automating disabling ASR?

[davidc_2]

Hello,
My company uses several Proliant DL model servers... 320, 360, 380, 180, g1, g2, g3, g4, g5, g6, etc... quite a few different ones.

I'm trying to find out if there is a way to automate disabling the ASR feature as part of our deployment process for Windows servers..

I would need to be able to do it from a script.

1. I'm assuming there is no registry setting since this is an out-of-band from the OS kind of thing, yes/no?

2. is there a command line tool I could shell out to?

3. Could it be done via WMI?

any input would be appreciated, thanks.

[marcus1234]

in os if it is windows based ASR can be disabled

my comp .props .advanced .startup and recovery settings autorestart remove the tick

[davidc_2]

Hi Mark1234, thanks for the reply.

my comp -> props -> advanced system settings -> start up and recovery 'settings' button -> in 'system failure' section, untick 'automatically restart'?

That's a hook into the HP ASR feature? I thought that was just part of Windows? Isn't HP ASR part of ILO stuff, operating outside of the installed operating system?

I just unticked it and re-ran the System Management Homepage and ASR is still enabled.

??

[marcus1234]

did you try restart the server then check the home page

[davidc_2]

yes, I restarted. System Management Homepage still shows ASR as enabled. The setting you are referring to is there whether Windows is installed on HP hardware, Dell, anything, it's an operating system feature, what I'm referring to is an HP feature.

anyone know?

[ab_server]

Have you already tried modified modifying (disabling ASR ) at your server BIOS ?
(At SERVER AVAILABILITY, ASR STATUS)

[radek zima_1 · Accepted solution]

Hi, you can use SSST (smart start scripting toolkit), the correct XML file for disabling ASR (guess you mean the HP stuff: "Automatic Server Recovery", not the Windows stuff for restoring) is this:

Disabled

The utility that can be used to use this xml file is called "conrep", it exists either as Windows, DOS, or Linux binary ...

Radek

[davidc_2]

re: BIOS: I need a way to automate this change so the BIOS route won't work. Also, I was under the impression that this setting is not necessarily accessible/changable from the BIOS in all models?

Radek Zima:
That sounds interested, I'm not familiar with SSST. Is this something that needs to be a part of the Proliant Support Pack installation, or can it be done after PSP installation? More info would be very much appreciated. As I said, I'm not familiar with SSST at all, but it sounds like I should be. Will this work for all server models or only some?

[radek zima_1]

Hi David,

here is the product homepage with documentation:

http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/servers/management/toolkit/index.html

It is not connected to PSP, it's a separate product, I'm using this with PXE and it works on all "real" ProLiant servers (ML300/DL300 and above) ... Radek

[davidc_2]

Radek Zima,
thanks again for the reply. I was just reading up a bit on the SSST. I downloaded the win64 version and was looking into the sample files. I have a quick follow up question that if you know could save me a bunch of time.

I already have an established server deployment system (MDT 2010). I'm thinking I should be able to just use parts of the SSST to enhance my existing system by getting at those BIOS level settings. Using MDT I have the ability to launch any script I want from WinPE or the fully installed Windows OS, so I should be able to, for example, just set this HP ASR setting if I wanted, right? If so, could you let me know which parts I should look into to do this? I could use this ASR setting as my proof of concept to start integrating some of the SSST tools into my overall deployment system.

thanks again!

[davidc_2]

Radek Zima,
Hey, I just re-read your last post and I see you have already told me which specific part to use for ASR, awesome, thank you. So to wrap up I just need to know if I will be able to just do that one setting with SSST, without needing to use the whole SSST deployment process, since I am already using a different process.

thanks again.

[radek zima_1]

Hi, yep, you can just start one batch containing single "conrep" command ... it should run without issues in WinPE (that's actually the procedure that HP is using in RDP product anyway)...Radek

[davidc_2]

oops.. found my spelling mistake in the xml file. It runs now but I get errors

dpioctl 467156 last error was: 6
dpioctl 467152 last error was: 6
dpioctl 467156 last error was: 6
dpioctl 467152 last error was: 6
dpioctl 467156 last error was: 6
dpioctl 467152 last error was: 6
dpioctl 467156 last error was: 6
dpioctl 467152 last error was: 6
and so on...

had to ctrl-c to quit, then gave return code of 2, bad data file?

anyone know what I'm doing wrong here?

[radek zima_1]

ad 1)
You can add the version, something like this:

Disabled

ad 2) no idea about your error messages, what box are you trying that on? from which version of Win PE?

[davidc_2]

Hi, thanks for responding again, I appreciate it.

Actually I was running it from windows server 2008. I thought it was able to run from WinPE or the full installed Windows OS. No?

my test machine is a DL360 G4, currently has server 2008 R2 on it. I did not install Proliant Support Pack on this. I know you can't do everything with conrep without the health driver (IPMI driver), but as my first test I just tried to run the conrep command before installing the PSP.

my command was:
conrep -l -x c:\test.xml

[radek zima_1]

Hi David, I just tried on one of my Windows 2008 with PSP and got the same issue ... I'm using it only from WinPE booted over PXE, I will try to look for solution, but not sure at the moment ... R.

[davidc_2]

Hi Radek,
Ok, thanks for that, I won't bother installing PSP to see if it makes a difference then. I will actually be doing this from WinPE as my final solution, I was just trying to do a little playing with it in 2k8.

I'll try from WinPE now.
1. Do I only need the conrep.exe and the settings xml file?

2. I have both x86 and x64 versions of WinPE in use, do you know if I can just use the x86 version of conrep.exe for both? or do I need to get the seperate 32 and 64 bit versions for each respective WinPE version?

thanks again!.

