--- name: monitoring-ipmi title: Collecting IPMI device sensor metrics description: In addition to the set of metrics that are automatically collected by the monitoring agent, you might want to collect other metrics such as sensor metrics. You can use the `Prometheus IPMI Exporter` to perform the collection of Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) device sensor metrics. last-updated: 2025-03-03 --- > ## Documentation Index > The table of contents for this documentation set is at https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/monitoring?format=markdown > The index for all IBM Cloud docs is at: https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/llms.txt > Use these files to discover more information as needed. # Collecting IPMI device sensor metrics {: #ipmi} {: toc-content-type="tutorial"} {: toc-services="monitoring"} {: toc-completion-time="1h"} In addition to the set of metrics that are automatically collected by the monitoring agent, you might want to collect other metrics such as sensor metrics. You can use the `Prometheus IPMI Exporter` to perform the collection of Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) device sensor metrics. {: shortdesc} * The Prometheus IPMI Exporter exporter supports local IPMI devices and remote devices that can be accessed by using Remote Management Control Protocol (RMCP). * When you use RMCP to access remote devices, you can use an IPMI exporter to monitor multiple IPMI devices. You identify each device by passing the target hostname as a parameter. * The IPMI exporter relies on tools from the FreeIPMI suite. The following figures shows different configurations that you can use to monitor sensor metrics from hosts that can be available in IBM Cloud or outside the IBM Cloud: ![IPMI components](images/ipmi-kube1.svg "IPMI components: IPMI exporter and Kubernetes agent in different hosts"){: caption="IPMI components: IPMI exporter and Kubernetes agent in different hosts" caption-side="bottom"} You can collect the following metrics when you configure the IPMI exporter in a server: * IPMI admin metrics The metric `ipmi_up {collector=""}` reports `1` when data from a remote host is collected successfully. It reports `0` for collection of data in a local host. The metric `ipmi_scrape_duration_seconds` reports the amount of time that it takes the collector to retrieve the data. * IPMI System event log (SEL) metrics The metric `ipmi_sel_entries_count` reports the number of entries in the system event log. The metric `ipmi_sel_free_space_bytes` reports the number of free bytes for new ystem event log entries. * IPMI sensor data The IPMI exporter collects 2 metrics per sensor type: state and value. A value of `0` reports a normal state. A value of `1` reports a warning state. A value of `2` reports a critical state. A value of `NaN` reports information not available. For example, see the metrics for different sensors: Temperature sensor metrics: `ipmi_temperature_celsius`, `ipmi_temperature_state` Fan speed sensor metrics: `ipmi_fan_speed_rpm`, `ipmi_fan_speed_state` Voltage sensor metrics: `ipmi_voltage_state`, `ipmi_voltage_volts` * IPMI chassis power state of the machine The metric `ipmi_chassis_power_state` informs about the current state of the chassis of the machine. It has a value of `1` when the power is on. It has a value of `0` when the power is off. * DCMI data The metric `ipmi_dcmi_power_consumption_current_watts` informs about the live power consumption of the machine in Watts. * BMC details The metric ipmi_bmc_info includes information about the firmware revision and manufacturer in labels and has a value of `1`. For more information, see [Prometheus IPMI Exporter](https://github.com/prometheus-community/ipmi_exporter){: external}. Complete the following steps to configure a monitoring agent to collect IPMI metrics from 1 or more hosts: ## Configure a monitoring agent {: #ipmi_step1} {: step} To monitor 1 or more hosts, you must configure a monitoring agent. The agent collects automatically a set of metrics that you can monitor through the monitoring UI. See [Choosing an agent type by infrastructure](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/monitoring?topic=monitoring-agent-types&format=markdown) and choose the monitoring agent that you want to configure to monitor a host. ## Configuring the Prometheus IPMI Exporter {: #ipmi_step2} {: step} You can install the IPMI exporer in 1 or more hosts to collect IPMI metrics. {: note} For each host that you want to collect IPMI metrics, complete the following steps to install the IPMI exporter. For example, complete the following steps for a Linux-based host: 1. From a local terminal,[download the Prometheus IPMI exporter](https://github.com/prometheus-community/ipmi_exporter){: external}. 