After playing with IPMI on one of our new Dell servers at the office, I decided it would be a very useful addon to The Colo Machine. For less than E50, I found a card compatible with my motherboard, that macTijn and I installed today.

So far it works, we’re able to access the serial console through the network, and send the obvious power on/off/cycle commands. The Java tool (IPMIView) that comes with the card doesn’t seem very stable, or fast. The ’speed’ thing goes for the card too, unfortunately.

I’m not too happy that SuperMicro delivers the cards ‘blank’, but I’m guessing that’s because they use the same card for different motherboards, which need their own firmware. Or such. Chances are things might improve after we put in a more recent firmware version (which I haven’t found yet), but for now, “it just works”. :)