IBM IntelliStation POWER 285

Information about IBM's last model of the POWER workstation line

General information

This is a workstation derived from the IBM POWER5 520 rackmount server, with a single SCSI controller and a non-redundant PSU made by Artesyn.

Power consumption: ~50W (powered off, FSP standby), ~300W (AIX running) - with my configuration, 2 disks.

Hardware

Logical architecture from the IBM IntelliStation POWER 285 Technical Overview and Introduction Redpaper

Graphics

The graphics adapter is an IBM GXT6500p, seen as moj0 in AIX. It provides the lft0 graphical terminal device.

# lscfg -vpl moj0

  moj0             U787F.001.DNZ0GGY-P1-C4-T1  GXT6500P Graphics Adapter

        Hardware Location Code......U787F.001.DNZ0GGY-P1-C4-T1

  PLATFORM SPECIFIC

  Name:  display

    Node:  display@1

    Physical Location: U787F.001.DNZ0GGY-P1-C4-T1

      GXT6500P 3D Graphics Adapter:

        EC Level....................H12504

        FRU Number..................00P4473

        Manufacture ID..............IBM97N

        Part Number.................00P4471

        Serial Number...............YL11C5323080

        Displayable Message.........GXT6500P

        ROM Level.(non-alterable)...01

        Device Driver Level.........01

        Diagnostic Level............01

        Hardware Location Code......U787F.001.DNZ0GGY-P1-C4-T1

# lsattr -El moj0

DDC_capable     n              VESA Display Data Channel compliant monitor     False

DDC_digital     1280x1024@60Hz Display resolution and refresh rate             True

DDC_supported   1280x1024@60Hz Display resolution and refresh rate             True

Default         1680x1050@60Hz Display resolution and refresh rate             True

Other           1280x1024@77Hz Display resolution and refresh rate             True

VESA            1280x1024@60Hz Display resolution and refresh rate             True

bus_dfa_start   0xfe000000     Bus memory address                              False

bus_mem_start   0xfdfa0000     Bus memory address                              False

bus_rom_start   0xfdfc0000     Bus memory address                              False

chg_monitortype y              Display type change flag                        False

chg_res_refrate y              Display resolution and refresh rate change flag False

display_id      0x04760000     Physical display ID for adapter                 False

dsp_name        GXT6500P       Display description                             False

intr_level      305            Bus interrupt level                             False

intr_priority   0x4            Interrupt priority                              False

ksr_color1      0x00404040     LFT color lookup table entry                    True

ksr_color3      0x0000FF00     LFT color lookup table entry                    True

monitor_IF      Digital        Display monitor video output type               False

monitor_type    Default        Display type                                    True

scrn_height_mm  284            Screen height in millimeters                    True

scrn_width_mm   356            Screen width in millimeters                     True

Control/Operator panel

Source: IBM.com

A Power push-button

B On/off power symbol

--> Right next to/above it is the FSP reset pinhole. The reset switch is approximately 20mm deep in the panel.

C Type and serial number label

D Function/data display

E Ethernet connector

F Power on light. A blinking light indicates standby power to the unit. A constant light indicates full system power to the unit.

G System attention light

H Decrement

I Enter push-button

J Increment

Control panel functions available on the 285

Source: IBM.com

01 - Display selected IPL type, system operating mode, and IPL speed

02 - Select IPL type, IPL speed override, system operating mode, and firmware mode

04 - Lamp test

20 - System type, model, feature code, and IPL type

Service processor access

Default ASMI IP addresses

HMC1 - 169.254.2.147 192.168.2.147 netmask 255.255.255.0 gw 192.168.2.1

HMC2 - 169.254.3.147 192.168.3.147 netmask 255.255.255.0 gw 192.168.3.1

Here is the method to access the ASMI via a straight cable connected to any regular PC.

