MSA-1000 hardware monitoring from non-Proliant server

[Alexander Sakharov]

Hi all,

we have MSA-1000 with several servers connected. Servers are one Proliant DL380 and several IBM eServer xSeries. Some eServers are connected to SAN (we use HP San Switch 2/8 EL) with HP FC HBA (2101), while some use IBM FAStT FC HBA (this is unsupported, but works without any problems).

In order to monitor MSA-1000 (controllers and disks), I use CIM agents on Proliant server, it works great. All other servers (all of which are eServers) simply run FC HBA driver, and access their own MSA disks (I use SSP); there are no MSA monitoring software on them.

I would like to make a second monitoring server, so I can still see MSA-1000 system/components state even if Proliant fails (or down for some reason).

My understanding is that it is NOT possible on other non-Proliant servers. MSA-1000 hardware monitoring is done through CIM Storage Agents, which can be installed on Proliant servers only. I already tried to install/run CIM agents on a non-Proliant machine without any luck - services fail to start.

So the only way to provide redundant monitoring is to connect a second Proliant to SAN, and install CIM agents on it.

But company policy dictates that all new servers should be eServers... I had long discussions with IT servers admin guy, who is responsible for servers & planning. I tried to proof impossibility of redundant monitoring without second Proliant. But still did not achieve understanding. Pity, but I cannot find any documents that proof my words, and I can only use my experience.

I wonder if someone here can put some light to this problem. Am I right or no? Is it impossible, or IS possible.

Well, CIM7 runs on any platform. But it works through CIM server agents, that run on Proliant platform only, right? (it works with other things too, it is not important here)

All servers are W2K.

Thanks in advance,

Alexander

PS: By the way, what you think of IBM eServers, compared to their Proliant "brothers"? IMHO: hardware is very similar. However, if you compare server support software, HP is much better. IBM ServerGuide is a bad parody to SmartStart; after finishing ServerGuide process, the first thing you see is IBM support service failure... Management software situation is even worse. IBM Director 3.1. Brrr. Is there anyone who was able to make it work with the same functionality as CIM?