Set info with HP RESTful Interface Tool (hprest.exe)

[trenzif]

Hello,

I am trying to set the Assettag on our new HP Proliant DL380 Gen9 Servers with the RESTful Interface Tool (hprest.exe) and having serious problems with that.

Normally we are using conrep.exe to do the job, but with Gen 9 HP is using UEFI, an when you set the AssetTag via conrep it is not readable from Operating System.

Thats the background, but my problem with hprest is that I always get a error when I want to set the AssetTag in UEFI bios this way:

C:\Program Files\Hewlett-Packard\HP RESTful Interface Tool>hprest.exe
hprest : HP RESTful Interface Tool version 1.2.0
Copyright (c) 2014 Hewlett Packard Development Company L.P.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
hprest > login SERVERHOSTNAME -u Administrator -p PASSWORD
Discovering data from iLO...Done
WARNING: Cache is activated session keys are stored in plaintext
hprest > select HpBios.1.2.0
hprest > Get ServerAssettag
ServerAssetTag=1234567
hprest > Set "ServerAssetTag=ABCDEFG"
Unable to locate registry model
hprest >

So I use the latest hprest Tool (1.2.0) and always get the error:

 Unable to locate registry model

I had a look at the Qick Start Manual and the Data Model Reference Manual but nothing helped me.

I already tryed to unzip the "hp-rest-classes-bios-P89-1.40_05_06_2015.zip" in the same dir like hprest because of the registry folder inside the .zip, but it doesnt change anything.

Is there anyone outside working with the HP RESTful Interface Tool and can help me with that?

Thanks a lot

[Jimmy Vance]

What ROM version and iLO firmware version are on your system?

[Cederberg · Accepted solution]

Hi!

I got it to work by changing format to english (United States) under Control Panel -> Region and Language on my client. If you live outside of the United States you may have a localized format setting in my case it was set to swedish (sweden).

Then it should work fine the way you described with an addition of the commit command at the end.

Regards.

//Cederberg

[Jimmy Vance]

You shouldn't need to unzip the file. Just place the zip file in the same directory as the hprest executable

[trenzif]

Thanks a lot, after changing the region format in Windows to english (United States) like described by Cederberg it worked like a charm.

There should be a fix from HP for this bug, cause with this limitation hprest not useable outside english region!

Btw. the firmware is:

iLO Firmware Version  2.20 May 20 2015

System ROM P89 v1.40 (05/06/2015)

[Jimmy Vance]

---

trenzif wrote:

Thanks a lot, after changing the region format in Windows to english (United States) like described by Cederberg it worked like a charm.

There should be a fix from HP for this bug, cause with this limitation hprest not useable outside english region!

Btw. the firmware is:

iLO Firmware Version  2.20 May 20 2015

System ROM P89 v1.40 (05/06/2015)

---

I've passed this information on to the team that maintains this tool

[Jimmy Vance]

---

trenzif wrote:

Hello,

Normally we are using conrep.exe to do the job, but with Gen 9 HP is using UEFI, an when you set the AssetTag via conrep it is not readable from Operating System.

---

The team that works on the hprest tool, also maintains conrep. They will be looking into the language issue, but are also curious as to your comment that conrep doesn't work with Gen9.

Can you please provide me what version of conrep you're using and the contents of the data file 

Thanks

[Cederberg]

If you need a workaround until they fix the bug you can use a app in chrome webbrowser that is called postman as demonstrated by HP in the videon on http://www.hp.com/go/restfulapi

you can download it at this adress

http://www.getpostman.com

Regards.

//Cederberg

[trenzif]

First thanks a lot Jimmy Vance for sending the info to the developers!

---

@Jimmy Vance wrote:

---

@trenzif wrote:

Hello,

Normally we are using conrep.exe to do the job, but with Gen 9 HP is using UEFI, an when you set the AssetTag via conrep it is not readable from Operating System.

---

The team that works on the hprest tool, also maintains conrep. They will be looking into the language issue, but are also curious as to your comment that conrep doesn't work with Gen9.

Can you please provide me what version of conrep you're using and the contents of the data file 

Thanks

---

We are using conrep 4.00 and its working good, cause it writes the Info to the legacy BIOS Asset Tag, but not to the UEFI Bios,

and if we want to read the AssetTag via wmi (and use UEFI Bios) in the Windows OS we just get an empty Asset Tag back:

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.3.9600]
(c) 2013 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Windows\system32>wmic SystemEnclosure get SMBIOSAssetTag
SMBIOSAssetTag

C:\Windows\system32>

After setting it with hprest, or manually on boot it will be available over WMI.

We use following data file for conrep:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!--edited by trenzif 2014.07.16 created with conrep version 4.00-->
<Conrep version="4.00">
<Section name="IMD_ServerAssetTag" helptext="Asset tag string as entered in RBSU"><Line0>E#12345678</Line0></Section>
</Conrep>

After setting this AssetTag (E#123456789) I can read the config via conrep -s and the IMD_ServerAssetTag is set successfully.

So in my opinion if I disable UEFI boot and just use legacy BIOS I would also be able to read the AssetTag from OS if its set via conrep (but I havn't tryed it!).

DL380 Gen9 UEFI Boot:

Use hprest to set AssetTag (and read in OS via WMI)

DL380 Gen9 legacy Bios:

Can use conrep to set AssetTag (and read in OS via WMI - not confirmed)

@Cederberg thanks for theworkaround! 

[trenzif]

Hello again,

3 months ago I reported this bug and Jimmy Vance passed this information to the developers.

Unfortunatly the new hprest.exe version 1.3.0.0 has the same bug like 1.2.0.0

C:\Program Files\Hewlett-Packard\HP RESTful Interface Tool>hprest.exe
hprest : HP RESTful Interface Tool version 1.3.0
Copyright (c) 2015 Hewlett Packard Development Company L.P.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
hprest > login SERVERHOSTNAME -u Administrator -p PASSWORD
Discovering data from iLO...Done
WARNING: Cache is activated. Session keys are stored in plaintext.
hprest > select HpBios.1.2.0
hprest > get ServerAssetTag
ServerAssetTag=12345678
hprest > Set "ServerAssetTag=ABCDEFG"
Unable to locate registry model
hprest >

I am not sure if HP knows that there are also big companies outside the English (United States) region which want to use there Gen9 Servers and set some options like the AssetTag!

Are there any plans to fix this someday?