"What are the proper steps to set an IPMI ip address within the OS?"
Depending on the OS, and whether you want to use static or DHCP IP.
If DHCP, then it should all be set once you plug it into a DHCP server, just use
Ipmicfg –m ? this will show you the IP address on it.
To set a static IP, you need to disable dhcp and assign it a subnet mask, IP address, and gateway with the commands:
Ipmicfg –dhcp off
Ipmicfg –g gateway
Ipmicfg –k subnet
Ipmicfg –m IP

i.e If you want to assign it ip 192.168.0.10 subnet 255.255.255.0 gateway 192.168.0.1:
ipmicfg –dhcp off
ipmicfg –g 192.168.0.1
ipmicfg –k 255.255.255.0
ipmicfg –m 192.168.0.10



"Once this is set, do I need to reboot anything?"
No, you just need to wait a couple of minutes for the IPMI to re-initialize itself.



"Will the configuration changes I set using this utility save on the reboot?"
Yes.



"I know you guys have an option that you need to enable in order for the IPMI to save on a reboot."
You’re confusing that with a firmware update. You only need to “preserve configuration” if you are doing a firmware update.



"Just to verify, I don’t actually install anything. All I do is put all the Linux files in the same folder and run the commands?"
Linux is a very diverse OS, for some you might need to install the open source IPMI libraries
#yum install OpenIPMI ipmitool
#su root
#service ipmi start

Ipmicfg only works locally, the tool needs to be installed on the system the IPMI is on.