IPMITOOL on VMware ESXi

The IPMITOOL command is a great tool to configure the local BMC network, get the sensor/FRU information, etc. I use this command a lot on my Linux systems. Since virtualized servers (mostly VMware ESXi) are increasing, I want to use the ipmitool command in ESXi.
There are lots of blog posts talking about creating an ipmitool binary for ESXi out there. I would like to take a (little) further step to integrate the tool to my standard ESXi image so that I can deploy ESXi to my servers with the ipmitool command integrated.
Here is what I did.

1. Create an ipmitool binary. See the following blogs for details:
   • ESXi ipmitool(works on any Linux system as well)
   • Make Ipmitool Working For ESXi 5.1
2. Create an ipmitool vib. I used VIB Author on my Linux system (CentOS 6.7 x86_64). If needed, you can download the ipmitool vib I created from here (ipmitool-1.8.15-1.vib).
3. Create a custom ISO (and an offline bundle) with the ipmitool vib. Read the vSphere manuals on how to create a custom ISO/offline bundle using Image Builder. This VMware blog entry would help:
   • Using the vSphere ESXi Image Builder CLI
4. Deploy the new image to servers.

I used the VIB I created in step 2 with ESXi 5.5 U3 and ESXi 6.0 U1, and it worked on both versions.

Here are some outputs.

~ # vmware -vl
VMware ESXi 5.5.0 build-3248547
VMware ESXi 5.5.0 Update 3
~ # esxcli software vib list |grep ipmitool
ipmitool                       1.8.15-1                               IPMItool  CommunitySupported  2016-01-14
~ # /opt/ipmitool/bin/ipmitool mc info
Device ID                 : 52
Device Revision           : 2
Firmware Revision         : 1.00
IPMI Version              : 2.0
Manufacturer ID           : 10368
Manufacturer Name         : Fujitsu Siemens
Product ID                : 1062 (0x0426)
Product Name              : Unknown (0x426)
Device Available          : yes
Provides Device SDRs      : no
Additional Device Support :
    Sensor Device
    SDR Repository Device
    SEL Device
    FRU Inventory Device
    IPMB Event Receiver
    IPMB Event Generator
    Chassis Device
Aux Firmware Rev Info     :
    0x07
    0x52
    0x00
    0x46
~ # /opt/ipmitool/bin/ipmitool lan print
Set in Progress         : Set Complete
Auth Type Support       : NONE MD2 MD5 PASSWORD OEM
Auth Type Enable        : Callback : MD5 PASSWORD OEM
                        : User     : MD5 PASSWORD OEM
                        : Operator : MD5 PASSWORD OEM
                        : Admin    : MD5 PASSWORD OEM
                        : OEM      : MD5 PASSWORD OEM
IP Address Source       : BIOS Assigned Address
IP Address              : 192.168.14.37
Subnet Mask             : 255.255.255.0
MAC Address             : 90:1b:0e:80:70:a9
SNMP Community String   : public
IP Header               : TTL=0x40 Flags=0x40 Precedence=0x00 TOS=0x10
BMC ARP Control         : ARP Responses Enabled, Gratuitous ARP Disabled
Gratituous ARP Intrvl   : 10.0 seconds
Default Gateway IP      : 192.168.14.1
Default Gateway MAC     : 00:00:0c:07:ac:40
Backup Gateway IP       : 0.0.0.0
Backup Gateway MAC      : 00:00:00:00:00:00
802.1q VLAN ID          : Disabled
802.1q VLAN Priority    : 0
RMCP+ Cipher Suites     : 0,1,2,3,6,7,8,11,12,15,16,17
Cipher Suite Priv Max   : XaaaaaaaaXXaXXX
                        :     X=Cipher Suite Unused
                        :     c=CALLBACK
                        :     u=USER
                        :     o=OPERATOR
                        :     a=ADMIN
                        :     O=OEM
~ # /opt/ipmitool/bin/ipmitool fru print 2
 Chassis Type          : Blade
 Chassis Part Number   : ABN:K1467-V200-54
 Chassis Serial        : YLSR000000
 Chassis Extra         : BX2580M1
 Chassis Extra         : FUJITSU
 Board Mfg Date        : Mon Dec  8 22:02:00 2014
 Board Mfg             : FUJITSU
 Board Product         : D3321
 Board Serial          : SQ1449MA00000
 Board Part Number     : A3C40161777
 Board Extra           : D3A
 Board Extra           : 02
 Board Extra           : BX2580 M1
 Product Manufacturer  : FUJITSU
 Product Name          : PRIMERGY BX2580 M1
 Product Part Number   : ABN:K1467-V200-54
 Product Version       : C
 Product Serial        : YLSR000000
 Product Asset Tag     : 02
 Product Extra         : a26799
 Product Extra         : 0426

Update on 02/26/2016: I changed the link to the VIB package. You should be able to download it without asking me for access permissions.