Why are Baseboard Management Controllers or BMCs Used in Servers?īaseboard management controllers are used in servers to perform the tasks that an administrator would otherwise need to physically visit the racked server to accomplish. If you look at the BMC diagrams, and a Raspberry Pi diagram, there are quite a few similarities. The analogy that I typically use when describing a BMC is that it is similar to a small Raspberry Pi type device that sits in a server in order to control the larger server. They also have multiple connections to the host system providing the ability to monitor hardware, flash BIOS/ UEFI firmware, give console access via serial or physical/ virtual KVM, power cycle the servers, and log events. Key here is that the BMCs can utilize either shared or dedicated NICs for remote access. Here is the official ASPEED AST2500 system diagram: ASPEED AST2500 Diagram Intel S1200V3 Motherboard Emulex Pilot-III Management Controller Diagram SoCs are often accompanied by flash storage onboard, and various I/O.įor our more technically minded readers, here is an Emulex Pilot 3 diagram on how the BMC hooked into the Intel chipset on an Intel S1200V3 motherboard. These chips are often found on motherboards alongside some nominal amount of DRAM. Vendors have used non-Arm solutions, but the current king of the market is ASPEED and its AST2500 series controllers that are used in servers from major OEMs to hyper-scale switches. The BMC is usually an Arm-based SoC with graphics and control logic built-in. The largest vendor for BMCs today is ASPEED whose AST2400 BMC is pictured below. Other components such as higher-end switches, JBODs, JBOFs, and other devices now include BMCs as well. What is a Baseboard Management Controller or BMC?Ī baseboard management controller, or BMC, is a small computer that sits on virtually every server motherboard. We are then going to discuss common BMC features and the impact of the BMC. We are going to show you what a BMC looks like. A question we get asked a lot at STH is “what is a baseboard management controller” or “what is a BMC?” In this article, we are going to answer some of those questions for you.
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