OVH/Kimsufi IPMI via Java applet madness

Comments

• luckypenguin Member

  June 21 edited June 21

  You can use their rescue system and kexec netboot.xyz, or any other system actually.

  apt-get update && apt-get install -y kexec-tools wget
  mkdir /tmp/netboot && cd /tmp/netboot
  wget https://boot.netboot.xyz/ipxe/netboot.xyz.lkrn
  kexec -l netboot.xyz.lkrn
  kexec -e

  If your .iso is not in the list, like Windows, you can raw dd if to the local disk and adjust boot params. This makes it totally possible to install any OS without IPMI at all, it's just a nice bonus to have it.
• miniopt Member

  June 21 edited 12:26AM

  Change the boot mode to OVH's rescue distro, and either use netboot.xyz like @luckypenguin suggested or launch an installer / live system ISO with QEMU.

  For example with my KS-5 or KS-LE-B which both have two NVMe drives, I launch the Debian 13 live system ISO inside the rescue system with:

  [me@laptop]$ ssh -i ~/.ssh/ovh-rescue-key root@server_ip
  # apt update && apt upgrade
  # apt install qemu-system ovmf wget
  # wget https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current-live/amd64/iso-hybrid/debian-live-13.5.0-amd64-standard.iso
  # wget https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current-live/amd64/iso-hybrid/SHA256SUMS
  # sha256sum -c SHA256SUMS 2>/dev/null | grep "standard.iso:"
  # qemu-system-x86_64 \
      -enable-kvm \
      -smp max \
      -m 8G \
      -drive if=pflash,format=raw,readonly=on,file=/usr/share/ovmf/x64/OVMF_CODE.4m.fd \
      -drive if=pflash,format=raw,file=/usr/share/ovmf/x64/OVMF_VARS.4m.fd \
      -blockdev driver=host_device,node-name=NVME0,filename=/dev/nvme0n1 \
      -device nvme,drive=NVME0,serial=deadcafe0 \
      -blockdev driver=host_device,node-name=NVME1,filename=/dev/nvme1n1 \
      -device nvme,drive=NVME1,serial=deadcafe1 \
      -cdrom debian-live-13.5.0-amd64-standard.iso \
      -vga std \
      -vnc :0 \
      -monitor stdio
  

  Then you can VNC into your server at [server_ip]:5900.

  But you should definitely use VNC encryption with X509 certificates, you need to generate CA root and server certificates then change the -vnc option as described in the QEMU docs. Also use a VNC password.
• plumberg Veteran, Megathread Squad

  June 21

  @cromo said:
  I am trying to connect to any of my 3 servers using the IPMI Java Applet, to no avail. I think I tried everything I could, various old Java versions together with OpenWebStart, different security settings, it all still fails with:

  ---

  JNLPClassLoader: Finding library iKVM64.dll
  JNLPClassLoader: Finding library SharedLibrary64.dll
  Retry =1
  Retry =2
  Retry =3
  Retry =4
  Retry =5
  Retry =6
  Retry =7
  Retry =8
  Retry =9
  Retry =10

  And then I am getting "connection failed". I can telnet to the IP address from the JNLP file on port 5900 just fine. The IPMI is functional in the OVH dashboard: confirmed using IPMI Test and the HTML KVM.

  I need Java to publish custom ISO, the HTML KVM is an older one and doesn't support ISO uploading.

  Since this is Kimsufi, I understand IPMI is not normally supported by OVH on these servers, so I can't have their support look into it?

  I'll appreciate any help.

  Ive had issues with jnlp when yhe server had both html5 and Java options

  Support acknowledged that supermicro has acknowledged the same but no eta on the fix
• cromo Member

  12:03AM edited 12:04AM

  Thank you all for responses.

  @plumberg said:
  Ive had issues with jnlp when yhe server had both html5 and Java options

  Support acknowledged that supermicro has acknowledged the same but no eta on the fix

  Well, it's a good thing I wasted 5 hours working on that, then.

