Open SSH and job execution

[Steve Giordano]

I'm trying to run the VMM Agent install through SIM and it's giving me an Authentication Failed message. I ran mxagentconfig on the CMS and successfully connected to my target server. After that I ran the first line in the vmm_windows.bat file and provided the server name of the target from the command line and the "Execute As User" variable is Administrator. This is most likely why it's failing. I don't have an account called "Administrator" on this server -- it's been renamed. But I did create an OpenSSHUser account on the CMS and the target (passwords match) and would like it to use that instead. I'm trying to find the .xml file that it's using so I can edit this line with the OpenSSHUser. What file is it using? I've tried editing Openssh-install.xml and mx-tools.xml and it's still trying to use Administrator.

[Daniel Thrun]

Greetings. I too am also having the same issue with OpenSSH and it seems LOTS of others are as well. My issue seems to be with just the version of OpenSSH that HP uses as reading the white papers it is a modified version. After a week of constant tries I also cannot get OpenSHH working to push out changes using the Support Paq's etc. Also like you ran the mxagentconfig files and also updated hte mx-tools.xml and other files and still nothing. My issue could be that I could not the custom command like mxtool -m -a etc, etc and it kept saying wrong argument, still nothing. I have configured and instaled the FreeWare version of OPenSSH on about 5 other servers and it is functional on all purposes on them, I just can't get HP's version to work within HPSIM no matter what I do. I wish HP would come up with the HP OpenSSH install that would MODIFY all necessary items during the install as during the install it requests and checks this information.... VERY FUSTRATED. Tech Support is good but always wants to redirect me to the PDF files that are not helping. Anyone else.... Sorry for the ranting....

[Joel Rubenstein]

The VMM tools are defined in the TDEF vmmtools.xml. You need to edit the file to change the all the definitions and then reregister the tools with SIM using

mxtool -m -f vmmtools.xml -x force

[Steve Giordano]

It edited the vmm_tools.xml file with the correct "Execute As User" settings but it's still not working. I executed each line of the vmm_windows.bat and vmm_license.bat files and filled in the server name I'm testing this against from a cmd line in windows and the whole thing ran fine and the server is now showing up in SIM with access to the VMM. The output showed running as the OpenSSHUser I created so I'm still not sure why it won't run in SIM -- I still get the Authentication failed message. It must be using more than just the vmm_tools.xml file when going through SIM.

[Joel Rubenstein]

Have you used any other tools that require SSH like the InitialPSP install, netstat or dir on the CMS. I suspect you still have issues with your SSH configuration on the CMS.

The SSH white paper has more information on configuring / troubleshooting of SSH. It can be downloaded from

http://www.hp.com/go/hpsim --> information library --> white papers

[Steve Giordano]

This is a QA system that I'm doing some testing on. So no -- this is the first time I'm using SSH to deploy software. I'll read the doc on Open SSH and HP SIM and see if there are config issues. Thanks.

[Daniel Thrun]

Joel and Steve/ALL thanks for the information. Is there a document that lists all items that MUST be changed (ie administrator names, etc) that must be changed throughout the HPSIM product. It seems that there are more and more items that have to manually updated etc and hopefully if enough people complain the install could incorporate the changes to all docs to use the names that we added during the primary install. Again thanks!

[Steve Giordano]

Awsome!! I followed the steps for configuring systems without an "Administrator" account and it's working now. What about using SIM to install OpenSSH? I see it under the Deploy menu but is all you need is a server name with Admin rights on the target system? I tried that and it gave me the authentication failure message again.

[Joel Rubenstein]

Unless you are trying to push out VMM agents to managed virtual host systems you do not really need to install SSH on your managed systems.

I suspect the remote SSH install is failing for the same reason. The administrator account is renamed.

[Steve Giordano]

I found the openssh-install.xml file and will edit it. Thanks.

So then how do you run say the Proliant Support pack install using SSH if the SSH client is not on the target system? Or run any of the command line tools on a target system with OpenSSH?

[Joel Rubenstein]

you can't run any of the command line tools on the remote node without SSH but how important is that?

The initialPSP install task uses SSH on the CMS to login and initiate the job that performs the deployment. It uses setupc which is the command line version of the Remote Deployment Utility. It does not require any software on the target managed node except Windows.

[Steve Giordano]

Ahh -- ok. Thanks for making that clear. You've been a big help with this issue.