Custom scripting using HP WBEM providers

[Matthew McDonald]

I don't know if this is the correct forum, so if it's not, please let me know where it should go.

I've recently come into a need to script out some system information, akin to what the HP Insight Manager provides on Proliant servers. For example, I need to get physical disk information (this is hid behind the storage array/raid configuration). I'd also like to get actual array information (which disks involved in which raid arrays and further information about the configs).

I'd also like to find the physical processor information since Windows 2003 only presents the logical information (can't detect cores vs physical chip count). Vista/2008 fortunately detects actual cores.

I've been running into some issues with using the HP WBEM providers and was hoping someone may have already figured this out. I'm having a huge difficulty trying to find out which classes to use. I've narrowed down my storage needs (at least for physical disk info) to the HPSA_StorageArray class, but I can't seem to find any actual RAID info using this class or any derivitives.

Ultimately it looks like I'm trying to re-invent the wheel. The HP System's Management page provides most of this info, but I can't run that remotely via script. If there's a way to invoke that without going to the URL on the remote server, that would be awesome.

Does anyone have any advice/help?

TIA,
Matthew

[David Claypool]

Have you seen the "SNMP Data Migration Guide" from http://www.hp.com/go/hpwbem under 'Available Documents' ? If you know the MIB variable from the SNMP agent that has the data you want, this will list the equivalent WMI class.

[Matthew McDonald]

I have actually looked here, but I have no real experience with the HP SNMP MIBs so I have no idea which ones I should look to.

I'm also wondering if the fact that this is a G5 server and we're using SAS drives, if this document will even apply?

From what I can tell there are several classes and some seem specific to various platforms (scsi vs sas, etc) i.e. HPSA_*, HPSCSI_*, HPSAS_*, etc.

In the SNMP migration guide there are CPQIDE.MIB, CPQSCSI.MIB, CPQFCA.MIB. I don't see any mention of SAS so I'm not even sure SAS is supported via the SNMP protocol.

I've cracked open a WMI object browser and pretty much spent well over 10 hours tracking down the various different HP related WMI providers and various associations and I just can't seem to find the information I need.

I found out how to get physical disk information using the HPSA_DISKDRIVE class and it's associations but can't find any way to get the RAID specific information at all. It looks like I found two different raid groups and which drives are apart of which, but can't tell which parameters/items tie specifically to things like the type of RAID (i.e. Raid 1+0, Raid0, etc).

[Matthew McDonald]

I think I'm getting further. I am looking at documentation on the HPSA_STORAGEVOLUME class and see there are a couple of properties that may lead me to some info, but it's a tad bit confusing.

For example:

DataRedundancy has the following options:
â ¢ 1 (RAID 0, RAID 5, RAID 6)
â ¢ 2 (RAID 1+0)

PackageRedundancy has the following values:
â ¢ 0 (RAID 0)
â ¢ 1 (RAID 1+0, RAID 5)
â ¢ 2 (RAID 6)

How would I distinguish between RAID 1+0 and RAID 5? Would I need to look at a combination of PackageRedundancy and DataRedundancy properties?

The grouping of multiple raid types into single values is confusing!

I would assume the following combinations:
â ¢ DataRedundancy:1, PackageRedundancy:0 = RAID 0
â ¢ DataRedundancy:1, PackageRedundancy:1 = RAID 5
â ¢ DataRedundancy:1, PackageRedundancy:2 = RAID 6

I guess that could be shortened to only look at both properties only when PackageRedundancy=1 and otherwise just use the results of the other values of PackageRedundancy?

Seems awefully complicated to just get a simple value!

Having to resort to using HP WMI providers is proving to be very difficult. I.e. I have to assume the HP WBEM providers are even installed. It seems they are not installed by default as part of the HP Systems Management tools from the SmartStart CD??? How does the HP Systems Management get this info? SNMP? Straight API Calls?

I'm going to need to take in the following factors:
1: HP WMI providers installed
2: What storage array even houses the raid groups
3: what to do when storage is SAN connected storage. I obviously can't get that info using HP's WMI providers. What do I do here?

I'd be greatly appreciative if anyone has any information that may help. I've scoured news groups all over and it looks like no one has ever had a need for this. That's very surprising!

Thanks again!
Matthew

[shocko]

Would WMI loggin help to see what queries SIM/SHM etc make to the system?

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa392285%28v=vs.85%29.aspx