Resetting the IPMI Password on the ASRock E3C224D2I
Note: This will likely work for other similar ASRock boards too (e.g. E3C226D2I), however as I’ve only got the E3C224D2I I cannot verify if it does or not. Due to the method, it may even work on other boards too. Proceed at your own risk!
I recently bought the ASRock E3C224D2I motherboard for a new Home NAS build. It has an integrated IPMI controller, so regardless of the state of the system it is possible to connect over the network to view the video output and use the keyboard and mouse. You can even mount images and directories from your computer making it possible to carry out an installation fully remotely. Perfect for troubleshooting when things go really wrong!
Unfortunately, after experimenting with the firmware upgrade option on the IPMI controller I locked myself out. No passwords would work, not the default admin/admin login nor admin and the password I had set before. I couldn’t find any way to reset the password either – the IPMI’s password reset interface required a working SMTP server to be configured, which I hadn’t done. Additionally, there seemed to be no option in the BIOS to reset the password. I really didn’t want to lose access to the IPMI as it’s one of the main reasons I chose this board.
After much Googling, I came across a forum post where someone had the same problem. A reply from an ASRock Rack representative said to contact them for a tool that would reset the password. I did so, but while waiting I thought it was worth trying another mechanism.
Supermicro, another motherboard vendor that often features IPMI on their motherboards, provides a download for ipmicfg. This DOS tool is intended for performing operations on the built-in IPMI chip without having to go through the IPMI interface – perfect for password resets. Despite being from another vendor, I thought I’d give it a go, and what do you know, it works!
So, to reset your password using ipmicfg;
- Prepare a bootable DOS USB stick via your preferred means. I used rmprepusb to create a bootable FreeDOS USB stick.
- Download and place the ipmicfg files on to your newly created USB stick.
- Boot from your USB stick on the machine whose IPMI password you are trying to reset.
- Run ipmicfg -m to verify communication with the IPMI chip is working. If the command succeeds, you should see the IP address and MAC address of the IPMI displayed.
- Run ipmicfg -user list . This will display a list of users that can log in to the IPMI. Note down the User ID for the account whose password you wish to reset.
- Run ipmicfg -user setpwd userid password , replacing userid with the User ID you found with the previous command and password with the new password you wish to set.
- Done! Try logging in to the IPMI again with your new passwords. If things still don’t work, try running ipmicfg -fd to reset the IPMI to its factory defaults.
As to why this worked with a non-Supermicro board, I theorise that it’s because the IPMI chip on the ASRock board complies the IPMI standards. Therefore, any tool which is compliant to the standards, such as the Supermicro ipmicfg tool, should be able to interact with the chip.
It’s also worth noting that ASRock Rack did get back to me about a day later with a tool to reset the password, but I didn’t use it having found a way to do it with ipmicfg. If you don’t feel like trying out a method using another vendor’s tool, contact them and wait for their reply.
Good luck!
Thank you very much for making this information public.
I can confirm that this works on the ASRock C2750D4I as well.
Thank you very much! This process worked great on the ASRock E3C226D2I. I did find a slight typo in your instructions though–‘setpw’ should be ‘setpwd’. Not sure if this command option changed between versions, but figured I’d give you a heads up. Thank you so much, again!
Glad to hear it worked for you! That was indeed a typo and i’ve fixed the post now, thanks for letting me know!
Thanks alot!
The reset tool provided by ASRock themself did not work at all with my ASRock C2550D4I. But this solution worked perfectly.
Really glad I found this site!
Excellent post, thank you very much. I like you backed out half way through an image update and the same thing happened. It must be an issue that needs fixing…
Mine was an Asrock C2750D4I
Its even easier than this if you have a live host, the Supermicro zip has windows, dos and linux binaries, I was able to reset it from within 2008R2. Delicious.
Thanks a mil for the post, never would have looked at supermicros tool otherwise.
Thank you for posting this! Was able to quickly fix my issue with the E3C226D2I.
I just did the exact same thing you did (made the same mistake, apparently): checking out the firmware upgrade process, and then canceling out.
I found a popular thread where ASRock support were talking about emailing some software to help with lockouts. Somebody posted an .exe file (bmcdef), but it was posted to their personal dropbox, and I didn’t feel like messing with that.
I used rufus to make a FreeDOS bootable drive, copied all the “dos” files from the zip over to the root of the USB, and then followed your instructions for resetting the password.
Thanks again!
