Overview 

This article provides instructions for accurately enabling and disabling the IPMI port on the ConnectWise x360Recover-BDR-Rack-NVMe product.

Note: For security purposes, the onboard IPMI ports on Axcient branded hardware devices is shipped in a disabled state. To enable IPMI you must access the system BIOS and change the configuration to enable IPMI on one or more network ports.

Connect the System IPMI Network Port

The onboard IPMI controller has a dedicated network port.

Later, when we enable the IPMI settings in the BIOS, this port is referred to as eth0. The IPMI controller also supports a second adapter connection, share with the system motherboard and the running operating system. The IPMI settings refers to this port as eth1. 

Important: The operating system refers to this port as eth0. The 4 ports along the bottom are eth0 – eth4 to the operating system, and the first port (only) is also optionally shared as IPMI port eth1.

Enter the BIOS

1. Power on the system and press F2 or DEL to enter the BIOS.
   
2. The main BIOS screen displays.
   

Enable eth0 in BMC Network Configuration

1. Navigate to the Server Mgmt tab and select BMC Network Configuration.
2. By default, both ethernet ports are disabled.
3. Enable eth0 to activate networking on the dedicated IPMI network port.
4. You may also choose to enable networking on eth1. This shares access to the first system network port. 
5. If you enable Bonding, both ports share the same IP address in failover fashion. If bonding is disabled, both ports operate independently and you may attach them to separate networks.
   
6. Select the ethernet port and press enter, then select Yes to enable the port.
   
7. It takes a few seconds for the LAN to be enabled.
   
8. After it has been enabled, the adapter defaults to DHCP and it displays an address. 
   Important: It is highly recommended that you set a static IP address. Relying on DHCP services, even with a DHCP reservation is almost certain to fail in the very likely case that you need to access the system during a network outage when your primary servers (including the DHCP server) are offline
   Note: When using the motherboard network port 1 as IPMI eth1, the IP address assigned here to the IPMI host is separate from the IP address later assigned to the running operating system also using this port.
9. Navigate to the Exit tab and select Save Changes or Save Changes and Exit to update the BIOS configuration.
   
10. The system is rebooted and the IPMI IP address is displayed on the boot splash screen.
    

Disable the IPMI Port

To disable the IPMI port, return to BIOS configuration, navigate to the Server Mgmt BMC Network Configuration page, then select eth0 and/or eth1 and set them to disabled.