Using HP SIM in the Data Center to monitor old HP Servers across WAN with different IP ?

[Server-Support]

People,

I'm currently instaling and reconfiguring the HP SIM v7.4 in my Data Center to monitor several remote office sites (~75 sites) each equipped with multiple versions of server hardware like the following:

HP ML110 G4 (old P4) with no iLO

HP ML110 G5 with no iLO

HP DL160 G6

HP DL380 G5

...

HP ML 310 G8-V2 

HP ML110 G9

All of those old servers has been installed manually using Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard .ISO and I've managed to configure the HP WBEM provider and HP Insight Management Agent manually eventhough the download site doesn't list Windows Server 2012 R2 in the drop down list. But at least all of the servers can now send out email after it is rebooting successfully.

I've enabled the Windows SNMP feature from the Server Manager.

My question is that, how can I configure HP SIM to send out alert for those old servers with no iLO / management processor ?

Are those old servers can still be monitored by HP SIM for a potential hardware failure or expiring contract ?

Thanks.

[Andrew_Haak]

Hello,

If the System Management Homepage shows the components you can configure SNMP or WBEM forwarding to the SIM server. Also update your System Managment Homepage to the latest version due to Open SSL bugs. The latest SNMP and WBEM agents could give you support issues like not recognizing the older hardware.

[Server-Support]

Thanks Andrew for your explanation.
Yes after installing those WBEM providers and Insight agent on the old servers I can see some components listed in the SMH.

So in this case do I need to configure anything to send some data to the new HP SIM server or HP SIM server can pull the information from subnet scanning ?

[Andrew_Haak]

Hello,

Could you post a screenshot of a System Management Homepage to see how complete the information is ?

If you use SNMP you have to configure SNMP on your OS to send traps to the SIM server. WBEM traps (subscription) is a bit different. |You have to configure the SIM server to be able to read WBEM information (Admin like rights needed). If the server is identified with WBEM you can make a WBEM subscription. This means you tell the agent where to send it's event to like the SIM server. Once you have login rights for the servers you want to monitor things are a bit easier to manage. With rights in place you can set and replicate settings like SNMP traps and WBEM subscriptions.

[Server-Support]

I'll post it tomorrow when I'm in the office.

So in this case the WBEM is easier to configure than SNMP because the server is already in multiple different location but joined single AD domain. Therefore I can use domain admin credentials for the login ?

Is that correct ?

[Andrew_Haak]

True if all servers are in one domain that could be the easiest. Beware if you have firewalls between your servers and SIM. Most of the time firewall rules are build with the IP adres of the SIM server. In this case try to use the old IP.

I don't know if you also have ESX and or Linux servers ?

[Server-Support]

yes, they are domain joined.

All of the VMware ESXi servers are all running on HP Blades BL 460, 465c G7 & 8 on c7000 enclosure.

I do not have HP servers running Linux physically,

[Andrew_Haak]

If the ESX is 5.x then the agents use WBEM older ESX versions use SNMP.  I see you have Enclosures. When building a new SIM setup be sure to add the Onboard Admins first. This discovery finds all object in the enclosure like switches, ILO's and servers as serials. The serials get replaced by servernames when the OS is properly discovered (credentials).

[Server-Support]

Thanks Andrew,

Yes I'm running esxi 5.1. As for the OA access and the VC modules, is there any risk of outage when doing the scanning with HP SIM ?

[Andrew_Haak]

Hello again,

No a scan should never give you any problems, Onboard Admins are read by accessing XML webpage on the Onboard Admins. Virtual Connects, ILO, switches ILO's need additional SNMP config on some versions. (like on ilo you need to configure ILO4 for AMS). Here you configure where to send SNMP traps to (SIM server).

[LGentile]

I've generally found it easier to use SNMP only for Windows (regardless of OS version or server model) and WBEM for ESXi (since it's required).  Unless you require a secure method for the traps/communication, SNMP is fairly easy to work with and you don't have to worry about suscriptions working or not.  For iLO4, it's also SNMP, so it keeps things consistent.

[Andrew_Haak]

Hello again,

wich protocol works best for you depends on your needs. Snmp is simple but insecure in the V1 version. Wbem is secureand hba info in the datacollection is more complete. HP has a preverence for WBEM and is moving away from snmp  but as long as snmp works it's also easier eith firewalls.

[Server-Support]

Hi Andrew,

Here's the screenshot from the SMH page of typical deployed server in remote sites:

Somehow when the server above rebooted, the email alert is not so helpful like the following:

Subject: Foundation Agents: Health status Change

The system has detected the following event:

SNMP Trap:        11020

Date time:           20/05/2015  10:32:06 AM

Computer:          DCSVR01.domain.com

Source:                 Foundation Agents

Type:                     Informational

Category:            (4)

Description:

A 'Host Health status change' trap indicates that health status has changed.

Details:

Change in health status 'FAILED'

Note: Sorry for the delay. This forum somehow doesn't allow me to login, so I'm doing it from home internet.

[Andrew_Haak]

Hello,

The 11020 event is usualy releated to the 2003 agents and i've modified the MIB in SIM to supress this event. It tells you nothing. If i look at the screen you send it seems you are missing the ILO and memory info. Perhaps if you drill down to system you find memory info. You could if you dare pull a disk drom your server only if the Disk is a mirror set.

But who goes seeking for trouble ?

[Server-Support]

Yes, you are right Andrew.

But in this case, the ML 110 G5 has no iLO, so can HP SIM query the server with no iLO ?

[Andrew_Haak · Accepted solution]

You are right, i forgot that. The system is managed from the WBEM agent, traps are send with WBEM events . If the subscriptions are configured from SIM to send events to the SIM server all should be fine. Datacollection jobs collect info about the server for reporting purposes using WBEM.

You can select your servers in SIM selct Configure and select Manage Communication. Now SIM checks if it's able to receive events for the selected servers.

[Server-Support]

Many thanks for the assistance Andrew.

I'll try your suggestion and in this case for all WIndows Server I prefer to use WBEM rather than SNMP.