HP SUM run as a service or HP SIM?

[compwizpro]

Hello,

I use HP SUM that comes in the HP SPP to push drives and firmware to new servers.  Having many HP servers deployed (mix of DL and BL server), I would like to find a way to centrally manage, inventory, and deploy drivers and firmware to servers to have a consistent baseline across all hardware.  Right now it's adhoc deploy latest SPP to new servers and when the next server get's built and another SPP gets released, multiple versions exist in our environment.

HP SUM in the SPP works very well and I was wondering if there was a way to install or deploy HP SUM as a service where anyone who deploys a new server can log into the web interface from their own system without having to go to the server where HP SPP exists?  In a perfect world, I would like HP SUM to act like HP SIM where anyone with access can log into an interface and manage software similar to HP SUM but without having to launch the batch file to fire up the HP SUM instance.  I would almost like HP SUM to install as a service on a server so it is always online and serving up the management web page.

I have also played with HP SIM which provides the central management aspect but it seems older and hader to use when all I want to do is centrally manage and view software baselines accross hardware.  Is this the better way to go?

Also, what product is newer or better to use, HP SUM or HP SIM?  I can't tell if HP SIM is being phased out since the interface hasn't changed at all compared to HP SUM.

Sorry if the questions seem dumb.  I'm trying to get a handle on the best process for updating servers and keeping them updated.  

Thanks in advance!!

[SwisspostIT]

Here's how we do it:

We have a MS System Center Configuration Manager in our environment which we use for SW Deployment.

We first minimize the SPP to a minimum which includes only the components that we need (we can reduce the size from 4+ GB to about 500MB)

Then we build a "SCCM Package" of the HP SUM and distribute the package to multiple servers.

During the Deployment the HPSUM is being run with the /silent parameter so it installs all components to the newest version and the SCCM Agent restarts the server after deployment. 

With the extended inventory option of SCCM we make a inventory once daily (HP SUM with /report parameter) and safe the reports in SCCM database so we can make reports out of it.

With these reports then we know which version of which component (Firmware / Driver) is installed on which server.

With that we quite easily manage about 1000+ physical servers.

Regards,

Ville

[compwizpro]

Thanks for the response!

Unfortunatly currently we do now employ SCCM for server but we are looking at potentially doing that down the road.  When you say you make a smaller package, do you mean a smaller baseline?  I tired doing this a while ago with Proliant Servers running Windows but for some reason when I was applying the filters, it was missing some software and driver packages.  I could try this again with the newer version of SUM. 

Il take a look at that.