How to access IPMI for dedicated servers

IPMI VPN Access.
All our dedicated servers go with IPMI for easier server management, however IPMI interface is currently accessible from our private network only to provide enhanced security to the dedicated servers. Thus, it will be necessary to setup VPN connection to access IPMI interface.
VPN setup process is quite simple since no additional software is required on Windows, MacOS X and most of Linux distributions as PPTP VPN client is already included in most current desktop distributions.

Before you begin your IPMI VPN configuration, please make sure that you have following information at hand:

VPN server name for our IPMI VPN network connection: vpn.phx.web-hosting.com
VPN user name. You can find it in the Welcome E-mail.
VPN user password. It was sent in the Welcome E-mail as well.
IPMI user name and password.

Those users who have experience in VPN setup can follow this short instruction and move to the last paragraph of the article once VPN is ready:

1. Create VPN connection to our IPMI network.
2. Configure VPN connection to work only within our private network. This step is not obligatory one but is strongly recommended, otherwise you will not have Internet connection while VPN connection is active.
3. Connect to our IPMI VPN network.
4. Browse to IPMI interface of your server. (see “How to access your server using IPMI interface” part in the bottom of the guide)

Those who need assistance in VPN setup may use this Step-by-step guide for VPN configuration below:

Microsoft Windows
On “Start” click on “Control Panel”

Choose “View network status and tasks”

Note! Instead of the previous steps you can simply click on “Network connections” icon in task-bar and select “Open Network and Sharing Center“:

Click “Set up a new connection or network”

Click “Connect to a workspace”

Select “Use my Internet connection”

In the field “Internet address” type “vpn.phx.web-hosting.com“.

Please note! To avoid issues with the Internet access and DNS while you are connected to the IPMI VPN, it is strongly recommended to configure your newly created VPN connection first.

To do that, please tick of “Don’t connect now; just set up so I can connect later” option like and don’t connect straight away.

Fill in user name and password fields with your login details (you can find VPN login details in your Welcome Email).
Click on “Network connections” icon in the task-bar, right-click on your newly-created VPN connection and select “Properties”
On the “Networking” tab select “Internet Protocol version 4 (TCP/IPv4)” and click on the “Properties” then.

Select “Advanced”

Deselect “Use default gateway on remote network” and click “OK” twice

Select PPTP as VPN type on “Security” tab

Deselect 3 check-boxes at “Options” tab:

Now you can connect to the newly created network from “Network connections menu“

Mac OS

Go to “system preferences…”

Choose “Network” then.

At the bottom-left corner of the new window press “+” to add a new connection

Choose VPN as a connection interface and PPTP as VPN Type, specify the name of the new connection service.

Click “Create”

Select your newly-created connection from the list.

Add the following settings:

Server address: vpn.phx.web-hosting.com

Account name:VPN user name from your Welcome Email

Press “Authentication settings” button.

Select password authentication and enter VPN userpassword from the Welcome e-mail, then press “OK”

In order to avoid loosing the Internet connectivity while you are connected to IPMI VPN, click “Advanced” button and deselect “Send all traffic over VPN connection“

Press “Apply” button.

Now it is possible to connect to IPMI VPN

Linux
Taking into consideration a wide variety of linux distributions and desktop environments, there’s no single instruction for all of them.

Briefly you require PPTP-client, dhclient and PPPD installed, port 1723 and GRE protocol opened in the firewall configuration.

So your VPN configuration should include:

require-mppe

refuse-eap

refuse-chap

refuse-pap

refuse-mschap

nobsdcomp

nodeflate

lcp-echo-interval = 30

lcp-echo-failure = 5

ignore-auto-dns=true

never-default

If you use Network Manager for configuring VPN, you can use the following instructions:

Right-click on the Network Manager icon at status bar area and select “Edit connections”

Go to the VPN tab and press “Add” button

Select PPTP from drop-down menu and click “Create”

Use the following settings:

Gateway:vpn.phx.web-hosting.com

User name:VPN user name from the Welcome Email.

Password:VPN password from the Welcome Email.

Click “Advanced”

Select “Use Point-to-Point Encryption (MPPE)“, leave only MSCHAPv2 authentication method, disable all compressions except TCP header compression, enable ‘send PPP echo packet‘. The complete configuration is shown on the following screenshot:

Click “Ok“, go to the “IPv4 Settings” tab. Select “Automatic (VPN) Address Only” method click “Routes”

To avoid using Internet access while working with your dedicated server’s IPMI interface you should check “Use this connection only for the resources on it’s network“.

This action will prevent default route from switching to VPN connection when you connect to IPMI VPN

How to access your server using IPMI interface

Once you finished the setup, you should be able to manage your dedicated server through IPMI interface using the credentials that you received in the Welcome Email.

Don’t forget to install Oracle Java (JRE) if you are going to use IPMI console redirection capabilities.

Your server has IPMI address 198.18.19.20 so you can access it with the browser:

https://198.18.19.20 (secure connection)
http://198.18.19.20 (plain HTTP)

Please disregard certificate warning that might appear if you choose the secure connection. You can safely allow connecting to IPMI interface (press “Proceed Anyway“) and even create security exception for this case (but only for this one), your data transfer will be encrypted anyway.

If you face some issues not mentioned above, feel free to submit a ticket to VPS and Dedeicated servers department with the detailed description of the issue.

Good luck!