Supermicro Motherboards hide IPMI Sensors

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For the current Supermicro main boards (such as Nehalem Boards and the X8DT3-F), a Winbond WPCM450 BMC chip is used for remote management (IPMI, KVM-over-IP). There are various IPMI modules for older main boards. By default, they display numerous IPMI sensors. Unused (deactivated) sensors can be hidden (deactivated) using the SMCIPMITool from Supermicro. This is of interest for fan sensors, for example, in cases where fans have not been connected to the physical case.

Default Settings

The following example shows the sensors that are normally used. Of course, only one CPU has been built into the example system. The case does not need eight fans. Several of the fan sensors display No Reading for that reason.

debian:~# /usr/bin/ipmitool -I lan -H 10.10.10.233 -U ADMIN sdr elist all
Password: 
Hermon           | 00h | ok  |  7.1 | Dynamic MC @ 20h
CPU1 Temp        | 01h | ok  |  7.1 | 0 unspecified
CPU2 Temp        | 02h | ns  |  7.1 | No Reading
System Temp      | 03h | ok  |  7.1 | 33 degrees C
CPU1 Vcore       | 04h | ok  |  7.1 | 0.98 Volts
CPU2 Vcore       | 05h | ns  |  7.1 | No Reading
CPU1 DIMM        | 06h | ok  |  7.1 | 1.51 Volts
CPU2 DIMM        | 07h | ns  |  7.1 | No Reading
+1.5V            | 08h | ok  |  7.1 | 1.50 Volts
+3.3V            | 09h | ok  |  7.1 | 3.24 Volts
+3.3VSB          | 0Ah | ok  |  7.1 | 3.24 Volts
+5V              | 0Bh | ok  |  7.1 | 5.12 Volts
+12V             | 0Ch | ok  |  7.1 | 12.19 Volts
VBAT             | 0Dh | ok  |  7.1 | 3.19 Volts
Fan1             | 0Eh | ok  |  7.2 | 6480 RPM
Fan2             | 0Fh | ok  |  7.2 | 7020 RPM
Fan3             | 10h | ns  |  7.2 | No Reading
Fan4             | 11h | ns  |  7.2 | No Reading
Fan5             | 12h | ok  |  7.2 | 5265 RPM
Fan6             | 13h | ok  |  7.2 | 5265 RPM
Fan7             | 14h | ok  |  7.2 | 6480 RPM
Fan8             | 15h | ns  |  7.2 | No Reading
Intrusion        | AAh | lnc |  7.1 | 0 unspecified
PS Status        | 16h | ok  | 10.1 | 0 unspecified
debian:~# 

Hide Sensors

Unused sensors can be hidden using the SMCIPMITool from Supermicro.

The tool can be started from a remote system through the network. It requires Java (JRE from Version 1.5 or later). The to JRE may also be entered by using the option +javahome /usr/java/jre1.6.0_16, for example.

Displaying Sensors using SMCIPMITool

First, the current sensors will also be displayed by SMCIPMITool.

[root@tpw SMCIPMITool_v1.5.6_Build090810]# ./SMCIPMITool-linux 10.10.10.233 ADMIN ADMIN ipmi sensor
Getting SDR data ...
Getting sensors ...
  Status | (#)Sensor                |      Reading | Low Limit | High Limit |
  ------ | ---------                |      ------- | --------- | ---------- |
  OK     | (2) CPU1 Temp            |          Low |           |            |
         | (3) CPU2 Temp            |          n/a |           |            |
  OK     | (4) System Temp          |      33C/91F |       n/a |   80C/176F |
  OK     | (5) CPU1 Vcore           |       0.97 V |    0.83 V |     1.34 V |
         | (6) CPU2 Vcore           |        0.0 V |    0.83 V |     1.34 V |
  OK     | (7) CPU1 DIMM            |       1.51 V |    1.34 V |     1.64 V |
         | (8) CPU2 DIMM            |        0.0 V |    1.34 V |     1.64 V |
  OK     | (9) +1.5V                |        1.5 V |    1.34 V |     1.64 V |
  OK     | (10) +3.3V               |       3.26 V |    2.95 V |     3.62 V |
  OK     | (11) +3.3VSB             |       3.24 V |    2.95 V |     3.62 V |
  OK     | (12) +5V                 |       5.12 V |    4.51 V |      5.5 V |
  OK     | (13) +12V                |      12.19 V |   10.75 V |    13.19 V |
  OK     | (14) VBAT                |       3.19 V |    2.95 V |     3.62 V |
  OK     | (15) Fan1                |     6480 RPM |   810 RPM |  34020 RPM |
  OK     | (16) Fan2                |     7020 RPM |   810 RPM |  34020 RPM |
  OK     | (19) Fan5                |     5265 RPM |   810 RPM |  34020 RPM |
  OK     | (20) Fan6                |     5265 RPM |   810 RPM |  34020 RPM |
  OK     | (21) Fan7                |     6480 RPM |   810 RPM |  34020 RPM |
  Fail   | (23) Intrusion           | 00 C0 01 00  |       N/A |        N/A |
  OK     | (24) PS Status           | 00 C0 00 00  |       N/A |        N/A |

[root@tpw SMCIPMITool_v1.5.6_Build090810]#

Note: you can also execute the tool by means of java -jar SMCIPMITool.jar.