  I am now going the hacky way, but Proxmox GUI won't start (crashes immediately), and I can't type in TUI, not even using their virtual keyboard. Arrow keys and Enter work, though...

  At this point they could really stand out on the market and just attach a PiKVM to each node for free...
• luckypenguin Member

  12:11AM

  @cromo said: I am now going the hacky way, but Proxmox GUI won't start (crashes immediately)

  Then install vanilla Debian first, and convert it to Proxmox later:
  https://github.com/MrMasterbay/proxmox-from-scratch

  @cromo said: At this point they could really stand out on the market and just attach a PiKVM to each node for free...

  You really expect that much on Kimsufi servers they barely make profit on, do you.
• NotFoundException Member

  12:14AM

  @cromo said: I am now going the hacky way, but Proxmox GUI won't start (crashes immediately), and I can't type in TUI, not even using their virtual keyboard. Arrow keys and Enter work, though...

  Why even try to install it yourself, just use the Proxmox template
• luckypenguin Member

  12:17AM

  @NotFoundException said: Why even try to install it yourself, just use the Proxmox template

  There are few valid reasons to go the Debian iso route first.
  For example when you want to encrypt the disks with LUKS and make custom partitions.
  I highly doubt they overwrite disks with random data before handing it to next customers.
• cromo Member

  12:18AM

  Why even try to install it yourself, just use the Proxmox template

  ZFS + LUKS.
• cromo Member

  12:18AM

  There are few valid reasons to go the Debian iso route first.
  For example when you want to encrypt the disks with LUKS and make custom partitions.
  I highly doubt they overwrite disks with random data before handing it to next customers.

  Exactly my point. Nailed it.
• cromo Member

  12:24AM

  I tried with Proxmox installer in Serial console, but serial console is gone (tried using ther KVM HTML and via SSH). On top of that, that damn KVM HTML gets disconnected after I think 60s of inactivity.

  MADNESS.
• NotFoundException Member

  12:28AM

  @luckypenguin said:

  @NotFoundException said: Why even try to install it yourself, just use the Proxmox template

  There are few valid reasons to go the Debian iso route first.
  For example when you want to encrypt the disks with LUKS and make custom partitions.
  I highly doubt they overwrite disks with random data before handing it to next customers.

  That would mean that you install using the Debian ISO in the first place, since Proxmox doesn’t allow it. You could also encrypt using the native ZFS encryption later on, there are a few tutorials out there.

  https://homelab-guide.de/tutorials/zfs-verschluesselung-nachtraeglich-proxmox/
• cromo Member

  12:30AM edited 12:31AM

  That would mean that you install using the Debian ISO in the first place, since Proxmox doesn’t allow it. You could also encrypt using the native ZFS encryption later on, there are a few tutorials out there.

  https://homelab-guide.de/tutorials/zfs-verschluesselung-nachtraeglich-proxmox/

  I am going to use LUKS, actually, it's not about getting it encrypted right away, but rather have a proper disk layout for that.
• NotFoundException Member

  12:31AM

  @cromo said:

  Why even try to install it yourself, just use the Proxmox template

  ZFS + LUKS.

  Then I see absolutely no reason to custom install it
• cromo Member

  12:37AM

  @cromo said:
  I tried with Proxmox installer in Serial console, but serial console is gone (tried using ther KVM HTML and via SSH). On top of that, that damn KVM HTML gets disconnected after I think 60s of inactivity.

  OK, serial installation works, just had to change the console to ttyS1 in Proxmox's grub.
• cromo Member

  12:44AM

  Then I see absolutely no reason to custom install it

  1. They enforce MD raid by default. You have to install to a single disk first, then replicate everything + regenerate the UUIDs, etc. Tedious work.
  2. you need to set up ashift properly.
  3. OVH's template installs GRUB directly, ignoring proxmox-boot-util and its shenanigans

  Off the top of my head.