New Version: Insight Control for Microsoft System Center 7.2

Insight Control for Microsoft System Center is a package of integration kits that aim to integrate HP Hardware and Software with Microsoft System Center. Here is the description of these integration kits taken from the HP site:

System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) support:

The HP ProLiant and BladeSystem Management Packs expose the native capabilities of ProLiant and BladeSystem servers and enclosures to help prevent problems from occurring by proactively monitoring and managing hardware health and intelligently responding to hardware events on servers running Windows.
The HP ProLiant Agentless Management Pack manages the health of ProLiant Gen8 servers without the need for loading OS-based SNMP agents or WBEM providers. It can also be used to monitor the health of servers that do not have an OS yet loaded, as well as ProLiant Gen8 servers running any operating system that has a supported Agentless Monitoring Service (such as VMware ESXi).
The HP ProLiant Linux and VMware Management Packs provide the ability to monitor hardware health and configuration, as well as to receive HP hardware alerts, on ProLiant servers running Linux and VMware ESX.
Supports SCOM 2007 and SCOM 2012 (including SP1) for all HP SCOM management packs.

System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) support:

The HP Performance Resource Optimization (PRO) Management Pack reduces unplanned downtime by proactively automating live migration of Hyper-V virtual machines based upon HP pre-failure and predictive hardware alerts from ProLiant servers. Supports SCVMM 2008.
HP SCVMM 2012 Integration Kit provides HP WinPE and production drivers for ProLiant servers to assist with OS deployment via SCVMM 2012 (including SP1).
The HP ProLiant Updates Catalog can be used by SCVMM 2012 (including SP1) to provide simplified Windows driver and firmware updates via a rotating, automated workflow for Hyper-V clusters.

System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) support:

The HP ProLiant Server Operating System Deployment (OSD) feature provides quick and reliable Windows deployment to bare metal HP servers, including pre-deployment hardware and BIOS configuration, and post-OS HP driver and agent installation.
The HP ProLiant Updates Catalog ensures consistency and maximizes uptime with simplified Windows driver and firmware updates using the HP Service Pack for ProLiant.
The HP ProLiant Hardware Inventory Tool provides detailed component level inventory of every managed HP Windows server.
Supports SCCM 2007 and SCCM 2012 (including SP1).

Let’s look what has changed from 7.1 version:

Support for Microsoft System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) 2012 SP1

Management packs certified with SCOM 2012 SP1
Support for Windows Server 2012 monitoring

System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) Management Pack Updates

Updated system discovery rule for BladeSystem Management Pack
Updated WMI Provider for ProLiant DL980

Support for Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) 2012 SP1

Updated SCCM 2012 Integration Kit to support SCCM 2012 SP1 (supported only when SCCM 2012 SP1 is installed on Windows Server 2012)
Updated HP ProLiant Updates Catalog to support SCCM 2012 SP1
Support for Windows Server 2012 deployment and updates
Note: The HP SCCM 2012 Integration Kit is only supported on SCCM 2012 SP1 installed on Windows Server 2012
Note: OS deployments to Windows Server 2008 R2 Core are not supported

Support for Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCCM) 2012 SP1

Updated SCVMM 2012 Integration Kit to support SCVMM 2012 SP1
Updated HP ProLiant Updates Catalog to support SCVMM 2012 SP1
Support for Windows Server 2012 deployment and updates

Updates to support HP Service Pack for ProLiant (SPP)

Updated SCVMM 2012 & SCCM 2007/2012 Integration Kits
New Drivers and firmware from SPP 2013.02.0
New software bundles included in the HP ProLiant Updates Catalog to support Windows Server 2012

So we now have full SC 2012 SP1 and Windows Server 2012 support. This is great job of HP releasing support so soon after GA of SC 2012 SP1.

If you are wondering what have changed like versions on the SCOM management packs look here:

Keep in mind that new versions of the management pack for HP servers and blades will come only in this bundle Insight Control for Microsoft System Center. No separate downloads will be released. HP Storage Management Pack for now stays separate download and it is not provided in this package.

