Installed HP SIM 7.2, have some questions to get me going

[Nick_UK]

Hi All

I have just installed HP SIM 7.2 on a Windows 2008R2 server, this is my first encounter with this product and I have some questions that I hope someone can help me with

Currently I want to have all my Windows Servers report to this server to Monitor Health,  Software / Firmware Versions, and direct SSO access to ILO’s without having to logon to each of the managed servers ILO console.

I’m sure from what I have read this is all possible, I think it’s my lack of understanding that’s holding me back!!, I’m currently at the stage where I need to discover and configure systems

When I discover Windows systems do I need to use an account that has local admin rights on them

Once I have discovered them I’m guessing next step is run configure or Repair agents,  I have looked at the Wizard and plan on choosing the options to install WBEM and SNMP for windows and also the VCA agent, can I use both WBEM and SNMP or should I choose just one?

I see on the next page of the Wizard I need to configure a username and password for WBEM to access the system, does this need to be a local admin account on the managed system?

On the set Trust relationship, if I leave the default “trust by certificate” box checked will that alone allow me to automatically log onto the ILO’s of discovered servers or is any further config needed, can we use the self signed SSL cert SIM created or does it need replacing with a 3rd party purchased SSL cert?

For the Configure VCA section I see my HP SIM server in the drop down, is best practice to use the same certificate mentioned above to authenticate this, if not and its best to specify a username and password do I need to grant it access on the VCA repository folder within windows?

Lastly (for now!!) What does the Configure Embedded Remote Support Settings for ILO management engine do?

Sorry for the long list, I appreciate any help you can give

Many Thanks

Nick

[Andrew_Haak]

Hello there,

For discovery it's easy to have a kind of discovery account that is local admin on the servers you want to monitor.

you can do without, if you use snmp as the discovery protocol for servers you only need to set these snmp settings. If you want to set these credentials and or trusts, you'll need credentials to set these (you need a key to get in your systems).

The downside to snmp is that HP recommends wbem for Windows 2008 and above.

You could look under configure > repair to set the snmp and trusts. If you run a repair under a account that has local admin rights the repair should work and no credentials get stored. If you set sign-in credentials, these credentials will get stored for system polling and identification and running scripts on your servers.

If you are going to use wbem(Windows and ESX 5.x) you need either an account with admin rights or an account that has dcom rights and access to the wmi tree. The last option is the savest but a lot more work. You'll probably have to set a domain policy to set these rights or a vbs script. If you want to do this I can also help you. But it's a lot more work.

You can use the build-in certificate to set a trust for servers, ilo's or enclosures.

If you need more hints just let me know.

Kind regards,

Andrew