Nodes added to HP SIM do not appear

[Tooling]

I am working for years with HP SIM now, but this week I met the strangest problem ever:

When I add a single node from the GUI -> Opions - Discovery - Manual I get a popup with text "HP Systems Insight Manager is attempting to add the system". So far so good. But the node I have added doesn't appear in HP SIM. I can retry adding the node and HP SIM doen't complain the node is already added. I can do this as many times I like but the node does not appear in HP SIM.
To make this even stranger: Other nodes added the same way DO appear in HP SIM.
Today I ran into a second node with the "not appearing problem".

Also have added this 2 nodes via command line (mxnode) but still the nodes do not appear.

Anyone familiar with this problem?


We are using HP SIM 5.2 SP2.

[marsh_1]

hi,

how are you discovering these servers , by ip address or name , have you checked in the full list of systems that it has'nt either already got it by the ip address but no name or the name but no ip address..

[Tooling]

I have tried to add the nodes by entering IP and FQDN. Both with same result...
Normally if you try to discover a node what already is in HP SIM you get a message that the node cannot be added because it already exists. But in our case I can add these 2 specific nodes as many times as I like without any warnings.

Only suggestion I can think of myself is to repair the database with mxinitconfig -a, but have read that this could make the database slow.

[David Claypool]

Check Discovery Filters settings. It is possible that after discovery HP SIM is tossing away the record because of a filter.

[MrMike_2]

Have you tried running an mxconfigrepo -r ?

[Tooling]

As far as I know of there are no discovery filters in HP SIM 5.2. This is a new feature in 5.3, correct?

mxconfigrepo is a command that can help you with Version Control Repository errors.
After running mxconfigrepo -c on our HP SIM system it reports no errors.

To be sure I performed mxinitconfig -a, but this doesnot solve the strange behaviour.

[marsh_1]

hi,

and the total number of systems/objects does'nt increment at all when you attempt to add them ?
discovery filters exist in 5.2 such as ip address ranges , automatically discover a system when you receive an event, system types, manageable systems etc.
have you tried adding the -w option to your mxnode -a command ? this is supposed to make the command wait until the node has been added to the database before returning control back to the cli.

hth

[David Claypool]

Discovery Filters have been a part of HP SIM since the very first release, 4.0. What "mark hunt" refers to are not Discovery Filters. You need to make sure that you have Discovery Filters turned off to debug this problem.

[marsh_1]

david,tooling,

my bad - david is correct those are just part of the general settings for discovery :-(

[Graeme Bray]

Not to ask a dumb question..but

Is SNMP configured on your systems correctly?

Also, in the search area, search by IP address and see if it is added to another server. I had this issue when the GUID of the server was the same on multiple boxes.

[David Claypool]

Graeme: That is the reason for disabling discovery filters. Without discovery filters, HP SIM will add any device it can successfully get a response from a ping. If it can't successfully communicate via SNMP, WBEM or anything else, it will be classified as 'unmanaged' but it will still be added. Then the Manage Communications feature can be used to correct that.

[Tooling]

Thanks for all your suggestions!
I have found out that the Discovery Filters have been turned of. This was done when we started to use HP SIM, years ago. That's why I didnot know about any Discovery filters...
Anyhow, the problem keeps existing for the 2 nodes. SNMP is configured correct on these nodes; I can query them with our default read and write community strings. The number of nodes is NOT being highered after trying to add these nodes. Normally HP SIM should complain after added the nodes 2 or more times. This doesnot happen, I can add them as many times as I want without any notification saying this node already exists.
mxnode -a -w didnot work either...
The server had been rebooted several times now. Still no solution...
Any more suggestions?

