ESX Servers and Guest VMs show System Type "Unknown" or "Unmanaged"

[Andrew Schlafmann]

In HPSIM 5.2 SP2 my VMs are showing as "Unknown" or "Unmanaged". I accidentally deleted all my servers from HPSIM while using firefox 3.5. I ran a new discovery task and most of the servers came up. I have already tried to configure WBEM to do the identification, but that did not work.

I also tried SNMP and HPSIM said it was "setting system type" in the log, but it still shows unknown. We do not install HP agents on our servers. SNMP is installed and configured correctly. Currently I have WBEM globially disabled. Log from one virtual server HDQv19 is (It is on a ESX 3.5 host):

Starting identification process...
Checking for known running web servers.
Checking for System Management Home Page and other HP web agents.
The System Management Homepage is not supported on this system.
Checking for WBEM support on system.
WBEM is globally disabled, skipping WBEM identification.
Running WBEM rules based identification.
WBEM is globally disabled, skipping WBEM identification.
Running VM Identification
The system is not a VMware ESX Host, or WBEM credentials may not be specified, skipping VM Identification
Running WS-Man identification.
The system did not respond to WS-Management, verify credentials.
Checking for SNMP support on system.
The system responded to a SNMP request, it supports SNMP.
Running SNMP base Cluster identification using common cluster MIB.
This was not a system with the common cluster MIBs supported.
Running HP ProLiant management agent identification
System does not have the SNMP ProLiant Server (foundation) agents installed.
Running HP NetServer identification.
System supports the NetServer SNMP agent, adding system type
Running HP-UX SNMP identification.
System does not have the HPUX SNMP agents installed.
Running SNMP System Type Manager identification.
No matching SNMP System Type Manager rule was found.
Checking for DMI protocol support.
DMI is globally disabled, skipping DMI identification.
Running DMI System Type Manager identification.
DMI is globally disabled, skipping DMI identification.
Running HP-UX DMI identification.
DMI is globally disabled, skipping DMI identification.
Running HP/Compaq Desktop identification.
DMI is globally disabled, skipping DMI identification.
Running HP DMI Desktop identification.
DMI is globally disabled, skipping DMI identification.
Running Generic DMI identification.
DMI is globally disabled, skipping DMI identification.
Checking for SSH protocol support.
The SSH protocol is not supported on this system
Running Storage identification.
Did not detect WBEM support on this system. Will not attempt storage identification. If this is a storage host, check WBEM credentials and make sure the providers and CIMOM are operational on the host.
Storage identification completed.
Running HP Service Guard Identification.
The system is not part of HP Service Guard cluster
Checking if this system is supported by Insight Power Manager.
Insight Power Manager is not supported.
Running VM identification.
Building system relationships.
Running limited data collection for common attribute.
Done with limited data collection, checking retrieved data.
The system does not have SMH or SSO support.
Running node communication diagnosis
System identification done with this system.

[Andrew Schlafmann]

Meant to say we do not install HP Agents on our virtual servers.

[Andrew Schlafmann]

Got off the phone with the HP Rep. He told me I need VMM and licenses for that information to show up. He also said we need the HP agents installed on the ESX servers. We didn't have any of this configured before and were still able to get the info. Any help would be great.

[David Claypool · Accepted solution]

"Unmanaged" means that HP SIM is unable to communicate successfully with the target utilizing a management protocol.

"Unknown" means that HP SIM was able to successfully communicate with the target but was unable to classify it based on the information that was collected.

We do not publish agents to be installed inside of a virtual machine, nor should we. The "hardware" of a virtual machine is synthetic and can't "break."

While you may be able to communicate via SNMP with a VM, the data that the standard OIDs return is not sufficient to classify the target. To properly identify a VM, you need to use WMI/WBEM.

Additionally, with HP SIM 5.2 sp2 (I believe that's when it started) and later, WBEM is used to talk to the provided CIMOM in ESX to identify and associate VMs to their physical hosts. This does not require a license for Insight Control and its virtual machine manager. However, you can only observe the virtualization layer, not interact with it (e.g. start/stop a VM, move a VM to a new host, set a predictive failure action to move VMs to an alternate host) without Insight Control.

[Andrew Schlafmann]

This thread looks like it fixed it (solution in last post):

http://forums11.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=1073330

[Andrew Schlafmann]

See solution above.