How To Monitor And Manage IPMI Management Console

• 25 3月 2021
• by: hostslb.com
• in: linux
• Tags: monitoring, other
• note: no comments

This guide provides an overview on how to monitor and manage
IPMI Management Console with Verax NMS. The Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) is a standardized computer system interface used by system administrators to manage a computer system and monitor its operation.

The guide is divided into following parts:

1. Adding IPMI Management Console  to the list of
   monitored applications.

2. Configuring availability sensors and performance counters
   for IPMI Console.

3. System’s IPMI Management Console overview.
4. Setting up alarms and notification policies.

Tools used in this guide:

• IPMI tools: http://www.intel.com/design/servers/ipmi/tools.htm
• Free monitoring tool (Verax NMS express): http://www.veraxsystems.com/en/products/nms

 

Adding IPMI Management Console to device inventory

In order to include IPMI Management Console to be monitored by
Verax NMS, add an application instance to the device actually running
this instance.

Note: Verax NMS
allows for creating multiple instances for applications of the same
type on a single device.

 In order to add an IPMI Management Console to the
device running its instance, perform the following steps:

1. Log into the Verax NMS and select Home from the main menu.
2. Select a device running the IPMI Management Console
   instance  from the left-side aspects view.

3. In Summary tab select Manage applications
   from the actions section.

4. A pop-up dialog is
   displayed.

5. Select Add application
   option from the context menu and click Go.
   A dialog window is displayed. 

6. Choose IPMI Management Console from Application types.

System will ask to enter the following application-specific
parameters:if(typeof __ez_fad_position != ‘undefined’){__ez_fad_position(‘div-gpt-ad-howtoforge_com-medrectangle-4-0’)};

• Instance name – You can enter any name describing the
  monitored application instance.

• Host – In most cases, the host address is an IP address of
  the device the application instance is assigned to.

• User – Username used to connect to the server.
• Password – Password used to connect to the server.
• BMC
  Key – the server-specific key used only if the server is configured to
  use two-key authentication. Otherwise, BMC key field should be left
  empty.

• Privilege level – the level of privileges associated with
  the user or lower. In most cases privilege level is User.

Note:
application-specific parameters depend on the selected application type.

7.  Provide the necessary information and click Save
   changes.

8. The
   system will ask if you want to add a default set of sensors and
   counters for IPMI Management Console. Since, sensors and performance
   will be added manually – click No.

9. The
   newly added IPMI Management Console is now visible in the aspect tree
   within the host’s node in Managed Applications category.

System provides IPMI Management Console application pluggable module to
extend core built-in functionalities and allows monitoring servers via
IPMI protocol in various aspects like:

• Advanced views: General, Hardware info (data read from FRU
  – Field Replaceable Unit),

• Analog sensors, Discrete sensors and System event log
• IPMI sensor checking if device’s chosen sensor is responding
• IPMI counter monitoring value of device’s chosen analog
  sensor’s reading

• System Event Log collector, polling devices event log and
  raising equivalent events in NMS

 

Adding sensors for IPMI Management Console

Sensors
are active monitors periodically querying the device services for which
they are configured and waiting for their responses. If a query is
returned with an expected response, the queried service is considered “available.” If a response is not received (timed out), or if the
response is not as expected, the queried service is considered
“unavailable”.if(typeof __ez_fad_position != ‘undefined’){__ez_fad_position(‘div-gpt-ad-howtoforge_com-box-4-0’)};

The system includes a number of pre-configured
sensors. The following types of sensors for IPMI Management Console
application type are available by default:

• IPMI Sensor  – checks the response time of the
  chosen analog or discrete IPMI sensor.

• IPMI
  System Log Collector – polls the IPMI system event log checking for new
  events that occurred and raises equivalent events in NMS.

In order to add a sensor, perform the following steps:

1. Select device from the aspect tree in Home view (IPMI Management Console in this case).
2. Select Monitors tab
   and switch to sensor list by clicking Sensor
   list link in the upper-right corner of the tab field. The
   sensor list is displayed.

3. Select Add
   from the global action menu and click Go.
   The wizard dialog is displayed.

4. Select
   the sensor you want to add and click Next.

5. A
   dialog shows up with all sensor parameters to be provided. Specify
   the sensor parameters and click Finish.

6. Once
   the sensors have been added, they are visible on the sensor
   list (Monitors tab).

 

Adding performance counters to IPMI Management Console

Performance counters measure system
activity and performance
(metrics). The application retrieves their current values in predefined
intervals. The aim of probing and collecting data is to analyze and
convert the
data into a performance graph/chart. The user can define a counter
manually or
load it from a template. Counter templates provide defined probing
parameters for specified devices in order to improve and quicken
counter creation.

Each counter template is
characterized by the
following information:

• Name and description – unique
  identifier and optional
  description,

• Device type – type of a device,
• Protocol type – protocol used,
• Probing interval – 
  pauses between probing.

In order to add IPMI Management
Console performance counters,
perform the following steps:

1. Select device from aspect tree in
   Home view.

2. Select
   Monitors tab
   and switch to the counter list by clicking Counter list link in the
   upper-right
   corner of the tab field. A counter list is displayed.

3. Select Add  from the global
   action menu and click Go.

4. Select the counter you want to
   create and click Next.

5. Once the data has been loaded, the edit window shows up
   with all counter attributes to be provided.

6. Specify the rest of counter parameters and click Finish.
7. The new counter has been created and is now visible on the
   counter list.

 

System’s IPMI Console features

Verax NMS IPMI Management Console supports
IPMI (Intelligent Platform Management Interface) devices compliant with IPMI
2.0 over UDP and the following views are provided:

• General
  view – the overall information about IPMI Management Console (address
  of the host running the application instance, privilege level, user and
  password, BMC Key) as well as graphs presenting Analog sensor statuses,
  Discrete sensor statuses and SEL entries statuses.

• Hardware
  information (FRU) view – all the properties stored in the FRU (Field
  Replaceable Unit) inventory, such as serial numbers, part numbers,
  vendor information and others. The list of properties is dependent on
  the type of managed hardware and its configuration.

• Analog
  sensors view – analog sensors for the device (temperature, fan speeds,
  voltage and others) along with the detailed information concerning each
  sensor (status, name, type etc).

• Discrete sensors view –
  discrete sensors for the device. Acceptable values are defined in the
  IPMI standard, including information which values indicate abnormal
  conditions.

• System log event view – IPMI event log including
  information such as date and time of event occurrence, sensor
  associated with the event, event assertion/deassertion etc.

 

Creating custom processing rules for IPMI Management Console

In this tutorial I’ll present how to assign basic event
processing rules,
such as: alarm generating, event dropping/forwarding and severity
assigning.

To assign an event processing rule, perform the
following steps:

1. After selecting the desired host go to Events
   tab.

2. Select events, choose Assign processing
   rules and click Go.

3. A dialog window is displayed (see figure
   below).

4. Select rule category and click Add new
   rule.

5. The newly created event
   processing rule is now visible and active (there’s no need to log out).

 

Well done 🙂

If you performed all the actions described in this guide, you are now able to monitor IPMI Management Console application.