Last month, we told you how we are delivering on our promise to expand HPE InfoSight to servers. This expansion of the InfoSight portfolio includes HPE ProLiant servers, HPE Synergy compute modules and HPE Apollo systems (Gen10, Gen9, and Gen8 with iLO 5 and iLO 4). Bringing InfoSight to servers will be a multi-step journey that starts with a basic integration with InfoSight and becomes more extensive over time.
What comes with the first release of HPE InfoSight for servers?
This first release of HPE InfoSight for servers is delivering a foundational set of capabilities that can be augmented over time and includes:
- Predictive data analytics for parts failure
- Data analytics for server security
- Global Operational Dashboard with a consolidated view of the status, performance, and health of their server infrastructure, including system information, server warranty, and support status
- Global Wellness Dashboard with a consolidated view of the health of the server infrastructure, including recommendations
- Recommendations to eliminate performance bottlenecks on servers
- Support for HPE ProLiant servers, HPE Synergy compute modules and HPE Apollo systems (Gen10, Gen9, and Gen8 with iLO 5 and iLO 4)
It’s important to note that although InfoSight for servers is new, the collection and recording of server health, configuration, and performance sensor and telemetry data has been designed into HPE servers since Gen8 and iLO 4. Historically, this server telemetry and sensor data has been stuck on-premises and only analyzed after a problem has occurred and caused a disruption of service and impact to your business.
What’s new with InfoSight for servers is the ongoing automatic collection of this telemetry and sensor data, enabling InfoSight’s predictive analytics and recommendation engine to identify problematic behaviors through pattern recognition to predict and prevent problems before they occur. What’s also new is the use of InfoSight’s global learning to use past learnings across the installed base to see once and prevent for all.
InfoSight for servers combines the cloud-based machine learning of InfoSight with the health and performance monitoring of Active Health System (AHS) and iLO.
Most server folks are familiar with iLO (HPE’s embedded management processor), but folks may not be as familiar with Active Health System (AHS). Think of AHS as your server’s flight data recorder that provides continuous proactive health, configuration, and performance monitoring. AHS records thousands of system parameters and diagnostics telemetry 24x7 on the server. By capturing and recording the thousands of system parameters and diagnostic telemetry data, AHS has a living history of the health, performance, and configuration changes of the server, which allows HPE to troubleshoot problems without requiring you to reproduce the problem to capture the diagnostic data needed. AHS captures, records, and timestamps:
- Hardware changes (added, removed, replaced, or moved inside the server)
- Firmware, driver and software updates
- Thousands of elements of periodic runtime diagnostic telemetry and system parameters
AHS collects this telemetry data from the various devices and options installed in the servers. Things like iLO, Smart Array controllers, power supplies, fans, memory, on-board administrator, and a lot more. AHS does NOT collect any personally identifiable or network security information and AHS does not use any host resources.
HPE support personnel use this living server history collected by AHS to quickly diagnose issues in the call center and the HPE escalation and case managers use the AHS data to analyze and resolve the issues that are more complicated. The AHS data is also used by the HPE R&D teams to triage the hardest issues that require the expertise of the person who designed the system or wrote the code.
iLO and AHS are tightly integrated and work together to gather and record the thousands of system parameters and diagnostic telemetry data. And you access the AHS data for each server through iLO.
One of the most common questions: Can I see the data? The reason why this no longer a common question is because about a year and a half ago, we released the Active Health System Viewer (ASHV), which allows you to view the data and quickly identify and diagnose issues. While the use of AHSV has been very effective, the current AHSV process is a manual process where you export the AHS data from the individual server and then upload the AHS data into AHSV. With InfoSight for servers, the AHS data is collected automatically from each server and passed to InfoSight.
So, how do you get started?
Remember, InfoSight for servers is releasing on January 7, 2019.
More insight on HPE InfoSight for servers
- Chalk Talk video on HPE InfoSight for servers
- Active Health System (AHS) and the Active Health System Viewer (AHSV)
- Integrated Lights Out (iLO)
- Blog introducing the Active Health System Viewer
Stay connected
Did you catch the latest announcements around HPE InfoSight made last month at HPE Discover? Check out this blog: See the next generation of HPE InfoSight, powered by artificial intelligence. And please follow along for the latest updates on HPE InfoSight plus more insights on how HPE continues to pave the way for autonomous infrastructure. Discussions will continue here on Servers: The Right Compute and on our storage blog, Around the Storage Block.
Server Experts
Hewlett Packard Enterprise
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