Dell iDRAC Hardware Monitoring

Use the iDRAC plugin to monitor the status of the iDRAC hardware, CPU cores and threads, fan rotations, memory size and more.

Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller (iDRAC) is an integrated motherboard to oversee the various aspects of servers and mid-range systems sold by Dell. iDRAC monitoring is critical to know all kinds of hardware related events and its status including temperatures, fan speeds, power supply status, individual disk status and more.

This document details the following:

Performance Monitoring Metrics

Use our wide array of metrics and get notified of hazardous errors that require your attention. Keep track of unexpected trends through our metric graphs and troubleshoot as quickly as possible. Apart from the main iDRAC plugin, we provide separate plugin extensions to monitor the various components of the iDRAC server in an exclusive, fault-tolerant manner.

iDRAC plugin

Hardware monitoring is vital as it provides a warning on potentially critical conditions. This is the main plugin to monitor the status of the main hardware components including battery, fan rotations, CPU cores, power sources and sensors, power unit, and vdisk of the iDRAC server

iDRAC battery plugin

The idrac_battery plugin gives the usage, status, location and state of the battery present in the iDRAC server

iDRAC memory plugin

The idrac_memory monitors memory usage in iDRAC servers

iDRAC fan plugin

The idrac_fan monitoring extension provides the status, fan rotations (in rpm) and its location in the iDRAC server

iDRAC CPU plugin

The idrac_cpu plugin provides the state, status, cores and threads of CPU in iDRAC servers

iDRAC physical disk plugin

The idrac_pdisk plugin extension monitors the state, size and type of all the physical disks present in the Dell iDRAC servers

iDRAC sensor plugin

The idrac_sensor plugin monitors all the sensors present in iDRAC servers

iDRAC power unit plugin

The idrac_powerunit plugin extension gives the state, redundancy status, power consumption (Watt) and the status of all the power units present in the Dell iDRAC server

iDRAC virtual disk plugin

The idrac_vdisk plugin extension monitors the state, size and badblocks of all the virtual disks present in the iDRAC server

iDRAC power source plugin

The idrac_powersource monitoring extension monitors all the power sources including the status, power consumption, current consumption, input/output voltages (ivolt/ovolt) and Watts (iwatt/owatt) of iDRAC server

Prerequisites

  • Our Linux server monitoring agent should be installed in the network or on the specific host where the iDRAC server is running.
  • While adding a plugin, the plugin name and its folder name should be identical.
  • Ensure Net-SNMP package is installed.
    Supported versions: 1 and 2c
    Credentials: SNMP read-only community string
  • A utility package "SNMPUtil.py" has to be downloaded and placed in the path /opt/site24x7/monagent/plugins/(idrac_name)
  • Download the MIB file "iDRAC-SMIv1.mib" and save it in a location of your choice.
  • iDRAC servers must be equipped with iDRAC v7 with firmware version 1.57.57+

Plugin Installation

  • Download and install the latest version of the Site24x7 Linux agent in the server where you plan to run the plugin. If it is installed successfully, you will see a Linux server monitor in the Site24x7 Control Panel. This confirms that the agent is able to communicate with our Data Center.
  • Download the plugins from our GitHub repository.
    For example, to download the main plugin idrac.py, execute the following command:
    wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/site24x7/plugins/master/idrac/idrac.py
  • Change the values of HOST, VERSION, COMMUNITY and MIB to match your configuration. Mention the path of the downloaded MIB file in the "MIB" field
  • Create a folder with the plugin name, under the Site24x7 Linux agent plugin directory '/opt/site24x7/monagent/plugins/' and place the python file under '/opt/site24x7/monagent/plugins/<plugin name>/'
    For example, if you are using the main iDRAC plugin, create a folder with the name 'idrac', under the Site24x7 Linux agent plugin directory '/opt/site24x7/monagent/plugins/' and place the 'idrac.py' under '/opt/site24x7/monagent/plugins/idrac/'

The agent will automatically execute the plugin within five minutes and send performance data to the Site24x7 Data Center.

Tip

Manually execute the plugin script using the following command and verify its output. For example, if you are using the main iDRAC plugin,

python idrac.py

View Data in the Site24x7 Web Client

  1. Login and go to Server > Plugins > Name of Plugin Monitor
  2. You will be able to view the performance charts on the various metrics for your iDRAC hardware server.

Customize your Plugin

  • To monitor additional metrics, edit the plugin file and add the new metrics that need to be monitored.
  • Increment the plugin version value in the required file to view the newly added metrics (For e.g., change the default plugin version from PLUGIN_VERSION = "1" to "PLUGIN_VERSION = "2")

Plugin Contribution

Feel free to contribute to our existing plugin integrations and come up with suggestions or feedback on our Community.

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Troubleshooting Tips