OpenBMC

OpenBMC is a Linux distribution for management controllers used in devices such as servers, top of rack switches or RAID appliances. It uses Yocto, OpenEmbedded, systemd, and D-Bus to allow easy customization for your platform.

Setting up your OpenBMC project

1) Prerequisite

See the Yocto documentation for the latest requirements

Ubuntu

sudo apt install git gcc g++ make file wget \
    gawk diffstat bzip2 cpio chrpath zstd lz4 bzip2

Fedora

sudo dnf install git python3 gcc g++ gawk which bzip2 chrpath cpio \
    hostname file diffutils diffstat lz4 wget zstd rpcgen patch

2) Download the source

git clone https://github.com/openbmc/openbmc
cd openbmc

3) Target your hardware

Any build requires an environment set up according to your hardware target. There is a special script in the root of this repository that can be used to configure the environment as needed. The script is called setup and takes the name of your hardware target as an argument.

The script needs to be sourced while in the top directory of the OpenBMC repository clone, and, if run without arguments, will display the list of supported hardware targets, see the following example:

$ . setup <machine> [build_dir]
Target machine must be specified. Use one of:
...

A more complete list of supported machines can be found under meta-phosphor/docs.

Once you know the target (e.g. romulus), source the setup script as follows:

. setup romulus

4) Build

bitbake obmc-phosphor-image

Additional details can be found in the docs repository.

OpenBMC Development

The OpenBMC community maintains a set of tutorials new users can go through to get up to speed on OpenBMC development out here

Build Validation and Testing

Commits submitted by members of the OpenBMC GitHub community are compiled and tested via our Jenkins server. Commits are run through two levels of testing. At the repository level the makefile make check directive is run. At the system level, the commit is built into a firmware image and run with an arm-softmmu QEMU model against a barrage of CI tests.

Commits submitted by non-members do not automatically proceed through CI testing. After visual inspection of the commit, a CI run can be manually performed by the reviewer.

Automated testing against the QEMU model along with supported systems are performed. The OpenBMC project uses the Robot Framework for all automation. Our complete test repository can be found here.

Submitting Patches

Support of additional hardware and software packages is always welcome. Please follow the contributing guidelines when making a submission. It is expected that contributions contain test cases.

Bug Reporting

Issues are managed on GitHub. It is recommended you search through the issues before opening a new one.

Questions

First, please do a search on the internet. There's a good chance your question has already been asked.

For general questions, please use the openbmc tag on Stack Overflow. Please review the discussion on Stack Overflow licensing before posting any code.

For technical discussions, please see contact info below for Discord and mailing list information. Please don't file an issue to ask a question. You'll get faster results by using the mailing list or Discord.

Will OpenBMC run on my Acme Server Corp. XYZ5000 motherboard?

This is a common question, particularly regarding boards from popular COTS (commercial off-the-shelf) vendors such as Supermicro and ASRock. You can see the list of supported boards by running . setup (with no further arguments) in the root of the OpenBMC source tree. Most of the platforms supported by OpenBMC are specialized servers operated by companies running large datacenters, but some more generic COTS servers are supported to varying degrees.

If your motherboard is not listed in the output of . setup it is not currently supported. Porting OpenBMC to a new platform is a non-trivial undertaking, ideally done with the assistance of schematics and other documentation from the manufacturer (it is not completely infeasible to take on a porting effort without documentation via reverse engineering, but it is considerably more difficult, and probably involves a greater risk of hardware damage).

However, even if your motherboard is among those listed in the output of . setup, there are two significant caveats to bear in mind. First, not all ports are equally mature -- some platforms are better supported than others, and functionality on some "supported" boards may be fairly limited. Second, support for a motherboard is not the same as support for a complete system -- in particular, fan control is critically dependent on not just the motherboard but also the fans connected to it and the chassis that the board and fans are housed in, both of which can vary dramatically between systems using the same board model. So while you may be able to compile and install an OpenBMC build on your system and get some basic functionality, rough edges (such as your cooling fans running continuously at full throttle) are likely.

See also "Supported Machines".

Features of OpenBMC

Feature List

• Host management: Power, Cooling, LEDs, Inventory, Events, Watchdog
• Full IPMI 2.0 Compliance with DCMI
• Code Update Support for multiple BMC/BIOS images
• Web-based user interface
• REST interfaces
• D-Bus based interfaces
• SSH based SOL
• Remote KVM
• Hardware Simulation
• Automated Testing
• User management
• Virtual media

Features In Progress

• OpenCompute Redfish Compliance
• Verified Boot

Features Requested but need help

• OpenBMC performance monitoring

Finding out more

Dive deeper into OpenBMC by opening the docs repository.

Technical Oversight Forum

The Technical Oversight Forum (TOF) guides the technical direction of the project. Members are voted on by community members based on the membership and voting guidelines.

Contact

• Mail: openbmc@lists.ozlabs.org https://lists.ozlabs.org/listinfo/openbmc
• Discord: https://discord.gg/69Km47zH98