Evaluate FreeIPMI alternatives

[zjkyz8]

Hi guys,
I have a question about why we use FreeIPMI instead of ipmiutil, as I test, ipmiutil compatibility is better than FreeIPMI, is there any plan to switch from FreeIPMI to ipmiutil, or you can accept a MR about ipmiutil replacement？ Thank you very much.

[bitfehler]

Hi there!

To be honest, I had never heard of ipmiutil before. It is not included in my distro (Arch Linux), the AUR package is apparently broken and unmaintained, so I cannot currently properly test it without putting some more effort into it.

However, the decision for FreeIPMI over e.g. ipmitool was made due to FreeIPMI providing easily machine-readable output. Taking a quick look at the example output at http://ipmiutil.sourceforge.net/man.htm#isensor for example makes me think that ipmiutil does not do very well on that front either.

That said, allowing for different IPMI implementation is something I once considered, so if you can convince me that the ipmiutil can provide at least most of the metrics that are currently supported in a stable, easily-to-parse format then it is something I would consider...

[grawlinson]

I'm the AUR package maintainer for prometheus-ipmi-exporter and freeipmi and I currently use them both in production, so I have a bit of a vested interest in ensuring that a change like this wouldn't break my current setup.

I would assume that any MRs would just provide the ability to switch between different IPMI backends?

[SuperQ]

There are also a couple of pure go IPMI client implementation libraries out there now.

[bitfehler]

There are also a couple of pure go IPMI client implementation libraries out there now.

A quick search turned up https://github.com/k-sone/ipmigo, https://github.com/vmware/goipmi, and https://github.com/shibingli/ipmigod, all which seem to be unmaintained. As IPMI has a lot of quirks, I doubt any of these are a suitable replacement at the moment, but if you think otherwise or know of other implementations I'd be interested.

I would assume that any MRs would just provide the ability to switch between different IPMI backends?

Yes, I don't intend to replace FreeIPMI. Offering choice might be nice, but also only if the effort makes sense.

[dswarbrick]

Adding another Go IPMI implementation to the list: https://github.com/bougou/go-ipmi

It seems to be actively maintained.

[bitfehler]

@dswarbrick that one does look very promising indeed, thanks for bringing it to my attention