Q: How do you monitor Xserve 2009 with Mountain?

Brilliant it's alive !!

Thanks very much Ralph

incase any one else is trying IPMI light ios app doesn't work over VPN

maybe there is hope, 10.7.5 update

Fixes an issue that made Xserve (Early 2009) servers inaccessible to Server Monitor and ipmitool.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5314

FYI guys, after much research on my Early 2009 XServe.  LOM actually DOES work under Mountain Lion, provided that you had already configured it under Snow Leopard Server (or presumably Lion).  However, once configured, you cannot make any changes to it under Mountain Lion, there is no GUI and ipmitool is not to be found.  That should be easily fixable by Apple, if they get on the horse and ride.  My experience has proven this works, but you must monitor it with Server Monitor from the old Snow Leopard Server days.  In other words, I have an old Snow Leopard Server sitting around that will not get upgraded at all, and that one is perfect for monitoring the new Mountain Lion install on the XServe.  I've got it sending automatic emails upon any 'incident' it sees, etc. etc.  But again, no way to change settings.  Keep in mind, my experience makes perfect sense actually - LOM by its nature is totally un-associated with the OS.  It runs on a totally separate little Intel processor and communicates with the Ethernet port completely independent of the OS.  This is a Good Thing (TM).  It means that whatever foolishness Apple does, you can still monitor your LOM port, even on a clean install of ML, provided that the LOM port was configured once upon a time under an earlier GUI.  I know this gets confusing a bit, but when you peel back the onion, it's not that surprising.  Lastly, I am even able to use the wonderful iPhone app that someone mentioned called IPMITouch, and can remotely shut down, restart, etc. the XServe just like you would with Server Monitor.  You see all the variables, everything, it's perfect.  So my suggestion is that even for those who cannot keep a Snow Leopard Server around to use Server Monitor to monitor their LOM port on ML, just use the iPhone app.  You won't get the email notifications (unless configured previously with Server Monitor of course), but you can see what's up and do remote soft shutdowns, restarts, etc.

I hope this helps someone, I've been spending WAY too much time on LOM lately.  Time to move on :-)

Cheers!

Some Dude

Hey Dude,

Thanks for sharing your experience. That type of info is exactly what I wanted to know, but with a single SLS machine, I didn't have the luxury of trial and error with an extra ML server. Until Apple has a way to actually configure the LOM port, I am a little hesitant to make the leap to ML in case my LAN requires a major overhaul that includes local IP changes at some point.

Thanks again.

Ralph, I followed up in the other thread here, but essentially, I discovered after writing that last post that in the latest Server version 2.1.1 released last week for Mountain Lion, LOM can be configured in the GUI just fine, when you're either setting up the server the first time after installing it, or you can re-visit it anytime under the "Change Hostname" option under Network of the Server utility.  Now, monitoring it still appears to be only via IPMI Touch on the iPhone/iPod touch/iPad, unless you happen to have the luxury of an older SL Server running Server Monitor.  Then it will still be monitorable that way.  Hope this helps!

If you are having issues configuring it using the server app, another option is to download the admin tools for 10.6, use pacifist to install just the server monitor app.  It won't let you double click and open the app on 10.8, but if you launch the terminal, and go into the app bundle Contents/MacOS folder and type "open Server\ Monitor "  This will open the app and allow you to configure the LOM on the local machine.

This is what actually worked out for me:

- Logged in to one of my servers running 10.6.x

- Compressed Server Monitor.app

- Copied to the XServer Running ML 10.8.2

- Proceed to configure the LOM via Server > Configure Local Machine

Hope this works fo you too...

Didn't work for me. It opens and I can get to the settings. But when I submit, it comes back with an unexpected error. Bummer.

Indeed. It seems there is no solution to this problem except to resort to a bit low level CLTs.

In case anyone is still following this thread or comes across it while trying to solve the same problem, I am please to report that someone has developed two tools that will fill my needs with respect to replacing Apple's Server Monitor which is long gone.  There is now an app on the Apple App Store called Luminous. Is is essentially a GUI that uses ipmitool and gives a nice, clean interface to monitor the sensors in the Xserve (and other ipmi-compatible machines).  It does not currently send email alerts, but it does allow remote power off and power on.

In addition, the developer has a nifty little stand alone app called Xserve LOM Confugurator.  It is not on the App Store but you can get it here:

http://www.pixeleyes.co.nz/xservelomconfigurator/

It essentially replaces the window in Server Monitor where one configures the LOM port number, the IP address for the LOM, the Subnet mask and the router..THis one is free and the Luminous app is $9.99.

i Hope this helps others in the same situation!

That's great news thanks for the info!