"Invalid data field" completion code assigning IMM user name - IBM System x

Resolving The Problem

Source

RETAIN tip: H025038

Symptom

A user may receive an "Invalid data field in Request" completion code (0xCC) when setting an Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) user name on the Integrated Management Module (IMM).

Affected configurations

The system may be any of the following IBM servers:

• System x3550 M2, Type 7946, any model
• System x3550 M3, Type 4254, any model
• System x3550 M3, Type 7944, any model
• System x3650 M2, Type 7947, any model
• System x3650 M3, Type 4255, any model
• System x3650 M3, Type 7945, any model
• iDataPlex dx360 M2 Server, Type 7321, any model
• iDataPlex dx360 M3 Server, Type 7323, any model

This tip is not software specific.
This tip is not option specific.

The system has the symptom described above.

Workaround

The following describes how to set up accounts that comply with the user name requirements of the IMM implementation:

• Choose user names that are not in the list of reserved words listed in the details section below.
• Choose unique user names for each user. Multiple users with the same user name are not permitted.
• Do not attempt to assign a user name that is already in use.

Additional Information

The IMM permits users to administer a single set of local user accounts (user name/password) that work with all the IMM user interfaces.

For example, if a user is added via IPMI commands, that user account can be used to authenticate via the web, telnet/SSH, and other interfaces.

Conversely, if a user is added via the web or other interfaces, it should be possible to log on and authenticate with that same user account when opening an IPMI session. However, because IPMI does not support Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) authentication, only locally administered accounts can be used to authenticate an IPMI session and the IMM sessions.

Because the user accounts are shared with IPMI, there are certain restrictions imposed to provide a common ground between the interfaces using these accounts:

• IPMI allows up to a max of 64 User IDs. The IMM IPMI implementation has only 12 user accounts.
• IPMI permits anonymous logins (null User Name and null password), however, anonymous logins are not permitted by the IMM.
• IPMI permits multiple user IDs with the same user names, but the IMM does not allow multiple user IDs to have the same user names.
• Requests to change the user name from the currently used name to the same current used name will return an "invalid parameter" completion code because the requested user name is already in use.
• The maximum password length for the IMM is 16 bytes.
• Certain words are restricted and are not available for use as local IMM user names. These names include the following:
  
  immroot
  nobody
  ldap
  lighttpd
  sshd
  daemon
  immftp