SMC

System Management Controller

What is System Management Controller - SMC?

SMC is an out-of-band management system that allows for:

1. Constant and up-to date access to information about the status of the main disguise server it is contained within such as:

  • Power state
  • VFC cards currently inserted
  • Network adapter details and configuration
  • Server session details

2. Communication with the BMC on the Motherboard allowing for:

  • Turning on and off machines remotely
  • Monitoring physical metrics such as power draw and temperature

To make life easier, all this information is generally available in three different ways:

  • OLED screen on the front of the servers
  • Webpage
  • REST API

The SMC system is currently present in the following disguise machines:

  • vx 1
  • vx 2
  • VX 2+
  • VX 3
  • vx 4
  • vx 4+
  • gx 3

  1. Connect to the MGMT port via ethernet

  2. Open a browser and navigate to the IP address displayed on the front OLED screen of the server, this should open the web page, if it does not, or the IP does not appear on front screen then see Troubleshooting

User Account Control

To use the website and some of the API endpoints in SMC v3 and above, a user account must be created. This is to protect against unauthorised access to critical machine functions (like turning off a server mid-show)

  1. Once navigated to the IP address and the login page is visible, click 'Sign Up'

  2. A four digit number will appear on the front screen which will need to be put in the ‘Screen Number’ field whilst filling out the form. This number will only appear for 30s, click ‘Resend Verification’ to generate a new number

Designing into a network infrastructure

Each of the aforementioned disguise servers have a MGMT ethernet port on the back which is solely for access to the SMC system. This can be built into an existing network infrastructure but care should be taken to isolate this network from all others by using VLANs or maintaining a separate physical network. The reasons for this are two-fold:

  • Security - Since the SMC system has access to lower-level functionality that bypasses the Windows OS on the servers, this shouldn’t be connected to the internet on a permanent basis

  • Reliability - One of the main features of the SMC system is to provide out-of-band management and help configure or change the disguise server - this cannot happen if the network is down or not configured correctly!

If operating on the disguise server itself, the process is exactly the same as Connecting Externally, except the IP address is always 172.31.250.9

Front OLED Screen

The front OLED screen displays data that is organised into pages that are in a table-based format. In SMC v2 and v3, the only available pages are default information and VFC card information. From v4 onwards there will be a selection of different pages that can be displayed which the user can configure at any time from the webpage and REST API.

Default Page

Field Name-Description (Example)

  • Machine-The model of the disguise server (vx 4)
  • Name - The name of the disguise server (vx-44150)
  • Role - The role of the machine set by d3 net manager (understudy)
  • MGMT IP - The status of the SMC MGMT IP:

    • Link Down -Physical layer is down (something is unplugged or disabled)

    Assigning IP...

    ip address

VFC Page

This page displays information about the currently installed VFCs. If the disguise server is powered off then this information may be out of date. (This can only be a ‘left’ page)

Slot - Which slot the VFC card is installed in (left-most looking at the rear is slot 1 (1)

Card - The type of VFC card installed in the slot (HDMI)

Network Config Page

This page displays information about the network adapters in the disguise server

Name - The name of the interface set in Windows (A - d3net 1Gbit)

IP - The IPv4 address of the interface (10.0.0.34)

System Temps

This page displays the readings of temperature sensors in the system

Name - The IPMI component name (CPU0_TMP)

Temp - Temperature sensor reading in degrees Celsius (42 C)

System Status

This page displays the readings of temperature sensors in the system

Name - The name of the status (System Power)

Status - The value of the status (On)

Webpage
  • Most user-friendly method of controlling SMC functionality
  • Only place to create an account (see User Account Control)
  • See Connecting Externally/Internally for access details
  • Some features may be available in the REST API before the webpage
  • The current page updates every 10 - 15 seconds to ensure that all data is up to date
Status Page

Main (index) page - account creation required to access.

Network Servers

This section displays all the other SMC servers that can be found on the same subnet.

Clicking on a row will navigate to that machine’s management page.

