Description
This incidence indicates that the Microsoft IPMI (Intelligent Platform Management Interface) driver has failed, stopped, or is disabled on a Windows system.
The Microsoft 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 Microsoft IPMI driver is a required component on Windows Server 2008 or later, for the OS and applications to communicate with the BMC and access its platform management functionality. Many IBM platform management tools also 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.
See the "Additional information" section below for more information about the Microsoft IPMI device driver.
Causes
The Microsoft IPMI device driver has failed due to unexpected conditions experienced in the device driver or the BMC. The failure might be caused by a problem with another malfunctioning driver or other hardware, or by a problem in the OS itself.
Or, the BMC device instance managed by the driver might have accidentally been disabled or stopped by an administrator.
Note that 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 on Windows Server 2008 or later.
Implications
When the Microsoft IPMI device driver fails or is stopped, most of the hardware component instrumentations performed by the BMC will no longer be available for systems management software (for example, IBM Director or Microsoft Operations Manager).
However, if an RSA-II (Remote Supervisor Adapter II) and its software stack are properly installed on the system, systems management software supported by IBM Director Agent might still be able to perform platform management through RSA-II. However, you should have the issues diagnosed and resolved so that other IBM platform management tools can take full advantage of the built-in management functionality that comes with IBM systems.
Resolutions
1. Make sure that the Microsoft IPMI device driver is enabled and started. The IPMI device controlled by the OSA/Avocent IPMI device driver is listed under "System devices" in the Device Manager, with the name of "Microsoft Generic IPMI Compliant Device". To see the device, you might need to make the Device Manager show all the hidden devices. Consult Microsoft's documentation on how to show hidden devices and how to enable and start a device driver.
2. Follow the steps provided in the "Additional information" section below to collect information about how to troubleshoot issues with the Microsoft IPMI device driver and the BMC. You might need to install the latest driver or firmware to resolve the issue. For information about the latest driver and the latest BMC firmware, see the "Additional information" section below.
3. Uninstall the OSA/Avocent IPMI driver if it is installed. Consult Microsoft's documentation about how to uninstall a device driver.
4. Review the Windows Event Log for the system to see whether other system-level errors might have caused the driver to fail. Consult Microsoft's documentation on how to troubleshoot Windows device driver problems.
Additional information
For more information about the Microsoft IPMI device driver, issues with the driver installation, or troubleshooting the driver, visit Microsoft Web sites -- "IPMI Driver Functionality", or Hardware Management Introduction.
To download the latest BMC firmware, visit the "IBM System x support search" Web site, select "Download" for "Task", and then select the "Product Family", "Machine type", and "Operating system" values of interest. Then, select "Baseboard Management Controller (BMC)". In the result list, click the applicable link. For BladeCenter x86 blade servers, visit the IBM BladeCenter support search Web site and follow similar steps.
To troubleshoot issues with 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 "Baseboard Management Controller (BMC)". In the result list, follow the applicable links. and then read through the articles and follow the 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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