Working with Intel AMT and Linux

Working with Intel AMT and Linux is not as easy as working with AMT and Windows. It is mainly due to fewer resources being available for Linux.

But before I go any further with this topic I must state that AMT itself is operating system (OS) agnostic. It runs in the chipset and doesn't really care too much about the type of host OS or if there is even an OS present. That is why we are able to have the great out-of-band features that make AMT so attractive for client system management.

But the Linux/AMT ease of use issue comes up for some of the usage models that require the host OS to use AMT features like Serial Over LAN (SOL) or local access to Third Party Data Storage; Things which require OS configuration and drivers that are not always easy to find. There is also not as much info available for developers of Linux managment consoles.

But the good news is that AMT does work with Linux and there is information available to help you.

Let's start with software for the Client. Openamt.org is a site dedicated to providing information on drivers and tools for local AMT access. Also check out this this downloads page. These two links should cover most of your driver & tools needs working with Linux client systems. Also, here is an interesting article about working on AMT with Ubuntu that has a nice tip on setting up SOL (probably useful for most Linux flavors).

For those of you developing management consoles on AMT, the best place to go is the same place all developers should go ... the AMT SDK. Start by doing a search on "Linux" in the AMT SDK documentation to see what is provide for developers in the kit. Then look at the Linux code samples located at .\Linux\Intel_AMT\Samples. There are samples for Redirection, KVM, and for WS-man. If you don't find what you're looking for there you may want to take a look at the Windows WS-man C++ samples which typically use open source libraries like OpenWSman, OpenSSL and Xerces.

Even though Linux support for AMT might seem sparse at first glance I hope you now see that there are some resources to help. If demand for Linux manageabilty continues to grow I imagine that support for AMT with Linux will follow. So keep pushing for what you want by giving feedback and asking questions.