Is it possible to reset the password on a SuperMicro IPMI interface?

Question

Is it possible to reset the password on a SuperMicro IPMI interface? My motherboard is model X8STI-F.

Answer 1

If you access it locally you can specify a new password. On Linux this would be done via ipmitool. Something like this should work:

ipmitool -I open lan set 1 password NEWPASSWORD

If you don't know which channel is your ethernet interface, just page through them one at at time, like so:

# ipmitool -I open channel info 1
Channel 0x1 info:
  Channel Medium Type   : 802.3 LAN
  Channel Protocol Type : IPMB-1.0
  Session Support       : multi-session
  Active Session Count  : 0
  Protocol Vendor ID    : 7154
  Volatile(active) Settings
    Alerting            : disabled
    Per-message Auth    : disabled
    User Level Auth     : enabled
    Access Mode         : always available
  Non-Volatile Settings
    Alerting            : disabled
    Per-message Auth    : disabled
    User Level Auth     : enabled
    Access Mode         : always available

Note that the medium type is "802.3 LAN". That's the one you want. Other channels may look like this:

# ipmitool -I open channel info 2
Channel 0x2 info:
  Channel Medium Type   : Serial/Modem
  Channel Protocol Type : IPMB-1.0
  Session Support       : single-session
  Active Session Count  : 0
  Protocol Vendor ID    : 7154
# ipmitool -I open channel info 3
Channel 0x3 info:
  Channel Medium Type   : System Interface
  Channel Protocol Type : KCS
  Session Support       : session-less
  Active Session Count  : 0
  Protocol Vendor ID    : 7154

Answer 2

I just had to deal with this same issue yesterday, I was not able to log into my SuperMicro IPMI web interface because I had not used it frequently and forgot the password. The command in Insyte's answer did not work for me but it was close. This command worked to reset the ADMIN account's password:

ipmitool -I open user set password 2 ADMIN

The number 2 there is the user id. The ADMIN account defaults to user id 2. So I'm setting user id 2's password to ADMIN which is the default, but you could put any other password there.

Thank you to Insyte for pointing me on the right track of using ipmitool, after a few searches online I was able to find this working command. Hopefully it will help someone else that stumbles on this question.

Answer 3

Supermicro IPMI BMCs can be fairly erratic and troublesome. You should always use the utilities and tools provided by Supermicro before attempting a fix with universal tools such as IPMITool.

It is not necessary to reset the entire unit as others have suggested.

If you have physical access to the server, follow these simple steps to reset the ADMIN password on your IPMI:

1. Create a bootable DOS USB stick using Rufus.
2. Download the latest IPMICFG utility released by Supermicro.
3. Extract the archive and copy the contents of the 'DOS' folder on to your bootable DOS USB.
4. Boot your server into DOS and navigate to the 'DOS' folder you copied on to the USB.

5. Get the user ID of the IPMI user whose password you want to set:

   ipmicfg -user list

6. Set a new password for that user (the ADMIN user typically has an ID of 2):

   ipmicfg -user setpwd 2 your_password_here

7. Login to the IPMI web GUI using the password you just set.

I've reset the ADMIN password on dozens of Supermicro IPMI BMCs. Of all the methods I've tried, this is the only procedure that works 100% of the time.

Note: If you already have Windows or Linux installed on your system, then you can skip steps 1, 3 and 4 and merely execute the commands in steps 5 and 6 using the appropriate executable from the Supermicro toolkit downloaded in step 2. If you are using Linux and you encounter kcs_error_exit messages when invoking ipmicfg commands, then you need to install the OpenIPMI library and enable the ipmi_devintf kernel module.

The following commands work on CentOS 6:

yum -y install OpenIPMI
modprobe ipmi_devintf

Remember that the command modprobe ipmi_devintf will need to be re-run every time you reboot the server.

Answer 4

Best way is to reset to defaults and clear FRU&LAN with SuperMicro native tool, like so:

./ipmicfg-linux.x86_64 -fde

(All this may take a few seconds to take effect, so wait between commands!)

Now turn off the DHCP setting restored from factory defaults with

./ipmicfg-linux.x86_64 -dhcp off

then, restore your network settings with:

./ipmicfg-linux.x86_64 -m $IP_ADDRESS
./ipmicfg-linux.x86_64 -k $NETMASK
./ipmicfg-linux.x86_64 -g $GATEWAY_IP

I've noticed, that sometimes, you need to reset BMC unit for it to take effect. Just today, was unable to ping my server's IPMI IP address set via ipmicfg utility until after BMC reset:

./ipmicfg-linux.x86_64 -r

You'll have to configure the IP/Netmask/Gateway again with the same tool, but this is the only way I could make it work.
OpenIPMI and IPMITools did not work for me on Debian Squeeze. I've tried resetting the password, cold resetting BMC, to no avail. However, they are good for setting IP and reading sensor data.

You can get the appropriate version for your OS from SuperMicro FTP:
ftp://ftp.supermicro.com/utility/IPMICFG/

Answer 5

If you rarely use the IPMI interface it's possible it's still using the default username/password ADMIN/ADMIN (case sensitive).

Answer 6

The suggested solutions did not work for me on my SuperMicro X11SCL-F running Ubuntu 18.04. Here is how I was able to successfully reset the ADMIN password:

ipmitool user set password 2

It then prompts you to enter the new password. Hope this helps somebody out there. After that, just use the web interface to login with ADMIN / #NEWPASS#

Answer 7

This simple answer is different than then others which need some other formal OS installed to reset the password.

Boot a thumb drive with the proper IPMI firmware file and the proper flashing utility for your motherboard from SuperMicro's website. We use a dos based one for simplicity. If you already have the current IPMI firmware Simply flash it with the same version you already have.

Most of our systems are X8 based boards that have onboard IPMI. These use YAFUKcs (Yet Another Firmware Updater).

If you normally save the config while updating, simply leave off the -c option yafukcs -full romfile.ima instead of yafukcs -full -c romfile.ima

Interestingly enough, leaving off the -c option does not cause IPMI static addressing to be reset in the BIOS. It only affects settings within the IPMI environment, such as LDAP, NTP and any alert notifications you have configured.

You should consider flashing the system BIOS after the IPMI update, however it isn't required. If you flash the system BIOS, those settings will be reset, but the IPMI LAN settings will not change.

Answer 8

Hate to dig up "old threads" but this one still comes up first when looking for a solution to the listed problem.

I've just found that the IPMIView tool from the Supermicro website can change the ADMIN password on the IPMI admin account! :)