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 follows:

StartIPMIPollers=3

Save the file and restart zabbix_server.

On the monitored device side, add a user that Zabbix can 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, the web interface, or using some other method. Consult vendor-specific documentation for details on this step.