Cluster Computing:

IBM, HP, DELL EMBRACE MVD'S IPMI INTEGRATED PowerCockpit
by Tim Curns, Editor

Mountain View Data, Inc. (MVD) has announced the launch of a beta program for their IPMI (Intelligent Platform Management Interface) software module licensed from OSA Technologies, a subsidiary of Avocent Corporation, integrated into PowerCockpit, a management framework for large-scale server deployments. The new IPMI module integrates OSA Technologies' existing Out-of- Band (OOB) products to provide access to old and new IPMI-enabled servers. Customers with mixed environments of HP, IBM and Dell servers can remotely power on and off multiple machines, view and interact with the BOOT screens, view Windows and Linux system consoles and monitor system hardware health.

Because different vendors use different software to run their servers, the current remote management situation can be very fragmented. Mountain View Data's new module pulls these platforms together under one umbrella; MVD's product is platform independent -- allowing Dell, IBM, HP and others increased accessibility.

PowerCockpit does more than just IPMI, however. As an extensible framework, it allows for deployment and provisioning. For instance, if a user needs to go beyond IPMI, MVD also provides a software development kit (SDK) which lets the user or a third-party ISV make their own changes, perhaps through the addition of a new module.

MVD is also currently working with IBM, Dell, HP and others to implement some of the vendors' hardware-specific propietary interfaces like ILO and MPCLI. The general framework of PowerCockpit, since it is an object-oriented design, has an abstraction layer. The user doesn't need to worry about ILO or MPCLI or model numbers on the machine, etc. PowerCockpit offers a single point of management for the servers.

The beta program will begin December 16, and participants will receive discounts on the product when it becomes available in early 2005. Pricing will be announced at that time. In addition to gaining IPMI functionality, users will get a limited edition of PowerCockpit software, which includes provisioning and management capabilities for clusters of servers. This edition of PowerCockpit will include 25 free launches, possibly more upon request.

MVD hopes to receive some feeback from these launches and plans to incorporate improvements when the full product is released.

"OSA Technologies is the king of the hill for IPMI firmware and software, and we're delighted to be incorporating their technology into MVD's PowerCockpit management framework," said Cliff Miller, president and CEO of Mountain View Data. "By integrating OSA IPMI products, we will lead customers out of the Dark Ages of finger driven power-cycling and BIOS Purgatory and into the enlightened age of automated software management of servers."

"MVD's PowerCockpit is an excellent vehicle for delivering our IPMI OOB capabilities to a large number of servers," said Mark Lee, president and CEO of OSA Technologies. "When you've got hundreds or thousands of machines, you need a framework that can automate processes and scale out."

"We have been using and promoting PowerCockpit for deployment and management of clusters for a few years now. With the new IPMI module for PowerCockpit, seemingly simple tasks like powering on and off single nodes or an entire cluster of DL145 servers just got a lot easier," states Dan Cox, Program Manager of High Performance Computing for Industry Standard Volume Servers at Hewlett-Packard. "We expect our leading edge customers to line up for the beta program."

PowerCockpit is being used for server provisioning and management at data centers and in research laboratories of major corporations in telecommunications, insurance, online gaming, finance, banking, genomics, scientific visualization, electronic design. OSA's IPMI firmware and software solutions, available worldwide, are designed to be easily integrated into system vendors' products and can be tailored to meet individual customer needs for differentiation.

More about IPMI

IPMI is an embedded management specification that defines a common and secure interface to how vendors monitor their system hardware and sensors (temperature, voltage, fan, etc.), control system components (power supplies, blades, etc.), log important system events (chassis intrusion, system reset, etc.) and allow administrators to remotely manage and recover failed systems. It is typically implemented at the silicon level, and is independent of the CPU, OS, BIOS and backplane. Promoted by Dell, Hewlett Packard (NYSE:HPQ), Intel and NEC, IPMI standardizes the way embedded management subsystems communicate with systems such as, the CPU, other embedded management subsystems and remote management applications. IPMI also offers enhanced manageability for products that support the AdvancedTCA initiative. RHK, an industry research firm, recently valued the AdvancedTCA market at $3.7B by 2007. Since 1998, more than 170 vendors have adopted IPMI, making it a market- proven standard.