American Megatrends MegaRAC Express S788 Software User guide

MegaRAC™

Software Guide

MAN-780-SW

09/09/01

MegaRAC™ Software Guide

ii

1985-2010 American Megatrends, Inc.

American Megatrends, Inc.

5555 Oakbrook Parkway, Building 200,

Norcross, GA 30093

This publication contains proprietary information which is protected by copyright. No part of this

publication can be reproduced, transcribed, stored in a retrieval system, translated into any

language or computer language, or transmitted in any form whatsoever without the prior written

consent of the publisher, American Megatrends, Inc. American Megatrends, Inc. acknowledges the

following trademarks:

Intel is a registered trademark of Intel Corporation.

MS-DOS and Microsoft are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Windows 95,

Windows 98, Microsoft Windows, and Windows NT are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.

SCO, UnixWare, and Unix are registered trademarks of the Santa Cruz Operation. Inc.

Novell NetWare is a registered trademark of Novell Corporation.

IBM, AT, VGA, PS/2, and OS/2 are registered trademarks and XT and CGA are trademarks of

International Business Machines Corporation.

Other trademarks and trade names may be used in this document to refer to either the entities

claiming the marks and names or their products. American Megatrends, Inc. disclaims any

proprietary interest in trademarks and trade names other than its own.

Revision History

6/10/99 Initial release.

9/22/99 Updated several screens with format changes, and the Server

Management screen with content changes. Added UnixWare and

Linux information.

09/11/00 Updated as per the functionality in Version 2.3

09/09/01

Removed Solaris UnixWare and Linux Version support.

Preface

iii

Table of Contents

1 Overview..................................................................... 1

How MegaRAC™ Works................................................. 3

MegaRAC™ Software Modules....................................... 7

MegaRAC™ Technical Specifications............................. 9

MegaRAC™ Features .................................................... 10

2 Using MegaRAC™ ................................................... 17

Using MegaRAC™ ........................................................ 17

MegaRAC™ Graphical User Interface........................... 17

Address Book Section .................................................... 18

Discover Management Stations Section ......................... 21

Favorite Management Stations Section........................... 22

Login Screen................................................................... 26

Default Health Screen..................................................... 27

System Health Screen ..................................................... 28

System Information Screen............................................. 33

Event Log Screen............................................................ 34

Console Redirection Screen............................................ 35

Power Management Screen ............................................ 37

Installing the Software.................................................... 38

Installing the System BIOS............................................. 38

Installing MegaRAC™ for Windows ............................. 38

Installing MegaRAC™ for Novell.................................. 39

3 Troubleshooting ...................................................... 41

Connection Errors........................................................... 41

Connection lost errors, once established......................... 46

Possible Reasons and solutions: ..................................... 47

Console Redirection Errors ............................................ 47

Index ............................................................................ 49

MegaRAC™ Software Guide

iv

Preface

The MegaRAC™ (Remote Access Companion) provides

server management capabilities. You can use the card to

manage and monitor nonstorage components in your servers

through a modem or direct serial connection, even when your

network is down. MegaRAC™ offers hardware and software

solutions to server management.

Limited Warranty The buyer agrees if this product proves to be defective, that

American Megatrends is obligated only to repair or replace

this product at American Megatrends’ discretion according to

the terms and conditions of the warranty registration card that

accompanies this product. American Megatrends shall not be

liable in tort or contract for any loss or damage, direct,

incidental or consequential resulting from the use of this

product. Please see the Warranty Registration Card shipped

with this product for full warranty details.

Limitations of Liability American Megatrends, Inc. shall in no event be held

liable for any loss, expenses, or damages of any kind

whatsoever, whether direct, indirect, incidental, or

consequential (whether arising from the design or use of this

product or the support materials provided with the product).

No action or proceeding against American Megatrends may

be commenced more than two years after the delivery of

product to Licensee of Licensed Software.

