Using LAN over USB to interface the IMM2

The IMM2 does not require IPMI device drivers or USB daemons for in-band IMM2 communication. Instead, a LAN over USB interface enables in-band communications to the IMM2; the IMM2 hardware on the system board presents an internal Ethernet NIC from the IMM2 to the operating system. LAN over USB is also called the "USB in-band interface" in the IMM2 web interface.

Typically, the IMM2 IP address for the LAN over USB interface is set to a static address of 169.254.95.118 with a subnet mask of 255.255.0.0. In the event of an IP address collision on the network, the IMM2 might obtain a different IP address in the 169.254.xxx.xxx range.

Because the IMM2 might obtain a random IP address for the LAN over USB interface, the IBM Advanced Settings Utility (ASU) and firmware flash utilities, DSA, and the IBM Director Agent use the Service Location Protocol (SLP) to discover the IMM2 IP address. These tools perform an SLP multicast discovery on the LAN over USB interface. When they receive a response from the IMM2, they obtain the attributes that contain the IP address the IMM2 is using for the LAN over USB interface.