How to stop iAMT from resetting during power outtage

[Joshua_E_]

Hi. We're trying to use iAMT on some boards that are being developed for us, but having one issue:

We setup a MEBx password on the board, and everything works great. We have Admin level access and can KVM/etc as needed. However, once line power is removed and the CMOS battery is missing/dead, the MEBx account resets and we lose our iAMT config. After that, we obviously can't KVM/etc to fix the machine.

Is there some way to configure iAMT so it won't lose the config when the CMOS is pulled? If it loses the config when power is lost and the CMOS battery is dead, it's unfortunately not suitable to our application, unless there is some other way to gain Admin access once the MEBx password is reset that I can't find.

Also, maybe unrelated, but the \Windows\Intel_Manageability_Configuration\Bin folder in the Gold SDK is missing, which means I can't gen certs/etc.

Thanks!

[Gael_H_Intel]

Pulling the CMOS battery will always reset the ME to factory state - there is nothing you can do about that.  If your system loses power and the CMOS battery is dead, you need to replace it. otherwise you will have to re-provision everytime your system loses power.

Regarding the SDK missing the config mgmt folders.  The SDK team has added them back in and as soon as I can get the latest version, we will put it on the site..  Should be today or tomorrow. 

[Joshua_E_]

Hi Gael, and thanks for the super fast reply.

Is there any way this could be modified in the BIOS source to make it non-volatile? Our motherboard manufacturer is working with us, so we could probably get them to update the BIOS to make that happen. 

Alternatively, if the configuration MUST get lost during CMOS reset, is there some way I'm not seeing that would let me get back into Admin mode without having the MEBx configured? I'm still learning about iAMT, so please forgive me if that's a stupid questions. I'm just trying to find some way to make this work for us, as iAMT seems pretty great other than the config loss issue.

[Gael_H_Intel]

Well, making this happy would require BIOS and board changes.  The soonest you will (hopefully) be able to accomplish this is for ME 10 which is being worked on now.  btw, the new AMT SDK has be uploaded - it has all the scripts now.