IBM BMC Remote Control

Below is an excellent articels on using IBM BMC

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Looking on IBM’s website for how to perform basic Baseboard Management commands can be difficult at best. They tend to want you to be running Director or some management package to leverage the tool.
What if you just want to do the basics and keep it simple. Here’s the scoop.

Configure the BMC using the options available during the server boot processo manage the thing you’ll need to get the SMbridge tool (good search term, or use “System Management Bridge”). Presently, the the tool is available here.

Now here’s the tricky part, “How the hell do you take advantage of this newfound functionality?”. IBM won’t tell you. They’ll give you all the details on the RSA adapters…but low level BMC commands are tough to find. Here’s the deal. They are Avocent chips. Avocent calls them “OSA System Management Bridge” devices (another good search term). If you cannot find a current manual for the adapter, I’ve posted one here which includes a “Commands” section. They detail the commands that can be launched using the SMbridge tool provided by IBM.

A few examples of the SMbridge utility in use look like:

To gracefully power cycle a server:
smbridge -ip SERVERIPADDR -u BMCUSERNAME -p BMCPASSWORD power cycle

Get some basic server infosmbridge -ip SERVERIPADDR -u BMCUSERNAME -p BMCPASSWORD sysinfo

Get the serial number info:smbridge -ip SERVERIPADDR -u BMCUSERNAME -p BMCPASSWORD sysinfo fru

To hard bounce a server:smbridge -ip SERVERIPADDR -u BMCUSERNAME -p BMCPASSWORD power reset


Link source

Blank HP iLO Integrated Remote Console (IRC) page

Issue: After clicking the HP iLO Integrated Remote Console link, a blank page with a 'Close' button displayed only.

This is to ActiveX issue whereby it is trying to install an ActiveX cab file but due to access permission issue, it fails.


Solution 1) Open the browser as administrator. Click the HP iLO Integrated Remote Console link and install the ActiveX cab file when prompt.

Solution 2) Login as administrator. Click the HP iLO Integrated Remote Console link and install the ActiveX cab file when prompt.

Fix remote desktop connection error "The connection was ended because of network error"

Source Link

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Trouble:

One of our reader Rameshwar reported us a problem regarding remote desktop connection on windows XP. When he tries to connect to a specific machine on LAN, rather than getting connected Windows xp gives the following remote desktop connection error - “The connection was ended because of network error”

Let’s see how can we fix this remote desktop connection error.

Fix:

The main cause behind this problems is some problem in the registry entries at the following path:

HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\TermServices\Parameters
Follow the procedure below to fix it.

1. Open Start >> Run and type regedit and press enter.

2. Navigate to the following path:

HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\TermServices\Parameters

3. Now delete registry keys named Certificate, X500 Certificate and X509 Certificate ID values. (These keys will get auto generated after system restart with system default values, which is actually needed)

4. Exit Registry editor and restart your computer.

5. Try to establish a remote desktop connection by typing mstsc at Run Prompt.

Note: Always back up the registry before making any changes that may damage your system configuration.

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How To Shutdown / Restart A Windows PC Remotely?

The command 'shutdown' is often the mostly overlook and hardly use. This command provide a very simple a straight method of shutting / restarting a remote pc. Just a note, this only works for computers that are connected to the same network.

Extracts from Microsoft TechNet

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Shutdown

Allows you to shut down or restart a local or remote computer. Used without parameters, shutdown will logoff the current user.

Syntax

shutdown [{-l|-s|-r|-a}] [-f] [-m [\\ComputerName]] [-t xx] [-c "message"] [-d[u][p]:xx:yy]

Parameters

-l : Logs off the current user, this is also the defualt. -m ComputerName takes precedence.

-s : Shuts down the local computer.

-r : Reboots after shutdown.

-a : Aborts shutdown. Ignores other parameters, except -l and ComputerName. You can only use -a during the time-out period.

-f : Forces running applications to close.

-m [ \\ ComputerName ] : Specifies the computer that you want to shut down.

-t xx : Sets the timer for system shutdown in xx seconds. The default is 20 seconds.

-c " message " : Specifies a message to be displayed in the Message area of the System Shutdown window. You can use a maximum of 127 characters. You must enclose the message in quotation marks.

-d [ u ][ p ] : xx : yy : Lists the reason code for the shutdown. The following table lists the different values.

Value	Description
u	Indicates a user code.
p	Indicates a planned shutdown code.
xx	Specifies the major reason code (0-255).
yy	Specifies the minor reason code (0-65536).

/? : Displays help at the command prompt.

Remarks

• If you indicate a major and minor reason code, you must first define these reason codes on each computer for which you plan to use the particular reason. If the reason codes are not defined on the target computer, Event Viewer cannot log the correct reason text.

Examples

To shut down \\MyServer in 60 seconds, force running applications to close, restart the computer after shutdown, indicate a user code, indicate that the shutdown is planned, log major reason code 125, and log minor reason code 1, type:

shutdown -r -f -m \\MyServer -t 60 -d up:125:1

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Use Command Line Parameters With Remote Desktop Connection

Excellent articles on using CLI for Windows Remote Desktop Connection.
Link to the Source

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Use command line parameters with Remote Desktop Connection

Instead of starting Remote Desktop Connection from the Start menu, you can start it from the search box in this version of Windows, from the Run dialog box, or from a command line. That way you can use additional command line parameters to control how Remote Desktop Connection looks or behaves.

To start Remote Desktop from the Run dialog box, follow these steps:

	1. Click the Start button , click All Programs, click Accessories, and then click Run. 2. In the Open box, type mstsc. 3. Type a space, followed by any additional parameters that you want to use.

The following table lists the parameters you can use.

Command line syntax for Remote Desktop Connection

Syntax

mstsc [] [/v:] [/console] [/f[ullscreen]] [/w:] [/h:] [/public] | [/span] [/edit "connection file"] [/migrate] [/?]

Command line parameters for Remote Desktop Connection

Parameter	Description
/v:	Specifies the remote computer you want to connect to.
/console	In this version of Remote Desktop Connection, if the Terminal Server role service is installed on the remote computer, mstsc /console will: • Disable Terminal Services client access licensing (TS-CAL) for this connection only. • Disable time zone redirection for this connection only. • Disable TS Session Directory redirection for this connection only. To connect to the console session of a remote computer with the Terminal Server role service installed, follow these steps: 1. Open the Command Prompt window by clicking the Start button , clicking All Programs, clicking Accessories, and then clicking Command Prompt. 2. Type mstsc /v:server /console. You can also use the "/console" parameter to connect to a server running Windows Server 2003.
/f	Starts Remote Desktop Connection in full-screen mode.
/w:	Specifies the width of the Remote Desktop Connection window.
/h:	Specifies the height of the Remote Desktop window.
/public	Runs Remote Desktop Connection in public mode.
/span	Matches the remote desktop width and height with the local virtual desktop, spanning across multiple monitors if necessary. To span across monitors, the monitors must all have the same height and be aligned side by side.
/edit	Opens the specified .rdp connection file for editing.
/migrate	Migrates older connection files that were created with Client Connection Manager to new .rdp connection files.
/?	Lists these parameters.