SNMP & WBEM ... one more time

[Oliver_Tatzmann]

Hello,

Since days I'm looking for some usefull documentation on this topic. I also browsed this forum, but I sill have some questions left.

We currently use HP SIM 6.2 only for Hardware Monitoring (Proliants & Blades), Contract/Warrenty Checks and Case Forwarding to HP.

1) Is SNMP enough, or do I really need WBEM?

2) What additional information do I get from the servers, if I'd use WBEM?
3) SNMP Write: I saw the post about intra-agent communication, but what happens when I remove them (didn't notice any impact yet) ... is there any official documentation for that?

thx & br

Oliver

[shocko]

Personally, I like the WBEM and the WMI providers for the following reasons

1. Security
2. Firewall compatibility
3. Industry standard (WBEM)
4. Ability to disable monitoring of iLO cards in SMH when iLO not connected. If SNMP is used and iLO is not connected overall status of server in SIM is degraded which is not ideal
5. If WBEM used then disk drive firmware shows up in VCA

Also, the WMI HP namespace can be queried by other applications such as SCOM etc. to expose HP specific information. Just my 2 cents ;)

[shocko]

In terms of SNMP write string. The HP Management Agents use SNMP to perform most tasks. So, if you try and set a disk threshold etc. On a server using the SNMP agents and there is no write string, this will fail ;)

[shocko]

I forgot to mention that natively, SNMP is plaintext accross the network whereas WMI/WBEM can use a variety of authentication mechanisms and SSL encryption which is ideal for DMZ's and publc networks.

[Oliver_Tatzmann]

Thank you for you answers, let me just summarize if I got you right

As i metioned in my first post, we only use SIM to get information about hardware failures, open calls at HP and check for contracts.

• I can use either SNMP or WBEM to get the hardware information, I don't need both.
• (beside the security topic) the only advantages of WBEM related to SIM are the disk-firmware information and the disconnected iLOs
• If I kick the SNMP-Write/Create community nothing will happen unless I try to change some settings of a server over SIM?

[JefW]

But I never can get WBEM works on Windows 2008 servers.

WBEM provider installed on 2k8 without problem, HD firmware shows up properly in VCA.

but in SIM WBEM just not working, cannot identify WBEM, cannot set trust relationship via quick repair. Even I disabled UAC.

[shocko]

I suppose that pretty much sums it up. The industry is moving away from SNMP e.g. ESXi no longer uses SNMP and uses CIM.

[Oliver_Tatzmann]

Hmmm I tried to add some Windows Server using only SNMP and than worked. But in Linux it still asks me for root access to identify the systems :(

SNMP is our default for Server Monitoring at the moment. That's why I've to stick to that. Switching to WBEM may be a topic in a few month.