Intel® Active Management Technology Developers Guide

ID 772055
Date 1/05/2021
Public
Document Table of Contents

Getting Started with Intel® Active Management Technology

Intel® Active Management Technology (Intel® AMT) is part of the Intel® vPro™ technology offering. Platforms equipped with Intel AMT can be managed remotely independent of their power state or the functionality of the host OS.

Intel AMT-enabled systems have special out-of-band network access through the Intel® Wireless or wired network adapters, allowing remote platform management applications to securely access the device so long as the device is connected to AC power and maintains network access. The limitation to AC power is only in S2-S5 power states, In S0 you can manage a mobile device that is on battery (DC) as well.

Intel AMT uses several elements in the Intel vPro platform architecture, most notably the Intel® Converged Security and Management Engine (Intel® CSME) portion of the firmware (supplied by the system manufacturer with the BIOS). The firmware uses a small portion of system RAM to extend services and performance while in SO. When in other Sx power states the Intel CSME runs in its own SRAM. The CSME also has its own Flash storage area to hold the configuration settings along with other important data.

Intel AMT supports remote applications running on Microsoft Windows* or Linux*. There is also local support for Windows-based local applications and some Linux distributions. For a complete list of system requirements, please refer to the documentation in the latest Intel® AMT Software Development Kit (SDK) download (docs folder) or the Intel® AMT Implementation and Reference Guide.

Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) can build applications that take advantage of Intel AMT features by using the Intel AMT SDK which includes the Intel AMT High-Level API (Intel AMT HLAPI). The HLAPI provides a very simple and consistent API across all Intel AMT versions and Intel® SKUs. For more information, see the HLAPI documentation in the Intel AMT SDK. The Intel AMT SDK also includes the Intel® vPro™ Platform Solution Manager, which is a management console that was built using the Intel AMT HLAPIs.

All Intel AMT devices are equipped with a shared Intel® Ethernet Adapter and/or a discrete Intel® Wireless LAN card that supports remote connections to the Intel CSME firmware. If the system does not have a LAN or WLAN connection the Intel AMT will not be accessible. Also if the remote connection is WLAN and in the device is in power state s0, the CSME requires OS Driver support for WLAN connectivity. (Link Control & Preference)  It is also important that the version of the drivers is compatible with the Intel AMT release. Always ensure the WLAN OS drivers are those provided by the OEM of the device.

 

*No product or component can be absolutely secure.