HPSIM 5.0 SP4 - Version Control Status not showing correctly over WAN link

[Ulf Rasmussen]

Hi,

I'm currently doing an installation of HPSIM 5.0 SP4 on a customer site. The HPSIM server is lcoated in Norway, but the managed servers are all over the world. All the servers we're adding have PSP 7.51A.

Now, most of the servers are working fine. We do have some problems though, specifically with the servers on the slowest WAN links, in Australia, Japan and New Zealand.

The problem is as follows:
The servers show correct hardware status. Software status is however shown as a question mark, with the text "Version Control Agent Not Configured". When I check the Version Control Agents for these servers, they are configured correctly. Also, if I click the software status question mark, I am eventually forwarded to the VCA homepage of the server, and everything looks ok.

So the only problem is the status icon itself really. I've tried deleting the servers and adding them again, I've tried running software status polling multiple times, and also running identify systems task on them. All of these tasks take very long to run, but are eventually shown as completed. The icon however stays as question mark, and not the green tick status it should be showing.

So, we're thinking this is probably due to the slow WAN link. Are there any logs, for example for the software status polling, that I could look at to troubleshoot more? They have HP WAN accelerators on some of these links, but not all. Is there any configuration I can do on the CMS or elsewhere to increase timeouts or otherwise make this work?

I tried looking for similar issues here on the forum, but couldn't find any. Any help is greatly appreciated. As mentioned earlier, all settings on the servers are correct, they have been replicated from a known working server. This includes Trust/Certificate, SNMP, agent settings, VCA settings etc.

[Ulf Rasmussen]

Is there really nobody here who has experienced something similar? Did you understand the question or do I need to clarify anything?

[Andy Ogan]

I see the same thing. It's hit and miss as to which ones show the status of VC Agent Not Configured.

All the WAN lines are within the state, with most being a T1 line, occasionally an IMA circuit or DS3. Support pack level varies, most of them at 7.3 or newer.

But, not all of my WAN sites experience this. I have some T1 sites that are working just fine.

[Ulf Rasmussen]

Hm, interesting. Do you see the same thing we see, with adding servers or doing a software polling taking 5-10-15 minutes, sometimes more?

I've tried doubling the SNMP and PING timeouts and retries to no avail, as expected, really. Are there timeouts anywhere in HPSIM that relate to software polling and VC status?

[Andy Ogan]

Just tried a Software Status Poll on one of the servers over a T1 link that showed the VC Agent Not Configured status in SIM. Took only about 1 minute (it's an old ProLiant 3000, so slow is expected)

Regarding VC specific timeouts, no clue on that one. I haven't had to adjust anything in that arena before.

I originally just slated these "errors" up to the old hardware and out of date support packs. But if it's happening in more than my location on new support packs with, hopefully, newer hardware, it may be more...

[Ulf Rasmussen]

Yes, we see the fault on all new servers, and as this HPSIM install is part of an upgrade project, the servers are also upgraded to 7.51 and new firmwares. So I don't think it's the servers really, I think it's the link. We also got it on one of the servers in the US, even though they have a pretty good link.

[Ananthak23]

You might try uninstalling and installing VCA on one of these servers. Delete the existing server from the SIM database and rediscover it once VCA is installed. You might want to run SW status polling task for this server alone. If it brings up green status then you try on other systems as well.

-Anantha

[Ulf Rasmussen]

Thans, I'll have a try and let you know if that's any help. I kind of doubt it will, because we've done this upgrade on a lot of servers, so it would be a strange coincidence that that kind of fault would only show in these few servers that are in very remote locations.

[Andy Ogan]

Any further luck with this issue? Updating our PSP's didn't help, uninstall of VCA didn't help, the upgrade to SIM 5.0 SP5 didn't help, and it is affecting roughly 50 servers I have in the field.

I'm still trying things on my own, and will post any success stories, but I am hoping for someone to just have the magic bullet...

[Ulf Rasmussen]

Hi, and thanks for your reply. No help yet on this issue I'm afraid, we have a few global customers here in Norway who have this issue on their most remote servers. Any feedback/tips are still appreciated, we're having some trouble solving this one.

[Ulf Rasmussen]

Hi guys,

We're stilling seeing this issue. I've tried increasing all timeouts and retries for 2 of the servers in Australia, to no avail.

Now I'm thinking, what if we installed a separate repository manager on a server local to australia? Would that help, or would it just make deployment faster? I guess the status is reported only direcvtly from the VCA to the HPSIM servere, and therefore it would not help? Would anyone here know?

[Mc Simon]

Hi,

just to let you know you're not alone with that.
We have exactly the same problems you've described.
Our situiation: Large company with servers worldwide.
The HP SIM is located in Germany. Mainly the machines from our Asian region show:VC Agent not configured (but also some in AMER and EMEA region).
The configuration (snmp, vca...) is the same on all machines!
I also believe in some kind of timeout and wish I could tell you more!

[Aravindh Rajaram]

Did you all try increasing the Ping timeout and retry setting to a greater value in the "Global Protocol Settings" or in the "System protocol settings" page and see if it makes some difference?

[Andy Ogan]

Hasn't done any good for me to triple the timeout lengths, or even 10x them.

[Ulf Rasmussen]

Hi guys, thanks for showing interest in our problem. I've also tried playing around with the timeouts as suggested, without any success.

Are there other timeouts that are just for Version Control that aren't accessible via the GUI?

[Johan Alberts_1]

Did you find any solution to this problem?

I'm currently cleaning up a large SIM 5 installation to get rid of a lot of these small but irritating problems.

On of the problems i the sam as yours. We also have a lot of systems that show there VCA status with a questionmark.

When we started with this the servers where "unkonfigured" in SIM (showing the blue I). I did replicate VCA settings from one server to the other. That process was somewhat successfull. At least the status changed to a questionmark. If i look at the settingsa on the VC Agents they are correct and they show the "local" status correctly.

On some of the servers it worked when we did a second software status poll but we still have about 300 servers that wont show the correct staus in SIM.

I have tried to remove some of the servers from SIM and then adding them and they show up ok. But since its more than 300 of them it will be a timeconsuming task and i will propably loose all historical loggs.

Is tehera any other way of getting them to show the correct status?


Regards
/Johan

[Johan Alberts_1]

I might add that the total number of servers in this SIM installation is more than 900 and most of the servers show the correct VCA status

Regards

/Johan

[Magoo]

Hi Johan,

I opened a call for this at HP, they are still working on it.
What I tried as an interim solution is to install not only one VCRM (Version Control Repository Manager) but in each region its own. So now I have a VCRM in region AMER, APA and EMEA. After this I only had a few "blue question marks" left (slow locations). Maybe you can try that!?

Regards, Mc

[Johan Alberts_1]

I could but VCRM servers on more than one site but i dont think that it will solve my problem.

Most of our servers are in the same lokation with a connection speed of minimum 100Mbit. Only a few servers are remote servers and they do report to SIM in a correct manner.

/Johan

[JamesR_1]

You can try checking with your WAN guys. Status updates are coming back to CMS via HTTP:80 initiating from the managed device. Check the protocol timeouts or port 80 restrictions through your network devices.

Replicate settings may get a completed status, but does the detail show any status errors. Sometimes the completed status can be deceiving.

[Don Wooning.]

Now 2 years later the problem still exists. Is there anyone who has solved this problem.

[Kevin Brown_4]

There are a lot of people experiencing this issue. here is another thread.

http://forums11.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=1304889