Some users are using super basic hardware for compute clusters and don't have IPMI to control and read Motherboard specific things.

I believe we can add IPMI like functionality to foreman via smart-proxy with the following methods.

1. implement ssh like login to run one off commands and pass pack value using Capistrano

or a much better method

2. Use mcollective to run commands and pass back values via custom mcollective plugins

If going the mcollective route users should be able to write their own mcollective plugins and choose which plugin to use as their IPMI like command.

Out of the box Foreman could supply basic mcollective plugins that would work on the majority of systems.

A generic IPMI like interface would look something like this and require the user to map the mcollective plugins to each command:

-- Reboot = mcollective.plugins.os.reboot
-- Restart = mcollective.plugins.os.restart
-- Read Fan1 = mcollective.plugins.sensors.fan1
-- Read Temp1 = mcollective.plugins.sensors.temp1
-- Boot Control = mcollective.plugins.bios.bootcontrol
-- PS1 Status = mcollective.sensors.ps1status