Licensee agrees to defend and indemnify American

Megatrends from any and all claims, suits, and liabilities

(including attorney’s fees) arising out of or resulting from any

actual or alleged act or omission on the part of Licensee, its

authorized third parties, employees, or agents, in connection

with the distribution of Licensed Software to end-users,

including, without limitation, claims, suits, and liability for

bodily or other injuries to end-users resulting from use of

Licensee’s product not caused solely by faults in Licensed

Software as provided by American Megatrends to Licensee.

Cont’d

Preface

v

Preface, Continued

CD Contents The CD contains:

• Documentation

• Firmware

• Host Software (Windows 2000 and Windows NT 4.0)

• Client & Management Station

(Win2000/NT4.0/Win98/Win95)

• Client only software (Win98/Win95)

• Novell Host (NW 4.x/NW 5.x)

• Hardware health function SDK

Technical Support If you need help installing, configuring, or running the

MegaRAC™ card, call your American Megatrends OEM

Technical Support representative.

Web Site We invite you to access the American Megatrends world wide

web site at:

http://www.ami.com

FTP Site The address of the American Megatrends FTP site is:

ftp://ftp.megatrends.com

Cont’d

MegaRAC™ Software Guide

vi

Preface, Continued

Disclaimer This manual describes the operation of the American

Megatrends MegaRAC™ card. Although efforts have been

made to assure the accuracy of the information contained

here, American Megatrends expressly disclaims liability for

any error in this information, and for damages, whether direct,

indirect, special, exemplary, consequential or otherwise, that

may result from such error, including but not limited to the

loss of profits resulting from the use or misuse of the manual

or information contained therein (even if American

Megatrends has been advised of the possibility of such

damages). Any questions or comments regarding this

document or its contents should be addressed to American

Megatrends at the address shown on the cover.

American Megatrends provides this publication “as is”

without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied,

including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of

merchantability or fitness for a specific purpose.

Some states do not allow disclaimer of express or implied

warranties or the limitation or exclusion of liability for

indirect, special, exemplary, incidental or consequential

damages in certain transactions; therefore, this statement may

not apply to you. Also, you may have other rights that vary

from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.

This publication could include technical inaccuracies or

typographical errors. Changes are periodically made to the

information herein; these changes will be incorporated in new

editions of the publication. American Megatrends may make

improvements and/or revisions in the product(s) and/or the

program(s) described in this publication at any time.

Requests for technical information about American

Megatrends products should be made to your American

Megatrends authorized reseller or marketing representative.

Chapter 1 Overview

1

1Overview

Overview The American Megatrends® MegaRAC™ Remote Access

Companion provides ultimate server management capabilities.

You can use MegaRAC™ to manage and monitor important

components in enterprise servers through a modem or

dedicated Ethernet even when your network is down. This

guide contains information about how to use the MegaRAC™

interface.

Dead Server Management MegaRAC™ offers a complete server management

solution through dedicated hardware and software duo. One

major feature of MegaRAC™ is the ability to manage a

"dead" server and get the server up and running as quickly as

possible, remotely, even anywhere in the world.

MegaRAC™ provides alert notification when the server is

down or any critical error happens to the server and gives full

access to the dead server. In addition, MegaRAC™ logs the

probable cause of the server crash and saves the current error

display.

Technical Specifications The MegaRAC™ hardware is a PCI card, with its

own processor and memory. The card is normally powered by

the bus when the server has power or it can operate with an

onboard battery backup while server looses the power. The

card can also draw the power from the optional wall adapter.

MegaRAC™ is used by the software modules, such as the on-

board intelligent firmware. In addition, MegaRAC™ comes

with a user interface program. The user interface is known as

the MegaRAC™ Management Console. The firmware is

based on a multitasking RTOS. The primary tasks of the

firmware are:

• Initialize the hardware at startup,

• Run a quick self test,

• Monitor and report critical server health parameters, and

• Provide services to the user interface application

Cont'd

MegaRAC™ Software Guide

2

Overview, Continued

MegaRAC™ Functions The MegaRAC™ card can alert you before a

probable server crash. Onboard intelligent firmware can sense

voltages, temperatures, and fan speeds from the surrounding

environment, and the MegaRAC™ contains these information

with battery backup. The basic input/output system (BIOS)

supports MegaRAC™ initialization and the drivers that

interface with the operating systems.

