Excellent, thanks for your help.  I will try this tomorrow.

I have everything configured but I'm getting a connection refused error when I try to connect by ssh.

The web interface is still working.  I've tried com1 and com2 as well.

This document also has some good info about SOL and management features on the cloud series:

http://poweredgec.com/files/QSG_PowerEdge_C_System_Management.pdf

Go back to the SOL settings in the BIOS and change the port to COM2, also set the speed/baud rate to 9600.

What kind of cable are you using DB9 to USB, straight or crossover, etc?

Thanks

I have those SOL settings.  I've tried two different cables, just an Ethernet cable.  I have the BMC set to dedicated for network.

The I also tried a serial -> Ethernet cables that came with one of our switches.

I'll have to check and see if we have a cloud server in our lab, and test this tomorrow.

You should simply be able to telnet/ssh into the assigned IP address of the SOL connection. Unless you have a separate setting for the SOL connection it will be the same IP address you assigned to the remote management interface.

I'll see if I can get some equipment tomorrow to test with.

Thanks

Thanks for your help.  We have 18 of these servers.  Our admins, who are from Russia, want to be able to SSH directly to them, in case of issues with the server.

Everything sounds like it should be working. Try lan instead of lanplus. If you get a different error, or it works let me know.

Read through this doc and see if we missed anything:

http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/power/ps4q07-20070387-Babu.pdf

I am trying to connect from the same server as the BMC, it can ping it, and I can connect to the web interface from another server.  There is no firewall stopping internal traffic, so all ports should be fine.

Looking in the web interface I can see that IPMI over LAN is enabled and SOL is enabled.

Maybe I need to go into the bios and verify the settings of com2?

Yes, it should just be connected to the network with a normal straight through cable. Is port 22 blocked on your network anywhere?

Are you able to connect via the web-based GUI on that IP address? If you can connect to the GUI then it is likely one of these issues:

• SSH or SOL port is blocked(should be 22 and 2100)
• SOL is not enabled(Double check to see if the changes were saved)
  • I had to enable IPMI over LAN in the DRAC BIOS(CTL E), and SOL in the regular BIOS(F2). You may have to do the same

Okay, I there are two things I did not mention that will likely get this going for you. I did not have a cloud server in the lab to test with, but I tested SOL on an iDRAC.

1. Serial Over LAN is most likely going to require that the user account have admin level access
2. You will not be able to use PuTTY for this. You will need to use an IPMI client. If you are using a Linux OS then IPMI is likely already installed. If you are using a Windows OS then you will need to install some kind of IPMI client.

I found this article on how to set up an IPMI client on a Windows box:
http://www.symantec.com/connect/articles/how-do-sol-serial-over-lan-aka-console-redirection-dell-servers

Remember that this is SMASH-CLP and not full RACADM access. You will have limited functionality. Here is a SMASH guide for our iDRACs. It should still be pertinent to the Cloud servers:

<ADMIN NOTE: Broken link has been removed from this post by Dell>

Here is the command I used to connect:

$ ipmitool -I lanplus -H 10.10.10.10 -U username -P password sol activate
[SOL Session operational.  Use ~? for help]

Here are some useful commands:

        KEY MAPPING FOR CONSOLE REDIRECTION:

         Use the <0> key sequence for

        Use the key sequence for

        Use the <@> key sequence for

        Use the key sequence for

        Use the key sequence for

        Use the key sequence for

Thanks, I think we are close :)  I am using the admin account to connect.  Just an FYI I had to truncate my password to 7 characters or it gave an error that was the last part of the password.

I have ipmitools installed and when I run that command here's what I get:

[root@forumdb16 ~]# ipmitool -I lanplus -H 192.168.*.* -U ******* -P ******* sol activate

Error: Unable to establish IPMI v2 / RMCP+ session

Error: No response activating SOL payload

Is connecting to the BMC with a straight though cable to our switch the correct way to connect it?

Running with lan gives me this error:  

Error: This command is only available over the lanplus interface

Not sure if it's true but googling this error someone said that the "sol activate" command must be run with lanplus

I will check the exact settings of com2 tomorrow to make sure those are correct.

Thanks for you help.

I have checked the com2 settings:

Remote access: Enabled

Serial port number: com2

Serial port mode: 115200 B,n,1

Flow control: none

Redirect after BIOS POST: Enabled

Terminal Type: UT100

I am getting this error now when trying to connect:

Error: Unable to establish IPMI v2 / RMCP+ session

Error: No response activating SOL payload