Redfish slipstreams IPMI with 1.0 release

Last week, we were delighted to herald the release of the Redfish 1.0 specification and highlight Seagate’s support of this emerging systems management API standard.

For those unfamiliar with this newly minted, industry API specification, Redfish is a standard for data center and systems management that delivers improved performance, functionality, scalability and security. Designed to meet the expectations of end users for simple and interoperable management of modern scalable platform hardware, Redfish takes advantage of widely-used technologies to speed implementation and help system administrators be more effective.

Redfish is developed by the DMTF’s Scalable Platforms Management Forum (SPMF). As a supporting member, Seagate works alongside other leading systems manufacturers to create and publish this open industry standard specification and schema. This forum is led by Broadcom, Dell, Emerson, HP, Intel, Lenovo, Microsoft, Supermicro and VMware with additional support from AMI, Oracle, Fujitsu, Huawei, and Mellanox.

Redfish is a REST-based interface utilizing JSON and OData for systems management. And aims to replace Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI), a widely used out-of-band specification developed in the late ‘90s. Like most systems manufacturers, Seagate supports IPMI and will continue to support it as a critical standard in the data center in lieu of broad adoption of Redfish. Where IPMI strains to meet the requirements of today’s massive multiscale environments, Redfish addresses IPMI inadequacies of interoperability, security, simplicity and scalability.

Redfish 1.0 feature set summary:

Retrieve “IPMI class” data

  • Basic server identification and asset info
  • Health state
  • Temperature sensors and fans
  • Power supply, power consumption and thresholds

Discovery

  • Service endpoint (network-based discovery)
  • System topology (rack/chassis/server/node)

Basic I/O infrastructure data

  • Host NIC MAC address(es) for LOM devices
  • Drive status / fault reporting

Security

  • Session-based and leverages HTTPS

Perform Common Actions

  • Reboot / power cycle server
  • Change boot order / device
  • Set power thresholds

Access and Notification

  • Serial console access via SSH
  • Alert / event notification method(s)
  • Event Log access method(s)

BMC infrastructure

  • View / configure BMC network settings
  • Manage local BMC user accounts

Redfish 1.0 is only the beginning. Seagate and other industry leaders are already engaging within the DMTF Scalable Platform Management Forum on enhancements beyond Redfish 1.0 standard. You’re invited to join the discussion or provide feedback through the DMTF submission portal. Comments and requirements from Redfish consumers are openly solicited and crucial to helping the SPMF prioritize capabilities in the upcoming next versions.

What does Redfish mean for Seagate partners and customers? It means a new level of control, management and monitoring for the data center, using a modern, secure RESTful API that is commonly understood and will be widely supported. We’ll further discuss Redfish’s concepts and constructs in this blog series, so stay tuned as we begin to showcase our adoption of Redfish initially within our suite of systems management software.

This article originally appeared on Lee Calcote’s blog.

About the Author

Lee Calcote is a Director of Software Engineering within the Seagate’s Cloud Systems & Electronics Solutions organization and is focused on strategy and development of software solutions for hyper-converged infrastructure, software defined storage (SDS) and software defined data centers (SDDC).

Follow Lee Calcote on Twitter or read his blog at Ginger Geek.

2015-08-17T22:43:21+00:00

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