OneView newbie

[hamelinp]

Hi,

New to OneView.  Do we really have to create one server profile for each of the servers ?

Thanks!

[ChrisLynch]

A server profile resource declares the individual server's hardware policy.  You can derive that configuration from a server profile template, which many server profiles can reference.  So, to reduce the administrative overhead and to keep your server profiles consistent, you should create a parent server profile template, then create and assign the server profile for the server(s) you intend to deploy.  Here are some online help discussion topics:

1. When to use a server profile
2. When to use a server profile template

[hamelinp]

Hi Christ,

Thanks for your answer.  That's what I did create 2 server profile templates and create server profiles for each of my servers.  For the moment I have only 31, but what if  I have 300!?  Will I have to create 300 server profiles? 

Other than that, I am not impressed at OneView.  Firmware updates takes a lot of time, I have to power off the server manually every time, I have to reapply many times, cannot reapply multiple servers at the same time.  Bios settings does not work at first, which is an easy straightforward task. and so on....

I have firmware inconsistency which are false.  Looking directly at the ILO, I can see that the firmware is up to date.

Sorry to throw you my frustration...

Is there any official OneView support?

Thanks again!

[ChrisLynch]

Sorry to hear you are experiencing frustration with the product.

That's what I did create 2 server profile templates and create server profiles for each of my servers. For the moment I have only 31, but what if I have 300!? Will I have to create 300 server profiles?

Yes.  Each server needs its own profile, which declares the configuration for that individual server.  If you have experience with other competing products that can assign one profile to many, that is a design flaw in that architecture.  If you need to create many profiles and assign them at once, then I would suggest you look to automate that using our scripting toolkits or our automation toolkits for Ansible, Terraform, Morpheus, etc.

Firmware updates takes a lot of time, I have to power off the server manually every time, I have to reapply many times, cannot reapply multiple servers at the same time.

Offline firmware updates will take some time.  How long will greatly depend on how large the ISO image is (for Gen8 and Gen9 servers as they must boot into that ISO first), and how many components you have within the server to update.  Gen10 is different, and utilizes an iLO-based mechnism for almost all of the component types.

In order to reduce the amount of time it takes to deploy updates, and the number of reboots, I would strongly suggest you look at deploying those updates online.  This will require iSUT to be present within the OS, and running in any of the Auto modes.  We have a section witin the Online Help that talks about some best practices for managing firmware here.  There is another section for Synergy that outlines SUT/iSUT here.

I haven't heard anyone facing BIOS config issues.  Especially with Gen9 and newer, since we use a direct API to the iLO to make BIOS setting changes.  Gen8 doesn't have that API.

I have firmware inconsistency which are false. Looking directly at the ILO, I can see that the firmware is up to date.

What version of OneView are you using?  What model and generation of servers are you trying to manage?

Is there any official OneView support?

All OneView Advanced customers have 3 years support.  So you can either call into our call center, or go to the HPE Suport Center to open a support case after logging in with your HPE Passport account that the license(s) are activated to.

[hamelinp]

Hi Chris

Yes. Each server needs its own profile, which declares the configuration for that individual server. If you have experience with other competing products that can assign one profile to many, that is a design flaw in that architecture. If you need to create many profiles and assign them at once, then I would suggest you look to automate that using our scripting toolkits or our automation toolkits for Ansible, Terraform, Morpheus, etc.

OK

What version of OneView are you using? What model and generation of servers are you trying to manage?

OV 6.2 and managing DL380 Gen 10 and XL225n Gen 10, new material, no OS installed yet.

I haven't heard anyone facing BIOS config issues. Especially with Gen9 and newer, since we use a direct API to the iLO to make BIOS setting changes. Gen8 doesn't have that API.

I can tell you I have.  I saw the console stucked on RBSU for 15 minutes.  A couple of days ago I was exiting thinking that the update process was stucked or something alike. 

Thanks again for your help, I will use the support line.

[ChrisLynch]

I saw the console stuck on RBSU for 15 minutes.  

That isn't how BIOS settings are deployed.  OneView does not boot a server into RBSU (which I believe you mean System Setup, as RBSU doesn't exist in Gen10) for any configuration management.  We use several different APIs to configure a server.

Now that I know what generation of server you are using, do know that offline firmware deployment might take longer than usual, due to disk drive firmware updates.  Why?  Well, iLO5 has a feature called "iLO Repository", where firmware and driver updates can be staged.  All but disk drives (and a few adapter vendors) cannot be installed this way.  So, the server must then boot into the ISO image to finish installing those types of updates.  I suggested using iSUT, as I was guessing you had an OS deployed.  Since you do not, the initial deployment will take longer, and I would suggest future lifecycle updates you rely on iSUT and online capabilities.  However, that presumes you are then installing a supported operating system that we our ecosystem tools can be used.

[hamelinp]

I hope Ubuntu is supported!