Open SSH on Managed Systems - a must?

[Hadi Sukirman]

I read in the documentation that I should install OpenSSH on the managed systems. This seems to be different from IM7 which did not need OpenSSH. Is this needed for SIM or do I have to install OpenSSH only when I would like to access the managed system remotely via SSH? (I am talking about a mixed environment of HP Netserver and Proliant running W2k)

[Tom Maher]

Hadi,

I think/hope that OpenSSH isn't neccessarily a 'must' in your environment. From what gleaned from the documentation you only need install OpenSSH on servers on which you want to run remote commands like 'type' and 'net' on Windows systems or 'find' and 'rm' on HP/UX systems.

I'll happily be shot down in flames as I'm trying to take it all in myself.

[Hadi Sukirman]

Hi Tom,

Thanks for the tip. I will give it a try without OpenSSH. (I mean it would be nice if SIM worked without an aditional service on the managed servers)

Hadi

[David Claypool · Accepted solution]

The first piece of info that will probably help is how OpenSSH is used. Its presence on the central management server (CMS) is for the express purpose of running custom commands. This is the equivalent of the IM7 feature called "Application Launch." hpSIM holds a key to call OpenSSH on the same box that lets it execute commands at the command line.

On systems other than the CMS, OpenSSH is used to implement the distributed task functionality by which a command is not executed at the CMS but at the remote node. Somewhat confusing, this is what is used by the Tools-->Command Line Tools-->Windows commands to run commands remotely.

OpenSSH does not have to be present on any system other than the CMS to provide all of the functionality present in IM7.

[Rob Buxton]

But it does have to be present and working correctly on the CMS Server to provide the functionality previously available from the Launch Application task on IM7.

[Erik Morley]

As I understand it, Open SSH is required on the managed nodes to deploy software / firmware / drivers from the HPSIM console on a mass scale.

Otherwise I have to go server to server and access the nodes version control agent each time...

Yes / No?

[Rob Buxton]

No. The Software / Firmware deployment uses the connection established by the VCA to VCRM.

This may be the case for initial deployments, but not for established ones.