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OpenBSD 3.9 Adds Sensor Framework

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Mon Mar 27, 2006 06:21 AM
from the now-even-my-computers-are-calling-me dept.
Operating Systems BSD
wbglinks writes to tell us ZDNet is reporting that the newest version of OpenBSD will include a sensor framework to help system administrators keep tabs on the environmental conditions of their servers. From the article: "At present, there are a number of commercial products that allow the environmental conditions of servers to be monitored, but different brands of server require different products. For example, Dell PowerEdge servers use the Embedded Server Management tool, while Sun Fire Servers use Sun's Remote System Control. This can make server management tricky when running a heterogeneous architecture. OpenBSD 3.9, which is scheduled for release on 1 May, includes support for the sensors and the sensor management tools used on a number of architectures."

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[+] OpenBSD Project in Financial Danger 610 comments
DieNadel writes "In an entry to the OpenBSD Journal, Marco, from the OpenBSD project, warns about the somewhat disturbing financial situation in which they are now. The OpenBSD team is the one that also develops the OpenSSH suite, used nowadays almost everywhere. From the entry: 'What I want to point out what a lot of people don't seem to realize is that OpenSSH development is paid from the same pool of money as OpenBSD. OpenSSH is in use by millions around the world however the revenue stream just simply isn't there. This is where other projects could help. Without naming entities or projects by name there are others out there that are sitting on some cash. It would be wonderful if these entities could share some of the wealth to keep us going.'"
[+] Theo de Raadt Discusses OpenBSD and Beyond 476 comments
emil writes to tell us that NewsForge (Slashdot Sister Site) is running an interview with OpenBSD project leader Theo de Raadt. In the interview Theo explores the upcoming release of OpenBSD 3.9, continuing financial difficulties, and some of the tension between the OpenBSD team and other businesses that some feel are taking advantage of the free software without giving anything back. In related news the Jem Report has an interesting writeup that expounds on widespread difficulties that could be faced if the OpenBSD project continues its downward spiral because of their parallel development of OpenSSH.
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  • sensors and slashdotting (Score:4, Funny)

    by cabinetsoft (923481) on Monday March 27 2006, @06:28AM (#15001674)
    De Raadt has already been using the sensor framework to monitor the machines running in the project's server room. "I now get a call on my cell phone whenever something is wrong in the machine room," he said.
    and I bet the temperature warning reads something along the lines of "Link to your site posted on slashdot.org"

  • The server confirms it... (Score:1)

    by advocate_one (662832) on Monday March 27 2006, @06:31AM (#15001679)
    it's dead Jim...

  • is_computer_on_fire() (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 27 2006, @06:33AM (#15001684)
    while Sun Fire Servers


    Finally some use for BeOS' is_computer_on_fire() [tycomsystems.com] function!

  • I wonder... (Score:2)

    by Vo0k (760020) on Monday March 27 2006, @06:40AM (#15001706)
    (Last Journal: Wednesday August 18 2004, @07:52AM)
    what's the situation in Linux? Is this the same thing as the 'hardware sensors' modules in the kernel?
    • Re:I wonder... by Anonymous Coward (Score:1) Monday March 27 2006, @06:51AM
    • Re:I wonder... by Slashcrap (Score:1) Monday March 27 2006, @07:32AM

  • Which means... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by MadMirko (231667) on Monday March 27 2006, @06:58AM (#15001756)
    ... they add support for BMC and IPMI?

    Which, while fine in itself, is hardly a groundbreaking achievment for an OS, or is it? At least Windows has done that for years, and I believe Linux does as well (at least we have a working "sensor" implementation on a few RedHat / HP servers).

  • Welcome to.... (Score:3, Informative)

    by diegocgteleline.es (653730) on Monday March 27 2006, @07:19AM (#15001819)
    "There is a significant new sensor framework [in OpenBSD 3.9], which supports voltage sensors, fan sensors, temperature sensors, and so on," said de Raadt. "Such a feature is still missing in Linux and other major operating systems."

    There we go [kernel.org]
  • Have I been missing this section this whole time, or is this something new?

  • snmp/mib support? (Score:2)

    by TheGratefulNet (143330) on Monday March 27 2006, @09:45AM (#15002627)
    for me (my whole world is snmp, it seems) I'd want to know if there is any good progress on getting remote mgmt via snmp working better than it has, in the past.

    for example, sun has the 'platform mib' and 'entity mib' and in these two (as a sum) you can get voltage and fan speed and temperature and even alerts (traps) when thresholds are reached.

    I have not seen the entity mib (for example) on ANY lower end unix platform (freebsd, linux, etc). maybe I have to be the one to write one...

    getting sensor data has always been there, at least on linux. lmsensors worked for me when I used to run linux (I'm now a freebsd guy, though). the trick was getting it in a MIB so that remote polling and trapping could be done in a standard way using standard NMS tools.