Mega Station Address Book Screen The Mega Station Address Book

screen is used to manage the servers, and management

stations. You can use this screen to:

• view the server list for a management station

• edit a server list

• add or delete servers

• connect to servers

• view the list of management stations

• add or delete management station

• copy and paste server list from one management station

to another

• import management station

• add new management station

MegaRAC™ Management Console After you connect to a server, you

can use the monitoring screens to:

• View system health information

• View system information

• View the event log

• Perform Console Redirection

Chapter 1 Overview

3

How MegaRAC™ Works

Introduction The MegaRAC™ is a hardware and software solution of the

Dead Server Management (DSM). When a server is down and

not running this is the panacea of an MIS manager’s headache

to have the server back up and running. MegaRAC™ gives

full access to the dead server. MegaRAC™ also offers the

alert notification when the server is down.

At the same time MegaRAC™ logs the probable cause of the

server crash and saves the current error display. MegaRAC™

is battery backed and so it never goes down and loses any

valuable information. The main intention of using

MegaRAC™ is to add manageability to a dead server.

Building Blocks MegaRAC™ has two major components: hardware and

software.

Hardware This is a PCI card. The card has its own processor and own

memory. The card takes the power from the bus when the

server has the power. Otherwise it works from the onboard

rechargeable battery or it can take power from wall adapter

Software MegaRAC™ is used by the software modules. One module is

the onboard intelligent firmware. Besides that there is a user

interface program comes with the MegaRAC™. The firmware

is based on a multitasking RTOS. The primary jobs of the

firmware are initialize the hardware at the time of power up,

runs a quick self test and provide the services to the user

interface application. The user interface is known as

MegaRAC™ Management Console. Following is the simple

model of the MegaRAC™ in operational.

How does it work? The MegaRAC™ comes with a set of OS specific services.

These services are the software modules, which run under

specific operation system. These services interface with the

MegaRAC™ hardware and provide accessibility of the server

from the hardware. The onboard firmware provides

functionality to the Management Console for accessing the

server using the server side services.

Cont'd

MegaRAC™ Software Guide

4

How MegaRAC™ Works, Continued

When the server is up and running This time MIS manager can access any

remote server using the MegaRAC™. The Management

Console provides option to see the remote server’s graphics

screen as well as to send the keyboard and mouse activities to

the remote server. This way user gets a full control over the

remote server. User is now free to do administrative tasks on

the server, for example, running diagnostic programs,

analyzing the server etc.

In this scenario MIS manager can also perform the periodic

maintenance of the server. It is possible to reboot the system

(a graceful shutdown) and watch the boot process and boot to

a separate system partition to load the diagnostic environment

and run the special diagnostic programs

Note: This feature is known as Console Redirection Service (CRS).

When the server is dead This time MegaRAC™ takes the most important role

to make the server back up and running. MegaRAC™ is

designed mainly for the Dead Server Management. To serve

this purpose MegaRAC™ can send an alert notification to its

administrator. This alert can be in several forms. MegaRAC™

card can send an Alert notification to administrator’s pager, or

it can send an SNMP trap to the specified destination or else it

can dial out to the Managed Console and finally it can also

send an E-mail to Administrator. After sending the alert,

MegaRAC™ waits for the inbound connection from the

administrator. After successful session, the MegaRAC™

provides a set of services to make the server up and running

again. These services include server reset and complete

power cycle (with proper hardware support) of the server.

MegaRAC™ also captures the text screen at the time of

server crash (in case of Windows NT, the blue screen) and

allows administrator to watch and analyze the cause of crash.

