[OmniOS-discuss] Supermicro IPMI based BIOS update

[Paul B. Henson]

On Mon, Dec 09, 2013 at 10:34:50PM -0500, wuffers wrote:
> Huh, I had recently updated all my servers' IPMI firmware as well as BIOS
> recently, and didn't notice this new feature.

The other new feature is a power usage/statistics screen which is kinda
cool, but only works if your power supply has an i2c connection to the
motherboard. And then this version is supposed to fix some of the swiss
cheese security holes that the previous ipmi firmware had. It breaks
using SOL over the ssh interface though, I have an open bug report on
that, they say they're working on it.

> It's kind of interesting that they're trying to charge for it (at least
> that's the assumption with an "activation key").

Not just an assumption, support verified it's an additional cost
feature, they think it will run about $15 but said I needed to check
with a reseller to verify.

> It's useful, but outside of the "fix corrupted BIOS" (which would
> probably save themselves $$$), not worth a premium. How hard is it to
> update the BIOS manually by hand anyways?

Well, by hand typically involves visiting the box, maybe to stick in a
USB stick, if nothing else to clear the CMOS (unless you ignore that
part of the bios update instructions). Plus some boards (like the
X9DRi-F) recommend you disable the Intel management engine bios by
moving jumpers before updating the bios. The IPMI method doesn't need
any physical proximity, so if you've got a *lot* of boxes, it would save
a lot of time.

I made the point to support that given they will reprogram boards with
corrupted BIOS chips for free even out of warranty, which probably costs
them more than $15, it would be a cost savings to just include it. They
actually agreed, but said upper management decided to nickel and dime it
<sigh>.

> I've just emailed my reseller about this, so I'll update this thread when I
> get a response.

Cool, thanks. I assume they need a serial number or something to tie it
to the specific board, otherwise you could just buy one activation key
and use it everywhere.