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I have recently purchased a high-end chassis system for use in my home office (I am a contract programmer).

The system includes a baseboard management controller (BMC), and in addition a remote management module (RMM) version 4.

The BMC allows for remote management of the power state of the machine (and other features) that is mostly independent of the state of the operating system, via the LAN port that is shared by the operating system. The RMM4 provides an independent LAN connection that accesses the BMC. There is a web management console that provides access to the features of the BMC, simply by typing the URL of the RMM4.

I am able to access the web management console just fine:

BMC Web Management Console

Furthermore, when I go to the tab to initiate a remote control screen redirection, the feature is enabled:

BMC Remote Control tab

Unfortunately, when I attempt to initiate a remote control session, the required Java application successfully runs, but "No Signal" appears in the window:

BMC "No Signal" during remote control session

Note that the machine is on and the monitor attached directly to the machine displays the expected Windows session.

Note: I think this issue MIGHT have something to do with the fact that video is being output to an NVidia card, not the on-board video chip (setting this system up required changing a BIOS setting).

Here are the stats:

  • dual Xeon E5-2687W
  • W2600CR2 board
  • Cosmos CoolerMaster chassis
  • 64 GB RAM

Any help would be appreciated.

Dan Nissenbaum
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  • I have the same problem (S1400FP motherboard, RMM4, nVidia GT218 card). I am going to run the Intel Deployment Assistant CD to see if it has an option for selecting which graphics chip (motherboard or add-on) to mirror via IPMI. OT: Intel's IPMI implementation has various other quirks. E.g. you can choose either ttyS0 (COM1) or ttyS1 (COM2) as the SOL line, but only ttyS0 (COM1) works. If you want to attach serial devices like some UPSs, you have to use an extension cable and bracket. Wonderfully undocumented "feature". – user174626 May 21 '13 at 12:17
  • Thanks for commenting. If you do figure something out, I'd be pleased to know! – Dan Nissenbaum May 22 '13 at 13:18

3 Answers3

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Cannot be done. RMM4 supports redirection only of the native graphics chip, not an external graphics card. It is not possible to redirect external graphics card traffic to IPMI KVM because the IPMI chip may not know what is being rendered by the external card.

Also see Does Supermicro IPMI require OnBoard video to be enabled?

Community
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user174626
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This isn't completely true, there is a way around it that I found purely by accident while trying to get this to work.

I too run a dedicated graphics card (Nvidia Quadro K600) because I have a 30" monitor and the in built graphics won't run at the resolution I want. The connection is through a KVM switch - this is key to this solution. You have to have the built in video enabled in the BIOS and also enable dual video support in the BIOS. In windows you set your dedicated card as the primary and only display but make sure you install the drivers for the in built Matrox graphics chip.

I played around this for ages without success until I tried using the console with my KVM switched to another workstation. In this scenario, the monitor is no longer connected to the dedicated graphics card so the server switches its output to the in built graphics (I assume this is a function of Windows not the hardware) and you can view the output on the java console. As long as I leave the KVM switched to another workstation, I can always access the RMM console.

Now I realise that this may just work for my particular setup but I suspect it may well work for a variety of Intel servers/workstations. It may also be dependant on your version of windows (and how it handles graphics output), I have no idea and haven't tested it. FWIW I'm running Server 2012 R2.

Tom
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  • If this works on my system as well, the next step for me would be to investigate if a remote-controllable (via internet) KVM switch is available. Thanks for the heads up! – Dan Nissenbaum Jul 08 '14 at 18:56
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Another method of console redirection with remote management module (RMM).

I also faces the same problem with remote connection through RMM as I have an PCIe Nvidia card on my AsRock Rack E3C236D2I as the primary video output. After numerous attempts, I found a way to make it work, but not the way that I'd like for it to work.

Instead of setting the PCIe card as primary video output, I set native VGA as primary video output. Windows screens can then be put in duplicated mode once Windows Server 2016 has booted up. Jnviewer works since now the video output is also through the native VGA chip. Problem lies in the resolution is downgraded to the maximum resolution of the native VGA chip, and mouse doesn't work that well in matching what's on the main screen. I ended up giving up on the idea of using BMC/IPMI with RMM on my ASrock Rack server board. Until someone comes up with a better solution.

ExpertSkinDoc
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