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How to Monitor a Server with Enhanced IPMI sensor

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Andreea-Raluca Semenescu
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IPMI  is a standardized computer system interface used by system administrators to manage a computer system and monitor its operation. Through IPMI a number of hardware sensors are made available for monitoring.

 

Plugin check_ipmi_sensor

The check_ipmi_sensor plugins is a Open Source plugin which basically is a wrapper around a tool called FreeIPMI (see below). You can read more about FreeIPMI at the creator, Thomas Krenn's German webpage.

 

Plugin details

The plugin supports IPMI v1.5 and IPMI v2.0. It can check IPMI sensors locally or via 'Serial over LAN' connection. In order for remote monitoring to be possible, the target (monitored system) need to be configured to accept remote connections. The exact configuration procedure is hardware (motherboard/Bios) dependant.

 

Prerequisites

  • Latest plugin package, or the package monitor-plugin-check_ipmi: "yum install monitor-plugin-check_ipmi"
  • Install the FreeIPMI package on the op5 monitor server, "yum install freeipmi"
  • Enable and configure IPMI as described below.

 

How to Enable IPMI Monitoring

The following is an example on how-to enable IPMI , please note that it can differ for your hardware.

On Dell PowerEdge servers (1950 and R410 at least) the following steps are needed in order to enable 'Serial over LAN'.

  1. On Boot, press Ctrl-E when prompted.
  2. Set IPMI Enabled
  3. Set a static IP address and gateway.
  4. Set a username and a password.
  5. Reboot

Note: these steps are not necessary on the op5 Monitor server, only on the systems we want to monitor.

 

Sensor groups that can be monitored

  • TEMPERATURE
  • VOLTAGE
  • CURRENT
  • FAN
  • PHYSICAL_SECURITY
  • PLATFORM_SECURITY_VIOLATION_ATTEMPT
  • PROCESSOR
  • POWER_SUPPLY
  • POWER_UNIT
  • MEMORY
  • DRIVE_SLOT
  • SYSTEM_FIRMWARE_PROGRESS
    EVENT_LOGGING_DISABLED
  • SYSTEM_EVENT
  • CRITICAL_INTERRUPT
  • MODULE_BOARD
  • SLOT_CONNECTOR
  • WATCHDOG2

Note: the availability of the sensor groups is variating depending on system configuration.

 

Check Commands

If the check-commands does not exist in your configuration, do a "Check Command Import" via: ('Configure' -> 'Commands' -> 'Check Command Import -> check_ipmi_sensor').

Some check commands example following:

command_name command_line
check_ipmi_sensor_memory $USER1$/check_ipmi_sensor -H $HOSTADDRESS$ -U $ARG1$ -P $ARG2$ -L user -O "-c /opt/monitor/var/ipmi" -b -T MEMORY
check_ipmi_sensor_fan $USER1$/check_ipmi_sensor -H $HOSTADDRESS$ -U $ARG1$ -P $ARG2$ -L user -O "-c /opt/monitor/var/ipmi" -b -T FAN
check_ipmi_sensor_power_supply $USER1$/check_ipmi_sensor -H $HOSTADDRESS$ -U $ARG1$ -P $ARG2$ -L user -O "-c /opt/monitor/var/ipmi" -b -T POWER_SUPPLY
check_ipmi_sensor_power_unit $USER1$/check_ipmi_sensor -H $HOSTADDRESS$ -U $ARG1$ -P $ARG2$ -L user -O "-c /opt/monitor/var/ipmi" -b -T POWER_UNIT
check_ipmi_sensor_driver_slot $USER1$/check_ipmi_sensor -H $HOSTADDRESS$ -U $ARG1$ -P $ARG2$ -L user -O "-c /opt/monitor/var/ipmi" -b -T DRIVE_SLOT

 

Adding the services

Below are some examples of services you can add.

Add the required services, ('Configure' -> 'Host: ' -> 'Go' -> 'Services for host ' -> 'Add new service' -> 'Go'):

Arguments are just examples, you need to adjust them to suite your environment.

service_description check_command check_command_args Note
ipmi_sensor_memory check_ipmi_sensor_memory root!password *
ipmi_sensor_fan check_ipmi_sensor_fan root!password *
ipmi_sensor_power_supply check_ipmi_sensor_power_supply root!password *
ipmi_sensor_power_unit check_ipmi_sensor_power_unit root!password *
ipmi_sensor_driver_slot check_ipmi_sensor_driver_slot root!password *

 

Note*: You can instead add arguments(ARGs) USER11(root) and USER12(password) to the file /opt/monitor/etc/resource.cfg. Don't forget to reload the Monitor service.


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