diff --git a/xCAT-server/share/xcat/cons/ipmi b/xCAT-server/share/xcat/cons/ipmi
index 620a72e01..48d22d406 100755
--- a/xCAT-server/share/xcat/cons/ipmi
+++ b/xCAT-server/share/xcat/cons/ipmi
@@ -1,50 +1,52 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env perl
 # IBM(c) 2007 EPL license http://www.eclipse.org/legal/epl-v10.html
 use Fcntl qw(:DEFAULT :flock);
-
-sub get_lock {
-    unless (flock(LOCKHANDLE, LOCK_EX | LOCK_NB)) {
-        $| = 1;
-        print "Acquiring startup lock...";
-        flock(LOCKHANDLE, LOCK_EX) or die "Fatal Error securing startup lock";
-        print "done\n";
-    }
-    truncate(LOCKHANDLE, 0);
-    print LOCKHANDLE $$ . "\n";
-}
-
-sub release_lock {
-    truncate(LOCKHANDLE, 0);
-    flock(LOCKHANDLE, LOCK_UN);
-}
-
-BEGIN
-{
-    use Time::HiRes qw(sleep);
-    use File::Path;
-    use Fcntl qw(:DEFAULT :flock);
-    $::XCATROOT = $ENV{'XCATROOT'} ? $ENV{'XCATROOT'} : '/opt/xcat';
-    umask 0077;
-    mkpath("/tmp/xcat/");
-    unless (sysopen(LOCKHANDLE, "/tmp/xcat/consolelock", O_WRONLY | O_CREAT)) {
-        print "Unable to open lock file";
-        exec("sleep 15");
-        exit 0;
-    }
-    get_lock();
-
-    #my $sleepint=int(rand(10));
-    #print "Opening console in ".(2+(0.5*$sleepint))." seconds...\n";
-    #sleep $sleepint;
+use Time::HiRes qw(sleep);
+use File::Path;
+BEGIN {
+    $::XCATROOT = $ENV{'XCATROOT'} ? $ENV{'XCATROOT'} : -d '/opt/xcat' ? '/opt/xcat' : '/usr';
 }
 my $sleepint = int(rand(10)); #Stagger start to avoid overwhelming conserver/xCATd
-$::XCATROOT = $ENV{'XCATROOT'} ? $ENV{'XCATROOT'} : '/opt/xcat';
-use lib "$::XCATROOT/lib/perl";
-require xCAT::Client;
+my ($lockfd, $bmc);
 my $username = 'USERID';
 my $password = 'PASSW0RD';
 my $node     = $ARGV[0];
-my $bmc;
+
+use constant CONSOLE_LOCK_FILE => "/tmp/xcat/consolelock";
+use constant CONSOLE_LOCK_DIR => "/tmp/xcat";
+
+sub acquire_lock {
+    umask 0077;
+    mkpath(CONSOLE_LOCK_DIR);
+    print "Acquiring startup lock...";
+    unless (sysopen($lockfd, CONSOLE_LOCK_FILE, O_WRONLY | O_CREAT)) {
+        print "Unable to open file ".CONSOLE_LOCK_FILE."\n";
+        sleep(15);
+        exit 1;
+    }
+    unless (flock($lockfd, LOCK_EX)) {
+        print "Unable to lock file ".CONSOLE_LOCK_FILE."\n";
+        close($lockfd);
+        sleep(15);
+        exit 1;
+    }
+    print "done\n";
+    unless (syswrite($lockfd, $$, length($$))) {
+        print "Unable to write file ".CONSOLE_LOCK_FILE."\n";
+        close($lockfd);
+        sleep(15);
+        exit 1;
+    }
+}
+
+sub release_lock {
+    flock($lockfd, LOCK_UN);
+    close($lockfd);
+}
+
+
+use lib "$::XCATROOT/lib/perl";
+require xCAT::Client;
 
 sub getans {
     my $rsp = shift;
@@ -63,16 +65,22 @@ my $cmdref = {
     arg       => ["text"],
     noderange => [ $ARGV[0] ]
 };
+acquire_lock();
+# avoid of congestion
+sleep(0.1);
+release_lock();
 xCAT::Client::submit_request($cmdref, \&getans);
+
 until (($username or $password) and $bmc) {
-    release_lock();    #Let other clients have a go
+    #Let other clients have a go
     $sleepint = 10 + int(rand(20));
     print "Console not ready, retrying in $sleepint seconds (Ctrl-e,c,o to skip delay) \n";
-    exec("sleep $sleepint");
-    get_lock();
+    sleep ($sleepint);
+    acquire_lock();
+    sleep(0.1);
+    release_lock();
     xCAT::Client::submit_request($cmdref, \&getans);
 }
-release_lock();
 
 my ($user, $pass);
 if ($username) {
@@ -124,9 +132,7 @@ if ($rc) { #some shoddy vendors ignore the IPMI 2.0 requirement to support IPMI
 while ($rc != 0) {
     $sleepint = 10 + int(rand(20));
     print "Failure to reach IPMI device, retrying in $sleepint seconds (Hit Ctrl-E,c,o to skip)\n";
-    exec("sleep $sleepint");
-
-    #sleep $sleepint;
+    sleep ($sleepint);
     @mcinfo = `$ipmitool -I lanplus $user $pass -H $bmc mc info`; #| grep 'Manufacturer ID           : 343' > /dev/null 2>&1";
     $rc     = $?;
     if ($rc) {    #repeat workaround for shoddy vendors