Hiding Sensors using SMCIPMITool

The Hide option can now be performed using the delsdr option. The number of sensors must be entered (using the number that was previously output for the sensor by the SMCIPMITool.

Important Note regarding Hiding: With some IPMI BMC chips (such as the IPMI module for the X7DBE main board), the numeric order of the sensors can be changed by means of delsdr when hiding. For that reason, proceed from the back to the front when hiding or re-display the sensor numbers after hiding the sensors. Otherwise, there is the danger that you will have to re-load the firmware for displaying erroneously hidden sensors. With other IPMI BMC chips (such as the X8DT3-F main board), we did not determine any change in the numbering of the sensors.

The following example demonstrates hiding the sensors, starting from the highest-numbered sensor, with the number eight.

[root@tpw SMCIPMITool_v1.5.6_Build090810]# ./SMCIPMITool-linux 10.10.10.233 ADMIN ADMIN ipmi delsdr 8
Done
[root@tpw SMCIPMITool_v1.5.6_Build090810]# ./SMCIPMITool-linux 10.10.10.233 ADMIN ADMIN ipmi delsdr 6
Done
[root@tpw SMCIPMITool_v1.5.6_Build090810]# ./SMCIPMITool-linux 10.10.10.233 ADMIN ADMIN ipmi delsdr 3
Done
[root@tpw SMCIPMITool_v1.5.6_Build090810]# ./SMCIPMITool-linux 10.10.10.233 ADMIN ADMIN ipmi sensor
Getting SDR data ...
Getting sensors ...
  Status | (#)Sensor                |      Reading | Low Limit | High Limit |
  ------ | ---------                |      ------- | --------- | ---------- |
  OK     | (2) CPU1 Temp            |          Low |           |            |
  OK     | (4) System Temp          |      33C/91F |       n/a |   80C/176F |
  OK     | (5) CPU1 Vcore           |       0.97 V |    0.83 V |     1.34 V |
  OK     | (7) CPU1 DIMM            |       1.51 V |    1.34 V |     1.64 V |
  OK     | (9) +1.5V                |        1.5 V |    1.34 V |     1.64 V |
  OK     | (10) +3.3V               |       3.26 V |    2.95 V |     3.62 V |
  OK     | (11) +3.3VSB             |       3.24 V |    2.95 V |     3.62 V |
  OK     | (12) +5V                 |       5.12 V |    4.51 V |      5.5 V |
  OK     | (13) +12V                |      12.19 V |   10.75 V |    13.19 V |
  OK     | (14) VBAT                |       3.19 V |    2.95 V |     3.62 V |
  OK     | (15) Fan1                |     6480 RPM |   810 RPM |  34020 RPM |
  OK     | (16) Fan2                |     7020 RPM |   810 RPM |  34020 RPM |
  OK     | (19) Fan5                |     5265 RPM |   810 RPM |  34020 RPM |
  OK     | (20) Fan6                |     5265 RPM |   810 RPM |  34020 RPM |
  OK     | (21) Fan7                |     6480 RPM |   810 RPM |  34020 RPM |
  Fail   | (23) Intrusion           | 00 C0 01 00  |       N/A |        N/A |
  OK     | (24) PS Status           | 00 C0 00 00  |       N/A |        N/A |

[root@tpw SMCIPMITool_v1.5.6_Build090810]#

Note (when using the Nagios IPMI Sensor Monitoring Plugins): If you hide the sensors, you will have to delete the cache file /tmp/ipmi-sdr-cache-$IPMI_IP for the affected server on the Nagios server. Specifically, the cache file contains the individual addresses of the IPMI sensors, and therefore the addresses for the sensors that were just hidden. The cache file will be automatically recreated after deletion during the next inquiry and then no longer contain the hidden sensors.

Display Sensors

At this time, the SMCIPMITool (v1.5.6 Build 090810) does not have any feature for re-displaying hidden sensors. In order to re-display hidden sensors, the BMC firmware will have to re-load through the web interface.

Note: So that the sensors can be re-displayed, it may be necessary to select the Factory Defaults option when re-loading the firmware depending on the BMC under some circumstances. With the IPMI modules on X7 boards, create the factory settings using ipmicfg -fd. All settings (IP address, user name, etc.) will be lost when resetting. The IP & user configuration can subsequently be performed by various tools. IPMI Configuration for Supermicro Systems.

Additional Information

Related articles

FreeIPMI ipmimonitoring versions
FreeIPMI version information
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