Monitor Hardware IPMI vs SNMP

[thunder]

Hi all,

We own a couple of SUN servers which we'd like to monitor with zabbix for disk, power supply failures etc.
Our servers support both SNMP and IPMI. Unfortunately, there are no templates on share.zabbix,com. What should I use? SNMP or IPMI? What are the advantages from one over the other? Which one is better?

Thanks for any feedback!

thunder

[batchenr]

Hi all,

We own a couple of SUN servers which we'd like to monitor with zabbix for disk, power supply failures etc.
Our servers support both SNMP and IPMI. Unfortunately, there are no templates on share.zabbix,com. What should I use? SNMP or IPMI? What are the advantages from one over the other? Which one is better?

Thanks for any feedback!

thunder

for snmp youll have to get this device MIB file, there you have all objects that
you can monitor. do u have it ?

[thunder]

for snmp youll have to get this device MIB file, there you have all objects that
you can monitor. do u have it ?

Yes! I can download the MIB files from the iLOM interface. What's the advantage of using SMNP over IPMI?

[ovas]

You can compare the data you are able to collect with IPMI with the data collectable from SNMP, then make decision from there.
Aside from that, with IPMI you would be able to execute remote commands, whereas SNMP only allows you to collect the data stored. SNMP checks on the other hand can be extended at your wish.

For the described task you can actually use any of them.

[A.Zabihi]

sensors with snmp monitoring is faster than IPMI monitoring but IPMI onitoring is very powerful monitoring way and you can use ipmitool in your linux server like :

#sudo apt-get install ipmitool

#ipmitool -H 10.10.10.10 -I lanplus -U <username> -P <password> sensor

#ipmitool -H 10.10.12.3 -I lanplus -U <username> -P <password> sdr list all

thx

[MR_Andrew]

Hello!
Thanks for this topic!

I have the same question. I have Dell iDRAC 5 and 6, HP iLO cards.
But I'm newbie with IPMI.
I have good experience with SNMP and understand how it works. But any experience with IPMI.

In templates for Dell and HP, that I found, SNMP method is used.

So, what's better - SNMP or IPMI?

On of advantages of SNMP that I will use - SNMP traps. Hope I will understand how to setup it. But what should I use for active monitoring?

Thanks a lot!

[neogan]

Hi Andrew,

There are not many advantages for using IPMI, there are fewer metrics which you can get from server, but IPMI can reboot the server and tell what happens with it if OS hung.
On the other hand, SNMP provides more parameters which you can get from the device.
So get all counters with ipmitool and snmpwalk then compare them.

[MR_Andrew]

Hi Andrew,

There are not many advantages for using IPMI, there are fewer metrics which you can get from server, but IPMI can reboot the server and tell what happens with it if OS hung.
On the other hand, SNMP provides more parameters which you can get from the device.
So get all counters with ipmitool and snmpwalk then compare them.

Thanks you very much for your reply!
So, looks like new adventure called "IPMI" is waiting for me
Will try both methods. And hope Zabbix configuring for IPMI working will not be too difficult

[mykolaq]

Thanks you very much for your reply!
So, looks like new adventure called "IPMI" is waiting for me
Will try both methods. And hope Zabbix configuring for IPMI working will not be too difficult

And there is more easy LLD with SNMP and more examples.IMHO

[Vaku]

Aside from that, with IPMI you would be able to execute remote commands, whereas SNMP only allows you to collect the data stored.

This is BS and not true.
Ignore this comment, because it's wrong.

SNMP does also allow executing remote commands. There are writable OIDS, that execute specific functions.
That's why there are permission levels for SNMP - read/write/execute.

In practice, I have configured Zabbix to automatically launch APC InRow (our backup conditioner) through SNMP command, when server room temperature raises up to 25C degrees.
This works awesome, as a thermostat controller.