HP SIM 7.2 - Can't successfully discover itself or its Version Control Repository Manager

[scottws]

I installed HP SIM 7.2 on a Windows Server 2012 Standard virtual guest, along with the VCRM.  The Windows SNMP feature is installed on the machine, and it allows connections on a SNMP read communitry string "read" from "localhost" (along with the hostname of another monitoring system).

Everything seems to be working ok except when I tried to configure software baselines for our physical servers.  SIM says it cannot find a discovered server with a VCRM installed and if I try to select a default VCRM, it just says to run an Identify task on the system that has VCRM installed, but that does not work.

Here is the output of the discovery task.  Note that the discovery credentials are using the same Active Directory domain account that the SIM services are running as.  This server is not only a member of the local Administrators group, but I also tried making it a member of Domain Admins, but this made no difference.  I've also added the SNMP read community string we use ("read").

We were previously using HP SIM 7.0 on a Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard virtual guest without issue.  That one does not have problems discovering itself.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

---------------------------------------------

********* Significant issues and overall target discovery/identification
          status:
Major:    The system cannot be identified properly for HP SIM to manage;
          unable to get one or more of the following: model, serial number or
          unique identifier (UUID). For management processors, verify the
          system is running the latest firmware. For Linux based operating
          systems, you must have dmidecode installed, enable the
          PermitRootLogin and PasswordAuthentication in sshd, and use root
          sign-in credential. For HP-UX, verify the sign-in credential. For
          Windows, check if WMIMapper is configured correctly on the CMS and
          verify the sign-in credential.
Critical: HP SIM cannot communicate with these systems using the WBEM
          protocol.

********* Additional results (listed for information only):

        * Starting identification process...
        * Checking for known running web servers...
        * Checking for SNMP protocol support on system...
Normal:   The system did not respond to SNMP. Verify security settings and
          community strings in Options->Security->Credentials->System
          Credentials
        * Checking for SNMPv3 protocol support on system...
Normal:   The system did not respond to SNMPv3. Verify security settings and
          v3 credentials in Options->Security->Credentials->System
          Credentials
        * Running HP ProLiant management agent identification...
Normal:   The system does not support SNMP.
        * Running SNMP base cluster identification using common cluster
          MIB...
Normal:   SNMP is not supported or globally disabled, skipping SNMP cluster
          identification.
        * Checking for WBEM protocol support on system...
Minor:    This system does not have any SMI-S CIMOMs installed. No storage
          systems will be found on this system.
Minor:    The Central Management System (CMS) cannot communicate with the
          CIMOM locally installed on the managed system using the WBEM
          protocol, Identification will try to identify Windows systems using
          the WMI Mapper as proxy; for Linux and HP-UX systems, check
          credentials by going to Options->Security->Credentials->System
          Credentials. For Linux systems also check if the HP WBEM provider
          is installed.
        * Running WBEM rules based identification...
Minor:    Identification cannot get computer system hardware data from the
          WBEM / WMI providers.
        * Running Virtual Machine (VM) Host (non HP Integrity VM Host)
          Identification...
Normal:   The system is not a VM Host (non HP Integrity VM Host), or WBEM
          credentials may not be specified so skipping VM Identification.
        * Running Storage identification...
        * Did not detect the WBEM protocol support on this system. SMI
          storage identification will be skipped.
        * Storage identification completed.
        * Running HP NetServer identification...
Normal:   The system does not support SNMP.
        * Running HP-UX SNMP identification...
Normal:   The system does not support SNMP.
        * Running OA Identifier which will discover systems in an enclosure
          if the automatic enclosure discovery option for OA is enabled...
Normal:   The system is not an Onboard Administrator, skipping automatic
          discovery of systems in the enclosure.
        * Running XMLReply Identifier which will discover systems in a
          rack/enclosure if the automatic discovery option for the container
          node is enabled...
        * Running iLO Identifier which will discover the server if the
          automatic server discovery option for iLO is enabled...
Minor:    The system responds to the HTTP request but cannot get the XML
          output. It is normal for servers not to get the XML data.
Minor:    If the http communication from CMS to target is working, but if it
          is found to be slow then try increasing the Default connection
          timeout parameter for http in global protocol settings.
        * Running p-Class Identifier...
Normal:   The system is not a p-Class so skipping p-Class identification.
        * Running IPMI protocol identification...
Normal:   IPMI protocol not detected so skipping IPMI Identification.
        * Running SSH Protocol identification...
Normal:   This system has SSH protocol support.
        * Running SSH Identification...
Normal:   The system can be logged in using SSH protocol; has a valid SSH
          credential.
Normal:   OS Name is identified by the SSH Identification.
        * Running WS-Man identification...
Minor:    The system did not respond to WS-Management (WS-Man) request.
        * Running Monarch OA Identification...
Normal:   The system is not a monarch OA so skipping monarch OA
          identification.
        * Checking for System Management Homepage and other HP web agents...
Normal:   The system is not a server, storage or desktop. Skipping the check
          for System Management Homepage.
        * Running HP Serviceguard Identification...
        * Running SNMP System Type manager ...
Normal:   The system does not support SNMP.
        * Running SNMP subtypes identification...
        * Resolving DNS names...
Normal:   The fully qualified domain name was successfully resolved for the
          system.
        * Checking if the Node is a Virtual Center...
Normal:   Skipping MxVirtualCenter Identifier.
        * Running Virtual Machine Management (VMM) Plug-in Identification...
        * Building system relationships...
Minor:    The Secure Shell key-based access authentication is not configured
          on the system(s).
Minor:    System Management Homepage (SMH) is not installed or is not
          responding on the system(s).
        * Running system Manage Communication diagnosis...
        * System identification finished on system.


