Management boards as dedicated hosts
This article explains how to monitor management boards as dedicated hosts and migrate from the deprecated Management board configuration to IPMI and SNMP monitoring.
APPLICABLE TO CHECKMK 1.6 AND ABOVE
Overview
This article explains why management boards should be monitored as dedicated hosts and how to migrate away from the deprecated Management board configuration in the host properties.
The Management board configuration in the host properties is currently still available. However, it is deprecated and will be removed in a future Checkmk version. To avoid losing management board monitoring when this happens, migrate to dedicated monitoring using the IPMI Sensors via Freeipmi or IPMItool rule and, where applicable, SNMP.
For additional background and examples, see the Checkmk blog article Monitoring management boards with Checkmk.
Background
This article explains why management boards should be monitored as dedicated hosts and how to migrate away from the deprecated Management board configuration in the host properties.
The Management board configuration in the host properties is currently still available. However, it is deprecated and will be removed in a future Checkmk version. To avoid losing management board monitoring when this happens, migrate to dedicated monitoring using the IPMI Sensors via Freeipmi or IPMItool rule and, where applicable, SNMP.
For additional background and examples, see the Checkmk blog article Monitoring management boards with Checkmk.
Migrate from the Management board configuration
The existing Management board configuration in the host properties can still be used, but Checkmk displays a warning that this feature will be deprecated in a future version.
Rather than continuing to configure management boards there, migrate IPMI monitoring to the IPMI Sensors via Freeipmi or IPMItool rule. You can find the rule by searching for its name in Setup or by following the IPMI link displayed in the deprecation warning.
Migrating before the old configuration is removed prevents an interruption in management board monitoring.
Configure IPMI monitoring
Create or edit the IPMI Sensors via Freeipmi or IPMItool rule and configure it for the management board.
After configuring the rule, activate the changes and perform a new service discovery on the management board host. The IPMI services provided by the management board should then appear as newly discovered services.
Configure SNMP monitoring
If the management board also provides information through SNMP, configure SNMP for the dedicated management board host.
This allows Checkmk to retrieve both types of information from the same management board host:
IPMI data through the IPMI Sensors via Freeipmi or IPMItool rule.
SNMP data through the host's SNMP configuration.
Using a dedicated host is particularly useful here because you can configure and tune IPMI and SNMP monitoring independently from monitoring of the operating system. For example, if the management board's SNMP interface requires a different check interval, changing it does not affect the Checkmk agent monitoring of the operating system.
Management boards and virtual hosts
IPMI is normally provided by a physical server's management controller. Therefore, when working with virtual systems, such as a virtual Kubernetes cluster, first determine what device is actually providing the IPMI data.
If the virtual host or cluster does not have a management board, there might be no IPMI endpoint to configure. If the device you want to monitor provides its management information only through SNMP, configure SNMP monitoring instead.
The important distinction is between the operating system or virtual workload being monitored and the physical management interface that provides IPMI or SNMP data.
Recommended host structure
Create the management board as a separate host in Checkmk rather than attaching it to the operating system host. This reflects the fact that the management board and operating system are independently reachable and can have different monitoring states.
Use a hostname that makes the relationship clear. For example, if the operating system host is myhost, the management board could be named mgmt-myhost or myhost-mgmt.
This results in a cleaner separation:
myhost
└── Checkmk agent monitoring of the operating system
mgmt-myhost
├── IPMI Sensors via Freeipmi or IPMItool
└── SNMP monitoring