To download this new version go here. You only need to download Insight Control for System Center 7.2 DVD ISO – Mar 2013 for the System Center integration kits.

Sync HP ProLiant Server and BladeSystem CIs from SCOM to SCSM

There is a great article at systemcentercentral.com on how to synchronize CI from SCOM to SCSM. The article shows an example with Dell Management Pack. I followed this article and will show you how to do the same for HP ProLiant Server Management Pack and HP BladeSystem Management Pack. Let first introduce what objects are discovered trough these two MPs:

HP ProLiant Server Management Pack – This management pack discovers properties of all HP ProLiant servers – IP addresses of ILOs, Memory, Disks and etc.
HP BladeSystem Management Pack – This MP discovers properties of c3000 and c7000 Enclosures – Names, Onboard Administrators, Device Bays (including server information for blades) and etc.

So here are the steps you can follow to sync your HP CIs from SCOM to SCSM:

1. Lets assume that you imported and configured HP ProLiant Server and HP BladeSystem MPs in SCOM.

2. Next steps is to figure out what information you want to sync.

3. You can find that by going in SCOM console –> Monitoring pane –> Discovered Inventory view.

4. Right Click on the middle view and select Change Target Type.

5. Select Items to Target window appears. In Look for field type “hp” and select View all targets.

6. Here you can see the friendly names of the different classes and to which Management Pack they belong to.

7. “HP Server” is the main class that holds information for HP Servers and it is located in Hewlett-Packard Servers Core Library MP. Select it and click OK.

Note: You can select any subclass like HP ProLiant Server if you find it more convenient for you.

8. After selecting it in the middle pane you will see information about your HP Servers you have in your environment. This information you want to sync in SCSM.

9. Next step is to find the friendly name for enclosures class.

10. Right click on the middle pane again and select Change Target Type.

11. Select Items to Target window appears. In Look for field type “hp” and select View all targets.

12. “HP BladeSystem Enclosure” is the main class that holds information for HP Enclosures and it is located in Hewlett-Packard BladeSystem Management Pack. Select it and click OK.

13. You will see the information about enclosures you want to sync to SCSM.

14. For HP Enclosures I select one more class “HP BladeSystem Device Bay”.

15. This class holds information about blade servers. This is useful if you have have blade servers in the enclosures that do not have operating system and because of that they do not have SCOM agent also. WIhtout SCOM agent you not cannot get any information for them from HP ProLiant Server Management Pack but trough this class you can.

16. Next step is to see the names of the management pack and if they have dependencies.

17. Open SCOM console –> Administration pane –> Management Packs.

18. We found that the the information that we want to sync is contained in two management packs – Hewlett-Packard Servers Core Library and Hewlett-Packard BladeSystem Management Pack.

19. Find them in that view and right click on them Properties.

20. In General tab you under ID you will see thee name of the management pack. In Dependencies tab that you will see which other management pack you should also import in SCSM. If you do not have these MPs in your SCSM environment you will not be able to import the HP Management Packs.

Hewlett-Packard.Servers.Core.Library.mp

Hewlett-Packard.ProLiant.Servers.Base.mp

Hewlett-Packard.BladeSystem.mp

21. Even I do not need to import Hewlett-Packard ProLiant Servers Base Management Pack I will import it because may be later I will want to sync some information from that MP.

22. Next steps is to find the actual names of the classes we want to sync because we only have the friendly names: HP Server, HP BladeSystem Enclosure and HP BladeSystem Device Bay.

23. Open Operations Manager PowerShell and execute the following commands one by one:

Get-MonitoringClass | Where-object {$_.DisplayName -match "HP Server"
Get-MonitoringClass | Where-object {$_.DisplayName -match "HP BladeSystem Enclosure"
Get-MonitoringClass | Where-object {$_.DisplayName -match "HP BladeSystem Device Bay"

24. The commands will find all properties about classes that have these display names. Against property Name you will find the actual names of the classes we need:

HewlettPackard.Servers.HPServer
HewlettPackard.Servers.BladeSystem.HPBladeSystemEnclosure
HewlettPackard.Servers.BladeSystem.HPBladeSystemDeviceBay

25. Now that we have the actual names of the classes we want to sync we have to import the 3 HP management packs in SCSM.

