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Intel® Server Board SE7320SP2 & Intel Server Board SE7525GP2 TPS Platform Management
Revision 2.0
112
5.2.6 Direct Platform Control (IPMI over LAN)
Direct Platform Control provides a mechanism for delivering IPMI Messages directly to the
management controllers via a LAN connection. The NICs and the management controllers
remain active on standby power, enabling the IPMI Messaging when the system is powered up,
powered down, and in a system sleep state. This allows a remote console application to be able
to access the management controller capabilities, including:
• Power on/off and reset control with the ability to set BIOS boot flags
• FRU, SDR, and SEL access
• BMC configuration access
• Remote NMI generation
• Ability to transfer IPMI messages between the LAN interface and other interfaces, such
as the System Interface, IPMB, and PCI SMBus. This capability enables messages to be
delivered to system management software, and provides the ability to access sensors
and FRU information on other management controllers.
IPMI Messages are encapsulated in a packet format called RMCP (Remote Management
Control Protocol). The Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF) has defined RMCP for
supporting pre-OS and OS-absent management. RMCP is a simple request-response protocol
that can be delivered using UDP datagrams. IPMI-over-LAN uses version 1 of the RMCP
protocol and packet format.
UDP port 26Fh is a ‘well known port’ address that is specified to carry RMCP (Remote
Management Control Protocol) formatted UDP datagrams. The on-board Intel network interface
controllers contain circuitry that enables detecting and capturing RMCP packets that are
received on Port 26Fh and making them available to the management controller via a ‘side-
band’ interface that is separate from the PCI interface to the NIC. Similarly, the management
controller can use the side-band interface to send packets from Port 26Fh, as shown in the
following figure.
LAN
PCI
NIC #1
mBMC
System Bus
RMCP
Port
26Fh
In-band
Traffic
side-band connection
Figure 16 - IPMI-over-LAN
RMCP includes a field that indicates the class of messages that can be embedded in an RMCP
message packet. For RMCP version 1.0, the defined classes are IPMI, ASF, and OEM. IPMI-
over-LAN uses the IPMI class to transfer IPMI Messages encapsulated in RMCP packets.
Intelligent Platform Management Interface v1.5 Specification specifies the packet formats and
commands used to perform IPMI Messaging on LAN via RMCP.