Can we please finally solve Dell's racadm for FreeBSD? Advice needed

[Peter G.]

Dear everybody,

regarding: https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=201799

would somebody knowledgeable be kind enough to advice and/or help with
bringing Dell racadm client/tools to FreeBSD? What is the problem with
ipmi enumeration Dan mentioned on his commit? What is in the first place
desired is local access to local hardware via standard racadm client.
Local management is the "big kahuna" here.

There were several attempts over the years, yet everything waned away
without any solid results. Dell hardware is constantly mentioned on the
lists or in the forums, so clearly many of us use it. I myself manage
several Dell servers. The lack of local racadm for FreeBSD is daring.

On my own and out of my pocket I will offer 50 EUR in Bitcoin to anybody
who will solve the problem, i.e. provide a working racadm client which
can access and manage local hardware. Of course anybody else is welcome
to chime in. I am willing to put that in escrow with a trusted member of
the community. Please let me know what to do.

Many thanks!
--
PG

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[Peter G.]

On 28/04/2018 15:56, Mark Blackman wrote:
>> On my own and out of my pocket I will offer 50 EUR in Bitcoin to anybody
>> who will solve the problem, i.e. provide a working racadm client which
>> can access and manage local hardware. Of course anybody else is welcome
>> to chime in. I am willing to put that in escrow with a trusted member of
>> the community. Please let me know what to do.
>

> A kind offer, and much better than nothing. I think more like Nx1000 Euros
> cash would be a more realistic offer. Maybe a kickstarter campaign or similar
> to fund it? If all the Dell server managers clubbed together, I bet they could
> easily find that much. Alternately persuade the FreeBSD foundation to put their
> focus behind it.

I don't think this much exposure and/or funds is/are really needed here.
The proposed port, especially after Dan's commits, is already
functional. The local access is missing. I bet if anybody with knowledge
what to do offers a bit of advice how to solve it, it will be solved in
no time. I'd say this is more about know-how than funds.

[Jack L.]

I manage a variety of Dell servers running FreeBSD, only 610 and 1950s
work with racadm but everything that can be done with racadm can also
be done with ipmitool. I just use ipmitool to get around instead of
their proprietary racadm stuff. What functionality do you need from
racadm and maybe I can give you an ipmitool equivalent?

On Sat, Apr 28, 2018 at 6:54 AM, Nicolas Embriz <nb...@tequila.io> wrote:
> Regarding this topic I have a Dell Power 2900 that I could donate for
> testing more in detail this issues.
>
> If interested please PM.
>
> Regards.

>
> On Sat, Apr 28, 2018 at 3:39 PM, Peter G. <fre...@disroot.org> wrote:
>
>> Dear everybody,
>>
>> regarding: https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=201799
>>
>> would somebody knowledgeable be kind enough to advice and/or help with
>> bringing Dell racadm client/tools to FreeBSD? What is the problem with
>> ipmi enumeration Dan mentioned on his commit? What is in the first place
>> desired is local access to local hardware via standard racadm client.
>> Local management is the "big kahuna" here.
>>
>> There were several attempts over the years, yet everything waned away
>> without any solid results. Dell hardware is constantly mentioned on the
>> lists or in the forums, so clearly many of us use it. I myself manage
>> several Dell servers. The lack of local racadm for FreeBSD is daring.
>>
>> On my own and out of my pocket I will offer 50 EUR in Bitcoin to anybody
>> who will solve the problem, i.e. provide a working racadm client which
>> can access and manage local hardware. Of course anybody else is welcome
>> to chime in. I am willing to put that in escrow with a trusted member of
>> the community. Please let me know what to do.
>>
>> Many thanks!
>> --
>> PG
>>
>> _______________________________________________

>> freebsd...@freebsd.org mailing list
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>>
> _______________________________________________
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[Peter G.]

On 29/04/2018 05:08, Jack L. wrote:
> I manage a variety of Dell servers running FreeBSD, only 610 and 1950s
> work with racadm but everything that can be done with racadm can also
> be done with ipmitool. I just use ipmitool to get around instead of
> their proprietary racadm stuff. What functionality do you need from
> racadm and maybe I can give you an ipmitool equivalent?

It seems I may missed the ipmi angle altogether assuming it was only
remote. Only now following Dan's comments I am realizing how racadm
works talking to local hardware.

You mean using this impi(4) as a local device and talking to it via
local tool allowing coms with the device? Oh, that would do nicely. I
need this for scripting mostly, e.g. monitoring what the intrusion
sensor shows.

Can you please describe your setup? What other kernel modules and 3rd
party software do you employ? Any tricks with device.hints are needed? I
have a small R220 at hand for testing, but it's lacking impi(4)
altogether. Will have to rebuild.

--
PG

[Jack L.]

I have
device ipmi

in my kernel config (or you can just kldload ipmi).

Install ipmitool, and most of the dell cmds are the usual ipmi
commands. Some commands might have to be sent via raw or delloem and
you can't soft reset the drac, only hard reset it via the tool.