Insight Remote Support
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Re: Remote Support nightmares...

 
Kurt Gunter
Advisor

Remote Support nightmares...

Hm... so I install HP Insight Remote Support, which I set up and which then proceeds to start an autodiscover of the ENTIRE domain. That's taking three days and adding everything from workstations to server ILOMs for the entire global network into the list.

Of course, it then crashes IE6 (but the autodiscovery continues). I don't know what happpened but I can't find any "hook" into the Remote Support panel I was in before. It's not listed anywhere inside SIM and the only link I can find brings me into a "User Interface" (which hangs IE half the time, and when it does load presents options which are not at all useful for managing detected devices) or a dinky little "System Event Analyser" page which lists all the options for the detected devices except for the (useful) global options.

Hm. Not very useful, we all agree.

So I notice in a footnote somewhere that it works with SIM 5.2. Fine, I have 5.1. So I download and execute the SIM 5.2 installer.

It tells me that before I install SIM 5.2, I need to upgrade Remote Support to 5.20A (current version is 5.16). Odd, I just downloaded Remote Support a week ago from the Software Depot link. I go back there and search the Depot for "Remote Support". Yup, only version listed for "HP Remote Support Software Manager for Insight Remote Support" is 5.16.

So I go back to the main HP page for Remote Support and call the support number listed. The rep on the line has no idea what Insight Remote Support is, and goes offline for 5 minutes before saying he'll transfer me to business technical support. I get transferred and end up in an AVR queue asking me to press 1 or 2 for two options which don't even remotely relate to the technology I'm addressing (one is something like Uplink and he other is a hardware addon). I press zero to get an operator and the system tells me that "technical difficulties prevent us from completing the call" and hangs up.

I thought I was already used to the disorganized nightmare that's the HP website and telephone matrix but this takes the cake. Anyone got a link to the 5.20A version of the product, as required by SIM 5.2?

(And HP, you see a problem yet with people needing to ask on forums for the link to the latest - mandatory - version of your products?)
9 REPLIES 9
Olivier Masse
Honored Contributor

Re: Remote Support nightmares...

I thought I was already used to the disorganized nightmare that's the HP website and telephone matrix but this takes the cake.

Kurt, what can I say besides that I share your pain. I've been through the RSP process last fall and it ended up with an even more disgruntled post from me in this forum, and it got deleted quickly. The only thing I can say is to complain to your rep or HP services team if you're not satisfied. My infamous post rang a few bells at HP Canada and while it is true the RSP software stack quality is lacking in many areas, they do care about their customers.

The only upside I can say is that the RSP solution eventually works but you really, really need to be patient and use the most vanilla Windows server you can get your hands on, and use only default installation options. I've spent countless hours with RSP. Much more that I initially anticipated.

Good luck
Andrew Claiborne
Valued Contributor

Re: Remote Support nightmares...

Hi Kurt,

Thanks for sharing your painful experiences. What a mess! If it makes you feel any better, I *will* take them back to the lab and make sure they get attention. I will also make sure your phone support experience is understood by the Insight RS team.

I believe the core issue with your installation is that basically two types customers were envisioned:
1) HP SIM customers who use full RSP, utilizing the HP SIM database and discovery components.
2) Non-HP-SIM customers who use Insight RS, including Insight RS's discovery and database components.

It sounds like you have HP SIM (and the discovery/database that comes with it) *AND* Insight RS (and its discovery/database components). It also sounds like the SIM RS Client pre-requisite checking is getting confused by the Insight RS Client. (Insight RS 5.16 delivers many of the same components as RSP 5.20).

In any case, the solution is to kill the universe-wide discovery, and either:
A. Wipe out HP SIM and go with Insight RS only, or
B. Wipe out Insight RS and go with full HP SIM + RSP.
If you let me know which option you're most interested in, I can provide you with detailed instructions.

All of the Insight RS discovery gurus have left for the day...I'll find out how to kill the discovery and get back to you tomorrow.

What a mess! Sorry for your pain! Look for my update tomorrow.

Best Regards,
-Andy Claiborne
ITRC Test-CH
Trusted Contributor

Re: Remote Support nightmares...

Hi,

Remote Support version A.05.20 (RSSWM kit) is bundled with HP-SIM V5.3.
The most actual documentation is available on http://docs.hp.com/en/netsys.html (Remote Support Pack).
The SMH on the CMS will be upgraded to version 3. It will not work correctly together with older HP-SIM versions than V5.3. (RSP is using the SMH as a user interface.)
Kurt Gunter
Advisor

Re: Remote Support nightmares...

