In OpenBSD 3.9, the sensor framework was added to allow users to monitor systems that contained hardware sensors (e.g., temperature, voltage, fan speed, etc.). Sensor data is made available through one or more “hw.sensors” kernel state variables, which can be viewed with the sysctl utility:
$ sysctl -a | grep "hw.sensors"
hw.sensors.0=nsclpcsio0, TSENS1, temp, 127.00 degC / 260.60 degF
hw.sensors.1=nsclpcsio0, TSENS2, temp, 127.00 degC / 260.60 degF
hw.sensors.2=nsclpcsio0, TNSC, temp, 57.00 degC / 134.60 degF
hw.sensors.3=nsclpcsio0, VSENS0, volts_dc, 3.01 V
hw.sensors.4=nsclpcsio0, VSENS1, volts_dc, 2.02 V
hw.sensors.5=nsclpcsio0, VSENS2, volts_dc, 2.52 V
hw.sensors.6=nsclpcsio0, VSENS3, volts_dc, 0.60 V
hw.sensors.7=nsclpcsio0, VSENS4, volts_dc, 2.48 V
hw.sensors.8=nsclpcsio0, VSENS5, volts_dc, 2.49 V
hw.sensors.9=nsclpcsio0, VSENS6, volts_dc, 0.00 V
hw.sensors.10=nsclpcsio0, VSB, volts_dc, 3.28 V
hw.sensors.11=nsclpcsio0, VDD, volts_dc, 3.31 V
hw.sensors.12=nsclpcsio0, VBAT, volts_dc, 3.01 V
hw.sensors.13=nsclpcsio0, AVDD, volts_dc, 3.26 V
hw.sensors.14=nsclpcsio0, TS1, volts_dc, 1.63 V
hw.sensors.15=nsclpcsio0, TS2, volts_dc, 1.62 V
hw.sensors.16=nsclpcsio0, TS3, volts_dc, 1.51 V
In addition to kernel support, OpenBSD has a userland daemon, sensorsd, which can be used to monitor one or more sensor values. If one of the sensor values that sensorsd is monitoring goes above or below an administrator defined threshold, sensorsd will by default write an entry similar to the following to the system log:
Oct 27 18:27:42 [192.168.1.1.2.2] sensorsd[8513]: hw.sensors.2: exceed limits, value: 56.00C/132.80F
Sensor thresholds are defined in the file /etc/sensorsd.conf. Each entry in /etc/sensorsd.conf contains the name of a sensor to monitor, the value “high” or “low” to indicate a peak or valley for the sensor value, and the value the sensor value cannot go above or below. The following example shows one of the entries I use to monitor the CPU temperature in my Soekris net4801-60:
$ cat /etc/sensorsd.conf
hw.sensors.2:high=55C
If syslog entries aren’t sufficient for monitoring, you can also use the “command” option to run a program when sensorsd detects that a value has crossed one of the thresholds. This script can email an administrator, send an SNMP trap to a network monitoring station, or shutdown the system (this could be useful it a fan fails or if a voltage level takes a turn for the worst). This is a sweet feature, and super super valuable!