[Beowulf] non-proprietary IPMI card?

[Walid]

On 11/29/06, Mark Hahn <hahn at physics.mcmaster.ca> wrote:
> >> The Supermicro IPMI cards can share the eth0 port with the main gigabit
> >> channel. The cards are powered up and on the network whenever power is
> >> applied to the chassis. There is a bridge somewhere on the motherboard
> >> which bridges between eth0 and the IPMI interface.
>
> I would guess that the phy is just stolen by the IPMI, since sharing
> the actual eth controller (registers, etc) would probably be too touchy.
>
> > Wouldn't that sharing introduce a limitation, we have seen that we are
> > not able to manage nodes remotley when the node has a kernel panic for
> > example.
>
> no - the IPMI wouldn't interact with the host OS, so if the latter is
> paniced (or turned off), it doesn't matter.

It does not interact with the OS, but it shares the same network
buffer in the NIC, when this gets Full, you can not manage it any
more, and apperantly it does get filled up during crashes.

regards

Walid.