Now that we have the host part of IPMI connectivity sorted out, it's time to create actual items. Make sure Linux servers is selected in the Group drop-down, then click on Items next to the IPMI host, and then click on Create item. Enter these values:
- Name: System Fan 2 (or, if your IPMI-capable device does not provide such a sensor, choose another useful sensor)
- Type: IPMI agent
- Key: System_Fan_2
- IPMI sensor: System Fan 2
- Units: !RPM
When done, click on the Add button at the bottom.
For this item type, the item key is only used as an item identifier, and we could enter any string in there. We opted to use the sensor name with spaces replaced by underscores to make it easier to identify the item in trigger expressions and other places. The IPMI sensor name will determine what data will be collected.
On some devices, the sensor name could have a trailing space. This is not obvious from the default sensor output in ipmitool. If the sensor name seems correct but querying it from Zabbix fails, try to retrieve data for a single sensor from the Zabbix server:
$ ipmitool -U zabbix -H <IP address of the IPMI host> -I lanplus -L user sensor get "System Fan 2"
This will print detailed information for that sensor. If it fails, the sensor name is probably incorrect.
Let's check out the results of our work; open Monitoring | Latest data and then select IPMI host in the filter:
Notice how the value is displayed fully and is not shortened to 3.3K. The !RPM unit is still included in a hardcoded unit blacklist, and items that use such units do not get the unit multiplier prefix added, but it's best to use the ! as this is the new way of blacklisting, plus it allows us to be more flexible. We will discuss the unit blacklist in more detail in Chapter 20, Zabbix Maintenance.
Great! The hardware state information is being gathered correctly. What's even better, this information is retrieved independently of the installed operating system or specific agents, and is retrieved even if there is no operating system running, or even installed.