26. Open SCSM console. Navigate to Administration pane –> Management Packs.

27. Click Import from Actions menu. Find the location where you store your MPs select the 3 HP MPs and import them.

28. If the MPs are imported successfully next step is to add the classes we have found to the allowed list of classes for syncing in SCSM.

29. Logon to your SCSM server.

30. Start PowerShell and execute these commands:

set-executionpolicy Unrestricted
add-pssnapin smcmdletsnapin
Add-SCSMAllowListClass –ClassName HewlettPackard.Servers.HPServer
Add-SCSMAllowListClass –ClassName HewlettPackard.Servers.BladeSystem.HPBladeSystemEnclosure
Add-SCSMAllowListClass –ClassName HewlettPackard.Servers.BladeSystem.HPBladeSystemDeviceBay
get-SCSMAllowlist

31. With the last command you will be able to see the HP classes added in the allowed list for sync.

32. Next step is to configure your SCOM CI Connector in SCSM to sync the HP Management Packs.

33. Open SCSM console. Navigate to Administration pane –> Connectors.

34. Find you SCOM CI Connector in the list of connectors and double click on it.

35. The Properties window of that connector will be opened.

36. Select the configuration option for Management Packs.

37. In order to see your newly imported HP Management Packs you have to click Refresh button. When you click Refresh you will be asked for the password of the account that is used to sync management packs between SCOM and SCSM. Enter the password and press OK.

38. When refresh is done the new management packs will appear in the list. Select them and click OK to save settings.

39. Wait until next synchronization schedule of SCOM CI Connector to see if synchronization was successful.

40. When synchronization is done you can create views to see the synchronized data in SCSM.

41. Open SCSM console. Navigate to Configuration Items. Create new folder. You can name the folder “HP Devices” or any convenient name for you.

42. Under that folder you can create 3 different views that have different HP classes for Criteria.

Note: This configuration was tested with SCOM 2007 R2 and SCSM 2010 but it should also work for SCOM 2012 and SCSM 2012.

Note: You can sync more classes than the ones described in the article depending on your customers needs. Just add these classes to the allowed for sync list in point 30.

Configuring HP BladeSystem Management Pack for SCOM

Most of the large organizations today do not buy individual servers (exceptions are present of course) instead they buy Enclosures. In one such enclosure you can put up to 16 server and/or storage blades. HP as one of the biggest hardware vendors offers two such solutions – HP BladeSystem c3000 and HP BladeSystem c7000. If you bought such solution you receive for free HP BladeSystem Management Pack from HP for SCOM to monitor HP Enclosures. To start monitoring you HP Enclosures of course you have to first install and configure that MP on your SCOM environment. HP is providing installation and configuration guide for the management pack but I will walk you trough the steps you need to perform if you stumble on some difficulties. These steps are applicable for SCOM 2007 and 2012 versions:

1. First you need to download HP BladeSystem MP. You can find it here. The MP is part of Insight Control for Microsoft System Center solution.

2. After the MP is downloaded it is best to install SNMP Services feature on your RMS server (RMS Emulator). As in 2012 you have RMS emulator and you can move that role to other Management Server it is good idea to install SNMP Services on another Management server if you want to failover in case your RMS Emulator server goes down. SNMP Services installation does not require restart.

3. The HP BladeSystem MP when it is downloaded is archived in a zip file in which you can find several files – 64-bit installation file, 32-bit installation file, License agreement file, Release notes file, User guide and Troubleshoot guide. When you unzip it copy the 64-bit installation file (these days there are not many 32-bit SCOM servers Smile ) to your RMS server.

