Overview

Here, the SRCF DRP machines are used as an example.  These machines are from SuperMicro and have one of their versions of screens and interfaces.  Many of our machines have their IPMI interface connected on the network.  Point a browser at https://<node name>-ipmi.pcdsn and a page comes up on which to enter a username and password (contact pcds-it for good values).  After successful login, the IPMI page comes up and shows many capabilities, including:

• a remote interface to the system console
• interacting with system power
• updating the BIOS

IT Utilities For Managing BIOS Code/Settings

(courtesy of Simon Elmir)

The one we have covers Supermicro servers: "Supermicro Update Manager (SUM)"
https://www.supermicro.com/en/solutions/management-software/supermicro-update-manager

The utility should be available at one of these two paths, depending on which environment you're in:
* PCDS: /cds/sw/package/supermicro/sum_latest_Linux_x86_64/sum
* S3DF: /sdf/group/scs/tools/supermicro/sum_latest_Linux_x86_64/sum

SUM can be run locally on the target server, or it can interact remotely using IPMI credentials. Changes to BIOS settings get applied on next reboot.

Users Guide: https://www.supermicro.com/Bios/sw_download/636/SUM_UserGuide.pdf

Remote Console

The remote console can be run with either a Java plug-in or HTML5 via selection through the 'settings' link on the System tab.  If the Java method gives trouble, switch to HTML5, which is slower but reliably provides readable screens.  Click on the preview panel to bring up the console screen.

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