Re: [Freeipmi-devel] in need of guidance...

[Albert Chu]

Oh ...

On Tue, 2011-06-28 at 02:28 -0700, Arnaud Quette wrote:
> 
> 2011/6/27 Al Chu <address@hidden>
>         Hi Arnaud,
> 
> Hi Al,
> 
> thanks for your answer
>  
>         On Sat, 2011-06-25 at 15:46 -0700, Arnaud Quette wrote:
>         > IPMI fellows,
>         >
>         > first, congrats for the FreeIPMI project. it's a cool piece
>         of
>         > software ;-)
>         
>         
>         Thanks.
>         
>         > I'm currently having a look at IPMI to implement a PSU
>         monitor driver
>         > for the NUT project:
>         >
>         
> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ServerOneiricInfraPower#NUT_PSU_.2BAC8_native_IPMI_driver
>         >
>         > I've had a look at the various IPMI implementations out
>         there, and
>         > FreeIPMI seems the most suitable.
>         > I've then had a look at FreeIPMI docs, code, svn, examples,
>         contrib,
>         > and there I got lost!
>         > the code is very complex and hidden in many abstraction
>         layers. And
>         > docs and examples are not very helpful.
>         > I also don't see pkg-config supports files (.pc).
>         > Have I missed something? or isn't it developer friendly :(
>         
>         
>         It depends on what you're trying to develop.  A few libs, like
>         libipmimonitoring and libipmiconsole are very suitable for
>         high level
>         views of IPMI.  It's what a number of other developers use to
>         do IPMI
>         stuff for monitoring and console access.
> 
> NUT drivers are simple daemons that acquire data from UPS / PDU /
> SCD / PSU, and provide access to the specific protocol through a
> generic namespace and interface.
> 
> Here is the skeleton driver, as an example:
> http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/nut/trunk/drivers/skel.c?view=co&revision=2722&content-type=text%2Fplain
> 
> There are few hooks to init acquisition, then data, and update these
> data.
> Other hooks are available for doing settings and instant command
> (power up, shut dow, launch a test, ...)
> 
> 
>         However, most of what's in libfreeipmi is at an abstraction
>         level where
>         you need to know details from the IPMI specification to know
>         what you're
>         doing.
>         
>         > I've got the attached output from ipmi-fru and ipmi-sensors
>         > I'd like to do the exact same thing (ie identify and get all
>         PSU
>         > information and events), but looking at the code and docs, I
>         still
>         > don't see the light.
>         
>         
>         So what I gather is that you're looking to be able to program
>         access to
>         the FRU and sensors, rather than do it via scripts from the
>         tools?
> 
> indeed.
> as mentioned above, I want a daemon, written in C, getting the PSU's
> FRU and sensors info at init, and then monitoring status (ie PSU
> fault, removed, ...).
> 
> These links are detailing a bit the "why":
> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ServerOneiricInfraPower#NUT_PSU_.2BAC8_native_IPMI_driver
> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ServerOneiricInfraPower#PowerChain_implementation
>  
>         With the current library everything you need is there.  But
>         it's not at
>         an abstraction level that will probably give you a very easy
>         interface.
> 
> this is indeed the conclusion I came to.
>  
>         I can describe in more detail the steps you'd have to take if
>         you're
>         interested
> 
> I'm *very* interested in!
> this could even serve as a simple example, shipped in the examples/
> directory.
> 
> a final question: you've not answered on pkg-config support.
> I can provide a patch if needed...

I'm not personally familiar with the use of pkg-config.  With what I see
online, shouldn't autoconf/configure be more than suitable?  I suppose
if it doesn't break the normal autoconf/automake, then I'd be fine
adding a patch.  Is it used alongside other build systems??

Al

> thanks again Al, and a good day to Jim (Garlick) if you see him at
> LLNL ;-)
> 
> cheers,
> Arnaud
> -- 
> Linux / Unix Expert R&D - Eaton - http://powerquality.eaton.com
> Network UPS Tools (NUT) Project Leader -
> http://www.networkupstools.org/
> Debian Developer - http://www.debian.org
> Free Software Developer - http://arnaud.quette.free.fr/
> 
-- 
Albert Chu
address@hidden
Computer Scientist
High Performance Systems Division
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory