DASH is similar to Intel vPro/AMT, allowing remote control of the system independent of the OS. Unfortunately, the documentation on how to set up and use it is very haphazard and confusing.
I’m using Lenovo M75q (11A4) systems.
First, enable the DASH Management option in the BIOS (PS – Lenovo’s PowerShell BIOS configuration doesn’t work for this. After I set the DASH to enabled using this method, it doesn’t actually take effect – so set it from the BIOS when you’re in front of the PC).
Now, try browsing to the system’s DASH webpage. From a different PC (not the one where you’ve enabled DASH), go to <IP address>:623 and you should be prompted to login. The default username is Administrator and the default password is Realtek (both are case sensitive). If the login is successful, you’ll see a mostly blank blue and white webpage with the Realtek logo. There’s also an HTTPS version running on port 664.
Lenovo offers both a DASH LAN driver and a Dash Client tool. Both should be installed as part of the pre-loaded OS, so you shouldn’t have to do anything unless you perform a clean install of Windows (although the Client tool doesn’t work for me anymore – I have no idea why).
The first thing you should do is change the default password. Again, from a different PC, install the DASH CLI tools from AMD. The command to change the password is:
dashcli -h <hostname/IP address> -S http -p 623 -u Administrator -p Realtek -t user[0] changepassword <your new password>You will receive the message “user password changed successfully” if it works.
The CLI tools can be used to manage systems, but you’ll find it easier to use AMD’s management console. After installing it, open the application, go to the Configuration tab > Settings button. In authentication schemes, enter an auth identifier (you can provide any name), set the Scheme to Digest, and enter the username and password you set earlier. For additional security, change the transport to HTTPS. Then click Validate, Save, and Close.
Now go back to the Home tab, click Discover, and enter either the system’s hostname/IP or a range of multiple IPs, then click Next. If the systems are configured correctly and the credentials are correct, the systems will show up in the list.
Realtek also has a management utility (choose the DASH console tool for Windows 7/8/10), but my initial impressions are poor (the AMD utility isn’t great, but still better than the Realtek).
Something else which tripped me up during this process was the login credentials using the DASHConfigRT tool (it’s under #2 on that page). I remember using this in the past as a more automated method of changing the password, rather than using the DASH CLI tool. Now, it always gives me an error, Could not open pipe 2 and Fail to config. The log output shows that the Dash Firmware and RtkDashClient version are both blank, and this is on a brand new out of the box system. The linked page also shows that the credentials can be configured by pressing shift-F10 during startup, which I haven’t tried.
Chris Tech Blog 