[Freeipmi-users] editing ipmi_monitoring_sensors.conf hangs ipmimonitoring

[Andrew Hall]

I wish to test the different "Monitoring Status" values that return when
running the ipmimonitoring command.

At the moment the monitoring status of "Temperature" is "Nominal". I would
like to ensure that if the sensor reading is over a particular threshold
that it will return "Warning" or "Critical".

Rather than forcibly overheat the server I have edited
ipmi_monitoring_sensors.conf as below:

address@hidden ~]# diff /etc/ipmi_monitoring_sensors.conf.orig
/etc/ipmi_monitoring_sensors.conf
33c33
< # IPMI_Threshold_Sensor_At_Or_Below_Lower_Non_Critical_Threshold
 Nominal
---
> IPMI_Threshold_Sensor_At_Or_Below_Lower_Non_Critical_Threshold
 Critical
36c36
< # IPMI_Threshold_Sensor_At_Or_Above_Upper_Non_Critical_Threshold
 Nominal
---
> IPMI_Threshold_Sensor_At_Or_Above_Upper_Non_Critical_Threshold
 Critical

So I have set two "Nominal" values to now read "Critical".

However when running the ipmimonitoring command after this change has been
made it just sits there doing nothing. An strace show that it reads up to
the newline character at the end of the second uncommented line in the
config file but no further:

read(3, "C", 1)                         = 1
read(3, "r", 1)                         = 1
read(3, "i", 1)                         = 1
read(3, "t", 1)                         = 1
read(3, "i", 1)                         = 1
read(3, "c", 1)                         = 1
read(3, "a", 1)                         = 1
read(3, "l", 1)                         = 1
read(3, "\n", 1)                        = 1

So my questions are this:

1. Does anyone know why it is behaving in this manner ?

2. If I leave the file in the fully commented state as originally provided
will the Monitoring Status values still obey those rules ? That is, are
those conf file entries actually defaults that will function regardless of
the fact they are commented out ?

3. How can I determine the threshold values ? The output of ipmi-sensors
shows "NA" for all readings in the "Temperature" group.

Essentially it all boils down to this - is installing freeipmi and then
running ipmisensors all that is required to determine potentially critical
environmental issues ?

If the server gets too hot is this enough to find out ? Will it return
Warning or Critical with no other manual intervention ?

Thanks very much.