[radek zima_1]

Hi David,

1) you need also libxml2.dll

2) you should use 32-bit toolkit in 32-bit winpe and 64bit in 64bit ... guest 32bit will work even in 64bit, but as it's a bit of pain to put these to WinPE, I will put there both to stay save ...

3) you will also need hpsstkio.sys from hpDrivers directory (if you unpack toolkit distribution file) in \system32 (may this be the issue with dpioctl?) ... I'm afraid you should be carefull here with 32/64bit ...

Radek

[davidc_2]

ahhh. Thanks very much Radek.

So I'm assuming I need to actually add the hpsstkio.sys driver file to my PE image and have it loaded before trying to run conrep? In other words, I can't just copy the file over the network into the PE windows\system32 directory and expect conrep to load it when it needs it? I use MDT and WAIK which pretty much takes care of adding drivers for me, so I have not had to manually mess with it at all. To do that though, I would need an accompanying inf file, which I don't see for hpsstkio.sys, I assume I can't just copy this file into system32 of my pe image offline, then boot and have it work, right? I would need to tell PE to actually load this driver somehow, right?

I think your right on my error being due to no hpsstkio.sys. I just ran it from PE by booting an existing PE image and just copying over conrep.exe... it gave me an error saying it needed libxml2.dll, as you also said, so I copied that file to the same directory as conrep.exe and tried again, this time, same error I was getting from 2008, dwIOCTL

[davidc_2]

just found and read the readme file from the HPdrivers directory.. no inf for hpsstkio.sys, just says to copy to the system32 directory.

so if I only need to use conrep.exe should I be able to copy just conrep.exe, libxml2.dll, and hpsstkio.sys to the appropriate places in my PE image and use? No editing init files anywhere to actually load the hpsstkio.sys file?

I have to head home now, but I will try this in the morning. If I have to load the whole SSSTK PE package as detailed in that readme file that's what I will do, but considering I only need this for one setting, I'm trying to just do the simplest thing to accomplish just that. Thanks again for all your help, I do appreciate it.

[davidc_2]

ok, just tried this after first adding hpsstkio.sys to the system32 folder of my winPE image offline, so that it was present during boot. Same results. No go.

Can I do this with only conrep.exe, libxml2.dll, and hpsstkio.sys? If so how do I get hpsstkio.sys loaded? The only way I know to get drivers loaded in PE is if they have an inf file.

[davidc_2]

... and another update:
hpsstkio.sys is resolved now I believe... I just put it in the wrong place, I put it in windows\system32 and it needs to be in windows\system32\drivers

now I get a return code of 2, bad data file? Here is my output:

conrep.exe -l -x:\testy.xml

Warning: conrep has detected that the Proliant Health Driver is not running.
On system that support iLo - full configuration is not possible without this driver being loaded.
conrep 3.00 - SmartStart Scripting Toolkit Configuration Replication Program
Copyright (c) 2007-2009 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.

System type: Proliant DL360 G4
ROM Date: 7/16/2007
ROM Family: P52
Processor Manufacturer: Intel

XML System Configuration: x:\testy.xml
Hardware Configuration: conrep.dat

Unsupported tag text ignored

Loading Configuration from conrep.dat

Conrep return code: 2
Conrep (code): 2


Here is the xml file:

Disabled

1. so do I need the Health Driver in order to set this setting?

2. whats with the 'Loading Configuration from conrep.dat'? I know if you don't supply an 'output' file it uses conrep.dat but it's an 'output' file right? why would it be 'loading' anything from it? Do I need a conrep.dat file?

3. 'unsupported tag text ignored', does this mean my server does not support setting this setting from conrep?

now I'm honed in on being able to set BIOS settings from script in winPE or Windows, I have to make it work now :) What do I need to do?

[radek zima_1]

Hi David,

sorry for delay

1) please also copy conrep.xml to the directory

2) the syntax should be:

conrep.exe -l -f your_file_with_config.xml

I go that that "dpioctl" error on non-proliant box, but it worked on DL380G6 server (but I have also other drivers from the hpDriver loaded in my WinPE image)

Radek

[davidc_2]

Hi Radek, no worries. I appreciate your help.

I am confused about the conrep parameters though, -f is for an 'output' file, why would that param be used for the setting(s) you are trying to configure, which is 'input'??

what is conrep.xml for? If I need to worry about supplying different files for different models then this is not worth the trouble for me. I mean, I could do it, I could use wmi to get model and dynamically create the conrep command to run but that seems like it will add a lot of administrative overhead as far as keeping these files updated as new models come out.

I don't know if I just don't know enough about it, and I'm trying to just get this one thing done without really taking the time to learn the whole SSST architecture, or what, but this is becoming less and less attractive to me. I was thinking if I can take care of this one setting it would basically open the door to extending my deployment system to start automating BIOS setup.

I'm loosing faith considering conrep's 'output file' parameter is actually an 'input' file... something tells me this is not a finished product?

[radek zima_1]

Hi David,

1) yep, the naming is strange, but "-f" is for xml file you want to use ... with "-s" it will be the one you want to create, so it will be "output" ... with "-l" it does not make sense to call it "output" ... but they do :)

2) conrep.xml contains some basic definitions about the configuration xml structure, I did not realize you need this as well ...

3) it's a finished product, it is used heavily inside HP's product "RDP" for unattended instalaltions, but it's somehow hidden for normal users, tweaking is necessary for more complicated stuff ... I thought it will be easy task as I'm using that regularly, but inside RDP, so WinPE image is ready for me and contains everything ...

Hope you will find a way how to solve it, either with SSST or something else ...

Radek