Physical vs. Virtual Server

[Raymond Kim]

Hi all . . .

Just wondering: can HPSIM differentiate between physical and virtual (non-cluster) servers in the ProductType field? (I'm referring to the ProductType field found in the R_Inventory view -- this maps to the R_ProductType field in the CIM_ComputerSystem table.) If not this field, is there somewhere else (in the SQL back end) where I could find this info?

If this isn't possible, could I make a suggestion to someone at HP to include this in a future version of HPSIM?

Reason: I maintain a server inventory DB that relies heavily on the HPSIM SQL back end to keep it up to date. I've come across instances of virtual servers (I only keep track of physical servers -- for now) that got into my DB because HPSIM didn't know the difference. However, I may have a need somewhere down the line to keep track of this info as well, and it'd be nice to be able to tell the difference . . .

[Raymond Kim]

Not until after about a week after I posted this did I find out about VMM.

Does anyone have any insight on how the back-end works for VMM? I've been searching for documentation, and have had no luck . . .

[David Claypool]

Which virtualization product are you using and what OS are the virtual machine guests running?

[Raymond Kim]

Nothing in production yet, although we are testing Microsoft Virtual Server. We are primarily a Windows 2000/2003 shop.

I should provide a little background about what I'm trying to do. As I said in my original post, I maintain a server inventory SQL Server DB that relies on HPSIM to keep it up to date. (The DB's infrastructure, in fact, mimics the R_ DB table infrastructure from CIM 7; I had to adapt it to accommodate HPSIM 4.)

Right now, I am only keeping track of physical servers (and clusters). I want to be able to adapt my DB so that we can also keep track of (non-cluster) virtual servers. This includes differentiating a virtual server from a physical one (right now, the DB can't tell the difference) and keeping track of what physical servers host what virtual servers.

I'm hoping to study the VMM DB backend so I can adapt my inventory DB to it. We don't yet have VMM installed; however, the HPSIM administrator (who isn't me) is talking about installing it.

Hope this helps!

[David Claypool]

Check out "Best Practices for Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 on HP ProLiant Servers" from http://www.hp.com/servers/activeanswers --> Infrastructure Solutions --> Virtualization --> Microsoft Virtual Server

There is a section in there about getting HP SIM setup to identify virtual machine guests through WMI. MSVS populates the 'Product' entry in SMBIOS with "Virtual Machine" and HP SIM can pick up on that. VMM relies on that same mechanism for identification.

The association is a little trickier, and it relies on an agent running on the physical host to call the right APIs.