Running Systems

This is a bit on the less legit side, but a need rose where I was required to update the BIOS on an old SuperMicro SBB server. The thing is – the IPMI, which is fully capable otherwise, did not allow me to update the BIOS using this interface, and the other options were using DOS or EFI – both less than ideal in this situation.

Buying IPMI license (A SFT-DCMS-SINGLE per node license) is a time consuming option, and I did not have the time at this stage. I do intend on completing the purchase, but in the meanwhile – I needed the license for this simple task.

I found in this post a small guide on how to do it. The general idea, which I will describe below, is to obtain the IPMI MAC address (in the format of xx-xx-xx-xx-xx-xx) and generate it through the script, like this:

export bmc_mac=xx-xx-xx-xx-xx-xx #obtain from IPMI
echo -n $bmc_mac | xxd -r -p | openssl dgst -sha1 -mac HMAC -macopt hexkey:8544E3B47ECA58F9583043F8 | awk '{print $2}' | cut -c 1-24 | fold -w4

Again – I urge you to purchase a license and do the right thing. It’s just sometimes you need a fast response. That’s all.