HP SIM discovery assigns new IP address to existing server

[Judith Manning]

HP SIM 5.1 will not add two of our servers separately, instead discovering the second one OK according to the Task Results but merely adding its IP to the identification details of the first. Details below:

Hardware:
Compaq Proliant 7000 (Win2K Advanced Server, SP4) and Compaq Proliant 8500 (Windows Server 2003, SP1)
Software:
HP SIM 5.1 and support pack 7.60

Behaviour:
Perform any kind of discovery of the servers, and they're discovered with the right server name in the Task Results, but in All Servers/All Systems only one system is added, with both IP addresses assigned to it.
Whichever is discovered first will take both IPs.
If you discover one server first, it's added correctly with only its IP address UNTIL you then perform a discovery for the second server - the second server IP address then gets added to the Identification properties of the first server.

Troubleshooting so far:
- Checked that Nslookup on the CIM is correct for both servers/IPs.
- The HostGUID entry in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Compaq Insight Agent has been deleted and recreated by restarting the HP Agent services on both computers. To avoid duplication, UseSMBIOSGuid has been set to 0, otherwise they just recreated the same GUID.
- IP binding to the appropriate IP address has been configured in System Management Homepage of each server.
- All entries in the database to each server and IP address have been found and deleted after deleting the servers from HP SIM and before rediscovering.
- The HP Management Agents have been reinstalled on both servers.
- HP SIM 5.1 has been uninstalled and reinstalled on the Central Management Server.

Any suggestions as to where the problem may lie or what else I could try would be very welcome indeed.

[Jonathan Ferry · Accepted solution]

Both servers were missing their serial number, having had their system boards replaced some time in the past (http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=1063634)
But the server we could reboot was a Proliant 7000, on which RBSU is not supported.

Instead rebooted with the SmartStart 5.5 CD, which you can download here: http://h18023.www1.hp.com/support/files/server/us/download/22678.html although we had an original). For the Proliant 7000 it has to be SmartStart 5.5.

From the CD, ran System Configuration Utility and entered the serial number from the server chassis into the System Identification Number field. OK'ed the warning, and brought the server back up. Opened SMH to ensure the serial number showed in System Info and System Board.

Stopped all the HP agents, deleted HostGUID entry from the registry on the updated server, UseSMBIOSGuid entry reset to '1' and restarted the agents to regenerate a new HostGUID, which is now based on the serial number.

Ensured neither server had an entry in HP SIM, then rediscovered them one at a time by doing an automatic discovery of each IP address.

Both servers now showing up separately in HP SIM. I think it's worth making sure the HP engineer who replaces your system board re-enters the serial number at the time...

[Judith Manning]

See comments by the very helpful Mr Ferry, above.