HP Procurve Manager plus

[Jonathan Axford]

Hi Guys,

I have HP Procurve manager installed, Everything seems to be functioning fine, But if i try and scan for configurations, I get a timeout error almost immediately. I have checked the SNMP community strings and the telnet username and password, and they are all correct.

Any ideas?

Cheers

Jonathan

[Les Ligetfalvy]

Just curious... how do you know they are correct?

Did you set them up in your global preferences? Did you leave the Default Telnet Manager Username blank?
Did you setup the PCM server as an IP Manager?
What does the device log viewer say?

[Jonathan Axford]

Hi,

I set up all the SNMP and telnet details, and all of the switches initially.

The PCM server is one of the IP auth managers and has the correct SNMP details, If it didn't, it would not detect all of the switches in the first place.

The device log viewer just tells me that it failed due to a timeout error.

I am pretty certain everything is correct, I can access the device no problem via telnet, using the details i configured in PCM, and also, i can access the device CLI via PCM and edit it etc. So it all appears correct, But still can't scan for configs!

Cheers

[Les Ligetfalvy]

Did you assign a username to the default telnet manager or did you leave it blank?

When you telnet in, does it prompt for username or just password?

If you don't logout properly from a telnet session, it will keep a session open and prevent the scan from starting another session. The error message is a bit unclear on that. Try to telnet in and issue a KILL to clear all the sessions or reboot the switch if you can.

I can scan even when I have a single telnet session open but if I run up a few sessions by closing out of the telnet window without a proper logout, the scan will fail for me too.

[Jonathan Axford]

I have set all of the switches to prompt for a username and a password, So when i telnet to any of them i can use the same username and password. Have tried killing all the sessions etc, but still no joy!
I used the 'Password manager user-name' command to do this, so i presume that is what you mean by the default manager username?

[Les Ligetfalvy]

Since nobody but me has access to the switches, I chose to leave the username blank and only set the password. This is how PCM is configured out of the box. In PCM, you set the default telnet password under Tools | Preferences... | Device Access | Telnet. Like I said, I left mine blank so YMMV.

[Jonathan Axford]

As i said, I have changed all of the switches to have a username and password, and configured the PCM+ box with these details.

I am also able to Telnet to the devices from the PCM box and access them using the username and password i configured. It seems strange to me that the PCM software is doing everything else i want it too except for Scanning for configs!

[Donald Richardson_1]

What type of switch are you using?

[Jonathan Axford]

We have a combination of HP Procurve 9304, 5300,4100 and 2524's. None of the switches will scan for configs, The default telnet passwords and username is standard accross all of the switches.

[Les Ligetfalvy]

First I would like to respond to a couple of comments you made.

I am also able to Telnet to the devices from the PCM box and access them using the username and password i configured.

When you telnet from the PCM interface, you are merely spawing the Telnet command and the only thing PCM provides is the IP. The username/password you provide entirely outside of the PCM interface so that is not a test of whether the telnet username/password is properly configured in PCM, only that it is configured in the switch. You still have not confirmed whether you set the default telnet password under Tools | Preferences... | Device Access | Telnet. You offer only the above quote as proof, but I contend that proof it is not.


It seems strange to me that the PCM software is doing everything else i want it too except for Scanning for configs!

Not everything PCM does is through the telnet protocol. The only other way, besides asking HP, would be to run a network trace to see what protocols are used for what functions and to see what is actually passed to the switch during a scan.

If the default telnet password under Tools | Preferences... | Device Access | Telnet has been set, what is you removed a switch from PCM and let it rediscover?

BTW, I don't recall you mentioning what version of PCM you are running. 1.5 has been out for a while and there are patches out for it and I believe 1.6 is close to being released.

[Jonathan Axford]

Right, Let's start again....

I may have been a bit vague in my first post by saying


I have checked the SNMP community strings and the telnet username and password, and they are all correct.


So, I backed it up a bit further along with ....


As i said, I have changed all of the switches to have a username and password, and configured the PCM+ box with these details.


I have checked and double checked that all is correct, This isn't my first use of PCM+ so i am certain that it is configured correctly. The details configured in the PCM+ box, Tools-Preferences etc exactly match those of my switch. Both Telnet and SNMP details.

The scan will fail if the SNMP details are not entered correctly, And as i said before, these details are correct, They need to be present for the initial device discovery.

The version i am running is 1.5,

I think i will let the box re-discover, but i think i will end up putting a call into HP , my boss really wants it up and running and i am fresh out of ideas!

Just thought someone may have suffered a similar problem and would be able to enlighten me!

Hopefully v1.6 will be out soon, and that might sort it.

[Les Ligetfalvy]

Well... I decided to sniff what goes on between the switch and PCM and it seems I was barking up the wrong tree. Sorry about that. :O) I see no evidence of telnet use during a scan. Appears to be entirely snmp and tftp.

That then leads me to ask what changes you made to the default snmp community settings in the switch and in PCM. I presume you changed the defaults for improved security but did you in so doing change the assignment of operator/manager in the switches and the management checkbox in PCM(device manager)?

[Jonathan Axford]

Hi,

I have changed the defualt SNMP community strings and also configured a manager user-name and password.

I have entered those details into PCM+, What do you mean by the 'management checkbox in PCM(device manager)'

Cheers

[Jonathan Axford]

Upgrading to PCM+ 2 to see how that performs, Have had loads of problems with v1.5 and v1.6 ever since it was installed...