1. Connect the power cord. Wait until the system firmware comes up and the green standby front LED starts to blink.

2. Locate HMC1 Ethernet port on the 285 and plug one end of the Ethernet cable into it.

3. Set another IP address/mask on the PC, next to the ones above.

4. Now plug the Ethernet cord to the PC.

5. Test the connectivity (ping etc)

If the machines are connected before the firmware is up, for some reason only port 443 and 30000 are seen from the PC and the login doesn't work. Following the above method, you should be able to see at least 11 open tcp ports including 21, 23, 80 and 443.

On the firmware level SF240_261, there is http beside https and the ASMI is available at http://192.168.2.147/cgi-bin/cgi

Port 443/SSL doesn't work, Firefox gives a ssl_error_no_cypher_overlap error.

You have a bunch of other stuff listening including FTP and telnet which lets you login with admin/admin:

lgee@carbo:~> telnet 192.168.2.147

Trying 192.168.2.147...

Connected to 192.168.2.147.

Escape character is '^]'.

fsp login: admin

Password: 

No directory, logging in with HOME=/

BusyBox v0.60.4FSP-GA2-2-3 (2005.05.12-02:15+0000) Built-in shell (ash)

Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands.

$ 

This service processor is a 200MHz, 32bit IBM PowerPC 405 powered board, running a Linux 2.4.18-rc4 kernel and BusyBox 0.60. The board has a label with "Alpha SF2+" printed on it.

"This product contains certain code packages which may be, or contain programs that are, licensed pursuant to the terms of the GNU General Public License (“GPL”) and/or the GNU Lesser General Public License (“LGPL”)." ... "The code packages that contain programs that are licensed under the GPL or LGPL include: bash, busybox, dhcpd, E2fsprogs, gdbm, glib, glibc, ipchains, iptables, kernel, libelf, mcore, modutils, net-tools, nfs-utils, ps, softdog, syslogd, sysvinit, termcap, tinylogin, util-linux." ... "Note: Source code to any of the above-listed packages is available upon written request to the following address: IBM Corporation, Linux Technology Center, Dep’t 7UDA, 11501 Burnett Road, Austin, TX 78758."

Machine information from ASMI

The VPD includes identifiers for each piece of hardware. The AIX 'lsvpd' command or 'lscfg' may be used to display similar info from the OS. For example, MS are the RAM modules.

"Before the service processor knows what system it resides on, it reads the SmartChip VPD to obtain system information."

Vital Product Data

Build name: fips240/b0918a_0623.240

System brand: P0

System serial number: 65661FB

Machine type-model: 9111-285

---

Marketing

Announced: 2005/10/04

Available: 2005/10/14

Marketing Withdrawn: 2009/01/02

Price (source: ITJungle)

"A base AIX Express Edition of this workstation, which comes with a single 1.9 GHz core activated, 2 GB of main memory, and a no-charge processor entitlement costs $8,999. Adding a second processor core (but not AIX on the second processor) and boosting the main memory to 4 GB and the disk count to two 73 GB drives raises the price to $16,103."

Temporary notes

for myself for accessing the installed OS via network directly from my Linux laptop's Ethernet adapter using a host route....

sudo modprobe e1000e

sudo ifconfig eth0 192.168.1.14 netmask 255.255.255.0 up

sudo route add -host 192.168.1.15 eth0

and the ASMI:

sudo modprobe e1000e

sudo ifconfig eth0 192.168.2.144 netmask 255.255.255.0 up

References

Official IBM documentation

Family 9111+02 IBM IntelliStation Power 285 Workstation

Systems Hardware information - 9111-285 (IntelliStation 285)

Systems Hardware information - Model 52x or IBM® IntelliStation® POWER® 285 features and parts

IBM Redbooks - IBM IntelliStation POWER 285 Technical Overview and Introduction

(CAxx) Partition firmware progress codes / POWER5

Other

Linux on POWER - an article about the FSP and Linux installation on the 285 by Anton Borisov