Expose BMC URL/IP Address in ipmi_bmc_info Metric

[mafazely]

Currently, the ipmi_exporter does not expose the BMC URL/IP address in the ipmi_bmc_info metric. This is because the bmc-info command from FreeIPMI does not include the BMC network settings in its output, as discussed in PR #219.

As a result, it is not possible to monitor and identify the ILO IP address directly through Prometheus.
ipmi_bmc_info{bmc_url="N/A",firmware_revision="2.82",manufacturer_id="Hewlett-Packard (11)",system_firmware_version=""} 1

The output is empty when running the command sudo bmc-info | egrep "^BMC URL\s*:\s*(.*)".

[k0ste]

You already have the BMC address in __param_target or __address__ label. Enjoy it

[aminvakil]

@k0ste That's not the case, we're scraping ipmi_exporter which has been installed on operation system, iLO IP address is different than operating system.

[k0ste]

@k0ste That's not the case, we're scraping ipmi_exporter which has been installed on operation system, iLO IP address is different than operating system.

It is worth considering that this mode is not tested in a broad sense, since it has limited usage. See #243 (comment)

It is not entirely clear what you do when your server is unreachable (ipmi_exporter & other exporters are not up). How do you access BMC now, without knowing the address?

[aminvakil]

We have a map of our IP addresses / iLO addresses definitely, but we wanted to use this new feature to see if we can double check our offline map which gets outdated after changing IPs, moving servers, and so on.

It would be a more reliable source to retrieve iLO IP address from OS for sure after OS has been installed.

[bitfehler]

@mafazely the PR you point out yourself was merged, so if you are using a recent enough version, it should very much be there. Is it not working? Please note that some BMCs do not provide this. If it's not working, please provide the output of bmc-info run against your hardware.

[mafazely]

here's the output of bmc-info from my server:

$ sudo bmc-info 
Device ID             : 19
Device Revision       : 2
Device SDRs           : unsupported
Firmware Revision     : 2.82
Device Available      : yes (normal operation)
IPMI Version          : 2.0
Sensor Device         : supported
SDR Repository Device : supported
SEL Device            : supported
FRU Inventory Device  : supported
IPMB Event Receiver   : unsupported
IPMB Event Generator  : unsupported
Bridge                : unsupported
Chassis Device        : supported
Manufacturer ID       : Hewlett-Packard (11)
Product ID            : 8192

Device GUID : xxx

System GUID : xxx

System Firmware Version       : P89 11/23/2021
System Name                   : ProLiant DL360 Gen9
Primary Operating System Name : 
Operating System Name         : 
Present OS Version Number     : 

Channel Information

Channel Number       : 0
Medium Type          : IPMB (I2C)
Protocol Type        : IPMB-1.0
Active Session Count : 0
Session Support      : session-less
Vendor ID            : Intelligent Platform Management Interface forum (7154)

Channel Number       : 2
Medium Type          : 802.3 LAN
Protocol Type        : IPMB-1.0
Active Session Count : 0
Session Support      : multi-session
Vendor ID            : Intelligent Platform Management Interface forum (7154)

Channel Number       : 7
Medium Type          : OEM
Protocol Type        : KCS
Active Session Count : 0
Session Support      : session-less
Vendor ID            : Intelligent Platform Management Interface forum (7154)

Channel Number       : 64
Medium Type          : unknown
Protocol Type        : unknown
Active Session Count : 122
Session Support      : unknown
Vendor ID             : 3078848988

Channel Number       : 79
Medium Type          : OEM
Protocol Type        : Reserved
Active Session Count : 0
Session Support      : unknown
Vendor ID            : Enran Telecom (21980)

Channel Number       : 252
Medium Type          : unknown
Protocol Type        : unknown
Active Session Count : 72
Session Support      : unknown
Vendor ID             : 1221419008

Channel Number       : 254
Medium Type          : OEM
Protocol Type        : Reserved
Active Session Count : 0
Session Support      : unknown
Vendor ID            : Enran Telecom (21980)

Channel Number       : 96
Medium Type          : unknown
Protocol Type        : unknown
Active Session Count : 122
Session Support      : unknown
Vendor ID             : 1221419104

Channel Number       : 254
Medium Type          : OEM
Protocol Type        : Reserved
Active Session Count : 0
Session Support      : unknown
Vendor ID            : Deltares (32591)

Channel Number       : 64
Medium Type          : unknown
Protocol Type        : unknown
Active Session Count : 122
Session Support      : unknown
Vendor ID             : 2053101696

Channel Number       : 64
Medium Type          : unknown
Protocol Type        : unknown
Active Session Count : 122
Session Support      : unknown
Vendor ID             : 3078856388

Channel Number       : 79
Medium Type          : OEM
Protocol Type        : Reserved
Active Session Count : 0
Session Support      : unknown
Vendor ID            : Enran Telecom (21980)

Channel Number       : 170
Medium Type          : unknown
Protocol Type        : unknown
Active Session Count : 183
Session Support      : unknown
Vendor ID             : 2053104192

$ sudo bmc-info -V
bmc-info - 1.6.6
Copyright (C) 2003-2015 FreeIPMI Core Team

Let me know if you spot anything off! Thank u.

[bitfehler]

There is no BMC URL in there, so the exporter can't know it. I don't think there is anything I can do about this, or I am misunderstanding your request.

[aminvakil]

There is no BMC URL in there, so the exporter can't know it. I don't think there is anything I can do about this, or I am misunderstanding your request.

You're right, as my colleague has said:

This is because the bmc-info command from FreeIPMI does not include the BMC network settings in its output, as discussed in PR #219.

We just wanted to make sure if there is an alternative for bmc-info which we can use and maybe whip up a PR about it, or maybe we're looking at wrong place or something else.

I guess this is not related to ipmi_exporter then, and we can close this issue.