Customizing SIM to Use a terminal emulator for Console

[WD Johnson]

I would like to replace the SIM console terminal with a 3rd party solution. Can this be acomplished, such that when I ask SIM to connect via telnet or SSH to the console of a proliant - I get the 3rd paty solution for the connectivity - I.E. Putty, WRQ or the like.

[David Claypool]

I don't know what you mean by the "SIM console terminal" -- HP SIM is accessed via browser.

[WD Johnson]

Thanks for replying David - once in SIM - if you connect to an ILO card on say a proliant dl360 - it supports launching a KVM java applet, terminal emulator java applet to communicate with the serial console on the ILO.

Since SIM is responsible for the management of the ILO - I assumed I could modify it or customize it to use another terminal emulator. Any thoughts on having SIM launch something else for the management or connection to the ILO card?

Thanks in Advance
--Bill

[David Claypool]

Gotcha. Well, the biggest thing working against you is jumping the context between a web browser instance and having the place where your application is running (the CMS) try to start up an executable to run on your client machine. Big security no-no.

But there is hope, particularly if your answer to the next question is yes (or at least, this might give you an idea about how to pursue).

Since you're interested in console terminal access, is this possibly a *nix environment of some sort?

If the answer is yes, your salvation may be found in Xwindows. With a CMS hosted on *nix and a client machine that supports Xwindows (*nix or possibly Windows with Cygwin), you could create a Custom Tool in HP SIM that calls for xterm and establishes an SSH session between the CMS and the iLO and spawns a remote Xwindows session at the system with the browser. The new Custom Tool Wizard can guide you through setting that up.

I realize this may not be exactly practical for you, but examine it closely, because this is a very important thing to understand as regards the security models involved.

[WD Johnson]

Dave - Good idea - Let me play with that and see what breaks. If it works, I'll come back to you and let you know.

Thanks for your help to this point.

Best Regards,
--Bill

BTW, is there a number I could call you at to discuss if I run into an issue here? Or is that prohibited?

[David Claypool]

Not prohibited, just not always practical. It's the middle of the night in my hotel room in Zurich at the moment, though I'll be back in Houston next week.

I pretty actively hang out here on the board, but this work is not the top item that goes into my job performance review each year, so from time to time other things take priority, and along with travel I may be absent from the boards for days or weeks sometimes.

I am open for you and others on the boards to judiciously use my email address to contact me--if talking is the best way to get to the heart of the issue, email is the best way to initiate the scheduling of that.

Please everyone, use your best judgement with this open invitation: not only do I selfishly want to protect my inbox, but let me remind everyone the power of this forum: the experience of the people contributing. Certainly no where near as famous as Moore's Law is Metcalfe's Law, brought to us by Bob Metcalfe, widely credited at least in the history books of quipping that the value of a network goes up (exponentially did he say) with the number of people connected to it.

Downer warnings of the last 2 paragraphs aside, I do want to thank the community at large for not abusing my mailbox when I have posted my address in the past.

Now that the fine print is over with and I'm done protesting, Bill, if you want to contact me via email to work out when would be best to talk, use the address:

[firstname][dot][lastname] [substitute commonly used internet-related symbol that represents the English preposition that begins with the letter a] hp[dot]com

(though not 100% effective, this helps cut down on robotic email harvesters)

[WD Johnson]

David: No Problem and I completely understand and appreciate that position. Should I need further instruction or help, I will schedule via email as appropriate and then will post the results here as I often leverage this type of communication amongst everyone.

Thanks in advance!
--Bill