Monitoring Local Disk on ESXi (DL380 G5) on HP SIM 5.2

[AaronK]

Hello,
I am trying to use ESXi (Integrated HP Version on USB Key).
We are running HP SIM 5.2 SP1 and the ESXi version is the ESXi 3.5 Update 1 with HP Providers.

We have configured WBEM on the HP Sim server and it discovers the server just fine.

When I click on Health Status in HP Sim, it shows me the status for Fans/Memory/Power/Processors (see attached) but nothing for disk/storage.

Is this something I have misconfigured? or do the CIM providers in ESXi fail to monitor disk as a 'feature'.

Thanks!
Aaron

[Tom Parker_1]

Aaron,

I am pretty sure that is a "feature". A pretty bad one at that. I can't understand how they left this out.

BTW, I haven't been able to get as far as you have with SIM. I haven't yet figured out how to actually get SIM to see the status of anything so any tips you can provide would be great.

Tom

[AaronK]

Yea.. It was a 'little' tricky getting it to work...
But these are the 'key steps'
1) Make sure you are running HP SIM 5.2 WITH SP1 (REQUIRED)
2) Under Protocol Settings->Global Protocol Settings, Make sure to ENABLE WBEM and put in your root and password for one of the default usernames.
3) Make sure you are running the HP Integrated ESXi (not just the downloaded one from VMWare) VMWare does have the HP Integrated ESXi (that can be installed on Harddrives) available for download now at the normal location.

[AaronK]

Well, I just confirmed from our VMWare rep that the Storage providers are NOT included in the HP image. HP is planning to include them in the next release, but there is no firm date.

[Mark Donne]

Is this still the case?

Or is it now possible to monitor the Hard Drive Status'?

[Anthony_Fairthorne]

Im actually working on this at the moment and its currently still NOT possible to monitor Hard disk or storage status.

My ESXi build version is 120505, the latest from them, with the HP bits in the ISO.

Heres hoping this is resolved soon!

[Karl Raab]

it looks like this problem is still not fixed at January 2009. This prevents us from using HP Severs for our new ESXi installations. We don´t want to use a productive server without being alarmed of a failed disc.

Because Dell has no problems with this, we ordered our last 50 servers from Dell now. This could not be a good thing for HP...

[Troels Schønemann]

Hi,

I can't see a "resolution" to this coming because if HP/VMware want to include extended hw monitoring in ESXi they should easily be able to do so.

To me it's a licensing issue = money. Since they're giving away ESXi they're putting as few features into the package as possible. If customers want more, such as disk monitoring, they need to grab their wallet and purchase ESX standard.

However, this seems foolish since the most common hardware failure on a server, is a disk crash, and you haven't got a clue whether your disks have failed or not. I'm seriously considering other products on the market because of this....

Cheers,
Troels

[Bradley Shammam]

HP is not that great at writing software. I'm sure it has to do with how they organize their development teams. They are great on the hardware side.

I've started talking to other manufacturers in search of another company with great hardware and the ability to do simple things like monitor storage with ESXi. Don't want to switch away from HP but seems like the HP development team can't figure this one out.

[Rob Buxton]

What's the storage you're trying to monitor?
If you're running ESX then I'd assume that the storage is not local, SAN or iSCSI?

We run EVAs and that storage is monitored, but not by the servers that connect to it. It's monitored by software that's meant to do that. In most ESX environments the storage is a couple of steps removed from the server so it's not going to be able to monitor it directly.

[Troels Schønemann]

Rob: In my case it's DL380 G4&5 with ESXi installed on local storage. VM's residing on iSCSI. In such a scenario disk monitoring is simply not possible. I've investigated this thoroughly but I can't see it can be done since no hpasm agents are included in the build and they can't be installed. It's confirmed in the HP ESXi management guide from HP I've linked to.

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c01570108/c01570108.pdf?jumpid=reg_R1002_USEN

[David Claypool]

Folks, the deployment model for ESXi is supposed to be on a USB key and with shared SAN storage, preferably on blades, to eliminate all rotating media in the server. For that reason, ProLiant WBEM Providers were released without any local disk monitoring.

If you are going to have local drives, it is recommended to deploy VMware ESX. There is no licensing cost difference.

If you are deploying 'free' ESXi, it is an unsupported product anyway.

[Bradley Shammam]

ESXi was embedded (on a USB key) in our DL380 G5 HP... So you telling me the DL380 G5 with 8 storage bays and a P400 RAID Controller were not supposed to be used with ESXi? lol That's funny.

Why would I buy the DL380 G5 and not the DL360 if that was the case?

Have other vendors like Dell figured this out and created the monitoring tools to do it?

[David Claypool]

With ESXi on the key and the requirement for shared storage (SAN, iSCSI) to enable Vmotion, DRS, HA, and SRM, why would anyone purchase local storage? It's not needed for the OS or the VMs.