4. Start the 64-bit installation. Keep in mind that this management pack have certain requirements – HP ProLiant Server Management Pack imported (I will describe installation and configuration of that MP in another article), Windows PowerShell 1.0, .NET 2.0 Framework, SNMP Trap Service (We installed it in step 2) and of course at least SCOM 2007. Finish the installation with the default settings. It is pretty simple installation. If you have SCOM 2012 you perform the installation on the your failover Management Server also.

5. After the installation is finished you will see two new service and one application installed:

6. Next step is to configure SNMP. Open Services console. Find SNMP service and double-click on it. A dialog box will appear on which you have to click on Security tab:

7. You have to check Send authentication trap option. Add community name that you will use for communication between the RMS server and the enclosures. You can use READ ONLY rights.

8. Select Accept SNMP packets from these hosts and add all your IP’s of your Onboard Administrators (Primary and Secondary). Onboard Administrator is the control interface from Enclosures. Click OK when you are done. Now the RMS server is configured to receive SNMP packets from the Enclosures you will monitor. If you are using SCOM 2012 you can make the same settings on your Management Server that you will use for failover of your RMS Emulator role.

9. Next step is to add your HP Enclosures to HP Device Monitor Console. You can find that console in Start Menu -> All Programs -> HP SCOM Management Packs.

10. When you start it you need to make a connection to localhost, FQDN (of your RMS server)or NetBIOS name (of your RMS Server). The console actually connects to that HP Monitor Device Service that is installed on the RMS.

11. After you are connect to that service trough the console on the right of the console you will find Actions menu from where you can select Add Onboard Administrator option.

12. Click on Add Onboard Administrator.

13. A new dialog box will appear where you have to add IP address or FQDN of your Onboard Administrator. You also have to provide your administrator username and password to your Onboard Administrator interface.

14. Add all your Onboard Administrators to the console using steps 12 and 13. Adding OAs in the console will discover all components of your Enclosures and will draw SCOM diagrams for them. If you have SCOM 2012 you can connect the HP Device Monitor Console to your failover Management Server and add the same OAs there.

15. The final configuration step is to configure OAs to send SNMP traps to the RMS server. This can be achieved by opening OA web interface. When you open the interface you have to expand Enclosure Information than expand Enclosure Settings and finally click on SNMP Settings. Check Enable SNMP option, fill the other fields and click Apply. For Read and Write community name use the one entered you’ve used in step 7.

16. Now that SNMP is enabled we have to configure OA to send traps to specific IP address. Right beneath Enable SNMP settings there is SNMP Alert Destination setting. For host you have to enter the IP address for your RMS server and for community name enter the one you’ve used in step 7. Click Add. There is Send Test Alert button which will send trap to your RMS server and will appear as warning alert in SCOM console. This is very handful option to verify that your configuration was successful.

17. Repeat steps 15 and 16 for all your OAs.

When you complete your configuration you can use Send Test Alert option to see if all enclosures are configured correctly and are receiving alerts. You also should be able to use all your enclosures by opening the SCOM console, navigating to Monitoring pane –> HP Systems –> HP BladeSystem Enclosures –> Enclosure State:

Note: HP BladeSystem Management Pack should be imported during the installation. If for some reason this is not done you can import the MPs manually by finding them on the RMS server in the installation folder of the MP. This also refers to HP ProLiant Server Management Pack.

If you have SCOM 2012 and your RMS Emulator server fails you can follow two steps to recover your monitoring for HP BladeSystem Enclosures:

1. Transfer RMS Emulator role to your failover Management Server

2. Change the IP address of your failover Management Server to the IP address of your failed RMS Emulator server because SNMP traps are send to specific IP address. If you do not want to change the IP address on your Management server you have to reconfigure all OAs to sent SNMP traps to your new RMS Emulator.

Note: HP BladeSystem Management Pack does not require to be installed on RMS server (RMS Emulator). It can be installed on any SCOM Management Server or Server that have agent installed but is common practice such monitoring solutions to be installed on RMS. Also the documentation of the management pack doesn’t mention that the MP relays on the RMS (RMS Emulator) server to function properly.

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