PSP 8.40 & HPSUM inputfile parameter

[Gerardo Arceri]

We have a large installed base of blades and Proliant servers running Linux.
Before PSP 8.40 we used the --inputfile parameter to pass the installer the config options we needed for things like system management home page and so,
like this:
LOGFILENAME=/var/log/hp-tools_install.log
LSPOPTIONS=-v -f
CMALOCALHOSTRWCOMMSTR=private
CMALOCALHOSTROCOMMSTR=public
CMANOTAINTEDKERNEL=YES
CMASTARTSTORAGEAGENT=yes
CMASTARTWEBAGENT=yes
ADMIN-GROUP="admingroup"
OPERATOR-GROUP="opergroup"
USER-GROUP="usergroup";"hpshm"
ANONYMOUS-ACCESS="NO"
IP-BINDING="YES"
IP-BINDING-LIST=""
IP-RESTRICTED-LOGINS="NO"
LOCALACCESS-ENABLED=YES
LOCALACCESS-TYPE="Anonymous"

Now, that PSP 8.40 switched to the new HPSUM installer we have no way left of preconfiguring these items for our silent installs, the /inputfile parameter seems to have a different use.
I've found a configuration file that seems to contain these items called ldu_config.xml. but editing it from a bash script is somewhat difficult. is there any way to specify a plain file as the parameter ?

[Bryan Swanson_1]

I too have just discovered that HP has moved away from LDU to HPSUM for Linux PSP's and that it appears that answerfiles are no longer supported. I prefer to deploy the PSP as the last stage of a kickstart install and I don't want to push PSP's from a centralized management station.

Additionally, I liked the ability to install the PSP from text-mode only, without requiring a GUI.

While this sort of configuration may be acceptable (or even a step forward) for Windows, IMHO, it's a step backwards for Linux.

Gerardo, please keep this thread updated with any information you may find. Thanks!

[Gerardo Arceri]

I have your same setup (deploy PSP from kickstart), in case you didn't notice, PSP can still be deployed from the command line by using the following syntax:
./hpsum /f bpXXXXX.xml /silent

(Replace bpXXXXXX.xml for the matching file found in the distribution .tar.gz, in 8.40 it is bp000683.xml.)
That will install all the packages you selected to be installed by changing its matching line on the .xml file.
For example if you don't want to install the tg3 drivers supplied with PSP (they are a pain in the neck to maintain whenever you upgrade the kernel and the RedHat drivers work as well).
You would change:
hp-tg3-3.99p-5.src.rpm
for
hp-tg3-3.99p-5.src.rpm

you can use sed for that purpose.
Let me know if you need an example.
As for the switch to ldu_config.xml, the only way out i see is editing it somehow, perhaps using a XML parser of sort.
I'll report back with my findings.
Another option would be to edit, at least to configure SMH, to edit /opt/hp/hpsmh/conf/smhpd.xml after PSP is installed

[Michael Garner_1]

Gerardo,
I took a look at this problem and found there were a number of parameters left out of the inputfile in the PSP 8.40 release. I've added these to the next PSP release (8.50) version of HPSUM so the inputfile should work just as it did with the old LDU once this is released. For the PSP 8.40, there are two ways to get this to work: 1) modify the ldu_config.xml file as you mention originally or; 2) use the GUI for configuration. I know you stated you were trying to do this from kickstart so the only option available for now is option 1.

I'm sorry you had to run into this bug and hope it won't deter you from using HPSUM in future releases.

Regards,
Michael Garner
HPSUM Architect

[Tobias Schulze]

Hello Michael,

can you specify which parameters have been left out from the config file?

Thankd and Regards
Tobias

[Michael Garner_1]

The following parameters are supported in the inputfile. All others will be supported in the next release of HPSUM scheduled for June.

