HP SIM 5

[Eamon Murchan]

I have two questions, thanks in advance. Can I use either a current Dell server or an HP ProLiant DL380 G4 Storage Server with Microsoft's Windows Storage Server 2003 operating system to use as my HP SIM 5 management node to manage my HP estate and if so are there any issues?
My other question, is there a URL that details what servers I can manage with HP SIM 5. Like if I use the HP top tools agent can I manage my old HP LC servers.

Eamon

[Aravindh Rajaram]

The server model is not a problem. HPSIM 5 is supported only on the following Windows server operating systems

Microsoft® Windows 2000 Server with Service Pack 4 for x86
Microsoft® Windows 2000 Advanced Server with Service Pack 4 for x86
Microsoft® Windows 2003 Server with Service Pack 1 for x86
Microsoft® Windows 2003 Server with Service Pack 1 for x86 installed on x64
Microsoft® Windows 2003 Enterprise with Service Pack 1 for x86
Microsoft® Windows 2003 Enterprise with Service Pack 1 for x86 installed on x64
Microsoft® Windows XP with Service Pack 2 for x86

And for the second question...HP SIM has support for 4 protocols (SNMP,HTTP/HTTPS,WBEM/WMI, DMI). So you can make use of any or all of these and manage the other systems. There will be a file named "additionalWsDisc_README.txt" once you install HPSIM and that file has lot of info as to how you can make use of different agents running at specific ports for your device identification.

[David Claypool]

"Can I use either a current Dell server or an HP ProLiant DL380 G4 Storage Server with Microsoft's Windows Storage Server 2003 operating system to use as my HP SIM 5 management node to manage my HP estate and if so are there any issues?"

Possibly, but I wouldn't recommend it. First, Windows Storage Server is not one of the supported operating systems (may not be an issue, but if there are any gotchas to hosting HP SIM there, we wouldn't know of them and therefore support would not be able to help). Secondly, the HP SIM application is rather I/O-intensive, particularly with disk and network, so there is a high likelihood that service levels of the primary application, NAS file serving, could be affected.

"My other question, is there a URL that details what servers I can manage with HP SIM 5. Like if I use the HP top tools agent can I manage my old HP LC servers."

HP SIM can manage a variety of platforms due to its use of industry standards. Dell has even written a whitepaper on using HP SIM to manage PowerEdge servers (search for "Systems Insight Manager" on the Dell site). Additionally, shortly after the merger, the following paper was published: "Guide to Interoperability of HP Hardware and Hardware Management Tools: HP Toptools 5.6 with ProLiant Servers and Insight Manager 7 with HP Netserver" from http://h200001.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/bpt01108/bpt01108.pdf It hasn't been updated with HP SIM information specifically, but the information still applies. You don't have to manually compile in the Netserver MIBs anymore or mess with Device Type Manager. HP SIM comes with it already.

[Eamon Murchan]

Thanks,

Very useful information, I think I am all set now.