registering agent error. The VMM agent connot be connected (Max Points)

[Mazda]

CMS version 5.2 SP1 on Windows 2003
ESX 3.5 patch 1
HP SIM management agent for ESX 8.1.0
VMM agent 4.5.0.2036

I have successfuly installed the VMM agent on the ESX host. I did this by copying the package to ESX, untaring and executing. No errors were evident. From SIM I can identify the VMWare host. On the CMS I have run mxagentconfig and added the vmware host. I then generated the keys, copied to esx host and restarted appropriate services (also rebooted when this didn't work).

vmcli -listagents does not show any agents. When I run vmcli -registeragent I get the following in the hpvmmsvc.log

INFO - Start Register Agent: 1.1.1.91
INFO - Virtual Center Update completed successfully
ERROR - An error occurred while registering agent 1.1.1.91as VMM agent cannot be connected

I have restarted all servers including CMS. I have also added the ports to the ESX firewall fire and restart with the same result...

[Rob Buxton]

Have you copied and registered the .cer file on the ESX Host?
See the quick setup guide - this is for 3.1 but the process is the same.
Look on the 3rd page - registering the ESX Hosts.
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/CoreRedirect.jsp?redirectReason=DocIndexPDF&prodSeriesId=1113762&targetPage=http%3A%2F%2Fbizsupport.austin.hp.com%2Fbc%2Fdocs%2Fsupport%2FSupportManual%2Fc01365008%2Fc01365008.pdf

[Mazda]

Is this the same as going to https://server:2381 and importing certifcate in trust management?

[Santhosh Ramesh]

Is there a reason why you are trying to manually deploy and register the VMM Agent? You can do this from the SIM UI (Deploy->Deploy Drivers, Firmware and Agents->Install VMM Agent->Linux).

This will both deploy the VMM Agent and register the ESX host.

Alternately, if there are any earlier installations of the VMM Agent on the ESX host, it might be advisable to uninstall it before you re-deploy the VMM Agent.

The VMM Registration (UI and Manual) steps are available in the VMM 3.5 User Guide located here --> http://bizsupport.austin.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c01421558/c01421558.pdf

HTH, --Santhosh

[Rob Buxton]

The VMM certificate is different from the HP Agents one.
If you're doing this manually there's a few vm*.ks files that need to be copied across as well as an install script.
I ran mine from the root directory - from memory there's a bit of a catch where it can be run from.

It's better to treat VMM and the HP Agents separately.

[Mazda]

Deployment via SIM gui never stops running. Do I need SSH on the CMS to deploy?

[Rob Buxton]

I've typically used the same approach as you - copy stuff over manually.
My link didn't seem to work, following the link above, look at the section about deploying VMM (around pg 21 or 25 IIRC).

That details copying the vm*.ks files. I have seen an install script but that just copies these files to the directory described in the document.
You'll need to restart the hpvmm service on the ESX host.

[Mazda]

Rob, yeah I did that......followed the process. There were two files that I copied then renamed. I then cycled the server.
I also did things like sync the clocks. I am seeing most information in the GUI but am missing things like performance etc.....When I run an identify it states that VMM agent does not appear to be installed/running.

I will check the certs again but I did follow the process in the link. I was the document I worked from.

[Rob Buxton]

The other item to check would be that the VMM agent install has opened the holes in the ESX firewall.
At home so can't check, but it is different from the HP agent ones.

[Mazda]

Yeah have manually opened the ports (there is a range)....

[Rob Buxton]

The install should have opened those. I didn't need to open any ports manually.

Maybe it's worth removing and reinstalling the VMM Agent.

[Mazda]

Have done that as well..

When pushing out the agent from the SIM GUI what credentials does it use? I have configured the system protocol settings but again, I am not running SSH on CMS.

[Santhosh Ramesh]

Can you try the following steps -

1. Install OpenSSH on the HP SIM CMS.

2. Configure OpenSSH on the ESX host using the "mxagentconfig" tool - execute the following commands:
mxagentconfig -r -n
mxagentconfig -a -n -u -p

3. Deploy the VMM Agent from the HP SIM Menu (Deploy->Deploy Drivers, Firmware and Agents->Install VMM
Agent, and then select Linux)

This should ensure that the task completes in HP SIM. These steps are taken from the User Guide (Pages 26-27).

Note: You have mentioned that you have set the System Protocol Settings (for the ESX host). You would require root-level access to for the VMM Agent deployment to be successful.

