[Freeipmi-devel] FreeIPMI 0.7.1 Released

[Al Chu]

Howdy everyone,

FreeIPMI 0.7.1 is now released.

http://ftp.zresearch.com/pub/freeipmi/0.7.1/

Summary of major changes:

1) New tool ipmi-chassis-config replaces a number of the options in
   ipmi-chassis.  It offers additional chassis configuration and
   utilizes the config file --checkout/--commit style of the other
   FreeIPMI tools (i.e. bmc-config, ipmi-sensors-config, etc.).

2) A config file (/etc/freeipmi.conf file) is now supported.  The
   intention is to A) remove the need to always type in a long list of
   command line options, and B) securely store username, password,
   etc. information, for most of FreeIPMI. See freeipmi.conf(5) for
   info.

3) The outputs and conditions for certain outputs in ipmi-sensors and
   ipmimonitoring have been changed.  They are subtle.  For example,
   in ipmi-sensors.

   Suppose a power supply sensor exists for a power supply that is not
   installed.  If the sensor is enabled on the motherboard,
   ipmi-sensors would likely report "OK".  If the sensor is disabled
   on the motherboard, ipmi-sensors would now likely report "NA".
   Previously, "OK" would have been reported under both conditions.

   "NA" is also output for sensors whose slave addresses are not the
   BMC.

   Under non-verbose modes, the output strings for a number of sensors
   has been slightly altered for readability.  For example:

   "Fully Redundant (formerly \"Redundancy Regained\")"

   (which is copied straight from the IPMI spec)

   is now

   "Fully Redundant".

   For ipmimonitoring, the changes above are identical except NA
   sensors will not be output (unless ipmimonitoring's verbosity is
   increased).

   Also in ipmimonitoring, if not bitmask strings are reported,
   ipmimonitoring now reports a generic string of "OK" rather than an
   empty string.

4) Support sensor bridging to other devices.  With the
   --bridge-sensors option in ipmimonitoring and ipmi-sensors, sensors
   not owned by the BMC will be attempted to be read/accessed (this
   sensors typically will show up as "NA" on ipmi-sensors and
   ipmimonitoring).

5) Ganglia and Nagios monitoring scripts are now available for
   download on the FreeIPMI webpage.

Detailed changes:

0.7.1 - 11/07/08
----------------

Tools - New Significant Additions/Features
------------------------------------------

o Add new tool ipmi-chassis-config for chassis configuration, such as
  boot device and power restore policy configuration.
o Add new tool bmc-device to support advanced BMC commands including
  cold reset, warm reset, setting BMC times, and more.
o Support FreeIPMI configuration file for most tools (bmc-config,
  bmc-info, bmc-device, bmc-watchdog, ipmi-chassis,
  ipmi-chassis-config, ipmi-fru, ipmi-oem, ipmi-raw, ipmi-sel,
  ipmi-sensors, ipmi-sensors-config, ipmiconsole, ipmimonitoring,
  ipmipower, pef-config) to avoid typing common options on the command
  line.  See freeipmi.conf(5) for more information.
o Add hostrange support to all config tools (bmc-config, pef-config,
  ipmi-sensors-config, ipmi-chassis-config) to support parallel
  configuration on a cluster.
o Support --bridge-sensors in ipmi-sensors and ipmimonitoring to
  access non-BMC owned sensors (experimental).
o Support --sensor-config-file on ipmimonitoring to support alternate
  interpretation rules.
o Add additional "connection timeout" error message to tools to
  differentiate between no IPMI communication at all vs. session
  timeout in the middle of a command's operations.
o Support hysteresis and sensor event configuration in
  ipmi-sensors-config.
o Support additional sensor monitoring interpretations in
  ipmimonitoring.
o Output additional sensor information in ipmi-sensors under verbose
  modes, such as lun, channel and event enable information.
o Support --always-prefix option in most tools for easier scripting.
o Support --sdr-cache-recreate in all SDR related tools for easier
  scripting.
o Support --guid option in bmc-info to retrieve global ID (guid).
o Support "SUNBMC" in-band driver for Solaris (experimental).  Please
  see README.sunbmc for compilation instructions.

