How to licensing some HP Products

[ReynierPM]

First of all my apologies if this is not the right place to post this question. In order to consolidate and cut costs in my data center I will buy a c7000 enclosure with 16 blade servers BL460cG6 which will serve as the basis of a virtualized infrastructure with vCenter for managment and vSphere for each Blade Server. My question is would need a license of SIM and ICE for each of them? What are the differences between SIM and ICE? How the licenses work with this kind of solutions? I need to buy also a iLO 2 advanced license for each server?

[Rob Buxton · Accepted solution]

You don't actually need to buy any licensed products.
HP SIM is free, so you have the monitoring.
You can use ILO to access the blades, and yes you would need an Advanced License to get the graphics / directory integration. But you can also access the Blade console via the Blade interface. This provides a java or similar access to the ILO functionality. So you can remotely access the blade server consoles and get full graphics without using the ILO directly.
SIM is a monitoring product. Either agents (on ESX) or WBEM (on ESXi) are used to send alerts on hardware issues to HPSIM.
ICE adds more functionality / visibility. We've got by without it here.
HP SIM itself just installs on a single server (or virtual server). It can be quite resource intensive.
HP SIM can also monitor your C7000 integrated switches etc.

[ReynierPM]

Thanks for your reply, let me see if I understand all. SIM is like Nagios (more advanced of course and also integrated with HP products ;)). ICE provide more functionalities and graphics to SIM but isn't necessary at all. And iLO Advanced isn't needed too beacuse I can access via Blade Interface(I don't know what is this). Is that correct? Any guide or WP to see how to install SIM in a Virtual Enviroment or I just need a pyshic server in order to get SIM installed, configured and working properly?

Cheers

[Rob Buxton]

Yes that about sums it up. Nagios is much better at keeping an eye on services etc. HP SIm is much better at dealing with alerts generated from HP servers. I'm not sure if Nagios does wbem yet, so it may not be able to do much with ESXi.
Start in www.hp.com/go/hpsim and go to the reference library. There is complete documentation there.
There is quite a lot of difference between monitoring ESX and ESXi. ESX uses agents that are installed into the console. ESXi uses wbem, for that you either build ESXi using the HP image or add the HP ESXi bundle to a Vmware image.
It can be installed on virtual servers. Note there are quite a lot of add-ins that do extend the usage of HP SIM.
But a lot of that is also available via virtual centre.
I'd recommend getting familiar with HPSIM and then reviewing what, if anything additional you need.

[ReynierPM]

Ok, I check HP SIM as you suggest. I know Nagios a bit and as far as I know there isn't way to check Virtual infraestructures. One more question what's the difference between ESX and ESXi?

[Rob Buxton]

For that you're better off on the Vmware site.
Essentially ESX has a console, in that you can install agents etc. You access it like a Linux Server.
ESXi doesn't have a console. It's really stripped down and the indications are its th way Vmware are going.
The main reason is that the majority of patches etc. go into the console. By removing the console you get a lot less patch activity.
In terms of using virtual center and general vmware management there's no difference. There is when it comes to integrating HPSIM.

[Paul Kurtz]

HP SIM is free, but tools like Insight Control licenses get you tools like Server deyployement, ILO2 Advanced, Power management, and performence management. Also with the new Insight Control 6.0 it is on price for all features. When you recieve your licence you apply it in HP SIM. Should talk to a HP sales or partner for details. Also more info on http://h18013.www1.hp.com/products/servers/management/index.html

[DerekS_1]

When you buy your C-7000 chasis HP sells a bundled version that has fans, power supplies, and 16 ICE licenses. Runs around $12K list price, I think. Much cheaper than buying the unbundled chassis and paying for 16 ICE licenses.