Thanks a lot for the comments, guys... it's good to see a user forum which is so quickyl responsive!

I think the comments were rigth; somewhere along the line there's been some additional confusion on my side as to what product did what (and integrated with what). It's not made easier by the fact that I inherited a legacy, partically-configured-and-discovered SIM.

Essentially my mandate was this:

"There's a program called Remote Support which clips into SIM and will allow our EVAs to be monitored via CommandView servers and 'phone home' automatically. Here's the link, can you do this quickly."

Quite frankly, SIM isn't being used for all that much and we're using tools (e.g. SCOM, Nagios, VirtualCenter) for most of the same functionality anyway as company-wide cross-platform solutions. Unless there's something incredibly advantageous to keeping SIM around, we have no vested interest in maintaining it as anything other than a way of centrally tagging monitoring and actioning our EVA SANs.

Given that, what do you gurus think I should choose as a workable option?

Olivier Masse
Honored Contributor

Re: Remote Support nightmares...

Kurt,

We use Nagios and VirtualCenter too. While SIM can do some of the work of these two tools, I'm a strong advocate of using "the right tool for the job" and I chose to use SIM primarily for server inventory management and hardware events reporting. I don't use, and don't purchase, the extra system-administration features.

If you have lots of equipment, it is VERY useful to help manage the warranty and contract data of your servers. As far as support contracts go, I'm slowly switching from a (huge) excel spreadsheet to SIM, with good results up until now. Plugging in RSP into SIM is very useful in that context, there's no need to configure ISEE independently on a bunch of servers, but it comes with complexity and hassles that you've already experienced.

One thing I should note, be sure to have a backup of your SIM database. You'll start adding lots of data in it and it's not nice to have to restart from scratch.

Good luck
Andrew Claiborne
Valued Contributor

Re: Remote Support nightmares...

Hey Kurt,

To stop the global discovery, go into Task Manager, find a process named hpnetwalker and kill it.

If you choose to get rid of HP SIM and install Insight RS instead, beware that Insight RS does not import SIM's configuration and discovery...but if that's what you want to do:
1. Uninstall HP SIM
2. Re-run the Inight RS initialization (in the Start Menu under Hewlett-Packard->Remote Support Software Manager). This will attempt to install all the Insight RS components.
3. If it has problems, you can troubleshoot the individual failed components by launching the RSSWM UI (under ProgramFiles\HP\CM\RSSWM\GUI\swmui.hta), and looking at the log files for the components that are "Failed/Timed out".

If you choose to get rid of Insight RS and just run HP SIM and RSP:
1. Uninstall Insight RS (by choosing "Uninstall Remote Support Software Manager" in the start menu under "Hewlett-Packard->Remote Support Software Manager")
2. Re-run the HP SIM 5.3 installation, and select to install RSSWM/RSP.

I hope it goes more smoothly this time around ;-). If you run into other problems, post here, and I'll help you out.

Thanks,
-Andy Claiborne
Pascal Brouillard
New Member

Re: Remote Support nightmares...

Good morning Kurt,

I'm the RSP Deployment Manager for Canada. Please PM me with phone number or email address where we could reach you to discuss the issues you're having with your deployment of Remote Support pack or Insight RS.

Regards,

Pascal
Records Management
Frequent Advisor

Re: Remote Support nightmares...

I submit most, if not all, of my HP Support calls via the Support Case Manager. The only area that sound right is "HP Systems Insight Manager Windows". Sound good, doesn't it. But for the recent cases, I get this comment, and I quote:

This is a SIM issue.

Problem Area: HP Systems Insight Manager Windows

MICROSOFT DOES NOT HANDEL ANY SIM ISSUES. EVEN IF THE SERVER IS RUNNING WINDOWS!!!

This is from HP Support, caps & !!.

Then they end up routing it to the VMS team, to whom I have to explain that this a call for SIM/RSP support. Eventually, I get to the support guys, who may or may not even be able to assist.
Jov
Honored Contributor

Re: Remote Support nightmares...

@Records Management - I feel your pain.

The irony to all this is HP sells helpdesk/incident management products such as ServiceDesk (used to) and ServiceCenter/ServiceManager.


Jov