Why is Remote Access "unsupported" in Commander Tool?

[mcbsys]

Hi,

I've just downloaded the Managability Developer Tool Kit v.0.6.09037.2. I'm using the Commander Tool to connect to a Dell Optiplex 755 with BIOS A15 and AMT Version 3.2.10. Until now I've only used the web interface to this machine.

The main thing I'm looking for now is remote access (Serial over LAN), but on the Intel Management Engine tab, next to Remote Access, it says "Unsupported." Why is it unsupported? What would be involved in allowing me to get to the BIOS-level diagnostics (F12) via AMT?

Thanks,

Mark Berry

[Andrew_S_Intel2]

Quoting - mcbsys

Hi,

I've just downloaded the Managability Developer Tool Kit v.0.6.09037.2. I'm using the Commander Tool to connect to a Dell Optiplex 755 with BIOS A15 and AMT Version 3.2.10. Until now I've only used the web interface to this machine.

The main thing I'm looking for now is remote access (Serial over LAN), but on the Intel Management Engine tab, next to Remote Access, it says "Unsupported." Why is it unsupported? What would be involved in allowing me to get to the BIOS-level diagnostics (F12) via AMT?

Thanks,

Mark Berry

My first guess is that the Serial over Lan functionality hasn't been enabled in the MEBx. On boot up, you should be able to press Ctrl-P to get into the MEBx. Once you've entered the MEBx password (you should have changed this when you provisioned AMT), you can go into the AMT settings, and check that both Serial over LAN and IDE-R are enabled.

Andy

[RBens2]

The "Remote Access" that Commander is referring to here isn't SOL, it's CIRA. I don't think that AMT 3.2 supported CIRA. CIRA support wasn't added until AMT 4.0, that's why Commander is coming back and saying that Remote Access isn't supported. The comments about checking SOL and the BIOS capability to do setup over SOLare spot-on.

Regards,
Roger

[Andrew_S_Intel2]

Quoting - rogerb

The "Remote Access" that Commander is referring to here isn't SOL, it's CIRA. I don't think that AMT 3.2 supported CIRA. CIRA support wasn't added until AMT 4.0, that's why Commander is coming back and saying that Remote Access isn't supported. The comments about checking SOL and the BIOS capability to do setup over SOLare spot-on.

Regards,
Roger

Ah, true. Roger is correct about everything he said with Remote Access, it has nothing to do with Serial over LAN, and the Remote Access (CIRA) feature was not available on a 3.2 system. Remote Access is kind of a misleading term, it is referring to the ability of AMT 4 and 5 systems to connect from out on the internet (if appropriately configured).

To use Serial Over Lan to get to the BIOS, go to the Remote Control tab and press the Take Control button. At that point, you can go to the Remote Command menu item, and you should be able to select the Remote Reboot to BIOS option (alternatively, you can use the Remote Reboot item, then press F12, but not all OEM BIOS's support pressing F12 through a SOL session). If you're having trouble with that, you can go back to the original feedback I gave about enabling Serial over LAN.

Andy

[mcbsys]

Quoting - Andrew Schiestl (Intel)

To use Serial Over Lan to get to the BIOS, go to the Remote Control tab and press the Take Control button. At that point, you can go to the Remote Command menu item, and you should be able to select the Remote Reboot to BIOS option (alternatively, you can use the Remote Reboot item, then press F12, but not all OEM BIOS's support pressing F12 through a SOL session). If you're having trouble with that, you can go back to the original feedback I gave about enabling Serial over LAN.

Thank you both for the excellent information! In the Commander, I see that SOL, IDE Redirect, and Redirection Port are all Enabled. I was in fact able to Reboot to BIOS through SOL.

However I may have asked the wrong question. I want to use F12 to boot into the Dell Utility Partition to run Dell's (GUI-based) diagnostics. Is this possible? I see mention of the "IMRGUI tool" in this thread. Would that do it? I need the SDK for that?

Thanks again,

Mark Berry

[Andrew_S_Intel2]

Quoting - mcbsys

Thank you both for the excellent information! In the Commander, I see that SOL, IDE Redirect, and Redirection Port are all Enabled. I was in fact able to Reboot to BIOS through SOL.

However I may have asked the wrong question. I want to use F12 to boot into the Dell Utility Partition to run Dell's (GUI-based) diagnostics. Is this possible? I see mention of the "IMRGUI tool" in this thread. Would that do it? I need the SDK for that?

Thanks again,

Mark Berry

IMRGUI is simply another Serial over LAN tool that's part of the SDK (instead of the DTK), from what I remember using it didn't resolve this issue.

Did you see this thread? http://software.intel.com/en-us/forums/showthread.php?t=65760 . It has some other options that might work for resolving this issue. Like I mentioned in my previous post, it's possible that theirs a terminal emulation issue that is preventing the F12 button from working over SOL. Since this is based on the BIOS, that's dependent on the particular OEM (in this case, Dell).

One potential workaround is if there's another key sequence that triggers the same behavior. I know the F12 key isn't detected over SOL with Intel boards, but in that case F12 triggers a boot over network, and the same behavior can be reached by pressing F10 and selecting network boot.

[RBens2 · Accepted solution]

Hi Mark,

I'm not familiar with the Dell Diagnostics tool, but if it is GUI-based and not character based, then you probably can't do SOL with the tool even if you get the F12 key sequence to work. SOL only handles character based apps like DOS. If the GUI is actually using the box characters, then SOL might work, but if it really is high res graphics based, then SOL will not work.

