From owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Aug 22 01:36:59 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 88993106568C for ; Sat, 22 Aug 2009 01:36:59 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from kindman@amc-os.com) Received: from smtpfb2-g21.free.fr (smtpfb2-g21.free.fr [212.27.42.10]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 247BA8FC0C for ; Sat, 22 Aug 2009 01:36:56 +0000 (UTC) Received: from smtp4-g21.free.fr (smtp4-g21.free.fr [212.27.42.4]) by smtpfb2-g21.free.fr (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4A6EED19E99 for ; Sat, 22 Aug 2009 03:20:08 +0200 (CEST) Received: from smtp4-g21.free.fr (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by smtp4-g21.free.fr (Postfix) with ESMTP id B10CD4C8089 for ; Sat, 22 Aug 2009 03:20:02 +0200 (CEST) Received: from kmlaptop (blackforest.amc-os.net [88.174.102.207]) by smtp4-g21.free.fr (Postfix) with SMTP id 9A7764C8081 for ; Sat, 22 Aug 2009 03:19:59 +0200 (CEST) Message-ID: From: "Aurélien Méré" To: Date: Sat, 22 Aug 2009 03:19:52 +0200 X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Windows Mail 6.0.6002.18005 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.0.6002.18005 X-RFC2646: Format=Flowed; Original Subject: Common interface for sensors/health monitoring X-BeenThere: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Technical Discussions relating to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 22 Aug 2009 01:36:59 -0000 Hi, I've been using FreeBSD for years in all my servers, but I'm facing a big problem today. All servers are under monitoring using a couple of applications and scripts. Monitored items for each server especially are CPU/mobo/UPS/HDD temperatures, CPU load, memory use, fans speed, PSU/UPS voltages, HDD/RAID status&usage, network connectivity, UPS load, battery status & runtime, ... My concern today, excepted that there is no way to gather all the data through a unique interface and that consequently we have to change the scripts depending on hardware, is that some information are no longer available at all, especially concerning the MB IC, ie. temperatures, voltages & fan speed. Actually, some SMBus controllers (like from 2006 or so) are not supported by any driver and I didn't find any port updated to access the IC directly (if even possible). Currently, I sometimes have to use mbmon with direct I/O, sometimes mbmon with SMBus, sometimes healthd and sometimes nothing works (PR 137668 or 136762 as examples in my case). Besides that, I was quite surprised that these information are available in OpenBSD through a very simple and unique sysctl interface, with up-to-date drivers, working on all my servers with a generic install. I know that below this presentation layer, this may be much less perfect, and by digging in, I found that a 2007 GSoC project for porting the OpenBSD sensor framework was realised and planned to be put in HEAD. I also read hundreds of mails concerning this project, and why finally it was not commited. As developer, I fully understand some of the concerns in these threads and that there are probably lots of things to change and work on, integrate it in a cleaner repository like snmp or whatever; and I'd be glad to help in any possible way to improve this. But in the meantime, as netadmin, this kind of information can be very important to prevent or diagnose major problems; so I'd like to know what is being planned/done on this subject, as I didn't find any more information related to this than a discussion during bsdcan 2008. Thanks for your help and time, Aurélien