Lenovo m91p i7

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Lenovo m91p i7

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Bought 2 of these machines, put both 4GB mem in 1 machine as Home PC, & bought 32GB DDR3 for the other as ESXi machine.
In case of emergency i could swap parts :)

For the ESXi environment i had to add network drivers to the installation CD, more info here...
The machine boots from 4GB USB and uses 1TB internal HDD as datastore01.
By iSCSI (or NFS) teh machine gets 2nd datastore (in a while...).
Made some changes to BIOS for this machine to enable VT & AMT (Remote access now testing on the Home-PC :) )

The other (Home) PC is running Window 10 -grace period-.
It will be running Linux next year, i guess :P

As we also face some trouble with the NAS (click 4 more info) the extra datastore to this machine follows later.

Anyway, all Home & ESXi HW is 64bits now!

DG.
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Re: Lenovo m91p i7

Post by admin »

Ofcourse first we updated the Uefi/BIOS to latest level: 9HKT58AUS
On 1 PC the HDD 500GB failed within 2 hours usage, made an RMA @ seller and will be replaced.

Testing the AMT remote functionality on the Home-PC does work! As well as the web GUI:
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Need to activate it on same level on ESXi machine.
Followed instructions form: http://www.howtogeek.com/56538/how-to-r ... t-crashes/

Keep updated ;)
admin
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Posts: 473
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Re: Lenovo m91p i7 - Additional LINKS

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Lenovo Hardware Maintenance Manual:
https://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/p ... a23284.pdf

More info:
https://support.lenovo.com/nl/nl/docume ... Track=Solr

But no update for the ThinkCentre M91p Intel Active Management Technology Configuration Guide pdf??
https://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/p ... Track=Solr

Youtube video AMT setup:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLsjphVhuSg
( As of 11 december this functionality is completely gone on 2 machines ... Trying new AMT setup on one -clear everything in BIOS-
Using this video as base does NOT work here, AMT does NOT get ip-address of ZyXEL running openWrt r44257 although next starting win 10 does get ip-address, wInDoWs WeIrD )

HP AMT setup, pdf:
http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c03346552

ESXi5.5 logging flooding fixed here.

DG.
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Re: Lenovo m91p i7 - DISABLE VT-d functionality

Post by admin »

Before installing any OS, it's sometimes better to do more investigation about 'default' and other BIOS settings.
Using AMT KVM of the Intel vPro functionalities, could cause the ESXi5.5 (ALT-F12) logging screen be flooded with messages.

To overcome this, disable VT-d within the BIOS:

On my machine it's F1 to enter BIOS setup, check your machine's manual to see how to enter your BIOS setup.
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Main BIOS setup screen of my machine:
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Next we have to go to the Advanced settings:
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Select CPU Setup, and make sure VT-d is set to 'Disabled' :
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Make sure you SAVE your changed settings:
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After these changes, my ESXi5.5 machine crashed once, after ending Maintenance Mode and started my VM's manually instead of automatically. It didn't crash since 2nd boot!
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And now we have normal ESXi logging on ALT-F12 remote console.

DG.
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Re: Lenovo m91p i7

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And as of today the AMT Remote functionality does NOT work anymore!!!
For both machines the AMT Manageability xxxxx Tool can not make a connection, so NO Console anymore :(
Even the http(s) pages which should be available are not.

Soft & FW levels:

Code: Select all

MEBx Version		   7.0.0.0061
FW Version		     7.1.40.1161
UNS Version		    7.1.80.1213
LMS Version		    7.1.80.1213
MEI Driver Version	7.1.70.1198
SOL Driver Version	7.1.70.1199
On 1 machine tried different ip settings, which are pingable, but NO response for http(s) or Manageability.

Code: Select all

System.Net.WebException: The operation has timed out
   at System.Net.HttpWebRequest.GetRequestStream(TransportContext& context)
   at System.Net.HttpWebRequest.GetRequestStream()
   at System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapHttpClientProtocol.Invoke(String methodName, Object[] parameters)
   at SecurityAdministrationService.Invoke(String methodName, Object[] parameters) in C:\Users\Public\Downloads\CommonComponents\Manageability Stack\WSDL\SecurityAdministrationInterface.cs:line 51
Is the only answer i get, even when i am with the console-PC on the same network!

Image

This is very annoying and nowhere a solution.
Getting bored about all those windows issues every day ....

[UPDATE]
After switching off & on the AMT functionality within CTRL-P during machine boot on 1 machine, we have access again to the http://<IP>:16992 web-gui, which is enough for this machine. Taking over your own desktop isn't much fun if it's on the same machine (as this isn't working now, don't know if it did). This one should be able to take over the other Lenovo i7-2600's screen, and a VM within that other machine should be able to take over this screen ;)
The other machine could not be rebooted, yet. This is the ESXi5.5 machine. Here the 16992 page first returned a 500 Server error page, now it does not respond at all. Waiting for the backups be made on the NAS environment so we can re-power all once again. Hopefully 2016 we don't need that too much.

DG.
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Re: Lenovo m91p i7

Post by admin »

Even more strange is that this remote console of my ESXi5.5 machine NOW (17 & 18 december 2015) works again, without doing anything!
Also the 'normal' AMT webpages are working as it was.
Wonder why it did not work for about 1 week, and without any changes it now works again?
Anyway, looks like it's solved (itself).

DG.
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Re: Lenovo m91p i7

Post by admin »

Perfect ....
Intels zakelijke processors bevatten al sinds 2008 ernstig lek

https://tweakers.net/nieuws/124189/inte ... g-lek.html

DG.
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Re: Lenovo m91p i7

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5 years later we see another update for AMT on Lenovo site:
https://pcsupport.lenovo.com/nl/nl/prod ... me=Chipset

Download and run result:
Image

Checked within BIOS does look ok, on 7.1.91.3272
Next we needed default login AMT (Ctrl-P) to set password again (admin).
And left TCP on dhcp, but we don't see a given IP.
We'll set it manually.

DG.
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Re: Lenovo m91p i7

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Days of testing, strange mac and ip behavior.
On AMT machines it get mixed up, AMT MAC is used for ESXi IP ? and vise versa ?
Had to change /etc/vmware/esx.conf on ESXi, as there was an old (from the other PC) mac address 'hard-coded' ?

Found out that my router even not show my own AMT ip (but it does work, ONLY from another PC).
Locally check your own AMT is NOT possible!
https://community.intel.com/t5/Intel-Bu ... m-p/915941

So that we know that, we leave it as is, although we have updated the PC version AMT, not the ESXi version AMT.

ESXi6.7u3 - Copyright © 2005-2012 Intel Corporation. Intel® Active Management Technology firmware version: 7.1.40-build 1161
DGPC101 - Copyright © 2005-2017 Intel Corporation. Intel® Active Management Technology firmware version: 7.1.91-build 3272

DG.
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Re: Lenovo m91p i7 running Debian 11.5

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We now have Debian Linux 11.5 on the PC, we left 'real' windows from now on.
Only on virtual machines (or boot to windows - still possible) we run Windows.
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Looks enough resources for a regular PC:
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And hopefully we can go some years with this settings.

DG.
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