Management Tools

 

InfiniBand Administration Tools (IBADM)

The InfiniBand Administration (IBADM) package aims to provide the means for performing System Administration tasks (monitor, maintenance, and configuration) required by InfiniBand clusters in a uniform way to manage all the Mellanox devices and Systems.

The IBADM software package accesses IB devices through the IB connectivity (In-Band) and optionally through a secondary Ethernet network (Out-of-Band). Another method for communication with the devices is by attaching a USB-to-I2C adapter to the target IB system. The In-Band services are provided by running InfiniBand client software which communicates with the Subnet-Administrator (SA, which is part of OpenSM) and the IB devices. Out-of-Band control is provided by communicating with dedicated administration servers running on each of the Mellanox systems (equipped with a “management” option).

The IBADM package provides the following tools for administering the IB fabric:

• ibls - Lists the available IB systems, devices, and cables in the IB Subnet
• ibmon - Monitors all the devices and systems (for both IB and system related issues)
• ibcon - Provides a view of some internal configuration registers of devices
• ibfwmgr - Burns and tracks the IB devices firmware
• ibtopogen - A cluster design tool for fat-tree topologies

(OS: Linux)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Mellanox Firmware Tools (MFT)

 

The Mellanox Firmware Tools (MFT) package is a set of firmware management tools for a single InfiniBand node. MFT can be used for:

• Generating a standard or customized Mellanox firmware image Querying for firmware information
• Burning a firmware image to a single InfiniBand node

The following is a list of the available tools in MFT, together with a brief description of what each tool performs.

mlxburn - This tool provides the following functions:

• Generation of a standard or customized Mellanox firmware image for burning (in binary or .mlx format)
• Burning an image to the Flash/EEPROM attached to a Mellanox HCA or switch device
• Querying the firmware version loaded on an HCA board
• Displaying the VPD (Vital Product Data) of an HCA board

flint - This tool burns a firmware binary image to the Flash(es) attached to an HCA board. It includes query functions to the burnt firmware image and to the binary image file.

spark - This tool burns a firmware binary image to the EEPROM(s) attached to a switch device. It includes query functions to the burnt firmware image and to the binary image file. The tool accesses the EEPROM and/or switch device via an I2C-compatible interface.

ibspark - This tool burns a firmware binary image to the EEPROM(s) attached to a switch device. It includes query functions to the burnt firmware image and to the binary image file. The tool accesses the switch device and the EEPROM via vendor-specific MADs over the InfiniBand fabric (In-Band tool).

Debug utilities - A set of debug utilities (e.g., itrace, mstdump, isw, and i2c)

(OS: Linux and Windows)