HPHTTPSERVEROVERWRITE
HPHTTPSERVERADMINPASSWD
HPHTTPSERVEROPERATORPASSWD
HPHTTPSERVERUSERPASSWD
CMALOCALHOSTRWCOMMSTR
CMALOCALHOSTROCOMMSTR
CMAMGMTSTATIONRWIPORDNS
CMAMGMTSTATIONRWCOMMSTR
CMAMGMTSTATIONROIPORDNS
CMAMGMTSTATIONROCOMMSTR
CMASYSCONTACT
CMASYSLOCATION

[Thomas Zimolong]

Dear Michael,
thanks a lot for the hint to these options for the input file. Just some remarks: First, these parameters are not part of the documentation I know of. neither hpsum_help_en.htm, nor CLIHelp.txt provide info about these parameters (CLIHelp.txt has no info, hpsum_help_en.htm, see "Parameter List", has a subset of parameters). Second: README.linux.txt doesn't mention hpsum_help_en.html. Third: Maybe you can "clean" up the quirky mix of dedicated parameters (one for each command line parameter) and the accumulated parameter "OPTIONS=" in version 8.50 :-] .
Thanks in Advance and Greetings, Thomas

[Thomas Zimolong]

Hi! I have a suggestion, it's quite primitive, but maybe it works out. You can call the GUI once and make the necessary changes to your component config and to hpsum's behaviour. Have fun exploring the supported parameters :-]. But: You don't have to write them down from the GUI: At the end you can save this configuration and you will get a file called HDUCONFIG.cfg. This file ist ASCII Base64-encoded. You can convert to a readable format with:
# cat HDUCONFIG.cfg | recode ascii/b64..utf-8 > my_HDUCONFIG.cfg
Afterwards you can apply changes to that file so there's no need sed'ing ldu_config.xml. I didn't test, wether it works in non-encoded format or if you have to recode it back again to work. Hopefully I can test that myself tomorrow. Greetz, Thomas

[Gerardo Arceri]

Thomas, can you elaborate some more on this recode/cfg idea ? i don't quite get what you are describing but i see potential on your idea

[Craig Jackson_3]

I believe that VCA has a number of preconfiguration parameters. However, I have to admit that they've never seemed to work in the past. It's always been a pain to have to go configure VCA manually on every machine. (Especially since the VCA configuration dialogs are uniformly too small and must be resized to find the buttons that need to be pressed.)

[Thomas Zimolong]

Hi, sorry for beeing absent so long. I just tried to use the HDUCONFIG.cfg I saved from the GUI. But first some words on the recode thing: If you simply call hpsum without parameters you get the GUI. After you started the discovery you get a list of the matching pre-defined bundles. That screen shows some check boxes, which represent options for hpsum: ALLOW..., FORCE.... After confirming a bundle you get a table with the columns "Product, Status, Optional Actions, Additional". Under "Optional Actions" you can configure some of the components to install. When you call that configuration for example for the snmp agents, you have another table with a question, your answer and the corresponding configuration parameter. That are exactly the config parameters to use in the inputfile. In the first mentioned table you find two buttons, import config and save config. When you save the config you get this base64-encoded HPDUCONFIG.cfg. You can make that file human readable with recode.
So now to my tests with this saved config: I added three parameters to the recoded HDUCONFIG.cfg: SILENT=YES , REBOOTALLOWED=NO, OPTIONS=-veryv,-logdir "/some/path". Result: "Unknown variable found in the inputfile" Since this message is not telling _which_ variable is unknown, I removed them one by one, but alas: The error is still the same, so it has to be one of the variables hpsum itselve saved, that is unknown. So I fear that's what Michael meant in his post: Though hpsum can work with these parameters via GUI and is able to save them to a file, it cannot use them in silent mode. Michael, please give us 8.50 quickly... :-]

[Thomas Zimolong]

Addition: The parameter SILENT=YES is fairly useless in the inputfile, since hpsum doesn't read the inputfile first. So, when you call hpsum with "-inputfile my_HDUCONFIG.cfg" as the only parameter it still tries to start with the GUI. You have to use "-silent" on the commandline.

[Thomas Zimolong]

Addition 2: The HPDUCONFIG.cfg saved by hpsum contains an uncommented first line, which causes a "Parse error" when feeded back into hpsum. You have to comment it manually with a leading #.

