System management traditionally had relied on the venerable IPMI protocol standard established in 1998. Since then, there has been considerable advancement in technology and command-line tools fell out of favor as compared to modernized GUI that can visualize the process into an intuitive interface. Enter the Redfish specifications published by DMTF (Distributed Management Task Force).
Redfish is an open industry standard protocol aiming to utilize modern web standards capable of managing large scale deployment of servers today. This standard utilizes the common RESTFUL web interface as well as the JSON data format. These are common standards utilized on the internet, easing the development and compatibility of the management utilities. These web technologies also enable server management and monitoring through common web browsers, streamlining the process. Since Redfish is designed in the modern era, there are significantly better integration of system BIOS and on-board BMC.
Ultimately, Redfish allows server administrators to control large scale deployment of servers worldwide. The current IPMI tools are not friendly to automations and became fragmented as vendors keep building on their own proprietary IPMI commands that are not interoperable and complicated to manage in a mixed vendor environment. Through standardizing on Redfish, future tools will allow a single administration panel to work across different server brands as long as it supports the Redfish standard. This also opens the possibility of 3rd party management tools. Through common scripting languages like Python and PowerShell, administrators can automate management, updating, and deployment through familiar tools.
AEWIN is phasing in Redfish support across many different platforms. AEWIN’s recently announced 1932 and 1937, based on the latest processors from Intel and AMD respectively, are among the first to support this versatile new standard.
 | SCB-1932 Network Appliance | Edge computing server
●Support Dual 3nd Gen Intel® Xeon® Scalable Processors, LGA4189
●16x DDR4 3200MHz memory
●8x PCIe x8 for Network Expansion Module
●2x 2.5” HDD/SSD, 2x M.2 2280 & 1x m-SATA
●Support OT006A/B Trusted Secure Boot modules |
| SCB-1937 Network Appliance | Edge computing server
●Support Dual AMD® EPYC™ 7003/7002 Series Processors, LGA4094
●16x DDR4 3200MHz memory
●8x PCIe x8 for Network Expansion Module
●2x 2.5” HDD/SSD, 2x M.2 2280 & 1x m-SATA
●Support OT004A Trusted Secure Boot modules |