I was tasked with adding several machines to a network KVM switch. The HP servers run iLO for remote management functions and they easily installed. The DELL servers use DRAC which required work to get them configured. One DELL server didn’t have a DRAC card so I had to use IPMI.
The server ran Windows 2003 which does not automatically install the IPMI driver. This is accomplished through Add/Remove Programs.
- Click Start, Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs.
- Click Add/Remove Windows Components.
- From the component list, select Management and Monitoring Tools, and click Details.
- Select Hardware Management.
Wait a minute! Where is the Hardware Management option?
It turns out this option is only available with the R2 version of Server 2003. A quick installation and the option was available.
Following the same steps as above, the next step is to click “Next”
The installation wizard will start and it will ask for the Windows Server 2003 R2 installation disk.
After it’s installed; it would be a good idea to verify installation as there is a technote and a hot fix to install if the IPMI driver does not appear.
To verify installation:
- Click Start, Control Panel, System.
- Select the Hardware tab.
- Click Device Manager.
- Click View, Show Hidden Devices.
- Expand System devices.
Look for Microsoft Generic IPMI Compliant Device. If it exists, it’s installed. If not, enter the following command:
rundll32 ipmisetp.dll, AddTheDevice
The device should appear. If not, you might need this hotfix.
Once the device is in place, we can go about configuring it.
I will present this in another post.
As always; the useful links:
Introduction
Enabling
