Check ipmi-sensor

Overview

Checks IPMI sensor readings (temperature, voltage, fan speed, power, etc.) using ipmitool. Alerts when any sensor reports a non-ok status. Provides detailed output including current values, thresholds, and sensor states. Requires root or sudo.

Important Notes:

  • Tested on Supermicro BMC and HPE iLO

  • Requires hardware with an IPMI interface

  • Discrete sensors are not supported and are silently skipped.

  • Requires the ipmitool command-line tool to be installed.

Data Collection:

  • Executes ipmitool sensor list locally or against a remote BMC/iLO via IPMI over LAN

  • For remote access, supports both IPMI v1.5 (--interface=lan) and IPMI v2.0 (--interface=lanplus)

  • Emits perfdata for every threshold-based sensor with IPMI-reported warning, critical, and min/max values

Fact Sheet

Fact

Value

Check Plugin Download

https://github.com/Linuxfabrik/monitoring-plugins/tree/main/check-plugins/ipmi-sensor

Nagios/Icinga Check Name

check_ipmi_sensor

Check Interval Recommendation

Every 15 minutes

Can be called without parameters

Yes

Runs on

Cross-platform

Compiled for Windows

No

Requirements

ipmitool

Help

usage: ipmi-sensor [-h] [-V] [--authtype {NONE,PASSWORD,MD2,MD5,OEM}]
                   [-H HOSTNAME] [--interface {lan,lanplus}]
                   [--password PASSWORD] [--port PORT]
                   [--privlevel {CALLBACK,USER,OPERATOR,ADMINISTRATOR}]
                   [--test TEST] [--username USERNAME]

Checks IPMI sensor readings (temperature, voltage, fan speed, power, etc.)
using ipmitool. Alerts when any sensor reports a non-ok status. Provides
detailed output including current values, thresholds, and sensor states.
Requires root or sudo.

options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -V, --version         show program's version number and exit
  --authtype {NONE,PASSWORD,MD2,MD5,OEM}
                        Authentication type for IPMIv1.5 lan session
                        activation. Supported types are NONE, PASSWORD, MD2,
                        MD5, or OEM. Default: NONE
  -H, --hostname HOSTNAME
                        Remote server address, can be a hostname or IP
                        address. Required for lan and lanplus interfaces.
  --interface {lan,lanplus}
                        IPMI interface to use. Supported types are "lan" (IPMI
                        v1.5) or "lanplus" (IPMI v2.0). Default: lan
  --password PASSWORD   Remote server password.
  --port PORT           Remote server UDP port to connect to. Default: 623
  --privlevel {CALLBACK,USER,OPERATOR,ADMINISTRATOR}
                        Force session privilege level. Can be CALLBACK, USER,
                        OPERATOR, ADMINISTRATOR. Default: USER
  --test TEST           For unit tests. Needs "path-to-stdout-file,path-to-
                        stderr-file,expected-retc".
  --username USERNAME   Remote server username. Default: NULL

Usage Examples

./ipmi-sensor --privlevel USER --interface lanplus --hostname 10.100.184.29 --username 'user' --password 'pa$$word'

Output:

Everything is ok, checked 60 sensors.

States

  • OK if all sensors report „ok“ status.

  • WARN if any sensor is in „nc“ (non-critical) state.

  • CRIT if any sensor is in „cr“ (critical) state.

  • CRIT if any sensor is in „nr“ (non-recoverable) state, indicating possible hardware damage.

  • UNKNOWN if ipmitool is not found or returns an error.

Perfdata / Metrics

Perfdata depends on the hardware. Sensor names have spaces replaced with underscores. Example metrics from a Supermicro system:

Name

Type

Description

12V

Number

12V rail voltage reading.

3.3VCC

Number

3.3V rail voltage reading.

5VCC

Number

5V rail voltage reading.

CPU_Temp

Number

CPU temperature reading.

DIMMA1_Temp

Number

DIMM A1 temperature reading.

FAN1

Number

Fan 1 speed reading.

System_Temp

Number

System temperature reading.

The actual metrics vary per hardware platform. Warning and critical thresholds in perfdata are taken from the IPMI-reported upper non-critical and upper critical values.

Credits, License