Sun Microsystems V40z, V20Z manual Ipmi Server Management

C H A P T E R 2

IPMI Server Management

Server manufacturers today have to re-invent how each new server manages itself. The hardware and software design for one server does not necessarily work with another. Every server supplier provides basic monitoring and data collection functions but no two do it exactly the same. These proprietary implementations for manageability only complicate the problem.

The standardization of server-based management, called Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI), provides a solution. IPMI allows you to interconnect the CPU and devices being managed. It allows for:

■Easy replication of the monitoring functions from server to server

■Support for a reasonably large number of monitoring devices

■Common driver-level access to management instrumentation

■More cost-effective implementations

■Increased scalability of the server management functions

IPMI is an industry-standard, hardware-manageability interface specification that provides an architecture defining how unique devices can all communicate with the CPU in a standard way. It facilitates platform-side server management and remote server-management frameworks, by providing a standard set of interfaces for monitoring and managing servers.

With IPMI, the software becomes less dependent on hardware because the management intelligence resides in the IPMI firmware layer, thereby creating a more intelligently managed server. The IPMI solution increases server scalability by distributing the management intelligence closer to the devices that are being managed.

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