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Redfish (iDRAC, iLO) smart home integration, free and open source

Redfish (iDRAC, iLO) integration for Gladys Assistant

Servers via their BMC (iDRAC, iLO, XClarity…): power, health, watts, temperatures, fans.

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Rack and tower servers have a management controller (BMC) that keeps watching them, even when they are off: Dell iDRAC, HPE iLO, Lenovo XClarity, Supermicro, OpenBMC… All of them speak Redfish, the standard API of the DMTF. This integration reads it: one device per server with its power state, health, power draw, temperatures, fans and power supplies. Scenes can react when the health degrades, a critical entry appears in the event log, or a server is powered on or off, and a dashboard widget sums your servers up. Power control (on, clean shutdown, restart) is available, off by default. Everything stays on your local network.

Developed without the hardware: feedback welcome. Tested against the official DMTF Redfish mockup server (Docker): sessions, the readings of the legacy and of the newer Redfish resources, the event logs, the reset action. The vendor differences (iLO 4, iDRAC) come from their documented schemas. Tell us how it goes on your server in the issues.

What you need​

  • Gladys Assistant 5.1.0 or later.
  • A server whose controller has Redfish enabled: iDRAC 8 (firmware 2.40 or later) or iDRAC 9, iLO 4 (2.30 or later), iLO 5 or iLO 6, Lenovo XClarity Controller, a recent Supermicro BMC, OpenBMC.
  • The controller reachable from the Gladys machine in HTTPS (port 443).
  • An account on the controller. A read-only one is enough; power control needs an account allowed to do it (Operator on an iDRAC, "Virtual Power and Reset" on an iLO).
  • Up to three controllers per installation of the integration.

Getting started​

1. Prepare the controller​

  • Check that you can open the web interface of the controller from a browser (https://<controller address>).
  • Redfish is on by default on recent firmware. On an iDRAC 8, check it under iDRAC Settings → Services → Redfish.
  • Create a dedicated account if you can, read-only unless you want power control.

2. Configure the integration​

In the Configuration tab of the integration:

  • Controller address: 192.168.1.30, idrac.lan or https://idrac.lan. HTTPS is used when no http:// is given.
  • User name and Password of the controller account.
  • Name (optional): shown in the device name, the widget and the messages. By default, the host name the controller gives, otherwise the server model.
  • Up to two more controllers in the next sections.
  • Refresh interval: 30 seconds to 5 minutes (1 minute by default). The event logs are read every 5 minutes.
  • Accept self-signed certificates: most controllers ship with a self-signed certificate. If your browser warns about it too, tick this option. The connection stays encrypted, but the identity of the controller is no longer checked: only do it on your local network.
  • Allow power control: see Power control. Off by default.
  • Language of the names: language of the feature names (set when the server is added), of the health texts and of the scene results.

Then click Test the connection: one line per controller, with the servers found and the authentication used.

3. Add the server​

The server appears in the Discover tab of the integration: add it. Only the servers added receive values; the widget and the scene triggers work for every server, added or not.

The device​

One device per server (usually one per controller; a chassis with several nodes gives one per node). Only the features the controller reports are proposed:

FeatureValue
PowerOn or off. A switch when power control is allowed
HealthOK, Warning or Critical: the health the controller rolls up
Power drawWatts drawn by the server
Intake temperatureAir entering the server, in °C
Processor temperatureThe hottest processor, in °C
Fans (rpm) / Fans (%)The mean speed of the fans, in the unit of the controller
Failing power supplies0 when all is well

The device also shows the Redfish Id, serial number and BIOS version in its parameters. When the controller does not answer, the device shows the "unreachable" badge and the status under the integration name says why.

Dashboard​

The Servers (Redfish) widget has two modes:

  • without a server chosen: one line per server, on or off, health and power draw, in orange or red when something is wrong;
  • with a server chosen: its power draw, intake and processor temperatures as tiles, then its power, health, fans and power supplies. When power control is allowed, the Shut down and Restart buttons (server on) or Power on (server off) appear, each asking for a confirmation.

Refresh reads the controllers again.

Scenes​

Triggers​

  • Server health degraded: the health goes from OK to Warning or Critical, or from Warning to Critical. Variables: server, health.
  • New critical log entry: a new Critical entry in the event log (SEL on an iDRAC, IEL and IML on an iLO, EventLog on OpenBMC). Read every 5 minutes; at most three per read. Variables: server, message, date.
  • Server powered on and Server powered off: whatever the cause (button, controller, power cut). Variable: server.

Each trigger can be limited to one server. The first read after the installation only records the states: nothing is announced for an entry or a health that was already there.

Actions​

  • State of a server: reads a server and gives the next actions its name, whether the controller answers, power, health, power draw, temperatures, fan speed, failing power supplies, and a summary ready to send ("web483: on, health OK, 344 W, intake 25 °C…").
  • Power command: power on, clean shutdown, restart or forced restart (reset) of a server. Needs Allow power control.