                       

[Paul Kurtz]

I have seen this on Windows 2008 R2 before;

Check the services,  and look for two services

Pegasus WMI Mapper

Pegasus WMI Indications Services

Set to Logon As "LocalSystem", if not set to this they will not start.

WMI Mapper reads WMI data and feed system properties in HP SIM.

[scottws]

Actually, both services stop and start fine running as "NT SERVICE\WMI Mapper" and "NT SERVICE\WbemConsumer," respectively.  I also tried setting them to run as the SYSTEM account, but this makes no difference in the discoverability of the SIM server.

[SJRaghu]

Scott will be out of the office so I'll provide an update on his behalf.

For testing purposes, I decided to change the settings for WMI Mapper Proxy to our old server that was in production. (W2008 R2)

Lo and behold, it worked and HP SIM was able to detect the VCRM running with itself. So I believe the issue is with the WMI Mapping utility provided by HP and Windows Server 2012...

Could someone else try this and confirm that it works? Could be a work-around in the meantime.

[MarkU]

We are getting exactly the same problem with 7.2 on 2008 R2, so I don't think this is a 2012 specific problem. It is still a problem for us so any other fixes would be appreciated.

[scottws]

That is interesting.  My former colleague who posted above said that he discovered that the HP WMI Mapper was not Windows Server 2012 compatible (which is interesting considering the documentation for HP SIM 7.2 says that Systems Insight Manager is 2012 compatible).  He configured the WMI Mapper Proxy on our 7.2 SIM server to point to the IP address of our 7.0 SIM server running 2008 R2 and after doing that the 7.2 SIM server was able to discover the VCRM running on itself.

We had assumed that the solution was running the WMI Mapper on a 2008 R2 system was the solution and another collegue is currently in the process of rebuilding our 7.2 SIM server on 2008 R2.  That is not good news if we end up having the same issue.

Perhaps there is some issue with SIM 7.2 where the WMI Mapper must be on a machine other than itself?

[MarkU]

I had been assuming that it was something to do with the lack of WBEM support on virtual machines. However, we did have the version control working fine on SIM 7.0 using the same VM. After upgrading to 7.1 although SIM couldn't identify the version control repository was on itself, it worked Ok for updating SW/Firmware on the remote servers. But now in 7.2 version control is broken entirely and we cannot see baselines or compare installed software component with the latest versions in the repository.

I hope there is a fix coming soon!

[scottws]

Yes, SIM 7.0 on a virtual machine is working fine for us as well except that it stopped generating alerts after we migrated the database to another database server.  This is why we built the new SIM 7.2 machine.

I'm worried that there will not be a fix from HP coming soon for this problem, because I'm having a hard time finding others posting about this issue anywhere.  I'm wondering how common it is.

If we have this problem on our new 2008 R2 SIM 7.2 server, I'll try to call HP support.  You get support for SIM for free for the first 90 days after installation.

As a workaround  in the meantime, you might try installing the HP WMI Mapper on another server and point SIM's WMI Mapper Proxy to that machine and then re-identify the SIM 7.2 server.  It's ugly and I hate it, but that worked for us.