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

sensors and slashdotting

[cabinetsoft]

De Raadt has already been using the sensor framework to monitor the machines running in the project's server room. "I now get a call on my cell phone whenever something is wrong in the machine room," he said.

and I bet the temperature warning reads something along the lines of "Link to your site posted on slashdot.org"

Re:Should it be in?

[Anonymous Coward]

If you RTFA, you can see that that quotation was taken out of context. Theo was discussing fully random memory allocation to prevent buffer overflow. As far as I know, sensor monitoring is available quite easily in Linux.

Re:About time

[Anonymous Coward]

"Now Linux had this functionality how many years ago?"

If by "functionality" you mean hodge-podge of barely compatible tools written by some high scool kid in his mum's basement and that fail to actually define a sensible engineered framework, then yes I suppose so. Jesus Tap Dancing Christ, Linux sucks ass.

Which means...

[MadMirko]

... they add support for BMC and IPMI?

Which, while fine in itself, is hardly a groundbreaking achievment for an OS, or is it? At least Windows has done that for years, and I believe Linux does as well (at least we have a working "sensor" implementation on a few RedHat / HP servers).

Re:Should it be in?

[bensch128]

There's lots of niche features which are in the main branch of the kernel.

NUMA, OMAP, powerPC, and the list goes on and on.

However, I think it would be VERY cool to be able to query /dev/tempsensor1 for the tempature of my motherboard or CPU. Might even be able to do something useful with it.

Cheers,
Ben

Re:File cabinets and fires

[merdaccia]

Remember when you could go back to work on Monday and find a disaster that would take you three weeks of painstaking work to fix because you had no way of knowing a fan died?

Re:File cabinets and fires

[eraserewind]

Ah, the good old days!

Re:What about ACPI?

[ThePhilips]

IIRC Intel's ACPI code was included in Kernel long time ago. It's just ACPI has nothing to do with sensors. (http://acpi.sourceforge.net/)

Sensors it's LM78 project. But. Not on single Linux instalation I've had luck with sensor installation. )-: Most of the time lm78 reported me nothing - given it found any sensors at all...

P.S. Overall, due to separate development of kernel and libc, Linux development rarely results in any kind of API or framework. (Well, except the even rarer case when both developers - libc & kernel ones - happen to be employed by Red Hat.)

Re:Welcome to....

[Triumph The Insult C]

this sensor framework is integrated into the base install. it is managed and developed by the openbsd developers, not a third party group where changes still have to get imported

the framework supports a lot of sensors. along with sensorsd(9), it is a large improvement over what has been available for other OSes