Any fix?? HP SIM, VM Guests & few srvrs; unknown or unmanaged

[SEBEMISMNUSA]

Is there any fix for the issue listed at the HP thread
http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/bizsupport/questionanswer.do?threadId=973849
VMGuests unknown?

I thought this may had been fixed with an accidentially update to Pegagus WMI mapper 2.2 from 2.1 during a failed attempt to update to HP SIM 5.1 (see
http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=1091862 for details).

The HP SIM 5.0 sp # 5 (with Pegasus WMI mapper from the 5.1 updates ) run a system identification on 7,500 computers. The system subtype stayed at Virutal Machine Guest with the system type as server. This use to set the system type to unknown or unmanaged.

But . . . when this HP SIM ran computer discovery was run of over 160,000 TCP/IP addresses, the system type switched back to unknown or unmanaged. The computer servers were listed in the other column. This problems appeared again.

I am aware of the "interesting" workarounds. What I am looking for is a permanent fix.

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[Darrin Rawls]

It looks like the culprit is still the WMI Mapper service. Although a newer version was included in SIM 5.1, there will be another rev of the WMI Mapper that will probably release in the coming month or so. They have identified a couple of issues (one of which is in WMI itself) where things don't return correctly; hence the unknown/unmanaged.

In SIM 5.1, enhancements were also made so that flip-flop doesn't occur as often too based on non-updated information during the daily Id task and such. This should help out in addition to the WMI Mapper update.

[fishmn]

Having worked with some of the fine behind the scenes folks at HP on this issue in our environment, I can tell you they are not sitting on their hands. This is a very difficult problem with a lot of variables. If you've ever setup your SIM server in debug mode you'll get an idea of the complexity of this beast. In all fairness they could just punt and say this is a virtualization issue, but I don't expect that to happen.

One interesting note in my config is during the troubleshooting we setup the WMI mapper service as a proxy on one of our vm servers. This service still runs on this server in addition to the SIM server.. and guess what it is one of 3 vm servers that is correctly identified in SIM.. and survives all id and discovery tasks.. all others are unknown. I haven't figured out how/why the other two are being identified correctly.

[David Claypool]

You might also considering honing your autodiscovery ranges or breaking them up into successive days. If you're pinging 160,000 addresses and each can complete in 1 second and if HP SIM spawns 3 processes to do the pinging, your best case is to complete in 14+ hours (and during that time at minimum the Server Status Polling task needs to run 175 times). Since you have 7500 systems, there are 152,500 IP addresses that don't respond, so HP SIM will have multiple retries on those, taking even longer.

[Jeff Cottrill_1]

Response to Darrin's comments:

I don't believe the WMI Mapper is the problem.

After a failed 5.1 upgrade attempt, we had to reinstall 5.0 SP5 and restore the database. All is working as it did prior to the upgrade attempt, but with WMI Mapper 2.2

Also, on a separate 5.1 fresh install, I removed 2.2 and installed 2.1. Did not make a difference. No matter what I tried, 5.1 would not collect WBEM information from any server

[Darrin Rawls]

The WMI Mapper hasn't been released yet with the 'fix'; its still work in progress. Regardless of the updated WMI Mapper though, you should be getting WMI information from some machines. If you do a search in the top left of SIM for "WBEM" or do a custom search on the WBEM protocol, does anything come back? In HP SIM under the Options task (Protocol Settings/WMI Mapper), make sure at least one WMI Mapper is listed (typically the HP SIM server). If that is set, and the WMI Mapper service is running, it must be a firewall blocking the port (5989).

[Darrin Rawls]

The new WMI Mapper was released, version 2.3.

http://h18004.www1.hp.com/support/files/server/us/locate/8220.html

[J.Kopp]

Hi all,
Could any1 confirm that new WMI Mapper 2.3 fixes the problem with VM Guests unknown?

Thx and cheers.
Cop

[Fabian Sanchez_1]

i'm having the same issue. any update will be helpful. i know theres a fix if you enable wbem but i dont want to do that.

if indeed that is the only resolution i'll have to create a seperate instance of hpsim for the vm's, possibly on a vm.

[Sean Carolan]

We are also having this problem - most of our ESX guests are not recognized as virtual machines. They simply show up as unknown or unmanaged. These are mostly Linux boxes. If anyone can shed some light on this we'd greatly appreciate it.

[SEBEMISMNUSA]

Permanent fix (mentioned with empathy as I spent countless hours in resolving this)

Update to the
Pegasus WMI Mapper for HP Systems Insight Manager to version 2.4 (18 Oct 07)

Search on "WMI Mapper for HP Systems Insight Manager" at hp's web site.
Download and install this file
WMIMapper2_4_0.msi (2.3 MB) 18 Oct 2007
as displayed in the attached JPEG file.

or try this web page
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=US&swItem=MTX-aeb689f58db74128b59af142ce&prodTypeId=0&prodSeriesId=372323

I also found version 2.3 worked, too; however, ***versions prior to 2.3 **** have the above mentioned defect. I have repeatedly proven this.

Other details on my HP SIM installation:

Windows 2003 Server with service packs and numerous Microsoft updates installed
Microsoft SQL Server 2000 with sp # 4
Systmes Insight Manager 5.0 with SP 5 - Windows C.05.00.02.00
with HP version 7.8 MIB updates installed
on a HP Proliant DL360 g4
Searching on over 235,000 TCP/IP addresses.
This large search only works when Java memory settings are made (please review my other postings at this forum)

I have run the 235,000 TCP/IP address search mutilple time. All VMware ESX servers and VMware guest computers remain correctly identified. Nothing else worked.


End

[Sean Carolan]

Geez, if Scott had to go through all that just to get his ESX servers and guests identified correctly I shudder to think what kind of hoops us Linux admins will have to jump through to accomplish the same.

Can someone at HP either admit there is a bug in the software or tell me how to fix this? I have had a ticket open with HP for weeks and no one seems to be able to resolve it. Last I heard it was being escalated to some higher level inside the organization, but no word back.

Our decision to purchase the VMM pack hinges on whether this works or not, and I"m sure other customers are in the same boat.

[SEBEMISMNUSA]

Once "all the correct" settings are made to HP SIM 5.0 sp # 5, it works very well for what it is intended to do.

Settings for Microsoft Windows 2003 with sp # 1, Microsoft SQL Server 2000 with Sp # 4

1. Pegasus WMI Mapper 2.3 for HP SIM or above, available since February 2007 at HP's web site. I updated to 2.4 (Oct 18 2007). Version 2.4 works fine, too.

2. Sun Java VM settings for installations for above 600 hundred computer servers,

real or virtual and very large TCP/IP range scans; this is now over 200,000; it works; it takes days to complete (almost a week)

This setting is a must when monitoring over five hundred computer servers and large range scans.

MX_JVM_OPTS=-XX:PermSize=128m -XX:MaxPermSize=128m -Xms1024m -Xmx1024m

I am limited as I installed Windows 2003 Server *Standard* Edition with a 4 GB RAM and a 4 GB pagefile limit. If I have a larger installation, I would use Windows 2003 Server *Enterprise* Edition, with 8 GB of RAM or more, or a different OS that can handle more RAM.

I do not use HP VMM (sorry, HP SIM was not working earlier in 2007 - due to the above issues)
I am not going to purchase addons when the core component is having issues.
Note to HP: Document these above settings. You may be able to sell plugins.

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