OpenBSD 3.9 Adds Sensor Framework

wbglinks writes to tell us ZDNet is reporting that the newest version of OpenBSD will include a sensor framework to help system administrators keep tabs on the environmental conditions of their servers. From the article: "At present, there are a number of commercial products that allow the environmental conditions of servers to be monitored, but different brands of server require different products. For example, Dell PowerEdge servers use the Embedded Server Management tool, while Sun Fire Servers use Sun's Remote System Control. This can make server management tricky when running a heterogeneous architecture. OpenBSD 3.9, which is scheduled for release on 1 May, includes support for the sensors and the sensor management tools used on a number of architectures."

Comments

Should it be in?

[onion2k]

"No other major commercial operating system has this feature," claimed de Raadt. "The Linux security patch PaX has some of this stuff, but it's not part of the default kernel."

I'm not sure if Theo's comment was aimed as a criticism or just a statement of fact, but I'd question whether or not it should it be part of the kernel by default. Does it need to be? I can see the benefit of patching it in if you need it, but sensor monitoring is a pretty niche feature that a large number of people don't need. In the case of Linux where lots of installations aren't servers with this sort of hardware I reckon it *should* be an option that you only compile in if you want it.