[Maas-devel] AMT Power issues

[Christian Robottom Reis]

On Wed, Jan 07, 2015 at 12:55:22PM -0200, Christian Robottom Reis wrote:
> > I have a group at Lenovo running MAAS 1.7.1 and they have a server
> > that uses AMT for management.  The issue they run into is that they
> > can PXE and successfully enlist BUT on reviewing the hardware after
> > enlistment the power type is not automatically set.
> 
> We have yet to find a way to automatically determine the AMT parameters
> during the enlistment phase. We don't know of an in-band communication
> module on Linux, though apparently it can be done using a certificate
> (at least that's what the Technet docs suggest). If Lenovo can give us
> more information we'd love to address this issue.

For background, the module on Linux which handles this is mei_me; the
documentation in the kernel tree says:

    http://lxr.free-electrons.com/source/drivers/staging/mei/mei.txt?v=3.3

    Intel ME Applications:
    ==============

    1) Intel Local Management Service (Intel LMS)

        Applications running locally on the platform communicate with Intel AMT Release
        2.0 and later releases in the same way that network applications do via SOAP
        over HTTP (deprecated starting with Release 6.0) or with WS-Management over
        SOAP over HTTP. This means that some Intel AMT features can be accessed from a
        local application using the same network interface as a remote application
        communicating with Intel AMT over the network.

        When a local application sends a message addressed to the local Intel AMT host
        name, the Intel LMS, which listens for traffic directed to the host name,
        intercepts the message and routes it to the Intel MEI.
        For more information:
        http://software.intel.com/sites/manageability/AMT_Implementation_and_Reference_Guide
        Under "About Intel AMT" => "Local Access"

        For downloading Intel LMS:
        http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/download-the-latest-intel-amt-open-source-drivers/

        The Intel LMS opens a connection using the Intel MEI driver to the Intel LMS
        firmware feature using a defined UUID and then communicates with the feature
        using a protocol called Intel AMT Port Forwarding Protocol(Intel APF protocol).
        The protocol is used to maintain multiple sessions with Intel AMT from a
        single application.

        See the protocol specification in the Intel AMT Software Development Kit(SDK)
        http://software.intel.com/sites/manageability/AMT_Implementation_and_Reference_Guide
        Under "SDK Resources" => "Intel(R) vPro(TM) Gateway(MPS)"
        => "Information for Intel(R) vPro(TM) Gateway Developers"
        => "Description of the Intel AMT Port Forwarding (APF)Protocol"

      2) Intel AMT Remote configuration using a Local Agent

        A Local Agent enables IT personnel to configure Intel AMT out-of-the-box
        without requiring installing additional data to enable setup. The remote
        configuration process may involve an ISV-developed remote configuration
        agent that runs on the host.
        For more information:
        http://software.intel.com/sites/manageability/AMT_Implementation_and_Reference_Guide
        Under "Setup and Configuration of Intel AMT" =>
        "SDK Tools Supporting Setup and Configuration" =>
        "Using the Local Agent Sample"

        An open source Intel AMT configuration utility, implementing a local agent
        that accesses the Intel MEI driver, can be found here:
        http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/download-the-latest-intel-amt-open-source-drivers/

This functionality should allow us to auto-configure the nodes during
enlistment, though it remains to be seen how well it works. I know that
on my AsRock servers I need to blacklist the module or they sometimes
fail to boot.
-- 
Christian Robottom Reis | [+55 16] 3376 0125   | http://async.com.br/~kiko
CEO, Async Open Source  | [+55 16] 9 9112 6430 | http://launchpad.net/~kiko