Experiments with disabling the ME on Sandybridge x230

Re:Experiments with disabling the ME on Sandybridge x230 by jcrawfordor on Tuesday September 13, 2016 @07:30PM (#12493094)

For this NTP check to happen, you must be using a computer with Intel MEBX and an Intel AMT-enabled network adapter, and the network adapter must be configured with network information to use. You have to do this manually initially, although of course later you can configure AMT using AMT.

This isn't something your consumer computer is doing automatically, in fact, your computer is almost certainly not capable because it lacks an AMT-capable NIC. I suspect the software capability is baked into ME itself rather than the AMT component so it's probably present in your ME, but it's not doing anything without an AMT NIC to communicate with.

This is the kind of feature that you pay an extra $1k for when you configure your $20k server.

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Re:Experiments with disabling the ME on Sandybridge x230 by morganvachon on Tuesday September 13, 2016 @09:39PM (#12493690)

> This is the kind of feature that you pay an extra $1k for when you configure your $20k server.

We have ~$400 Sandy Bridge workstations at work that have separate AMT enabled NICs. You don't have to spend $1k for the feature; here's a vPro enabled board for $100:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157...

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Re:Experiments with disabling the ME on Sandybridge x230 by seanp2k2 on Tuesday September 13, 2016 @09:36PM (#12493675)

Not specifically ME but yeah Baseboard Management Controllers and IPMI modules have been a thing for a long time. Most real server motherboards have them or have the facilities in place to accept them as an add-on module. It's not even just stuff in the $20k range; this $450 mini itx 8-core Atom-based storage server board has it: http://www.asrockrack.com/general/productdetail.asp?Model=C2... and it comes with a web-based IPMI console. You can turn the power on and watch it POST with a java web screen viewer, sending it keys as if you were sitting there.

Dell's add-in card to do out-of-band management is called the DRAC and it's been optional in their servers for about 17 years: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dell_DRAC

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Re:Experiments with disabling the ME on Sandybridge x230 by cm2187 on Wednesday September 14, 2016 @02:58AM (#12494717)

And I think you typically do not expose IPMI to the WAN. Separate dedicated private network.

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