2. In the server, from the `ssh` session, create the directory `/usr/sysdig`. Run the following commands: ```text cd /usr ``` {: pre} ```text mkdir sysdig ``` {: pre} 3. Copy the file to the server. From the directory where the file is available, run the following command: ```text scp ipmi_exporter-v1.2.0.linux-amd64.tar.gz root@:/usr/sysdig/ ``` {: pre} Where `` is the public IP address of the server. If the command fails, check that your VPN connection is still open. 4. Uncompress the file. Run the following commands: ```text cd /usr/sysdig/ ``` {: pre} ```text tar -xvf ipmi_exporter-v1.2.0.linux-amd64.tar.gz ``` {: pre} 5. Install the FreeIPMI suite. Run the following commands: ```text sudo apt-get update ``` {: pre} ```text sudo apt-get install freeipmi ``` {: pre} 6. Configure the `ipmi_local.yml` file. - You can update the file to exclude sensors that you do not want to monitor. Change to the directory where you have extracted the IPMI exporter: ```text cd ipmi_exporter-v1.2.0.linux-amd64/ ``` {: pre} Check the configuration file. Run the command: `more ipmi_local.yml` You should see a file with similar content. ```yaml # Configuration file for ipmi_exporter # This is an example config for scraping the local host. # In most cases, this should work without using a config file at all. modules: default: # Available collectors are bmc, ipmi, chassis, dcmi, and sel collectors: - bmc - ipmi - dcmi - chassis - sel # Got any sensors you don't care about? Add them here. exclude_sensor_ids: # - 2 ``` {: codeblock} 7. If the IPMI exporter is installed in a host from which you plan to collect sensor metrics from multiple hosts, configure the `ipmi_remote.yml` file. See[IPMI remote sample file](https://github.com/prometheus-community/ipmi_exporter/blob/master/ipmi_remote.yml){: external}. 8. Run the IPMI exporter. ```text ./ipmi_exporter --config.file=ipmi_local.yml & ``` {: pre} 9. Check the IPMI exporter is running. Run the command: ```text ps -aux | grep ipmi ``` {: pre} You should see the IPMI exporter running. ## Configure network settings {: #ipmi_step3} {: step} If you want to collect IPMI metrics from remote servers, complete the following steps: 1. Enable the firewall to allow access to the `ipmi_exporter`. 2. [Optional] Update the VPC rules If you use private endpoints, add an inbound rule to the security group for port `9290` with `source type = Security Group` and choose the security group for the server. ## Update the monitoring agent to collect IPMI metrics {: #ipmi_step4} {: step} You must configure the monitoring agent to enable collection of IPMI metrics. Choose one of the following options based on the type of monitoring agent that you configured: ### Kubernetes monitoring agent {: #ipmi_step4_1} Run the following command to edit the configmap and add information about the hosts where the IPMI exporter is configured: ```text kubectl edit configmap sysdig-agent -n ibm-observe ``` {: pre} Modify the yaml file to add the prometheus configuration of the IPMI exporter: ```yaml log: file_priority: error configmap: true ### Agent tags # tags: linux:ubuntu,dept:dev,local:nyc #### Software related config #### # Collector address # collector: 192.168.1.1 # Collector TCP port # collector_port: 6666 # Whether collector accepts ssl # ssl: true # collector certificate validation # ssl_verify_certificate: true ####################################### # new_k8s: true # k8s_cluster_name: production security: k8s_audit_server_url: 0.0.0.0 k8s_audit_server_port: 7765 k8s_cluster_name: / tags: ibm.containers-kubernetes.cluster.id: collector: collector_port: 6443 ssl: true ssl_verify_certificate: true sysdig_capture_enabled: false promscrape_fastproto: true use_promscrape: true prom_service_discovery: true prometheus: enabled: true log_errors: true max_metrics: 200000 max_metrics_per_process: 200000 max_tags_per_metric: 100 ingest_raw: true ingest_calculated: false prometheus.yaml: ---- global: scrape_interval: 10s scrape_configs: - job_name: ipmi metrics_path: /metrics static_configs: - targets: - ':9290' - ':9290' - ':9290' ``` {: codeblock} Where * `` is the IP address of a server that you want to monitor. * `` is the IBM Cloud Monitoring instance ingestion endpoint, for example, `ingest.us-south.monitoring.cloud.ibm.com`. See [Collector endpoints](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/monitoring?topic=monitoring-endpoints&format=markdown#endpoints_ingestion). * `:9290` is the IP address of the server that you want to monitor. When you save the file, changes are applied. ### Linux service monitoring agent {: #ipmi_step4_3} Complete the following steps to update the monitoring agent to collect IPMI metrics: 1. SSH into the host where the monitoring agent is running. Then, change to the directory `/opt/draios/etc/` and run the following command: ```text cd /opt/draios/etc/ ``` {: pre} 2. Update the `/opt/draios/etc/dragent.yaml` to enable remote scraping. Append the following section to the `dragent.yaml` file: ```yaml customerid: xxxxxxxxxx collector: ingest.us-south.monitoring.cloud.ibm.com collector_port: 6443 ssl: true sysdig_capture_enabled: false use_promscrape: true promscrape_fastproto: false prom_service_discovery: true prometheus: enabled: true process_filter: - include: port: 9290 conf: port: 9290 path: "/metrics" ``` {: codeblock} 3. Restart the monitoring agent. Run the following command: ```text service dragent restart ``` {: pre} ## Check that you are getting IPMI metrics {: #ipmi_step5} {: step} 1. [Launch the monitoring UI](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/monitoring?topic=monitoring-launch&format=markdown). 2. Create a dashboard. 3. Add a panel for each of the following queries: | Metric | PromQL Query | Options | |-----------|------------------|----------| | Ipmi Up | `ipmi_up` | `number (auto)` | | Voltage | `ipmi_voltage_volts` | `number (auto)` | | Temperature Celsius | `ipmi_temperature_celsius` | `number (auto)` | | Fan speed RPM | `ipmi_fan_speed_rpm` | `number (auto)` | {: caption="IPMI exporter sample queries" caption-side="top"} For example, you can create a dashboard that looks as follows: ![Sample IPMI dashboard](images/ipmi-ui-1.png "Sample IPMI dashboard"){: caption="Sample IPMI dashboard" caption-side="bottom"}