Description of problem:

[root@sun-x4-2l-1 i2c-adapter]# ll /sys/class/i2c-adapter/*
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 0 Jul 31 14:43 /sys/class/i2c-adapter/i2c-0 ->
../../devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1f.3/i2c-0

[root@sun-x4-2l-1 i2c-adapter]# lspci -vvvv -s 0000:00:1f.3
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation C600/X79 series chipset SMBus Host
Controller (rev 06)
    Subsystem: Oracle/SUN Device 4856
    Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster- SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr-
Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
    Status: Cap- 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort-
<TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
    Interrupt: pin C routed to IRQ 18
    Region 0: Memory at 380ffff21000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
    Region 4: I/O ports at 9000 [size=32]
    Kernel driver in use: i801_smbus
    Kernel modules: i2c-i801

[root@sun-x4-2l-1 ~]# uname -a
Linux sun-x4-2l-1.gsslab.rdu2.redhat.com 2.6.32-431.el6.x86_64 #1 SMP Sun Nov 10 22:19:54 EST 2013 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
[root@sun-x4-2l-1 ~]# rpm -qa | grep i2c-tools
i2c-tools-3.1.0-1.el6.x86_64
[root@sun-x4-2l-1 ~]# i2cdetect -l
[root@sun-x4-2l-1 ~]#

However sensors-detect works.

[root@sun-x4-2l-1 ~]# sensors-detect 
# sensors-detect revision 1.1
# System: Oracle Corporation SUN SERVER X4-2L
# Board: Oracle Corporation ASSY,MOTHERBOARD,2U

This program will help you determine which kernel modules you need
to load to use lm_sensors most effectively. It is generally safe
and recommended to accept the default answers to all questions,
unless you know what you're doing.

Some south bridges, CPUs or memory controllers contain embedded sensors.
Do you want to scan for them? This is totally safe. (YES/no): YES
Silicon Integrated Systems SIS5595...                       No
VIA VT82C686 Integrated Sensors...                          No
VIA VT8231 Integrated Sensors...                            No
AMD K8 thermal sensors...                                   No
AMD Family 11h thermal sensors...                           No
Intel digital thermal sensor...                             Success!
    (driver `coretemp')
Intel AMB FB-DIMM thermal sensor...                         No
VIA C7 thermal and voltage sensors...                       No

Some Super I/O chips contain embedded sensors. We have to write to
standard I/O ports to probe them. This is usually safe.
Do you want to scan for Super I/O sensors? (YES/no): YES
Probing for Super-I/O at 0x2e/0x2f
Trying family `National Semiconductor'...                   No
Trying family `SMSC'...                                     No
Trying family `VIA/Winbond/Nuvoton/Fintek'...               No
Trying family `ITE'...                                      No
Probing for Super-I/O at 0x4e/0x4f
Trying family `National Semiconductor'...                   No
Trying family `SMSC'...                                     Yes
Found unknown chip with ID 0x0b00

Some systems (mainly servers) implement IPMI, a set of common interfaces
through which system health data may be retrieved, amongst other things.
We first try to get the information from SMBIOS. If we don't find it
there, we have to read from arbitrary I/O ports to probe for such
interfaces. This is normally safe. Do you want to scan for IPMI
interfaces? (YES/no): YES
Found `IPMI BMC KCS' at 0xca2...                            Success!
    (confidence 8, driver `ipmisensors')

Some hardware monitoring chips are accessible through the ISA I/O ports.
We have to write to arbitrary I/O ports to probe them. This is usually
safe though. Yes, you do have ISA I/O ports even if you do not have any
ISA slots! Do you want to scan the ISA I/O ports? (YES/no): YES
Probing for `National Semiconductor LM78' at 0x290...       No
Probing for `National Semiconductor LM79' at 0x290...       No
Probing for `Winbond W83781D' at 0x290...                   No
Probing for `Winbond W83782D' at 0x290...                   No

Lastly, we can probe the I2C/SMBus adapters for connected hardware
monitoring devices. This is the most risky part, and while it works
reasonably well on most systems, it has been reported to cause trouble
on some systems.
Do you want to probe the I2C/SMBus adapters now? (YES/no): YES
Found unknown SMBus adapter 8086:1d22 at 0000:00:1f.3.
Sorry, no supported PCI bus adapters found.
Module i2c-dev loaded successfully.

Next adapter: SMBus I801 adapter at 9000 (i2c-0)
Do you want to scan it? (YES/no/selectively): YES
Client found at address 0x48
Probing for `National Semiconductor LM75'...                No
Probing for `Dallas Semiconductor DS75'...                  No
Probing for `National Semiconductor LM77'...                No
Probing for `Dallas Semiconductor DS1621/DS1631'...         No
Probing for `Maxim MAX6650/MAX6651'...                      No
Probing for `National Semiconductor LM73'...                No
Probing for `National Semiconductor LM92'...                No
Probing for `National Semiconductor LM76'...                No
Probing for `Maxim MAX6633/MAX6634/MAX6635'...              No

Now follows a summary of the probes I have just done.
Just press ENTER to continue: 

Driver `coretemp':
  * Chip `Intel digital thermal sensor' (confidence: 9)

Driver `ipmisensors':
  * ISA bus, address 0xca2
    Chip `IPMI BMC KCS' (confidence: 8)

Warning: the required module ipmisensors is not currently installed
on your system. If it is built into the kernel then it's OK.
Otherwise, check http://www.lm-sensors.org/wiki/Devices for
driver availability.

Do you want to overwrite /etc/sysconfig/lm_sensors? (YES/no): YES
Starting lm_sensors: loading module ipmi-si coretemp       [  OK  ]
Unloading i2c-dev... OK

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):

i2c-tools-3.1.0-1.el6.x86_64

How reproducible:

see above

Additional info:

customer is trying to determine if they can safely remove i2c* devices modules to minimize latency