Questions on HP VCRM & HP SIM

[MPM_1]

Hi All

Sorry for the anonymous post ... can't seem to login for some reason :-( Also, apologies if this isn't the best forum for this.

I'm interesting in deploying Version Control Repository Manager to help us keep our ProLiant servers up to date. However, when I try to install it, it seems that it requires SIM to be installed also. So, I have a few questions ?

1. Does VCRM require SIM ? And if so, do they have to be on the same machine ?
2. SIM itself seems to be free, but do I need to buy a license for every ProLiant server I want to manage under it ? Or is it "completely free" ?!
3. When I try to install VCRM, it asks me for the directory where HP ProLiant or HP Integrity software is located that the repository manager will monitor. But I thought the idea of VCRM was that it will download the latest firmware files and all my other servers will "point" at it for updates. Similar to how WSUS works for Microsoft updates

Have I got it all wrong !!??

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

P.S. This thread has been moevd from ProLiant Servers (ML,DL,SL) to ITRC HP Systems Insight Manager Forum - Hp forum Moderator

[juan quesada]

Hello Martin,

Version control repository manager (VCRM) allows you to centralize the managment of drivers/software or Proliant Support Packs (PSP) updates, pretty much as WSUS does with MS products.

The way it works is like a repository, you install VCRM in any proliant server o virtual machine (NO need for SIM at all) and during installation you can upload any PSP you may have handy if you want, if you dont want to do so is ok however you cant stablish a PSP baseline this way,so my recomendation is to upload at least one PSP and then cofigure the VCRM to auto-check with HP site for update on the PSP and configure it to auto-download them.
Now that you have VCRM installed you need to create a local user in the server (can be a domain user) to be used by the Version Control Agents (VCA). Now that you have the VCRM with at least one PSP and the local account created is time to configure the remote server, to do so just log in to any server you want to be managed by VCRM and open the System management Homepage (SMH, click on the VCA and configure it to connect to the VCRM using the local account you created previously, then just select the baseline for PSP (if you uploaded at least one PSP from the begining) and you are pretty much done.

Regarding firmware, the VCRM can help you with certain bundles but this is not a replacement for the Firmware CD because the PSP contains very limited Firmware (mainly for HDDs and things like that, it does not have BIOS, ILO, NIC or SA controllers FW )


Regards,

JQ

[MPM_1]

Hi Juan

Thanks so much for the info. Sorry for my late reply - was having some problems logging on here !

Thanks again !
Martin