Scene ideas​

  • When the health of the NAS server degrades, send its state on Telegram with State of a server.
  • At 1 a.m., if nobody is home, Power command "Clean shutdown" on the lab server; at 7 a.m., "Power on".
  • When a New critical log entry appears, notify with its message.

Power control​

Off by default. Once Allow power control is ticked, click Update on the server in the Discover tab: the Power feature becomes a switch.

  • Switching on sends On (or a short press of the power button when the controller offers no On).
  • Switching off sends a clean shutdown (GracefulShutdown, or a short press on an iLO 4: the operating system shuts down cleanly). Never a forced power off: a switch flipped by mistake, a voice assistant or a scene must not cut a server.
  • Restart (widget, scene) is a graceful restart, when the controller offers it. The forced restart (reset) is only in the Power command scene action, chosen explicitly.

The server takes a while to change state: it is read again 15 seconds after the command, then at the usual interval.

Troubleshooting​

  • "certificate refused": tick Accept self-signed certificates, or install a certificate on the controller that Gladys trusts.
  • "user name or password refused": check the account in the web interface of the controller. Some controllers lock an account after a few failures.
  • "does not answer": check the address and that port 443 of the controller is reachable from the Gladys machine (another VLAN?).
  • "no Redfish service at this address": Redfish is off, or the address is not the one of the controller (iDRAC 7 and older have no Redfish).
  • A missing feature: the controller does not report it (some fans or power supplies are only visible when the server is on).
  • A command refused: the account lacks the right, or the controller does not offer it (an iLO 4 has no graceful restart).

Limits​

  • Developed without the hardware: the vendor differences are handled from their schemas and the official mockups, not from real servers yet.
  • One chassis per server: the first linked to the system. Blade enclosures and multi-chassis systems only show that one.
  • The event log is read in pages: on a very long log, an entry between the first and the last page can be missed.
  • The controller is a small chip: a refresh interval below 1 minute adds load on it, and some firmware logs every session.
  • IPMI-only controllers (no Redfish) are not supported.

Credits​

The test fixtures come from the public mockups of the DMTF Redfish Mockup Server (BSD 3-Clause). Redfish is a trademark of the DMTF. This integration is not affiliated with Dell, HPE, Lenovo, Supermicro or the DMTF.

Configuration settings​

These are the settings Redfish (iDRAC, iLO) asks for in its configuration screen in Gladys.

SettingTypeRequiredDescription
Your serverssectionNoFollow rack and tower servers through their management controller (BMC) and the standard Redfish API: Dell iDRAC 8 and 9, HPE iLO 4 to 6, Lenovo XClarity, Supermicro, OpenBMC. Enter the controller address and an account, then add the server from the Discover tab.
Controller addressstringNoAddress of the iDRAC, iLO, XClarity or other BMC web interface: 192.168.1.30, idrac.lan or https://idrac.lan. HTTPS by default.
User namestringNoA controller account; a read-only one is enough unless you allow power control.
PasswordsecretNo
Name (optional)stringNoShown in the device name, the widget and the messages. By default, the host name or model the controller gives.
Second controller (optional)sectionNoAnother server, with its own controller address and account.
Second controller addressstringNo
Second user namestringNo
Second passwordsecretNo
Second name (optional)stringNo
Third controller (optional)sectionNoAnother server, with its own controller address and account.
Third controller addressstringNo
Third user namestringNo
Third passwordsecretNo
Third name (optional)stringNo
OptionssectionNoOnly the servers added to Gladys receive values; the scene triggers and the widget work for every server.
Refresh intervalselectNoHow often every controller is read. The event logs are read every 5 minutes.
Accept self-signed certificatesbooleanNoMost controllers ship with a self-signed certificate: tick this if your browser warns about it too. The connection stays encrypted, but the controller is no longer authenticated.
Allow power controlbooleanNoPower on, clean shutdown and restart from Gladys (switch, widget, scenes). Never a forced power off. The account needs the right to do it. Then click Update on the server in the Discover tab.
Language of the namesselectNoLanguage of the feature names (set when a server is added), of the health texts, scene results and connection test.

How to install Redfish (iDRAC, iLO) in Gladys​

  1. In Gladys, open Integrations: Redfish (iDRAC, iLO) appears in the catalog, next to the native integrations, with a community badge.
  2. Click Install. Gladys pulls the Docker image (ghcr.io/guim31/gladys-redfish:1.0.0), starts it in a sandbox isolated from the core, and generates the integration's interface (devices, discovery and configuration).
  3. Open the Configuration screen of the integration, fill in the settings, and save.
  4. You can also install it directly from its repository URL: https://github.com/guim31/gladys-redfish.

Redfish (iDRAC, iLO) requires Gladys >=5.1.0. The catalog inside Gladys refreshes every hour, so a new version becomes available at most one hour after its release.

Not running Gladys yet? It is free and open source: follow the installation guide to get started.

About external integrations​

Redfish (iDRAC, iLO) is an external integration: a community integration packaged as a Docker container and published on GitHub, that Gladys installs in one click and runs in a sandbox isolated from its core. It is published and maintained by guim31, not by the Gladys core team.

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