[Thomas Zimolong]

Hi! Did another test today: Tried to feed hpsum with my (edited) HDUCONFIG.cfg. It only reads it successfully, when it's recoded back into ascii/b64 (don't forget to comment the first line in HDUCONFIG.cfg).
And - surprise - it reads all of the parameters! So via GUI theres no "Unknown Variable..." error. What I learned was that in a first stage all rpms are built and hpsum stops, when there are errors while building (e.g. "kernel-syms" isn't installed). So ether install missing packages or use some "don't stop on errors" parameter. Greetz, Thomas

[Shyamal Patel]

Hi Thomas,

Thanks for all the info on this - it has been a great help to me, but I was wondering if you'd be able to help me out - I seem to be stuck with getting the hpsum to read my HDUCONFIG.cfg file - I keep getting the "Parse error in the input file" message even though it is encoded in ascii/b64. The file is as follows:

(root@machine) ~ # cat my_coded_HDUCONFIG.cfg | recode ascii/b64..utf-8
CMASTARTWEBAGENT=YES
CMASTARTSTORAGEAGENT=YES
CMASTARTNICAGENT=YES
ADMIN-GROUP=root
OPERATOR-GROUP=root
USER-GROUP=root
LOCALACCESS-ENABLED=NO
LOCALACCESS-TYPE=Administrator
ANONYMOUS-ACCESS=NO
TRUSTMODE=TrustByCert
(root@machine) ~ #

Any ideas?

[Dennis99]

I've tried a lot of options with the new hpsum utility for linux and I can't get some options scripted...

I've download the psp for linux (ver 8.50) and I'm using the following commandline:

./hpsum /inputfile inputfile /s

the contents of "inputfile" is:

SILENT=YES
CMASTARTWEBAGENT=NO
CMASTARTSTORAGEAGENT=YES
CMANOTAINTEDKERNEL=YES
CMALOCALHOSTROCOMMSTR=readonly
CMADEFTRAPCOMMSTR=trapme
CMATRAPDESTINATIONIPORDNS="foo.bar.com"
CMASYSCONTACT="ICT DEPT "
HPQLA2X00FORCE=Y
ADMIN-GROUP=wheel
FORCEBUNDLE=YES
BUNDLESLIST=bp000794.xml
USESNMP=YES
SOFTWAREONLY=YES
TRUSTMODE=TrustByAll

It all seems to work, judging from the logfiles, except the snmp part... In the older psp version, when I used the ./install.sh tool, the /etc/snmp/snmpd.conf file was updated with the selections I made. With the hpsum utility, that file is empty. And the CMASTARTWEBAGENT and CMASTARTSTORAGEAGENT options don't seem to have any effect either. The software selection in bp000794.xml is installed however.

I'm using RHEL5.5 on a DL380G5.

Am I doing something wrong?

Br.

Dennis

[Shanmugaraj]

Hello all,

Is there any update to this issue. Recently I tried with HP PSP 8.60 and stuck with the same issue. The new hpsum did not updated the snmpd.conf file with required information.

Any help here is greatly appreciated.

regards
Shanraj

[Gabrio Barbieri]

There is a known bug in HPSUM which prevents it from taking the parameters from an input file correctly. This will be fixed in the next HPSUM release.

[JoakimE]

When will PSP 8.70 be released?

[JoakimE]

Realized some days ago that PSP 8.63 (with new HPSUM) has been released. Unfortunately the input file parameters don't work in this version either. Was this not the intention?

[Michael Garner_1]

This issue is fixed in PSP 8.70 due out in April.

[JoakimE]

Ok, thanks!

Is input file support a big change or why was it not included in 8.63? 8.63 was released on March 3, why that close to 8.70, out in April?

Kind regards.

[Kevin Wright]

I still see similar issues using an input file on 8.70.

perhaps the best way is to modify the bp000903.xml file?

[Gerardo Arceri]

We opted for modifying the xml file.

[Kevin Wright]

in my testing, seems the best way is to simply do the following:

create inputfile specific for the rpm's you want to install depending upon the hardware in use:

SOURCEPATH=/net/wl-flor-apninad/kickstart/Software/PSP870
COMPONENTSLIST=cpq_cciss-3.6.28-7.rhel5.x86_64.rpm,cpqacuxe-8.70-9.0.noarch.rpm,hp-health-8.7.0.22-11.rhel5.x86_64.rpm,hp-netxtreme2-6.2.23-2.src.rpm,xxxxx

./hpsum --inputfile hpsum-g6-inputfile.ini /s

other parameters within the inputfile just cause issues.