Note: This feature is known as Console Command Service (CCS).

Cont'd

Chapter 1 Overview

5

How MegaRAC™ Works, Continued

Alert notification MegaRAC™ is designed to solve dual-purpose server

management. It can:

• Help the supervisor to know before a probable server

crash

• Help the supervisor to get the server back up and running

while crashed

To solve this MegaRAC™ caters two types of alert

generation. One is called “WARNING” and the other one is

“CATASTROPHIC”.

The warning alerts are used to take any action to save the

server from the possible crash. The example is, one of the

processor fan is stuck. Eventually the processor will be hot

enough to be non-functional. MegaRAC™ can monitor that

and sends the alert as “Type: WARNING”. With this warning

it also tells about the severity of that alert. Severity level can

be from one of the followings - HIGHEST, HIGH, NORMAL

and LOW. Severity level allows supervisor to react fast or

slow on that alert.

On the other hand, when the server is dead, MegaRAC™

sends an alert message to the supervisor as “Type:

CATASTROPHIC”. Severity level is always set to HIGHEST

in this case.

Alert Path When an alert situation happens, MegaRAC™ reaches to the

supervisor by in-band and/or out-of-band way. The following

section will describe these two alert paths.

In-band path This path is the normal way to access the server. The server

will initiate an alert using the server’s in-band network, for

example the LAN or the WAN. One of the MegaRAC™

services, the SNMP agent will generate a trap over the

LAN/WAN. This way any management application (such as

HP OpenView) will receive the trap and take corresponding

action. In-band path can be used if the server is up and

running and there is an alert condition as of type

“WARNING”.

Cont'd

MegaRAC™ Software Guide

6

How MegaRAC™ Works, Continued

Out-of-band path In severe condition, while the server is not running,

MegaRAC™ uses this path. The MegaRAC™ hardware is

now active and uses another path other than the LAN/WAN

that connects the server. Rather it uses a telephone line or a

separate network line (ATM) to send its “SOS” message. This

path can be used both when the server is running and also

when the server is dead. The MegaRAC™ solely uses the out-

of-band path.

Accessing MegaRAC™ MegaRAC™ can be accessed by the Out-of-band

path, which can be telephone line and/or a separate network

line other than LAN/WAN. The out-of-band session is the

only way to access the MegaRAC™ functionality. The

MegaRAC™ Management Console will provide the user

interface to access the MegaRAC™ hardware and use the

Console Command Service and Console Redirection Service.

Chapter 1 Overview

7

MegaRAC™ Software Modules

The MegaRAC™ software architecture is built upon several

independent software modules that run under specific

operating systems. The modules include hardware services,

application services, management services, and user

interfaces. The following table displays the software modules

for MegaRAC™:

Software Module Description Location

Hardware Services MegaRAC™ card interface driver under

Microsoft® Windows NT4.0, Windows

2000, Novell® NetWare 4.11, 5.X, and

Linux

Server node

Application Services Graphics capture service under Windows

NT 4.0 and Windows 2000only

Virtual mouse service under Windows

NT 4.0 and Windows 2000 only

Server node

Management

Services

SNMP agent under Windows NT and

Novell NetWare

Server node

User Interface GUI based under Windows NT 4.0,

W2000, Windows 95 and Windows 98

Client

Address book server Contains the IP address/phone number of

the MegaRAC™ card. This module

works under Windows NT 4.0 and

Windows 2000

Management

station

Alert Center Collects the alerts from the MegaRAC™

card through modem and logs in the

event log. For Windows NT 4.0 and

W2000

Management

station

MegaRAC™ Software Guide

8

MegaRAC™ Software Modules, Continued

Hardware services Hardware services are the drivers running under each

operating system. The drivers allow applications and other

system-level services to access the MegaRAC™ hardware.

These services are operating system specific and differ from

one operating system to another.

Application services Application services are the drivers that work between

the hardware services and the upper-level user interface. One

example is the driver that captures the graphics screen

content. Application services maintain the MegaRAC™

features and the implementation of the console services.