  • Other Methods (Score:1)

    by gentimjs (930934) on Monday March 27 2006, @10:31AM (#15003001)
    (Last Journal: Monday November 14 2005, @11:24AM)
    Some are taking a more external route, and are more concerned with data-center level monitoring than system-level. Degree Controls (www.degreec.com) has a new product/service initiative called Adaptivcool which works to monitor and control (intelligently) airflow in a datacenter. Good stuff.
  • The 2.6.X linux kernels all have support for 1wire sensors through a built in kernel module.

    For those of you who aren't familiar with 1wire networking, I suggest checking out www.ibuttonlink.com [ibuttonlink.com] for examples of those devices.

  • Whitebox Servers? (Score:1, Offtopic)

    by WoTG (610710) on Monday March 27 2006, @01:22PM (#15004379)
    (http://print-bingo.com/ | Last Journal: Monday August 04 2003, @12:43AM)
    The article specifically mentions Dell boxes, I wonder what features are available for whitebox servers. I guess it would depend on the motherboard features?

  • Sensorship (Score:2)

    by chuck (477) on Monday March 27 2006, @02:50PM (#15005113)
    (mailto:chux0r@ftml.net)
    I thought Slashdot readers were opposed to sensorship. (*Rimshot*)
  • Wow, this latest move is sure to rocket OpenBSD to the top.

    I mean, the network performace will likely still suck [bulk.fefe.de], especially compared to the competition, but at least now we can monitor our servers!

    Big Brother's [bb4.org] given us this capability for years. Nothing to see here, move along.

  • Not NEW in the slightest... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by evilviper (135110) on Monday March 27 2006, @06:59PM (#15007302)
    (Last Journal: Monday October 15, @11:53PM)
    This "New Sensor Framework" has been in the mainline kernel since 3.5, and working quite well, thank you. I certainly wish other OSes would get this stuff built-in (of course OpenBSD is also lacking a lot of good features that FreeBSD/Linux DO have).

    Setting up lmsensors was an infuriating and disgusting mess on Linux. After an hour of kernel recompliations, and i2c/lmsensors version mis-matches, I just gave-up. I decided to simply parse the output of mbmon (most trivial setup, EVER!).

  • Well if you don't shell out money for shifts and stand by calls don't expect work to get done 24/7. Well at least in most european countries it works this way, don't know about the rest of the world.
    [ Parent ]

  • Re:Should it be in? (Score:2, Informative)

    by thomasweber (757387) on Monday March 27 2006, @06:51AM (#15001724)
    Ehm, in that part of the interview he's talking about "randomised memory allocation", not about sensors.
    [ Parent ]

  • Re:Should it be in? (Score:3, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 27 2006, @06:51AM (#15001731)
    If you RTFA, you can see that that quotation was taken out of context. Theo was discussing fully random memory allocation to prevent buffer overflow. As far as I know, sensor monitoring is available quite easily in Linux.
    [ Parent ]

  • Re:About time (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 27 2006, @06:55AM (#15001747)
    "Now Linux had this functionality how many years ago?"


    If by "functionality" you mean hodge-podge of barely compatible tools written by some high scool kid in his mum's basement and that fail to actually define a sensible engineered framework, then yes I suppose so. Jesus Tap Dancing Christ, Linux sucks ass.

    [ Parent ]
    • Re:About time by MikeBabcock (Score:3) Monday March 27 2006, @11:41AM
      • 1 reply beneath your current threshold.

  • Re:Should it be in? (Score:3, Informative)

    by bensch128 (563853) on Monday March 27 2006, @06:59AM (#15001759)
    There's lots of niche features which are in the main branch of the kernel.

    NUMA, OMAP, powerPC, and the list goes on and on.

    However, I think it would be VERY cool to be able to query /dev/tempsensor1 for the tempature of my motherboard or CPU. Might even be able to do something useful with it.

    Cheers,
    Ben
    [ Parent ]

  • Re:File cabinets and fires (Score:4, Funny)

    by merdaccia (695940) on Monday March 27 2006, @07:06AM (#15001782)
    Remember when you could go back to work on Monday and find a disaster that would take you three weeks of painstaking work to fix because you had no way of knowing a fan died?
    [ Parent ]

  • Re:What about ACPI? (Score:4, Informative)

    by ThePhilips (752041) on Monday March 27 2006, @07:26AM (#15001833)
    (http://vimrc-dissection.blogspot.com/ | Last Journal: Saturday March 24 2007, @07:58AM)
    IIRC Intel's ACPI code was included in Kernel long time ago. It's just ACPI has nothing to do with sensors. (http://acpi.sourceforge.net/ [sourceforge.net])

    Sensors it's LM78 project. But. Not on single Linux instalation I've had luck with sensor installation. )-: Most of the time lm78 reported me nothing - given it found any sensors at all...

