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

https://serverfault.com/questions/480371/ipmitool-cant-find-dev-ipmi0-or-dev-ipmidev-0

Asked 12 years, 8 months ago Modified 5 months ago Viewed 203k times 55

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?

monitoringcentos6electrical-poweripmitool

Share Improve this question Follow edited Apr 13, 2017 at 12:14 Community’s user avatar CommunityBot 1 asked Feb 19, 2013 at 17:29 warren’s user avatar warren 19.4k2424 gold badges8989 silver badges141141 bronze badges

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?) – 
voretaq7
Commented Feb 19, 2013 at 17:32
@voretaq7 - unsure, hence the qualifier that I do not know what hardware vendor (beyond basics) my server is :) – 
warren
Commented Feb 19, 2013 at 17:35
1
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) – 
voretaq7
Commented Feb 19, 2013 at 17:39
Run dmidecode -t 1 -t -2 -t 3. Then read the output. – 
Michael Hampton
Commented Feb 19, 2013 at 17:41
3
Also, you may need to run ipmitool as root or with sudo (I get the same error message if I don't). – 
Dennis Williamson
Commented Mar 5, 2014 at 20:43

Show 4 more comments 5 Answers Sorted by: 77

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

Share Improve this answer Follow answered Feb 19, 2013 at 17:33 mgorven’s user avatar mgorven 31.4k77 gold badges8585 silver badges126126 bronze badges

I don't have an /etc/modules - I have /etc/modprobe.d/*.conf: thoughts on which would be needed? – 
warren
Commented Feb 19, 2013 at 17:34
1
@warren Just create it (I've described the format above). – 
mgorven
Commented Feb 19, 2013 at 17:36
2
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! – 
cnst
Commented Mar 31, 2015 at 16:38
4
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 ? – 
chmike
Commented May 26, 2021 at 8:16

Add a comment 9

Do you have the devices loaded ? You can load manually the modules : modprobe ipmi_devintf ; modprobe ipmi_si and check your logs Share Improve this answer Follow answered Feb 19, 2013 at 17:32 Dom’s user avatar Dom 6,87311 gold badge2222 silver badges2727 bronze badges

2
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
Commented Feb 19, 2013 at 17:33
3
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 – 
Dom
Commented Feb 19, 2013 at 17:36
1
@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". – 
Pablo A
Commented Jan 30, 2018 at 4:27 

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. – 
Dom
Commented Jan 30, 2018 at 7:54

Add a comment 6

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:~$

Share Improve this answer Follow answered Dec 18, 2020 at 22:27 sid’s user avatar sid 6111 silver badge11 bronze badge

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 " – 
warren
Commented Dec 21, 2020 at 14:18 

Add a comment 0

Another possibility is that you didn’t use sudo. On my device, it shows the same error message when sudo isn’t used.

enter image description here Share Improve this answer Follow answered May 25 at 14:16 chansey’s user avatar chansey 109

True - I did not use sudo. But I ran as root – 
warren
Commented May 29 at 13:13

Add a comment -1

Set up the IPMI interface network cable [enter image description here][1]

Press F2 or DEL to enter the BIOS, enter the Server Mgmt menu and select BMC network configuration. [enter image description here][2] 3 Configure the IP acquisition method IP address gateway

ipmitool lan set 1 ipsrc static | dhcp ipmitool lan set 1 ipaddr 192.168.1.2 ipmitool lan set 1 netmask 255.255.255.0 ipmitool lan set 1 defgw 192.168.1.254

Share Improve this answer Follow answered Jan 18, 2024 at 1:22 watchpoints’s user avatar watchpoints 1

As it’s currently written, your answer is unclear. Please edit to add additional details that will help others understand how this addresses the question asked. You can find more information on how to write good answers in the help centre. – 
Community
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Commented Jan 26, 2024 at 11:59