ipmitool - can't find /dev/ipmi0 or /dev/ipmidev/0

Question

Based on a previous question, I installed ipmitool (yum install ipmitool).

Even after a reboot, though, i get the following error when trying to run ipmitool power status:

Could not open device at /dev/ipmi0 or /dev/ipmi/0 or /dev/ipmidev/0: No such file or directory
Unable to get Chassis Power Status

Is this an OS/hardware issue (CentOS 6.3 x64 on a hosted machine in a remote datacenter - unsure on hardware vendor)? Or have I missed something more elemental in installing ipmitool?

Solution 1

You probably need to load the IPMI kernel modules:

modprobe ipmi_devintf
modprobe ipmi_si

You can add these to /etc/modules to have them loaded automatically (just list the module names):

ipmi_devintf
ipmi_si

Solution 2

Do you have the devices loaded ? You can load manually the modules : modprobe ipmi_devintf ; modprobe ipmi_si and check your logs

Solution 3

Just wanted to highlight another minor point: "Make sure you are running with root/admin privileges".

user@host:~$ ipmitool power status
Could not open device at /dev/ipmi0 or /dev/ipmi/0 or /dev/ipmidev/0: No such file or directory

user@host:~$ ls /dev/ipmi*
/dev/ipmi0

user@host:~$ lsmod | grep ipmi
ipmi_devintf           20480  0
ipmi_ssif              24576  0
ipmi_si                57344  0
ipmi_msghandler        49152  3 ipmi_ssif,ipmi_devintf,ipmi_si

user@host:~$ sudo ipmitool power status
[sudo] password for user:
Chassis Power is on

user@host:~$

Comments

[voretaq7]

Does the system have IPMI-capable hardware (a system management controller or equivalent)? Is that hardware supported by the operating system? (If a kernel module is required for support, is it loaded?)

[warren]

@voretaq7 - unsure, hence the qualifier that I do not know what hardware vendor (beyond basics) my server is :)

[voretaq7]

Knowing such things is important -- lacking that knowledge you can try blindly loading all the IPMI kernel modules you can find as described in the answers below (but be aware that you might not have IPMI-capable hardware so it might not get you any results, and by loading modules you always have a (small) chance of knocking your system down in the process and would need someone to power cycle it)

[Michael Hampton]

Run dmidecode -t 1 -t -2 -t 3. Then read the output.

[Dennis Williamson]

Also, you may need to run ipmitool as root or with sudo (I get the same error message if I don't).

[enjoy]

look here if your device is supported by IPMI: zaman4linux.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06/…

[aaaaa says reinstate Monica]

@DennisWilliamson Thank you, just solved my problem. kernel modules are loaded and device exists, but this stupid error creates confusion. sudo ipmitool works

[dozmorov]

> Could not open device at /dev/ipmi0 or /dev/ipmi/0 or /dev/ipmidev/0: > No such file or directory I found the answer on: axada.ru/ustanovka-ipmitool-v-debian

[warren]

@dozmorov - that has already been covered in the accepted answer

[warren]

the first ran fine; the second kicked-back FATAL: Error inserting ipmi_si (/lib/modules/2.6.32-279.22.1.el6.x86_64/kernel/drivers/char‌​/ipmi/ipmi_si.ko): No such device

[warren]

I don't have an /etc/modules - I have /etc/modprobe.d/*.conf: thoughts on which would be needed?

[Dom]

OK it is maybe another impi driver. Check in the /lib/modules/2.6.32-279.22.1.el6.x86_64/kernel/drivers/char/‌​ipmi/ directory which are available on your plateform

[mgorven]

@warren Just create it (I've described the format above).

[Congmin]

Why isn't this included in the instructions for using ipmi? I'm using the latest Debian on an HP G8 server, and it still requires this workaround, giving out an error from apt-get!

[Pablo A]

@dom do you know which one to choose and why? There are some: find /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/char/ipmi/ -type f -name '*.ko*' -exec modinfo {} \; | egrep "^filename|^description".

[Dom]

The interface is "ipmi_devintf" and the main constructor is manage by "ipmi_si". What are the other ones ? On debian, there are msghandler, watchdog and poweroff. They are managing the hardware watchdog to reset the host, dirty poweroff the host and I don't know for msghandler.

[warren]

This was left as a comment in March 2014 on the question by Dennis Williamson: " Also, you may need to run ipmitool as root or with sudo (I get the same error message if I don't). – Dennis Williamson Mar 5 '14 at 20:43 "

[Maurício Mota]

That actually was my issue. Thanks a lot.

[chmike]

When I call modprobe ipmi_si I get the error message modprobe: ERROR: could not insert 'ipmi_si': No such device. What does it mean ?