Missing ipmi Device (Remote Access Card) / ipmitool Failue: Could not open device at /dev/ipmi0 ... No such file or directory

I recently bought second-hand a HP Proliant N36L Microserver, and I'm having trouble configuring it for remote access on Ubuntu Server 20.04 LTS.

It came with a HP Remote Access card, but when I try to access its web server (following this setup guide) and enter the default credentials ("admin" / "password"), the credentials are incorrect.

The remote access card user manual (page 63) gives a method to reset the credentials:

Under Linux shell:
  Get the user name:
    ipmitool raw 0x6 0x46 0x02 (the value “2” is the User ID)
  Set user password:
    ipmitool raw 0x6 0x47 0x02 0x02 + password (Password is ASCI value: 16 bytes)

The problem I have is that when I try and run the ipmitool command, I am presented with the following error message: Could not open device at /dev/ipmi0 or /dev/ipmi/0 or /dev/ipmidev/0: No such file or directory

There is a similar known issue in that additional "Configuration Required for IPMITOOL Management Utility to Function on any HP ProLiant Server With an Integrated Lights-Out 2 (iLO 2) and Running Ubuntu Linux 9.04 Server"

It states you need to load the following modules with the following commands:

modprobe ipmi_msghandler
modprobe ipmi_devintf
modprobe ipmi_si

... which I have done, to get ipmitool to work.

I've also added them to the /etc/modules files so they load during boot.

When I run lsmod | grep ipmi, I get the following:

ipmi_devintf           65536  0
ipmi_si                20480  0
ipmi_msghandler       106496  2 ipmi_devintf,ipmi_si

so clearly the modules have been loaded and are running... right?

From what I understand, in Ubuntu, the ipmi service/daemon starts automatically when these commands are run.

Despite all this, even when I run the ipmitool command without any arguments, it fails with the main Could not open device at... error.

Why isn't the /dev/ipim0 device being created automatically?
Do I need to create the /dev/ipim0 device manually?

I did try to create the device manually following this guide but even afterwards the ipmitool command still gave the same error.

How can I solve this issue?

I ran into the same problem ... just recently ;) Just tried to follow the way to add some paraemeters to the kernel so that the address of the device is correct ... ( if I understand well )

Found this solution via link : http://bodgitandscarper.co.uk/tag/microserver/ look at one of the topics. He found the answer to his problem at http://patgardner.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/hp-microserver-remote-management-card.html ...

Adding the parameters "ipmi_si.type=kcs ipmi_si.ports=0xca2" to the kernel startup command in grub did the trick for me in Ubuntu 18 lts.

After reboot: sudo ipmitool chassis status --> worked sudo ipmitool raw 0x6 0x46 0x02
--> worked

Hope this helps you, Greetings Jan.