    P.S. Overall, due to separate development of kernel and libc, Linux development rarely results in any kind of API or framework. (Well, except the even rarer case when both developers - libc & kernel ones - happen to be employed by Red Hat.)
    [ Parent ]

  • Re:File cabinets and fires (Score:2, Interesting)

    by cabinetsoft (923481) on Monday March 27 2006, @07:41AM (#15001903)
    Remember when you could go home on the weekend and actually enjoy yourself? Sensor management means that you can never be completely away from your cellphone.

    Sensor management or no sensor management it's pretty the same thing... instead of the server dialing / paging you there can be a human dialing / paging you anyway. And of course YOU CAN switch off your cell phone if it's bothering...

    This reminds me of some time back when I used to tech support for a telco logging system. I was out with my friends BBQ-ing in a weekend when I get this strange phone call (all after some beers and stuff):

    Other end: "Hello, there's a mess in here... air conditioning broke up, the heat pipe from the next level is also broken, all the servers room is flooded"

    Me: "Who the fuck are you? Where the fuck are you? And what do I have to do with this mess?"

    Other end: "We're on [Street Name] and [repeats again the whole thing]"

    Me: "And what's on the [Street Name] and what do I have to do with that?"

    Other end: "We're at [Street Name] and like I said [repeats the whole thing again]

    Me (finally realizing the address matches one of my customers): "Ah... [Firm Name]? And who the hell told you to call me? Am I listed by any chance by mistake in the plumbers section of yellow pages? Did anyone make a joke or something?"

    Other end: "Well... I work here and the only contact I could find there or in my contacts list is your phone no... was posted on a sticky on one of the server boxes"

    Turns out that in a fucking really big enterprise... no one knew who to call in case of any kind of emergency or something like that... so the poor guy just took a chance with the first phone no he saw. Not his boss, not a guy working there, but me, a contractor for servicing a particular piece of software running on one of the damn boxes... It doesn't matter how many alarms, logging, notifications one sets up as long as there's not a procedure for dealing with it and people don't know who to call for each of them.

    I'm still wandering what would have happened if I would just say "OK... I know, I'm just entering the building... I'll take care of that, don't bother"

    [ Parent ]

  • Re:You guys suck! (Score:1)

    by Ash-Fox (726320) on Monday March 27 2006, @08:26AM (#15002097)
    (http://scorch.quickfox.org/)
    "NO U!"
    [ Parent ]

  • Re:File cabinets and fires (Score:3, Informative)

    by QuietLagoon (813062) on Monday March 27 2006, @08:41AM (#15002178)
    Sensor management means that you can never be completely away from your cellphone.

    Sensor management means that you will be aware of problems as they are in the nascent stages of development, before they become a crisis. It provides you the time needed to research and repair, instead of the panicked "fix it now!" when systems stop working.

    [ Parent ]

  • Mod parent up! (Score:2, Funny)

    by dildo (250211) on Monday March 27 2006, @10:12AM (#15002834)
    Seriously. If my job wasn't so boring, I wouldn't give /. any of my time. But for now it serves an important purpose keeping me from going insane due to the tedium.

    I think I may code an AI script that will learn how to have conversations based on the content of slashdot. After the program has digested a few thousand posts it will surely pass the /. Turing test (Can a human distinguish this program from a typical /. poster?)

    I imagine a conversation would run like this:

    Human: "I'm impressed with this new Linux distro. This may actually be an operating system my grandmother can use without any problems!"

    Slashdotbot: "Heh. Your mother should use Debian. If she uses Ubuntu she is going to get p0wn3d."

    Human: "I use BSD personally on my servers, but I don't think my Grandmother has much to worry about on her computer."

    /.Bot: "BSD is dying!"

    Human: "Um... okay... I guess that made a little sense -- if I cross my eyes and think real hard. I wonder what will happen when I say this: I've been running YourMomOS on my laptop and she is humming away beautifully."

    /.Bot: "YourMomOS used to be cool, but now it is filled with bloatware, all of the great developers have left, and it is only a matter of time until she becomes a calcified dinosaur that is no better than what is running on M$ boxen."

    Human: "I think I'm on to you. Hey guy, tell me about your girl."

    /.Bot: "I do not know what a 'girl' is. But I bet it sucks."

    Human: "Wait. Proves nothing. But that response is suspicious. Hey guy, tell me about your 7545121116577545454."

    /.Bot: "I do not know what a '7545121116577545454' is. But I bet it sucks."

    Human: "This is a computer program, but I was nearly fooled. Another thousand posts and it will be absolutely indistinguishable from the average slashdot poster. You merely need to dumb down its grammar, interject more spelling mistakes, and give it more pop culture references (i.e. the mention of the word 'Ballmer' should trigger the 'make_joke_about_chairs()' subroutine) and this AI construct will truly be perfect."

    [ Parent ]
  • ...quoth the anonymous coward. The irony is delicious, especially with steak sauce.
    [ Parent ]
  • 11 replies beneath your current threshold.

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