[Tooling]

To be completely sure I enabled the Discovery Filters and later disabled it again -> No solution

After this test I configured an automatic task for just 1 IP address. This was the task output (extra info: The system to add is a VMware ESX server, form which we have dozens already in HP SIM):

Starting identification process...
Checking for known running web servers.
Checking for System Management Home Page and other HP web agents.
Received a response from the system management homepage, this system supports SMH.
Checking for WBEM support on system.
This system does not have any SMI-S CIMOM installed
This system doesn´t have a server CIMOM installed locally, or cannot connect to it using all credentials specified
Running WBEM rules based identification.
Cannot get ComputerSystem WBEM/WMI data from the system
Running VM Identification
The system is not a VMware ESX Host, or WBEM credentials may not be specified, skipping VM Identification
Running WS-Man identification.
The system did not respond to WS-Management, verify credentials.
Checking for SNMP support on system.
The system responded to a SNMP request, it supports SNMP.
Running SNMP base Cluster identification using common cluster MIB.
This was not a system with the common cluster MIBs supported.
Running HP ProLiant management agent identification
System has the SNMP ProLiant server (foundation) agents installed, adding system type.
Running HP NetServer identification.
System supports the NetServer SNMP agent, adding system type
Running HP-UX SNMP identification.
System does not have the HPUX SNMP agents installed.
Running SNMP System Type Manager identification.
Found matching SNMP System Type Manager rule, added as possible system type
Checking for DMI protocol support.
The Windows CMS cannot communicate with HP-UX or other DMI, skipping.
Running DMI System Type Manager identification.
The system does not have Windows DMI support.
Running HP-UX DMI identification.
The system does not have HP-UX DMI support.
Running HP/Compaq Desktop identification.
The system does not have Windows DMI support.
Running HP DMI Desktop identification.
The system does not have HP DMI Desktop support.
Running Generic DMI identification.
The system does not have Generic DMI support.
Checking for SSH protocol support.
The system supports SSH protocol
Running Storage identification.
Did not detect WBEM support on this system. Will not attempt storage identification. If this is a storage host, check WBEM credentials and make sure the providers and CIMOM are operational on the host.
Storage identification completed.
Running HP Service Guard Identification.
The system is not part of HP Service Guard cluster
Checking if this system is supported by Insight Power Manager.
Insight Power Manager is not supported.
Running VM identification.
VMM is installed, but the system is not a VM Host or may not be configured in VMM

After this the task is in a "completed" state with no errors. But the node is still not added to HP SIM!

[Tooling]

Now I notice there is a difference in the SMH info of servers that are discovered and the server that is not.

Data of a server that is correctly discoverd:
Asset Control Information
Serial Number: QS6BMU7175
Product ID: CZJ74801CG
Asset Tag: N/A

Data of the server that is not discovered:
Asset Control Information
Serial Number: QS71MU4197
Product ID:
Asset Tag: N/A

So Product ID is missing!
Could this cause our discovery problem?

[Tooling]

And the second server that isnot discovered, again the Product ID is missing!
I hope I have finally found the cause of this strange behaviuor of the HP SIM Discovery process.

Now 2 questions:

-How do I add the Product ID into the server? (somewhere in the BIOS?)
-Is the HP SIM Discovery process using this Product ID, and when it is missing it simply skips this node without warning? Sounds like a bug!
I know HP SIM is using this Product ID for nodes without IP-address that are discovered automatically, like when you discover a iLO-board in a unconfigured or powered-off server HP SIM uses the Product ID code to display this server in HP SIM, when you have the option "Automatically discover a server when its Integrated Lights Out management processor is identified" enabled

[asg2ki]

Hi Tooling,

With regards to the missing servers, try searching for them in SIM by their Serial Numbers instead of their names and check whether or not they would appear in the search results. Serial numbers are classified as a common attribute for every single node registered in SIM so if you don't get back any search results, then you may want to consider a database repair activity via the "mxconfigrepo -r" command.

It might be the case where you already have registered node in SIM that is set with the same serial number and this can certainly cause an anomaly however in such cases you would usually get additional records in SIM which in most circumstances would appear in the form of a new node named as the serial number. With HP SIM v5.3 this may occur quite often during the daily identification tasks.

In any case you may want to check that your servers are not re-using a serial number that might already be assigned to another device. Also keep in mind that the Product ID's are playing crucial role too as they are taking part of forming the UUID's together with the Serial number for a specific box, but normally this is valid for G4 and above servers. If your servers are falling into this scope, then make sure you publish the Product ID's inside their BIOS but also make sure it's the correct one. Most servers prior G4 doesn't have an option within BIOS to specify the Product ID, but only the Serial number which is mandatory anyway.

To set these parameters in BIOS, simply go to the Advanced Settings tab and you will see the relevant sub-options.

Cheers