Okay, the IPMI interface was going to get hooked up to the router, which has DHCP and I can easily find out what IP got assigned. Once I get the MAC I plan to do a static lease to 10.1.1.10 as well, but basically as long as I can find out what DHCP address was assigned to the IPMI interface it should be as easy as accessing it in the browser to configure stuff?.
And good idea gpsguy, I could always stick it on a VLAN that uses another subnet or such and then restrict traffic accordingly.
Most home users are going to be just fine merely making sure it isn't exposed to the Internet (i.e. behind NAT/firewall) even if it's on their shared home IP range. Certainly if you understand networking and are comfortable doing so, putting it on a separate network is just dandy too.
What happens next basically depends on what the software wants. If you're using the Web based interface, for example, you will probably need Java, and sometimes the versions are finicky. Also you may run into issues with Java not wanting to use
http://, so you can turn on https:// and accept the certificate mismatch, and/or twiddle Java security settings for that one specific address. If you have trouble with one browser, try another. This is just some general stuff that comes to mind from years of the frustration and joy of IPMI. Most problems are due to the fact that
ORACLE SUCKS and
JAVA SUCKS but it is all worth it in the end because you can manage your system remotely.
Even without Java, basic functions like turning the server on and off, checking health status, etc. will be available. But the win is typically the client that not only allows you access to the console, but also allows you to plug in devices "remotely" over the network. You can make a CD (or CD image), USB device, floppy, etc., appear as a USB device to your host. Once you've got IPMI ethernet installed and configured, there's little reason to ever manually attach a temporary storage device to your server ever again. Burning a CD? Why bother. IPMI in and attach the image. etc.