Needed: SIM 6.0 for for desktops and workstations

[Todd Wilburn]

I have been using SIM 5 for a while to monitor the status of our HP kiosk workstations throughout our network.

I was hoping that HP would recreate a desktop client for SIM 6 or define a better way to monitor the health and status of kiosk devices.

The only thing I am confident in is SIM's ability to tell whether a device its online or off line. That handles the urgent needs but SIM is also about being proactive and I am not confident that it can do that.

Does anyone have any experiences or information on using SIM to monitor workstations?

Thanks,
Todd

[David Claypool]

HP SIM was designed first and foremost for ProLiant, Integrity and BladeSystem servers. To the extent that it can do client management, it is almost by accident rather than by design. HP's Personal Systems Group pursues a separate strategy for management of client systems: http://h20331.www2.hp.com/Hpsub/cache/284014-0-0-225-121.html

[OlivierV]

Hello Todd.

Try to download SP22909.exe from HP's web site. I have installed it on several HP and Dell workstations (GX270/280) that I monitor with SIM. But they don't have any management processor, so you won't get any alert from a component that is ready to fail.

Caution : some recent Dell Optiplex workstations don't support this client, do some testing before.

Regards.

[Todd Wilburn]

Thanks for the quick reply.

I have been looking at HP Client Manager but it doesnâ t do the immediate alerting that SIM does.
I want to know when the HP workstation is not turned on or having a problem.
Heat, slow fan, Smart HDD event. The kiosks are supposed to be on 24/7 and unattended.

I might have to use both SIM and CM but I was hoping for a single solution that doesnâ t cost anything.

SIM is setup to use WBEM and DMI. The WMI Wrapper is installed so it should theoretically be able to read WMI events from the workstations.
There is resistance to installing SNMP agents on the workstations.

I donâ t know of a safe way to simulate/imitate a WMI error that would send a SIM alert to test.

[David Claypool]

There are no "built-in" WMI indications in Windows, so without an agent/provider of some sort, there's nothing to subscribe to.

Something else worth mentioning is that while it's clear that you have a specific need for up/down notification, the Client Manager team specifically decided no to do this. In most customer situations, the IT team does not want to get thousands of notifications at the end of the day as everyone turned off their computer to leave for the day.

[Todd Wilburn]

I agree that getting multiple notices of machines turning on and off is not helpful.

I was hoping that the SIM team would create a SIM 6.0 client for workstations.

I canâ t be the only one wanting to know the status of unattended kiosk workstations.

Thanks for the info.

[steukers erik]

Hi Todd,


Have You considered using the SP38117, the ClientManagementInterface (CMI)?

I have been trying this softpack on my supported portable HP Compaq 6510b, but the WMEBevent subscription fails.

Allthough I want to use it to monitor HPs workstation xw4600, but dont have one available for testing.

The CMI is a WMIprovider kit and should work.

David, any idea why the WBEM subscription is not working?

ref. http://forums11.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=1456942&admit=109447626+1290159766313+28353475

Thanks,
Erik.