ipmi_sim(1)

NAME
ipmi_sim - IPMI LAN BMC Simulator

SYNOPSIS
ipmi_sim [-c config-file] [-f command-file] [-x command] [-s state-dir] [-d] [-n]

DESCRIPTION
The ipmi_sim daemon emulates an IPMI BMC simulator that may be accessed using the IPMI 1.5 or 2.0 LAN protocol, or via various serial protocols. It is useful stand-along for prototyping, it may be used with a virtual machine such as QEMU to provide an IPMI BMC emulator, and it may be used to implement an actual BMC (where it's not such a simulator any more) ipmi_sim supports the full authentication capabilities of the IPMI LAN protocol. ipmi_sim supports multiple IP addresses for fault-tolerance. Note that messages coming in on an address are always sent back out on the same address they came in.

OPTIONS

-c config-file
    Set the configuration file to one other than the default of /etc/ipmi/lan.conf . See ipmi_lan(5) for details.

-f command-file
    Specify a command file to execute when ipmi_sim is starting. This is generally used to set up the IPMI environment. See ipmi_sim_cmd(5) for details.

-x  command
    Execute a single command.

-s state-dir
    Specify a state directory for ipmi_sim to use instead of the default. The state directory must exist, and ipmi_sim will store information there for when it restarts. For instance, if someone changes user information, then it will store the new user information there and what is in the config file will no longer be used.

-d  Turns on debugging to standard output (if -n is not specified) and the debug output of syslog.

-n  Disables console and I/O on standard input and output.

CONFIGURATION
Configuration is accomplished through the file /etc/ipmi/lan.conf. A file with another name or path may be specified using the -c option. See the ipmi_lan(5) config file man page for more details.

COMMANDS
When ipmi_sim starts up, it has an empty environment with no BMC or management controllers. You have to execute commands to set things up. The commands can also be used to set sensor states, inject events, and other things you might want to do when simulating a BMC. See the ipmi_sim_cmd(5) man page for details.

SECURITY
ipmi_sim implements normal IPMI security. The default is no access for anyone, so the default is pretty safe, but be careful what you add, because this is access to control your box. straight and none authorizations are not recommended, you should probably stick with md2 or md5 if you are not using RMCP+.

PERSISTENCE
Things that are supposed to be persistent in a BMC are kept in files, generall in /var/ipmi_sim/<name>, where <name> is the name of the BMC specified in the configuration file. The following things are persistent:

SDRs
    - This is named sdr.<mcnum>.main and is the main SDR repository.

SEL - This is named sel.<mcnum>.

Users
    - This is named users.mc<mcnum>.

LAN parameters
    - This is named lanparm.mc<mcnum>.<channel>.

SOL parameters
    - This is named sol.mc<mcnum>.

The <mcnum> is the hexadecimal number of the MC.

Serial Over LAN (SOL)
ipmi_sim implements Serial Over LAN for hooking an RMCP+ connection to a standard Unix serial port. This is configured in the ipmi_lan(5) configuration file. A SOL interface is done on a per-MC basis. So if the MC is set to a non-BMC, you can define a SOL interface on it and it will work if you reroute the commands to that MC. It's a little weird, but it works. Only interface 1 is supported at the moment. A SOL interface can also hold history that is kept even if nothing is connected to the SOL interface from the LAN. So if you want to see what has happened on the serial port, you can connect to interface 2 and it will dump the history. The history is optionally persistent, if the program terminates normally and is restarted, the history is restored if it is configured to do so. A SOL interface can create a FRU on the MC to let you fetch the history via the FRU interface.

SIGNALS

SIGHUP
    ipmi_sim should handle SIGHUP and reread it's configuration files. However, it doesn't right now. It might in the future, for now you will have to kill it and restart it. Clients should handle reconnecting in this case. If they don't, they are broken.

ERROR OUTPUT
At startup, all error output goes to stderr. After that, all error output goes to syslog.

FILES
/etc/ipmi_lan.conf

SEE ALSO
ipmi_lan(5),ipmi_sim_cmd(5),ipmi_ui(1),openipmish(1)

AUTHOR

Corey Minyard <cminyard@mvista.com>