IPMI Sensor and Parquet Integration

Input and output integration overview

The IPMI Sensor Plugin facilitates the collection of server health metrics directly from hardware via the IPMI protocol, querying sensor data from either local or remote systems.

This plugin writes metrics to parquet files, utilizing a schema based on the metrics grouped by name. It supports file rotation and buffered writing for optimal performance.

Integration details

IPMI Sensor

The IPMI Sensor plugin is designed to gather bare metal metrics via the command line utility ipmitool, which interfaces with the Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI). This protocol provides management and monitoring capabilities for hardware components in server systems, allowing for the retrieval of critical system health metrics such as temperature, fan speeds, and power supply status from both local and remote servers. When configured without specified servers, the plugin defaults to querying the local machine’s sensor statistics using the ipmitool sdr command. In scenarios covering remote hosts, authentication is supported through username and password using the command format ipmitool -I lan -H SERVER -U USERID -P PASSW0RD sdr. This flexibility allows users to monitor systems effectively across various environments. The plugin also supports multiple sensor types, including chassis power status and DCMI power readings, catering to administrators needing real-time insight into server operations.

Parquet

The Parquet output plugin for Telegraf writes metrics to parquet files, which are columnar storage formats optimized for analytics. By default, this plugin groups metrics by their name, writing them to a single file. If a metric’s schema does not align with existing schemas, those metrics are dropped. The plugin generates an Apache Arrow schema based on all grouped metrics, ensuring that the schema reflects the union of all fields and tags. It operates in a buffered manner, meaning it temporarily holds metrics in memory before writing them to disk for efficiency. Parquet files require proper closure to ensure readability, and this is crucial when using the plugin, as improper closure can lead to unreadable files. Additionally, the plugin supports file rotation after specific time intervals, preventing overwrites of existing files and schema conflicts when a file with the same name already exists.

Configuration

IPMI Sensor

[[inputs.ipmi_sensor]]
  ## Specify the path to the ipmitool executable
  # path = "/usr/bin/ipmitool"

  ## Use sudo
  ## Setting 'use_sudo' to true will make use of sudo to run ipmitool.
  ## Sudo must be configured to allow the telegraf user to run ipmitool
  ## without a password.
  # use_sudo = false

  ## Servers
  ## Specify one or more servers via a url. If no servers are specified, local
  ## machine sensor stats will be queried. Uses the format:
  ##  [username[:password]@][protocol[(address)]]
  ##  e.g. root:passwd@lan(127.0.0.1)
  # servers = ["USERID:PASSW0RD@lan(192.168.1.1)"]

  ## Session privilege level
  ## Choose from: CALLBACK, USER, OPERATOR, ADMINISTRATOR
  # privilege = "ADMINISTRATOR"

  ## Timeout
  ## Timeout for the ipmitool command to complete.
  # timeout = "20s"

  ## Metric schema version
  ## See the plugin readme for more information on schema versioning.
  # metric_version = 1

  ## Sensors to collect
  ## Choose from:
  ##   * sdr: default, collects sensor data records
  ##   * chassis_power_status: collects the power status of the chassis
  ##   * dcmi_power_reading: collects the power readings from the Data Center Management Interface
  # sensors = ["sdr"]

  ## Hex key
  ## Optionally provide the hex key for the IMPI connection.
  # hex_key = ""

  ## Cache
  ## If ipmitool should use a cache
  ## Using a cache can speed up collection times depending on your device.
  # use_cache = false

  ## Path to the ipmitools cache file (defaults to OS temp dir)
  ## The provided path must exist and must be writable
  # cache_path = ""

Parquet

[[outputs.parquet]]
  ## Directory to write parquet files in. If a file already exists the output
  ## will attempt to continue using the existing file.
  # directory = "."
  
  ## Files are rotated after the time interval specified. When set to 0 no time
  ## based rotation is performed.
  # rotation_interval = "0h"
  
  ## Timestamp field name
  ## Field name to use to store the timestamp. If set to an empty string, then
  ## the timestamp is omitted.
  # timestamp_field_name = "timestamp"

Input and output integration examples

IPMI Sensor

1. Centralized Monitoring Dashboard: Utilize the IPMI Sensor plugin to gather metrics from multiple servers and compile them into a centralized monitoring dashboard. This enables real-time visibility into server health across data centers. Administrators can track metrics like temperature and power usage, helping them make data-driven decisions about resource allocation, potential failures, and maintenance schedules.

2. Automated Power Alerts: Incorporate the plugin into an alerting system that monitors chassis power status and triggers alerts when anomalies are detected. For instance, if the power status indicates a failure or if watt values exceed expected thresholds, automated notifications can be sent to operations teams, ensuring prompt attention to hardware issues.

3. Energy Consumption Analysis: Leverage the DCMI power readings collected via the plugin to analyze energy consumption patterns of hardware over time. By integrating these readings with analytics platforms, organizations can identify opportunities to reduce power usage, optimize efficiency, and potentially decrease operational costs in large server farms or cloud infrastructures.

4. Health Check Automation: Schedule regular health checks by using the IPMI Sensor Plugin to collect data from a fleet of servers. This data can be logged and compared against historical performance metrics to identify trends, outliers, or signs of impending hardware failure, allowing IT teams to take proactive measures and reduce downtime.

Parquet

1. Data Lake Ingestion: Utilize the Parquet plugin to store metrics from various sources into a data lake. By writing metrics in parquet format, you establish a standardized and efficient way to manage time-series data, enabling faster querying capabilities and seamless integration with analytics tools like Apache Spark or AWS Athena. This setup can significantly improve data retrieval times and analysis workflows.

2. Long-term Storage of Metrics: Implement the Parquet plugin in a monitoring setup where metrics are collected over time from multiple applications. This allows for long-term storage of performance data in a compact format, making it cost-effective to store vast amounts of historical data while preserving the ability for quick retrieval and analysis later on. By archiving metrics in parquet files, organizations can maintain compliance and create detailed reports from historical performance trends.

3. Analytics and Reporting: After writing metrics to parquet files, leverage tools like Apache Arrow or PyArrow to perform complex analytical queries directly on the files without needing to load all the data into memory. This can enhance reporting capabilities, allowing teams to generate insights and visualization from large datasets efficiently, thereby improving decision-making processes based on accurate, up-to-date performance metrics.

4. Integrating with Data Warehouses: Use the Parquet plugin as part of a data integration pipeline that feeds into a modern data warehouse. By converting metrics to parquet format, the data can be easily ingested by systems like Snowflake or Google BigQuery, enabling powerful analytics and business intelligence capabilities that drive actionable insights from the collected metrics.

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