Updating and Recovering SuperMicro IPMI

Tim

Below are a few methods to update or recover SuperMicro IPMI on X-9 series boards. These instructions may be applicable to other board models as well. Check SuperMicro’s documentation.

This information is provided as-is, and extreme caution should always be taken when performing firmware updates.

IPMI UPGRADES

Using the IPMI interface

  1. Log into the IPMI web interface
  2. Click on Maintenance > Firmware Update. You will be prompted to enter Update Mode
    Note #1 – Do not enter Update Mode unless you are ready to update the IPMI. IPMI will reboot after leaving Update Mode.
    Note #2 – I would highly recommend that you set up a DHCP reservation for the BMC mac address. Depending on whether you choose to preserve configuration during the upgrade and how your networking is set up, the BMC IP Address may change when it boots back up. If you do not set up a reservation, the BMC device can still be found on your network within your DHCP range using IPMIView, but the specific device may be difficult to find depending on the number of SuperMicro devices in your environment.
  3. Click Enter Update Mode.
  4. Browse to and select the firmware file you want to upgrade with and follow the steps to upgrade the IPMI. You can choose to either preserve the existing configuration, or not preserve it (reset the IPMI device to factory settings).
  5. Wait for the upgrade to complete. Once the upgrade completes, click Ok to reboot the IPMI.

Using a bootable DOS flash drive and dupdate.exe

  1. Prepare a bootable DOS USB flash drive
  2. Head over to SuperMicro’s support page and download the latest IPMI for your model motherboard.
  3. The .zip that you download should contain a ‘DOS x.xx’ folder, including `dupdate.exe`. Copy the ‘DOS x.xx’ folder and the IPMI image file on to the flash drive and install it in the SuperMicro server.
  4. Reboot the server and boot into the flash drive.
  5. At the prompt, type `dupdate.exe -f <name of firmware image>`
    Note: You can optionally add `-r n` to the command above to not preserve your IPMI’s configuration (reset it to factory).
  6. Wait for the image to flash. The IPMI device will reboot automatically once it is finished.

IPMI Recovery

Using a bootable DOS flash drive and dupdate.exe

The instructions directly above can also be used to recover an IPMI device if it gets into a corrupted state.

Using SMCIPMITool

You can use SMCIPMITool to flash the firmware of an IPMI device. This is an Out of Band tool, and will require that the IPMI device have a Node Product Key Installed.

The user manual is below, which lists out the commands needed depending on which series of motherboard is installed in your SuperMicro server:

ftp://ftp.supermicro.com/utility/SMCIPMItool/SMCIPMITool_User_Guide.pdf