Operating system-specific management services The operating system-

specific management services support the standard

management protocols. An enterprise network system is

typically run by a management application. This application is

based upon certain management standards such as Simple

Network Management Protocol (SNMP.) Management

through SNMP uses the in-band network.

User interface The user interface is the interaction between MegaRAC™ and

the user. The interface is an intuitive GUI based application.

This 32-bit application runs under Windows NT 4.0,

Windows 2000, Windows 95 and Windows 98. The main user

interface for MegaRAC™ is the Management Console. The

management console lets the user access the MegaRAC™

card and use the Console Redirection Service, and Console

Command Service.

Chapter 1 Overview

9

MegaRAC™ Technical Specifications

The technical specifications for the MegaRAC™ card and

other technical information are:

Item Description

Processor The MegaRAC™ card has an Intel® 80L960JA 3.3V embedded

32-bit processor running at 16 MHz. This processor includes 2

KB of instruction cache and 1 KB of data cache with write-

through operation. The MegaRAC™ card has an AMI MG9063

ASIC that interfaces between the host PCI bus and the local

i960JA processor.

Memory MegaRAC™ includes 2 MB flash ROM that contains the

firmware image and DRAM for operational memory. The

MegaRAC™ card includes 16MB DRAM memory. The

firmware will operate from this memory. The firmware will

maintain adequate stack and heap for all internal processing. A

128 KB NVRAM area provides storage for configuration

information, event logs, and captured text screens.

Out-of-band

Access

Out-of-band access is established through a path other than the

server's own LAN or WAN, such as a telephone line or a

separate network connection to the dedicated Ethernet port of

the MegaRAC™ card. It requires the use of the onboard 10

Mbps LAN adapter or an onboard serial port.

Hardware

Health

Parameter

Monitoring

Monitors hardware health parameters (voltages, temperatures,

fan status, and chassis intrusion). By default MegaRAC™

monitors ambient temperature, PCI bus voltage, onboard battery

status and external power supply. For additional I2C device-

monitoring MegaRAC™ must be connected to the server

motherboard through the feature connector using the special

cable provided with the card.

Hard Reset

and Power

Cycle

Used to initiate an immediate server boot. The MegaRAC™

card can detect when the server has lost power or has been reset

by a watchdog timer it provides to the firmware. For this feature

MegaRAC™ card must be connected to the server motherboard

using a special cable through the onboard feature connector.

BIOS

Functions

The BIOS on the server motherboards allows you to capture

videotext sequences the firmware stores in NVRAM. The boot

sequences and I/O Port 0080h outputs are captured and stored

in NVRAM. The BIOS contains descriptive strings that expand

the captured codes.

MegaRAC™ Software Guide

10

MegaRAC™ Features

DSM (Dead Server Management) What is the DSM? As the name goes, it is

the management of the server while it is dead or non-

functional. As a dead server has its own processor stopped

and not executing any code, an independent computer should

be present to help in this scenario. And that independent

computer is the MegaRAC™.

MegaRAC™ acts like a computer inside a computer. It is

battery backed so it never goes down. MegaRAC™ always

keeps monitoring the server whether it is up and running or

not. As soon as it finds the server is dead, it sends the message

out to the supervisor to manage the dead server immediately.

MegaRAC™ provides a set of commands to be executed upon

user’s request to manage a dead server.

A graphical user interface program will allow user to connect

remotely or locally to the MegaRAC™ hardware. The

onboard firmware of the MegaRAC™ will start functioning to

manage the dead server at this time.

Cont'd

Chapter 1 Overview

11

MegaRAC™ Features, Continued

How it is achieved? When an important server is up and running, there are lots

of ways to monitor the server and manage it. But when the

server is not functional and its processor quits working,

MegaRAC™ becomes the only answer to manage it at that

time. Following is the major features of MegaRAC™’s Dead

Server Management.

