System BIOS

Intel® Server Board Set SE8500HW4

10.5 IPMI Serial/Modem Interface

The BMC controls whether the COM2 internal connector is electrically connected to the BMC or the standard serial port of the SIO. Refer to the IPMI 2.0 Specification for more information, with Intel® Server Board Set SE8500HW4-specific implementation described in this section.

10.5.1Channel Access Modes

The BIOS supports the four different channel access modes described in the IPMI 2.0 Specification.

10.5.2Interaction with BIOS Console Redirection

The BIOS console redirection uses VT-UTF8 console redirection support. This implementation was chosen to meet the functional requirements. The requirements are set forth in the Microsoft Windows 2003 WHQL requirements for headless operation of servers. It was also chosen to maintain a necessary degree of backward compatibility with existing Intel server BIOS products.

The server BIOS has a console that is intended to interact with a display and keyboard combination. The BIOS instantiates sources and sinks of input/output data in the form of BIOS Setup screens, Boot Manager Screens, Power On Self Test (POST) informational messages and hotkey/escape sequence action requests.

Output is displayed locally at the computer on video display devices, currently limited to VGA displays in text or graphics mode. Input locally may come from a USB keyboard, without mouse support.

The use of serial port console redirection allows a single serial cable to be drawn in for each server system, and then the serial cables from a number of servers can be connected to a serial concentrator or to a switch which will allow access to each server system individually. The system administrator can switch from one server to another to manage large numbers of servers without having to physically interact with the individual servers.

10.5.3Serial Over LAN

The BIOS will automatically start console redirection on COM2 if it detects SOL is enabled in the BMC. BIOS will set COM2 flow control and baud rate from BMC’s IPMI Serial/Modem configuration. Data bits will be set to 8 bits/character, no parity and 1 stop bit as per IPMI messaging requirement. And the console type will be set to VT100+.

The BIOS console redirection on COM2 supports an extra control escape sequence to force the COM2 port to the BMC. After this command is sent, the COM2 port attaches to the BMC channel access serial port and the SIO COM2 data is ignored. This feature allows a remote user to monitor the status of POST using the standard BIOS console redirection features and then takes control of the system reset or power using the channel mode features. If an error occurs during POST, a watchdog time-out feature in the BMC automatically takes control of the COM2 port.

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Revision 1.0

 

Intel order number D22893-001