[Rob Buxton]

We've just rebuilt our ESX Servers using ESX 3.5 Update 2. Now getting a similar issue.

The ports are listed as open in ESX although the VmmService is not listed in the main Security Page of the ESX Configuration. It is listed in the ESX 3.0.2 version.

These have been previously registered / licensed so that side shoule be okay. It just seems to be the final HPSIM to VMM communication isn't working as expected. A bit more digging to do yet.

[Rob Buxton]

It's not the firewall - same behaviour with the ESX firewall stopped.
If I re-identify the server I get the following in the hpvmmsvc.log on the HPSIM/VMM Server;
2008/08/07 10:38:09 | INFO - Host 10.x.x.x has the following virtualization layers installed:[[[manufacturer=VMware name=ESX3 version=3.0.2 productVersion=null] numberOfVMs=0]]
Which is nonsense as the server is now ESX 3.5.

[Rob Buxton]

What fixed it for me was rerunning the importcert.sh script. This must be done after the VMM Agents has been installed on the server.

I copied the .ks files and the import script to the /root directory and ran it.
As well as copying the keystore files to the correct directory it also seems to set up some path info that is quite crucial.

I also found that there was quite a bit of info in the /var/log/vmm/hpvmmcnt.log file.

[Mazda]

Rob, thanks for your presistence and testing. I have run importcert.sh from root. Here is what happened -

[root@ESX01 root]# ./importcert.sh
Restarting the agent, after importing the certificate
Stopping hpvmmcnt: [ OK ]
Starting hpvmmcnt: [ OK ]
Sleep for 10 Seconds to make sure the agent is started completely
[root@ESX01 root]#

I then select the ESX01 server from the SIM GUI and ran an Identify task. Here are the results -

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 has WBEM protocol support
This system has at least one SMI-S CIMOM installed
This system has a server CIMOM installed
Running WBEM rules based identification.
Cannot get ComputerSystem WBEM/WMI data from the system
Running VM Identification
The system is a VMware ESX Host and has guests running on it
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.
There were no storage profiles found on this system.
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 supported.
Running VM identification.
VMM is installed, but the system is not a VM Host or may not be configured in VMM
Building system relationships.
Running limited data collection for common attribute.
Done with limited data collection, checking retrieved data.
The SSH is not configured on this system
SMH trust status is true.
Running node communication diagnosis
System identification done with this system.


Should I be able to see VMMAgent in the SIM agent GUI https://ESX01:2381 under Integrated Agents? Because I can't at the moment.

[Mazda]

This is the line of the above Identify task that is of some concern -

VMM is installed, but the system is not a VM Host or may not be configured in VMM

[Mazda]

OK I also just tried to Register VM Host and the process does not stop.....stays in the running state until I close the window.

[Rob Buxton · Accepted solution]

I'm guessing that's because it's not registered.
You could try registering it from the command line.
Looking at the file;
C:\Program Files\HP\Systems Insight Manager\bin\vmm_registerlin.bat
Redo the third line something like:
mxexec -t "Run vmcli tool for register" -n ESX01

Anoher thought is SNMP is not quite correct, but then I would have though the ESX would not have been id'd correctly.

[Mazda]

OK here are the results


C:\Documents and Settings\0cdafonseca>cd "\Program Files\HP\Systems Insight Manager\bin"

C:\Program Files\HP\Systems Insight Manager\bin>mxexec -t "Run vmcli tool for register" -n ESX01
Running tool Run vmcli tool for register with job id 182095.
Task Name :defRunNowTaskId_1218072693288_10
Job ID :182095
Tool Name :Run vmcli tool for register
Job State :Complete
User Name :Company\SIMADMIN
Execute As User :Administrator
Start Time :Thursday, 7 August 2008 11:31:33
End Time :Thursday, 7 August 2008 11:31:57
Elapsed Time :24 seconds 562 milliseconds
Node :SIM01
Status :Complete
Exit Code :0
STDOUT :
Registering Agent on 1.1.1.91
Agent registered successfully. - 1.1.1.91


C:\Program Files\HP\Systems Insight Manager\bin>

I would have thought it would run as root and not administrator. I will run Identify and check the results

[Mazda]

SOLVED SOLVED SOLVED!!!!!!!!!!!!

The system is a Virtual Machine Host

Thanks Rob.....max points...

[Mazda]

SOLVED SOLVED SOLVED......

Now to document the process :-(

[Rob Buxton]

Tell me about it... trying to document the work arounds.