Starting IPMI driver failed (OpenManage) for DELL PowerEdge 2950 ?

[Legacy User]

We are running vSphere 4.0 on a DELL PowerEdge 2950 Server. We get the message saying that "Staring IPMI driver failed" when we start up OpenManage. We have tried both OM 5.5 and OM 6.1 but still get the same error message.

Besides, we have already upgraded the BIOS to 2.61.

Your advice is sought.

[vmroyale]

Hello.

See if this discussion helps.

Good Luck!

[Legacy User]

According to that thread, a fellow has fixed the problem by upgrading the BIOS and PERC 6/i firmware. I do have upgrade BIOS to 2.6.1 & update the PERC 5/i Intergrated to latest firmware. However, still get the same problem.

I have also updated the latest firmware for BMC as well.

The IMPI issue is also related to we are not able to shutdown that ESX Host - We get the following messag on the console "Waiting for inventory collector to finish ...... " as well.

Thanks again

[byoung111]

I have OM working on a 2950 with a PERC/5i card. You can't use OM 5.5, you have to use 6.1. I did run into a problem with one where I had installed OM 5.5 first. You need to make sure you completely uninstall all components and make sure none of the RPMs are installed. I ran the uninstall for 6.1, then for 5.5, then did the following.

rpm -qa|grep srvadmin

Then run rpm -e srvadmin-package name

Then try to reinstall 6.1 using ./srvadmin-install -x from the supportscripts directory.

Hope that works for you.

[Legacy User]

I have followed your advice and the problem is fixed. Many thanks for your help.