What's new with Provisioning and Intel(r) AMT 6.0

By Gael Holmes Hofemeier (Intel) (132 posts) on February 18, 2010 at 3:33 pm

Well, first of all we no longer have "Small Business Mode" as a provisioning model. The available modes are "Manual" and "Enterprise." Note that this is a change only for Intel(r) AMT 6.0 and beyond. Here are the details on Manual Configuration and things you need to know (it's not a whole lot different than configuring for the older SMB mode.) You can also find this information in Manual Setup and Configuration (from Release 6.0) section in the Intel AMT SDK documentation (the SDK will be available soon on our Managebility Community.)

From release 6.0 there are no feature limitations when configuring a platform manually, but there are some system behaviors that you should know about:

API methods will not return a PT_STATUS_INVALID_MODE status, as there is only one mode.
TLS is disabled by default and should be explicitly enabled during configuration. This will always be the case with manual configuration, as there is no way to set TLS parameters locally.
The local platform clock will be used until the network time is set remotely. Automatic configuration will not complete successfully unless network time was set, only when TLS or Kerberos was configured. Enabling TLS or Kerberos after configuration completion will not succeed if the network time was not set.
WEBUI is enabled by default, unless a configuration server disables it.
SOL and IDE-R are enabled by default, but the redirection listener is disabled by default.
If KVM is enabled locally via the MEBx, it still will not be enabled until an administrator activates it over the network.

Here are the steps that will need to be taken to perform Manual Setup:

First, enter the MEBx Menu: During power up, the Intel AMT platform first displays the BIOS startup screen, and then the BIOS Extensions are processed. Entry into the Intel AMT BIOS Extension is BIOS vendor dependent. Intel AMT reference platforms display a screen prompting you to press <Ctrl+P>. When you press <Ctrl+P> control passes to the Intel^® Management Engine BIOS extension (MEBx) Main Menu.

Next, perform the following steps to complete manual setup:

Enter the MEBx default password (“admin”)
Change the default password to a new value (this step is required in order to proceed). The new value must be a “strong” password: It should contain at least one upper case letter, one lower case letter, one digit and one special character, and be at least eight characters. A management console application can change the Intel AMT password without modifying the MEBx password.
Select Intel(R) AMT Configuration.
Select Manageability Feature Selection. -->Select "Enable"
Exit to the Main Menu.
Select Intel(R) ME General Settings.
The default setting for IP address acquisition is to use a DHCP server. If you are setting the platform IP address manually perform the following steps:
1. Select Network Setup.
2. Select TCP/IP Settings.
3. Select Wired LAN IPV4 Configuration.
4. Select DHCP Mode.
5. Set the mode to ENABLED.
6. Select Subnet Mask Address and enter a subnet mask.
7. Set other parameters as required.
8. Exit to the AMT Configuration Settings menu.
Select SOL/IDE-R, select Legacy Redirection Mode and select Enable to enable the redirection listener. This can ensure compatiblity with management consoles created to work with the legacy SMB mode and do not have a mechanism implemented to enable the listener.
Select Activate Network Access. Press <Y> in response to the confirmation message.