cimc-mcp

MCP server for Cisco CIMC (Integrated Management Controller) — manage standalone C-Series rack servers through the XML API.

Features

16 tools covering full server lifecycle management:

Requirements

• Node.js 22+

• macOS with /usr/bin/curl (uses system curl for network routing to BMC interfaces)

• Network access to CIMC management interface

Setup

git clone https://github.com/schwarztim/cimc-mcp.git
cd cimc-mcp
npm install
npm run build

Environment Variables

cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env with your CIMC credentials

Usage

Claude Code

Add to ~/.claude/user-mcps.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "cimc": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/path/to/cimc-mcp/dist/index.js"],
      "env": {
        "CIMC_HOST": "192.168.88.10",
        "CIMC_USERNAME": "admin",
        "CIMC_PASSWORD": "your-password"
      }
    }
  }
}

Standalone

CIMC_HOST=192.168.88.10 CIMC_USERNAME=admin CIMC_PASSWORD=changeme npm start

How It Works

All communication goes through the CIMC XML API — a single POST endpoint at https://{host}/nuova. The server:

1. Authenticates via aaaLogin to get a session cookie (600s TTL)

2. Caches and auto-refreshes the session before expiry

3. Serializes all requests to avoid overloading the resource-constrained BMC

4. Parses XML responses and normalizes single-item/array inconsistencies

macOS Network Note

CIMC BMCs are typically on isolated management networks reachable via a dedicated interface. On macOS, only system binaries (/usr/bin/curl) have the network entitlements to route across interfaces. This server uses system curl as its HTTP transport instead of Node.js https for this reason.

Compatibility

Tested on:

• Cisco UCS C220 M4 (CIMC 2.0(10l))

Should work with any standalone C-Series server running CIMC 2.x or later. UCS Manager-managed servers use a different API and are not supported.

Development

npm run dev          # Run with tsx (hot reload)
npm test             # Run tests
npm run build        # Compile TypeScript

License

MIT