IPMI Overview

The IPMI (Intelligent Platform Management Interface) is an open-standard hardware management interface that allows you communicate with BMC (Baseboard Management Controller) of the platform hardware.

BMC, a dedicated micro-controller, manages the interface between system-management software and platform hardware. BMC performs operations such as remote power on or power off, or makes the console accessible. BMC also monitors the hardware resources such as sensors and can send alert messages over the LAN indicating a potential failure of the system.

IPMI is a way to manage the platform hardware by interacting with the hardware directly rather than with the operating system. The advantages of using IPMI are that it allows an out-of-band platform hardware management and the operating system is not burdened with the operational overheads by sending system status data.

Supported Platforms

Not all features are necessarily supported on each hardware platform. Refer to the Platform Guide for the features and the sub-features that are or are not supported by each platform.