• Constantly monitor server’s health

• Send heartbeat to the supervisor - with status (OK,

Warning, Catastrophic) and severity level (Highest, High,

Normal and Low)

• Send “Catastrophic” alert to the supervisor in case of

server crash

• Playback server’s last crash screen

• View event log history

• View server’s current health status and the histogram

• Perform RESET/POWER CYCLE at the server

• Auto server recovery without supervisor’s assistance to

minimize server downtime

• Send SNMP trap over the out-of-band network to other

management applications

• Independent pager alert in case of server crash

• Dial out to Managed console

• Send E-mail to Administrator

Cont'd

MegaRAC™ Software Guide

12

MegaRAC™ Features, Continued

Health Monitoring The MegaRAC™ management console graphical user

interface (GUI) is the medium through which you perform

most of your server monitoring tasks. MegaRAC™ card

monitors two categories of system health parameters. They

are described below. Onboard health The card by default

monitors the following parameters.

• Ambient temperature - This provides the in-cage

temperature of the server.

• PCI bus voltage - This provides whether server loses

power or not.

• External power supply - An optional power supply can be

connected through the external power connector. This

could be the supplied AC wall adapter.

• Battery charge status - This provides the charge status of

the on board battery. This also provides the information

about the battery condition.

These parameters above are displayed anytime (whether

server is running or crashed) at the remote management

console program.

Server health MegaRAC™ card can also monitor server

temperature, voltage, fan status, chassis intrusion etc. through

special connector called "feature connector". For this feature

onboard firmware has to be configured properly. To do so

MegaRAC™ implements an SDK and set of tools for easy

customization. This monitoring is done on I2C bus present in

the feature connector. The server motherboard also has to

have the similar interface. Without configuring the firmware

using SDK, management console will not show the server's

health information.

Playback server’s last crash screen When the server is crashed MegaRAC™

management console can get the last crashed screens and play

them back. This way MIS manager can analyze the cause of

the crash and fix that in future.

Cont'd

Chapter 1 Overview

13

MegaRAC™ Features, Continued

View Event log The MegaRAC™ hardware will have a considerable size of

nonvolatile storage. All the events can be logged there. These

events come from the MegaRAC™ itself or even from the

outside, for example BIOS.

SNMP trap When there is a crisis, MegaRAC™ can generate a trap over

the network from its embedded SNMP agent. This trap goes

to the SNMP manager. This trap comes through the out-of-

band network from the MegaRAC™. This way any

management application on that network (for example, HP

OpenView etc.) will get that trap and let the MIS manager to

handle that situation.

Independent paging So far MegaRAC™ was described to report to the

supervisor. The supervisor is actually a management station

that can be a management server in the distributed enterprise

network system. But MegaRAC™ can also page using its

onboard modem independently to any MIS manager for any

kind of alert notification. On the other hand management

station can also send that page by itself. This is what the

MegaRAC™ is setup to work.

Dial out to Managed Console When there is an Alert, the modem connected

with the MegaRAC™ card can dial out to the specified

Managed Console. This way the supervisor is immediately

notified for every event happening on the server.

E-mail notification MegaRAC™ card can send an e-mail to the Administrator,

when there is an Alert. The severity of an Alert can be set as

Error, Fatal, Warning, and Information. This is done through

the out of band Management.

Cont'd

MegaRAC™ Software Guide

14

MegaRAC™ Features, Continued

Console Redirection Service MegaRAC™ offers full graphics and text

redirection from the server side to the remote management

console. In this service it also provides the facility to send key

press sequence and mouse activity from the remote

management console to the server side. The reason of this

service is to gain full control over the server from a remote

location. The main features of this service are as follows.

• Screen redirection (graphics/text)

• Keyboard/mouse redirection

• Graceful shutdown

• Watch boot process including the POST progress (port

80)

• Access BIOS setup remotely

• Remote server maintenance

• Remote diagnostics

• File Transfer and

• Floppy Redirection

Cont'd

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