Choosing a DL380 G5 is not inconsistent with deploying it diskless, since people like to load up their VMware configurations with lots of RAM (64GB max as opposed to 32GB on the DL360 G5), and lots of NICs and FC HBAs (there are up to 5 expansion slots as opposed to 2 on the DL360G5).

If you're not interested in Vmotion, etc (although VMware reports in excess of 90% of customers get the Virtual Infrastructure license which includes this) and so are okay with local storage and no shared storage connection, there is absolutely no benefit to the key deployment method. In fact, you have to ask yourself why you would add another component instead of deploying the OS on the disks you have. While it works, this is not the way that ESXi was intended to be deployed.

As I mentioned before, ESXi was designed to primarily be deployed on blade servers like the BL460c, BL480c and BL495c. Since a blade server does not contain a power supply or fans, the elimination of local hard drives would mean that there were no mechanical devices to fail. It was intended for large scale data center deployments.

If this is not what you are doing, it's rather like using a pair of pliers to get off a nut rather than a wrench. It'll work, but it's not the best tool for the job.

[AaronK]

David,
You make some very good points... however, there are some OTHER areas where the monitoring falls short, specifically NIC and HBA. There currently (last I checked) is no way to know if a NIC has failed/disconnected with ESXi. In the case of the clustered solution you would most likely have teamed nics and you would want to know when one was unplugged/failed.
Also, for small remote sites, we would 'prefer' to deploy a simpler ESXi than the full 'fat' ESX. And these sites would not have shared storage but be standalone with internal disk.

The combination lack of disk and nic monitoring basically makes HP's current ESXi implementation not suitable for either small or large deployments.

I really hope HP is working to provide full monitoring capabilities in the coming versions of ESX as other vendors DO have this.

[Bradley Shammam]

Dave, consider that I deal mostly with clients who have 3-20 servers. Most of them do not need a SAN or any type of external storage. We buy the ESXi embedded so that we can commit the whole disk to storage and also if we wanted we could setup two raid 5 config's and if one were to fail it wouldn't bring down the others because ESXi is on a USB key.

I like your idea of not using local disks (sounds great), but tell that to a client who doesn't need that much storage space. Internal disk is sometimes enough storage.

You also missing the point that it is inevitable you provide a solution and you must release some type of monitoring for ESXi or you will be left in the dust by your competition. We, the business community have a need and we will find a solution. Hopefully with HP and not another vendor.

I'm die-hard HP (except for laptops..Lenovo) ... It's killing me to even think about having to go somewhere else to buy servers for my clients. BUT, if I don't change, and everyone else around me does, I'm toast.

Please provide us monitoring tools.

thanks,

[Karl Raab]

Bradley, this is exactly what we are thinking about this ! HP can't sell a server with official ESXi support and telling the people it is not intended to use with local disks, NIC´s or HBA´s. A server without monitoring the key hardware is useless !

There are many customers starting with ESXi on local disks and backing up to NAS Raids because they don't need zero downtime or they do not have the money for a SAN. The hardware monitoring of local disks is even more important for ESXi because there is no VMotion possible with it.

I heard that HP is working on it. Can somebody confirm ?

[Rolly_1]

I agree with everyone else here. Some of my office sites don't have a need for a SAN.

I'm extremely disappointed that this monitoring isn't included and from what David is saying falls in to the sucks to be you category by HP.

Well I've been a die hard HP fan for years (even the laptops lol), but when my next head office and site upgrades come about I definitely know I'll be going with a vendor that supports 101 of hardware monitoring.

[Goran Karlsson]

Hi,

I have talked to a HP representant with knowledge about this. He gave me this answer:
The basic SmartArray status becomes visible in VMware's Virtual Infrastructure Client and Virtual Center starting with the release of ESXi 3.5 Update 4 (March 30) and more information will be available in HP SIM with ESXi 4 (K/L) in late May.

[Milovan Milic]

Any news on esxi update 4 ?

[Adrian Keller]

Hi

i just wanted to confirm that ESXi 3.5U4 is able to Monitor Local Disk .. see attached pic

as for the momment it seems that HP-SIM is not yet ready for this ..

but i'm sure it will be in short time ..

Finally :-)

[Donutman]

Did you take any special actions in order to have the P800 show up in health status, apart from installing ESXi 3.5u4?

We are currently trying to get a P400/256 and a P600 to show its status but so far to no avail.

[Bradley_10]

The release notes only showed the P800 controller.. I'm hoping the P400 also works, we will probably roll out this update next weekend.

[Rolly_1]

Hi All

the update worked for me.

I'm running P400 Controler.

Thanks HP! :)

[Tom Parker_1]

I have updated ESXi running on BL465c whith and E200i controller and get no monitoring of disk. Another unhappy customer. Our Dell servers allow me to see disk health.