Same issue on my AsRrockRack ECC224D4I-14S – Admin access broken, because of cancelling the firmware update routine – seems like a bug in the AsRock BMC, just worse: The board does also not power up (might be a bios problem, therfore I was trying to update it); so I had no chance to use a tool locally to do a factory reset…
Even though IPMI access (still on dhcp) was working all the time and I finally managed to reset the admin password remotely(!) from a Windows machine… apparently without having any valid credentials oO
First i got myself this: http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/Drivers/DriversDetails?driverId=XKPJK
… this install contains amongst others a win build of the well known “ipmitool”
Using this, i was able to connect to the board _without authentication_ like this:
ipmitool -H 192.168.0.180 -U admin -A NONE user list
… and it listed all the current users; now changing/reseting the admin password:
ipmitool -H 192.168.0.180 -U admin -A NONE user set password 2
… since “admin” was the user with the id “2”; asked for a new password 2 times (1+confirmation) and DONE.
and this was still working when valid user passwords were set… so, from my experience there seems to be no security to (AsRock BMC) default set remote access, since anybody can do this without knowing passwords; at least if there are no certificates used (haven’t tested), or whatever else would be needed to deny unathenticated access…
Thanks @t3, it worked for me too
I’m on Ubuntu Linux and using “sudo apt-get install ipmitool” I could install the same tool.
Hi, I locked myself out the board E3C226D2I. I tried IPMICFG and it worked but only one (although I’m not sure why). So i’ve been in contact with customer service and told them that the BMCDEF.exe tool wasn’t working and they provided 2 other tools which have worked for me. I just wanted to share them with you:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/14401470/SOCWMAC-E3C226D2I.zip
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/14401470/BMCMAC.zip
Of course both are to use with a DOS filesystem.
Great info!. I found this awesome information because I set the admin password from the default “admin”, to new password and the new password wasn’t working. The password I set was 20 chars long. After thinking about it, I decided to remove one character at a time to see if there was a limitation that wasn’t caught during the webpage update, and sure enough… the limit is 16 characters. Just wanted to pass it along
Thanks, it worked well with the C2550D4i board from ASRock.
I did not forgot my password, but with FreeNas 9.10.1 making connection through the IPMI settings
my password was invalid.
I could get the password in again with this.
Thank you !!!
I was able to run it directly from windows server 2012 and reset the password. Thanks!
@MonsieurPsycho
Thank you! I have the same board and the same problem. Your first utility did the trick for me. Nothing else was working. What I did initially to break the GUI login is to change the PEM Order from IPMI – LDAP – Active Directory to Active Directory – IPMI – LDAP. That caused web server to reboot. I got logged out and could not login. I could reset password for admin account, since I configured the email settings. Board would send me new password for admin account, but it would not work. Thanx again for sharing! Fixed my issue!
@MonsieurPsycho
Thank you for sharing! The first utility flashed and reset my IPMI chip and I was able to get back into GUI!!!
@MonsieurPsycho, could you (or someone else reading) to repost the two files listed above?
SOCWMAC-E3C226D2I.zip
BMCMAC.zip
Have the same problem with an E3C226D2I board, and the Dropbox links above lead to errors as of November 28, 2016 11:14 a.m. So far, tech support has not responded to my request.
Thanks a lot, worked perfectly with my Asrock D1520D4I. I used an ubuntu live usb, with the tools at its root (-> /media/cdrom/….).
I used a live linux distro instead, because it was a pain getting freedos on UEFI to run (impossible). They offer linux binaries aswell, I dont understand why I should use FreeDOS then at all…
Brilliant mate! Thanks for this – saved my bacon after an upgrade to Firmware 0.35.0 on a C2750D4I
Did not work on my C2750D4I board. Ipmicfg gave a “invalid parameters” error for the password change, and a “failed to reset BMC to factory default” error for the -fd command. Nothing ended up working, New BMC chip is being sent by the manufacturer.
Sorry this didn’t work for you – it sounds like there may have been a deeper issue if ASRock are sending you a new IPMI chip.
YES, after literal hours, finally something that works!!!
Worked perfectly on ASRock C2750D4I .
I downloaded the tool here: https://www.supermicro.com/SwDownload/SwSelect_Free.aspx?cat=IPMI
(Just search for “supermicro IPMICFG download” )
and followed your instructions. Again thank you very much KingJ (of five years ago :D)
Still useful in 2020. Thanks KingJ!
Thanks a lot! This still works!
I just gotta say that this this worked like a charm on my ASRock Rack X470D4U
I had forgotten my password (or the password stopped working..?) and this thread popped up in my search.
Worked like a charm and I’m back in! Thanks a bunch!
Hmm, somehow i can’t get it to work again on my e3c226d2i..it worked once because i saved your guide to a txt file lol…weird