Tools - Enhancements/Changes/Bug Fixes
--------------------------------------
o Global in most tools
  - Rename --no-probing option to --disable-auto-probe for consistency
    in FreeIPMI.  Backwards compatability maintained.
o Global in config tools (bmc-config, pef-config, ipmi-sensors-config)
  - More carefully check for fatal vs. non-fatal errors when
    performing configuration.  This change may result in slight
    behavior differences.  For example, a session-timeout may have
    previously been considered a non-fatal error, making the config
    tools continue on attempting more configuration activities.  Now,
    it would error out on the first session-timeout indication.
o ipmi-sensors
  - Check variety of corner cases such as whether sensor readings,
    hysteresis, thresholds, etc. are even available before reading
    them.  Some sensors may output slightly different information than
    before.  For example, suppose a power supply sensor exists for a
    power supply that is not installed.  If the sensor is enabled on
    the motherboard, ipmi-sensors would likely report "OK".  If the
    sensor is disabled on the motherboard, ipmi-sensors would now
    likely report "NA".  Previously, "OK" would have been reported
    under both conditions.
  - Output "NA" for sensors whose slave addresses are not the BMC.
  - Output "Unknown" for sensors whose readings cannot be determined.
  - Output multiple sensor status messages on separate lines, rather
    than all on one line under verbose modes.
  - Output "Unrecognized State" if the sensor specifies a state that
    is unrecognized.
  - Busy sensors are now output with "Unknown" instead of causing
    errors.
  - When fields are not relevant, do not output as much information in
    verbose and very verbose mode.  For example, don't output
    hysteresis or threshold information for power supply sensors.
  - Alter some output ordering for consistency to IPMI spec.
  - Shorten/adjust some state strings for readability under
    non-verbose output.  For example, "Fully Redundant (formerly
    "Redundancy Regained")" is now just "Fully Redundant".
  - Change default privilege from user to operator.
o ipmimonitoring
  - Support -v verbose option to output sensors readings that aren't
    readable.
  - Check corner case for sensor readability.  May lead to slightly
    different output in ipmimonitoring.  For example, suppose a power
    supply sensor exists for a power supply that is not installed.  If
    the sensor is enabled on the motherboard, ipmimonitoring would
    normally report "Nominal".  If the sensor is disabled on the
    motherboard, ipmimonitoring would normally not output a sensor
    state (it would output "N/A" under verbose mode). Previously,
    "Nominal" would have been reported under both conditions.
  - Consider sensors without BMC slave addresses unreadable.  May
    result in sensors not being output like before.
  - Busy sensors may result in sensors not being output rather than
    causing errors.
  - Output "Unrecognized State" if the sensor specifies a state that
    is unrecognized.
  - Output multiple bitmask strings if multiple bits are set.
  - Output "OK", similarly to ipmi-sensors when no bitmask strings are
    returned from a sensor reading.
  - Shorten/adjust some state strings for readability.  For example,
    "Fully Redundant (formerly "Redundancy Regained")" is now just
    "Fully Redundant".
  - Change default privilege from user to operator.
o ipmipower
  - Removed many early experimental features from ipmipower so
    ipmipower is more like other tools.  Removed ipmi-version,
    cipher-suite-id, privilege-level, and authentication-type auto
    discovery. Removed ability to enable/disable a number of
    experimental features.
  - Changed --config to --config-file in ipmipower for consistency to
    other tools.  Backwards compatability maintiained.
  - Replace --ipmi-version option with --driver-type.  Backwards
    compatability maintained.
  - Removed hostname config file option.  Require users to always
    input atleast hostname.
  - Changed primary config file to /etc/freeipmi.conf.  Legacy config
    file searched for and still supported.
  - Prefixed config file options with 'ipmipower' for consistency to
    new global FreeIPMI config file.  Old options still supported.
o bmc-config
  - Support configuration of UserN:Lan_Session_Limit and
    UserN:Serial_Session_Limit (where N is a user id number).
  - By default, do not output unsupported authentication type enables
    when checking out the Lan_Conf_Auth section.  Output unsupported
    authentication type enables under verbose output.
  - By default, do not output serial configuration parameters on
    checkout.  Output serial configuration under verbose output.
  - Remove checkout of "Misc" section and "Power_Restore_Policy"
    field, which is now handled by ipmi-chassis-config.  Backwards
    compatability commit and diff maintained.
  - Remove case sensitivity when checking a number of fields.
o ipmi-chassis
  - Alter ipmi-chassis output to print "unknown" when field is not
    known.
  - Alter some ipmi-chassis output text to be more consistent to IPMI
    spec.
  - Hide configuration options now supported in ipmi-chassis-config.
o ipmi-fru
  - Output FRU device names along with IDs in ipmi-fru.
  - Reduce excessive newline outputs in ipmi-fru.
  - Output more information by default.  Change the output of verbose
    vs. very verbose output.
o ipmi-sel
  - Change default privilege from user to operator.
  - Search of SDR records by sensor number and sensor owner id.
  - Support SEL Event Record debug dumping.
o ipmiconsole
  - Support --session-timeout and --retransmission-timeout options.
  - Removed -C short option for consistency to other tools.
  - Removed hostname config file option.  Require users to always
    input atleast hostname.
  - Changed primary config file to /etc/freeipmi.conf.  Legacy config
    file searched for and still supported.
  - Prefixed config file options with 'ipmiconsole' for consistency to
    new global FreeIPMI config file.  Old options still supported.
o bmc-watchdog
  - Remove legacy 'v' option for version.

Libraries
---------
o libfreeipmi
  - Add additional IPMI commands.
  - Support new "connection timeout" error message.
  - Support new "command invalid for selected interface" error
    message.
  - Support ipmb bridging in KCS, OPENIPMI, LAN, and LAN_2_0
    interfaces.
  - Check for additional corner cases in fiid API.
  - Support SUNBMC driver.
o libipmimonitoring
  - Support new "connection timeout" error message.
  - Handle variety of corner case situations better, such as dealing
    with sensor readings that are unavailable.
  - Provide more information to user on unreadable/uninterpretable
    sensor readings.
  - Support SUNBMC driver.
  - Provide new IPMI_MONITORING_SENSOR_READING_FLAGS_BRIDGE_SENSORS
    flag.
  - Support several new sensor interpretation rules.
  - Return short message strings in ipmi_monitoring_bitmask_string().
o Various naming consistency fixes to IPMI specification.
o Various minor bug fixes.

Contributions
-------------
o Ganglia plugin scripts ganglia_ipmimonitoring.pl and
  ganglia_ipmi_sensors.pl.
o Nagios plugin script nagios_ipmimonitoring.pl.

Al

-- 
Albert Chu
address@hidden
Computer Scientist
High Performance Systems Division
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory