So I'm a little suspicious if this will work.

 

You're better off buying a KVM that supports control over the network. I'm sure Avocent has something like that.

Matter of fact:

http://www.emersonnetworkpower.com/EN-US/PRODUCTS/KVM/DIGITALKVMSWITCHES/Pages/default.aspx

 

 

[Xulu132]

Yeah, after looking into it a bit the boards that support that module and the 6700k starts at around £250+. Unfortunately we can't use a full unit like that as we won't have enough room.

 

Even simple remote PDU would be useful at this point, can't travel to the dc every time windows freezes up :(.

[KuJoe]

Does your data center offer remote reboots or KVM over IP options? I would suggest looking for cheap KVM over IP solutions on eBay but they only offer the ability to manage a system and not forcefully reboot it. A managed PDU might be your best option for remote reboots if your data center doesn't offer them for free (which they should).

 

What data center will you be colocating in if you don't mind me asking?

[Xulu132]

This will be in London Docklands through a separate provider. Was told they have temp IP KVMs but should only really be used in emergencies (this also still can't remote reboot afaik).

[Electronics Wizardy]

2 hours ago, GrantM123 said:

Yeah, after looking into it a bit the boards that support that module and the 6700k starts at around £250+. Unfortunately we can't use a full unit like that as we won't have enough room.

 

Even simple remote PDU would be useful at this point, can't travel to the dc every time windows freezes up :(.

Id suggest getting a used server. Look at soemthing like a r610 or r710. There faster, cheaper and support drac.

[Xulu132]

We require using a 6700K as our processor, as we need very high single core performance. This will also be overclocked.

 

This is why I'm struggling to find a server we can get with remote management and this CPU

[Lehti]

Is a GUI strictly necessary? Can't you guys manage it remotely through SSH?

[Xulu132]

1 minute ago, Lehti said:

Is a GUI strictly necessary? Can't you guys manage it remotely through SSH?

Yes, but I don't typically want to risk deploying these servers and not have control over remotely rebooting the server or remote access to bios etc. If the server was to freeze up for whatever reason, I would have to pay for remote hands or drive 2 hours to reboot it manually.

[Mikensan]

1 hour ago, Xulu132 said:

Yes, but I don't typically want to risk deploying these servers and not have control over remotely rebooting the server or remote access to bios etc. If the server was to freeze up for whatever reason, I would have to pay for remote hands or drive 2 hours to reboot it manually.

If you're that close I would say it's not worth it to spend money to get IPMI if you already have equipment ready to deploy. I haven't had a machine (virtual or physical) do a full lock up on me in years. Only exception is a hardware failure, but ipmi wouldn't have helped. This is between personal, home lab, and work. 

 

Bios configuration can still be made from an IP based KVM. Though I think that too should be very rare.

 

One sort of... ghetto... solution would buy an electrical plug that can be controlled over the network and just dial in to that and do a hard power cycle. Just need to make sure bios is set to turn on upon power.

[Mark77]

Those Asus dongles are for boards that very specifically allow for that as an add-on.

 

Have you considered using a "Q" motherboard that supports Intel AMT with a vPro chip?   The price is barely much higher than the H or B motherboards.

 

But seriously, proper Supermicro boards that support IPMI aren't that expensive these days.   What's your time and the hassle of getting to your machines worth? 

[Mark77]

8 hours ago, Lehti said:

Is a GUI strictly necessary? Can't you guys manage it remotely through SSH?

Every so often, I've had Linux get into a state where its still sort of responsive, but you can't get into it with conventional ssh.  So a conventional watchdog timer (or even a hardware-based one) might not trip the machine into a reboot.

 

Also, if you ever want to do something like upgrade an OS or kernel remotely, every so often, something bad will happen for which the only extrication from such would be either a console visit (not too desirable, even if you're close to the machine), or the use of some sort of out of band management solution like IPMI.

 

 

[Xulu132]

16 hours ago, Mark77 said:

Those Asus dongles are for boards that very specifically allow for that as an add-on.

 

Have you considered using a "Q" motherboard that supports Intel AMT with a vPro chip?   The price is barely much higher than the H or B motherboards.

 

But seriously, proper Supermicro boards that support IPMI aren't that expensive these days.   What's your time and the hassle of getting to your machines worth? 

The K versions of intel chips don't support vPro, I was looking into that solution previously.