To gather data using IPMI, Zabbix must be configured accordingly, and the device must accept connections from Zabbix. If you installed Zabbix from packages, IPMI support should be available. If you compiled Zabbix Server from source, OpenIPMI library support should be included as well. To be sure, check the startup messages in the server log file. Make sure the line about IPMI says YES:

IPMI monitoring:           YES

That is not enough yet—by default, Zabbix Server is configured to not start any IPMI pollers; thus, any added IPMI items won't work. To change this, open zabbix_server.conf and look for the following line:

# StartIPMIPollers=0

Uncomment it and set the poller count to 3, so that it reads as this:

StartIPMIPollers=3

Save the file and restart zabbix_server.

On the monitored device side, add a user that Zabbix would use. The IPMI standard specifies various privilege levels, and for monitoring, the user level might be the most appropriate. The configuration of IPMI users could be done using the vendor-supplied command line tools, web interface, or some other method. Consult the vendor-specific documentation for the details on this step.