Description
This incidence indicates the OSA/Avocent IPMI (Intelligent Platform Management Interface) driver is in conflict with the OS.
The OSA/Avocent IPMI driver communicates with the BMC (Baseboard Management Controller) on many IBM systems. The BMC is an IPMI compliant service processor. IPMI is one of the leading industry standards for server platform management.
Service processors, sometimes also called management controllers or management processors, are used not only to monitor system health but also to manage systems. IBM RSA-II (Remote Supervisor Adapter II) is another kind of service processor that IBM offers. Often, these management controllers provide out-of-band management capability, so systems can be managed remotely even if the OS is absent or the system is not fully powered on.
The OSA/Avocent IPMI driver is a required component for the OS or applications to communicate with the BMC and access its platform management functionality. Many IBM platform management tools require this driver to be in place. Such tools include ASU (Advanced Settings Utility), DSA (Dynamic System Analysis), ESA (Electronic Service Agent), Director Agent, and Hardware Management Pack for Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007.
Causes
On Windows Server 2008 or later, the native Microsoft IPMI driver is used in place of the OSA/Avocent IPMI driver. The OSA/Avocent IPMI device driver should be uninstalled and should not be installed.
Or, when Microsoft Hardware Management feature on Windows Server 2003 R2 is enabled, if both the Microsoft IPMI driver and the OSA/Avocent IPMI driver are installed and enabled, there could also be sporadic errors caused by both drivers contending for the BMC.Implications
If both the Microsoft IPMI driver and the OSA/Avocent driver are installed and enabled, erratic system behavior can cause incorrect health reporting, or create more severe problems by causing sporadic system resets.
This conflict could also cause errors to be reported on the IPMI driver or sporadic error log entries to be recorded in the BMC SEL (System Event Log).
Resolutions
1. Follow Microsoft's documentation to uninstall the OSA/Avocent IPMI device driver. The IPMI device is listed under "System devices" in the Device Manager, with the name "Avocent IPMI driver". To see the device, you might need to make the Device Manager to show all the hidden devices. Consult Microsoft's documentation on the exact steps to uninstall a device driver.
2. Follow the steps provided in the "Additional information" section below to collect information on how to troubleshoot issues with the OSA/Avocent IPMI device driver, the BMC, or both.
3. Check the system compatibility matrix provided in the "Additional information" section below.
Additional information
To troubleshoot issues with the OSA IPMI device driver or the BMC, visit the "IBM System x support search" Web site, select "Troubleshooting" for "Task", and then select the "Product Family", "Machine type", and "Operating system" values of interest. Then, in "Refine results" select either "OSA IPMI" or "Baseboard Management Controller". In the result list, follow the applicable links, and then read through the articles and follow the applicable instructions. For BladeCenter x86 blade servers, visit the IBM BladeCenter support search Web site and follow similar steps.
For the compatibility matrix between IBM System x systems and Windows, consult IBM ServerProven System x and xSeries compatibility - Microsoft. For BladeCenter x86 blade servers, consult IBM ServerProven Compatibility for BladeCenter products.
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