HPSIM 4.1 replicate agent settings / VCA issue

[Terry Taylor_4]

Hello,

When I try to replicate agent settings I'm getting the following error on the Version Control Agent:

There was an error processing the request to the agent, possibly due to a version conflict.

Anyone seen that, or have any suggestions?

Other settings replicate fine, e.g. HTTP Server. The trust is set to 'trust by all' on all of the agents being configured.

[Sabina Elizabeth Patton]

We are getting that same error on several of our servers. We trust by certificate. I have checked all of the SNMP settings as well, and they all seem to be correct.

I have combed through the forums looking for anyone else who has this issue, and this is the first I have come across it in the forums.

Help!

[Terry Taylor_4]

It appears that all of the agents were configured even though the error seemed to indicate that they were not...

It may have something to do with the trust because one of the parameters that I'm setting is trust by cert. Another oddball sort of thing is if I select multiple computers and run a software status polling job they all still stay a ? (VCAgent not configured) but if I do them one by one then they show up as configured... bizarre.

[Ivan KOVAC]

Hello

Try running indentification on those server, and after that also software pooling.

i.

[Sabina Elizabeth Patton]

I am not familiar with Software pooling...can you point me in the right direction?

[Ivan KOVAC]

Hello

Go to menu Options, Status Polling\Software Status Polling...
Select target and run the tool

I.

[Sabina Elizabeth Patton]

I have now done just about everything under the sun:

Verified and re-verified SNMP settings (public set to read only)
Verified that the VCAgents were set correctly
Ran and re-ran software polling
Stopped and restarted VCAgent and VCRepository Manager

We point our VCAgents to a DNS CName, which is indeed pingable, and individually, the VCAgents see it correctly.

I am at my wits end. HP, can you PLEASE help with this? We cannot use the one feature that is the most useful to a distributed infrastructure!

[Ivan KOVAC]

Hello

What you mean (public set to read only)???
If this is Community Name set it to READ CREATE.

Community string need READ CREATE option.

I.

[Sabina Elizabeth Patton]

We have Public set to Read Only, and another community string set to Read Write.

I have not seen anything from HP to indicate that we need a community string set to Read Create.

All of the posts I have seen, in addition to other sessions with HP on SIM have recommended that Public set to Read Only is all that is required, and if you want to set disk thresholds etc. to add an additional string with Read Write.

What next?

[Rob Buxton]

Beth,
Read/Write is sufficient for HPSIM to be able to adjust thresholds etc. Note community names are case-sensitive.

What state are the VCAgents showing up on in HPSIM?
What happens if you click on them?

Browse directly to the VCAgent of a Server;
https://Server:2381/vcagent
You should be prompted for the Agent login details and then you should be able to login and see the VCA.
Has the VCA been configured, e.g. does it know where the VCRM is and does it have the login credentials?
Have you set the reference pack?

[Sabina Elizabeth Patton]

The VC Agents show as unknown on some. If I click on them, on the ? mark, it brings me to the proper place (VCAgent prompt etc.). Some show software status as degraded.

When I browse to them directly or via SIM, they show configured correctly (pointing to the correct VC Repository, with corrrect login credentials).

Some don't have the reference support pack set (which led to the Replicate Agent issue). Sometimes these settings disappear (set correct reference support pack, and the next day, gets set back to none). The credentials and VC Repository settings never get reset, just the reference support pack.

I wonder if that is the issue.

Perhaps I also need to know what the requirements are for the target and source systems in order to replicate the VC Agent settings.

One thing I noticed, and have a question about, can you not replicate agent settings on VC Agent when SW status is showing unknown on the target?

One note: I did test replicating agent settings to other components (i.e. SNMP settings) and that worked no problem.

[Rob Buxton]

I've seen this on Servers running older NT Versions, in our case NT4 terminal Services edition, which then has older versions of the agents.
I've never identified why but it comes and goes. But following the link from HPSIM always seems to work okay.
I've certainly not seen reference pack information disappear.
Also, you can manually run the Software Polling task for a single Server, do that and see if the Task Results indicate what the issue is.
Possibly timeouts? the standard Software Polling task is competing for Network resource somewhere?

[Sabina Elizabeth Patton]

We are running SIM on Win2003 and the "unknown" status is occurring on both NT and Win2003/2000 servers.

We are polling across the WAN. I suspected timeouts too.

Running software poll individually does not give any errors.

[Rob Buxton]

Did the Server still remain at an "i" after the S/W Polling task?

[Sabina Elizabeth Patton]

I have servers that remain as "i" and other servers that remain as "?"

I checked one of my servers with the "?" and everything is configured properly in the VC Agents.

When I mouse over the ? it tells me: "Software Version Status: Unknown - VC Agent not Configured"

I check it, and it is. Re-poll it, still shows unknown (polling task completes successfully).

When I mouse over the "i" it tells me: "Software Version Status: Security Trust Issue..." I checked the trusts, and it is set properly (by cert). I even reset that, and still same.

Do you think a re-installation of the VC Agent would help?

[Rob Buxton]

From HPSIM, if you click on the H/W Icon for one of these Servrs do you go straight to the page or are you challenged for a login?

Above you when you click on the S/W Icon you say it brings you to the VCA Prompt. What do you mean, you should see the VCA Page.

I'm not sure that reinstalling the Agent would achieve much, which version of the Agent / Softpaq are you running?

[Sabina Elizabeth Patton]

When I click on the HW icon, it goes directly to the System Management Homepage.

When I click on the SW icon, it goes directly to the VCAgent page.

No challenges for either. The only thing I get is the security alert (where you click Yes, No, or View Certificate).

[Rob Buxton]

It all seems okay.
The thing I see here is that some of the slower Servers show an "i" after the main Software Polling Task has run.
However if I kick a new Software Polling Task for a single Server off they usually show up okay again.
I've not spent too much time resolving this as the Servers are old PL 3000's running NT4 with the older Agents.
I can't really add any more.

[Sabina Elizabeth Patton]

Thanks for all of your feedback, I appreciate it. I am going to call this one into HP (servers this is happening on are ML/DL G2's and up).

[Craig McKellar]

Just a note - we've been having this issue on approx 8 servers ranging from p3 800's to ML/DL G3s
VC Agent just seems to lose it's config in HPSIM - but when you actually check the settings they're all there..
Re-installing the VC Agent had no effect either..

c~

[Nicole_16]

I've been getting the same problem for 5+ months in IM7 and was going to move to SIM to fix the problem.

I've been thru all the steps that you have, and likewise everything is set correctly.

One interesting note, my servers running an old version of the VCA work fine. Once I move above 6.10 I start getting the errors.

Please post any solutions you get from HP, as my rep won't respond on this issue.

[Jerry Roca_1]

I also am having these issues with the same environment, has there been any resolution for this ?