Regards,
Roger

[mcbsys]

Quoting - rogerb

I'm not familiar with the Dell Diagnostics tool, but if it is GUI-based and not character based, then you probably can't do SOL with the tool even if you get the F12 key sequence to work. SOL only handles character based apps like DOS. If the GUI is actually using the box characters, then SOL might work, but if it really is high res graphics based, then SOL will not work.

Thanks guys. Yes I'm afraid the on-board diagnostics partition, after running through some basic DOS-based tests, launches a GUI application. I was hoping AMT could provide something like I'm used to on servers with remote support cards (which do support graphics from browser-based clients). Is that by chance a feature of the newer AMT 4? It seems like the next logical step in out-of-band maintenance, but maybe it is cost-prohibitive due to the variety of graphics implementations.

In the meantime, maybe I can find a DOS version of the Dell diagnostics. If so, I should be able to boot to that from my local CD or floppy, right?

Regards,

Mark Berry

[Andrew_S_Intel2]

Quoting - mcbsys

Thanks guys. Yes I'm afraid the on-board diagnostics partition, after running through some basic DOS-based tests, launches a GUI application. I was hoping AMT could provide something like I'm used to on servers with remote support cards (which do support graphics from browser-based clients). Is that by chance a feature of the newer AMT 4? It seems like the next logical step in out-of-band maintenance, but maybe it is cost-prohibitive due to the variety of graphics implementations.

In the meantime, maybe I can find a DOS version of the Dell diagnostics. If so, I should be able to boot to that from my local CD or floppy, right?

Regards,

Mark Berry

Actually, the next generation of AMT will have KVM functionality (it was just officially announced last week at IDF, here's the demo they showed: http://communities.intel.com/community/openportit/vproexpert/blog/2009/09/24/sneak-peek-at-the-kvm-feature-in-2010-intel-vpro-platform;jsessionid=DEBC630B6350AE02ECDD461E2BD2C48F.node3COMS ). There will be more details on the KVM functionality once the platform that it's part of is officially released.

And yes, if you have a DOS based version, that should be bootable from your local CD or floppy. If you're using the IDE-Redirect functionality, you can probably get it to boot from any machine.

[RBens2]

I've seen the KVM functionality on the AMT 6 systems, and it is very nice. However, the drawback is that it only works on Intel graphics systems, or discrete graphics systems that support switchable graphics. So, if you want it to work on discrete graphics systems in the future, you need to let your Intel representative know that you want that functionality added.

Regards,
Roger

[mcbsys]

Quoting - rogerb

I've seen the KVM functionality on the AMT 6 systems, and it is very nice. However, the drawback is that it only works on Intel graphics systems, or discrete graphics systems that support switchable graphics. So, if you want it to work on discrete graphics systems in the future, you need to let your Intel representative know that you want that functionality added.

Thanks again to both of you. (You make a good team!) That KVM functionality sounds awesome.

So in principle is it possible to upgrade AMT v3.x to v4.x and beyond? Or do I need to wait on upgraded hardware before v6.x will be available?

(Sure wish I could figure out to get notified when you guys reply to this thread....)

Mark Berry

[RBens2]

Hi Mark,

Each version of the AMT FW will only run on the version of the HW that it was released on, so you can't run AMT 4.0 on AMT 3.0 HW. Consequently, the new AMT 6.0 FW will not run on any earlier HW. The AMT 6.0 KVM functionality is based in the HW, so you will not be able to get the functionality on any earlier HW than the newest systems that will launch in 2010. Let me reiterate, the KVM functionality will only be available on systems with Intel integrated graphics. Systems with discrete graphics will not be able to support the KVM functionality.

Regards,
Roger

[Andrew_S_Intel2]

Quoting - mcbsys

Thanks again to both of you. (You make a good team!) That KVM functionality sounds awesome.

So in principle is it possible to upgrade AMT v3.x to v4.x and beyond? Or do I need to wait on upgraded hardware before v6.x will be available?

(Sure wish I could figure out to get notified when you guys reply to this thread....)

Mark Berry

As far as subscribing goes, up right above the first post in this thread, you should see a "Thread Tools" option (it's in a blue bar just under the option to reply to the thread). If you subscribe to the thread, you should get e-mails when there's a new post.

[Gael_H_Intel]

Quoting - Andrew Schiestl (Intel)

As far as subscribing goes, up right above the first post in this thread, you should see a "Thread Tools" option (it's in a blue bar just under the option to reply to the thread). If you subscribe to the thread, you should get e-mails when there's a new post.

I don't think the "Subscribe to thread" option actually works. You may have to subscribe to the forum itself - the unfortunate about that is that you will get an email any time someone submits a question or posts a response to any question.

[Wilson__John]

Why to use Commander tool for remote access when you already have leading remote support solutions like logmein, Teamviewer, R-HUB remote support servers etc. for remotely accessing computers from anywhere anytime? 

[johnmc21]

Hello there! It's great to hear that you're exploring the capabilities of the Managability Developer Tool Kit and the Intel AMT technology.

Regarding your question about remote access via Serial over LAN, the "Unsupported" message on the Intel Management Engine tab could indicate that your Optiplex 755 with BIOS A15 and AMT Version 3.2.10 might not support this particular feature.