Stats Page

Gathers all sensor and important status messages from the IPMI system. This page self-updates every 10-15 seconds. System statistics such as temperature, voltage and fan speeds are recorded.

Remora Page

Contains details about the Remora system present in the disguise server such as firmware and hardware version as well the current MGMT IP. Also provides an ease of access link to the update page.

REST API
  • Features and new status information tend to appear here first
  • Navigate to ip.address/api to access the example page and view what features are available
  • Can use any http client to send requests to the API (curl, python etc)
  • Generally any request that involves getting information will not require authentication, anything that modifies the state will require basic authentication tokens (log in on the example API page)

  1. Navigate to ip.address:9998 in a browser and a SWUpdate landing page should appear

  2. Download the most recent update to install from the link at the top of this page

    a. It is NOT recommended to install an older version than currently installed

    b. Currently installed version can be found by entering ip.address/api/remora into the browser, the current version will be listed as ‘Firmware Version’

  3. Drag and drop the .swu file to the window and the update will start - a progress bar will also appear on the front screen

  4. Once updated the SMC system will restart - this will not affect the operation of the main disguise server in any way

How to start SMC

Without removing power from disguise server:

  • Navigate to Install an update page - ip.address:9998
  • Click ‘Restart System’ on top navigation bar of the page
  • If the reboot method above does not work then perform a cold boot

Front screen is blank/jumbled data/frozen

  • Follow ‘How to restart SMC’ to restart the system and see if the screen starts working again
  • If the screen is not fixed try to install an update (either the same or newer version if available)
  • There is a known issue which happens when a new version of remora is replaced with v0.12 during a server reimage or similar process. This will cause the screen to freeze or be blank and the system will possibly be uncontactable through the normal channels. See Fixing Backdated Version Issue below for details on fix
  • If the screen is still frozen or not working after trying BOTH of the restart methods then contact support

MGMT IP stuck on Link Down

This means that there is a problem with the physical network connection

  • Check all cables are plugged in correctly and functional
  • Check that any network infrastructure such as switches are powered on and connected
  • Check that connected network cards are enabled

MGMT IP stuck on Assigning IP

Generally means that the physical layer is operating correctly but there are problems in the network stack configuration

  • Check that the network is on the correct subnet: If the IP is of type 169.254 then link-local so subnet is 255.255.0.0
  • If connected to DHCP server then check this can ‘see’ the SMC system
  • If connected directly to a windows computer, install Bonjour and/or give the NIC an IP in the correct subnet. (Link-local addressing on the SMC side should sort out any address conflicts)

MGMT IP assigned but still can’t connect

  • If connected straight to a windows computer, install Bonjour and/or give the NIC an IP in the correct subnet. (Link-local addressing on the SMC side should sort out any address conflicts)
  • If connected to DHCP server then check this can ‘see’ the SMC system
  • Try accessing the SMC webpage via the disguise server itself (see Connecting Internally)
  • If all else fails try restarting SMC both ways

Fixing Backdated Version Issue (vx4 only)

  1. Connect the MGMT port to any of the other ports on the server

  2. Open Chrome and try the following IP addresses to open the update page, if they do not work proceed with further steps

    172.31.250.9:9998

    10.0.0.102:9998

  3. Set the connected port to DHCP (Obtain address automatically)

  4. Install Wireshark

  5. Point Wireshark at the port connected to the MGMT port

  6. In Windows, disable the connected port

  7. Accept the Wireshark notifications telling you that it's not connected

  8. Re-enable the port

  9. Look for ARP packets from a device named RASPBERR (The internal raspberry pi) in Wireshark

  10. These packets should contain the IP that the remora system is self-assigning

  11. Open chrome and type in the IP found PLUS port 9998 (for example, 169.254.123.145:9998)

  12. This will open the Remora update page

  13. Drag the latest Remora update into the browser (can be found at top of page)

  14. Allow update to happen

  15. Remove the cable between MGMT and other port

  16. Restart d3service