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Considerations for choosing HP Agentless Management

Table of contents Introduction Agentless Management Agentless Management with AMS Comparison of OS-based agents and Agentless Management Using Agentless Management with a combination of AMS, HP Insight Management Agents and/or WBEM providers Management and maintenance Management with HP SIM Maintenance with HP Intelligent Provisioning When to use to OS-based agents Monitoring performance Monitoring storage networks Other reasons to install OS-based agents Conclusion For more information Call to action 2 2 3 4

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Created September 2012.

Introduction
The HP iLO Management Engine includes HP Agentless Management (referred to as Agentless Management in this document), the Active Health System, Intelligent Provisioning, as well as the traditional remote management and control capabilities delivered with the new, improved iLO 4 management processor. iLO 4 and Agentless Management are components of the HP ProActive Insight architecture 1 and integrated lifecycle automation built into HP ProLiant Gen8 servers. Agentless Management, allows you to monitor core hardware and related alerts without installation of agents or providers on the host OS. Use this paper as an initial guide if you are considering Agentless Management. You will find information addressing:

The benefits of Agentless Management The ease of setup and maintenance with HP Service Pack for ProLiant (SPP) and HP Intelligent Provisioning How to implement the service with HP iLO 4 and HP Systems Insight Manager (HP SIM) 7 When the best choice continues to be OS-based agents

Where you can go for more in-depth information

Agentless Management
In a traditional agent-based solution, the agent is typically installed on the target host OS to collect hardware and OSspecific data which is either pulled by a central management server (CMS), such as HP SIM 7, or pushed directly to the CMS by agents using mechanisms that include SNMP traps and WBEM Indications. With the Agentless Management solution, the management software (SNMP) operates within the iLO firmware instead of the host OS and frees memory and processor resources on the host OS for use by server applications. The advantage with Agentless Management is that in addition to monitoring all key internal subsystems (such as thermal, power, and memory), iLO sends SNMP management alerts directly to HP SIM 7, even with no host OS installed. Agentless Management not only simplifies agent management regardless of the host OS, but also provides an iLO-dedicated management network, isolated from the regular data network. Isolating agent network traffic is not possible in a typical agent-based solution. The initial release of iLO 4 firmware utilizes the SNMP protocol and is compatible with HP SIM 7 and the standard SNMP stack used in Microsoft Windows. If you, like the majority of users, run a private management network behind a firewall, Agentless Management is the best solution because its compatible with your existing environment. If you want additional security, a planned iLO 4 firmware update will provide the SNMPv3 secure protocol. The benefits of Agentless Management include:

An intelligent asynchronous device (iLO 4) on the physical server providing a single network target to monitor and
manage the device

A consistent Graphic User Interface (GUI) for configuration regardless of the host OS A well documented and robust scripting toolkit based on industry-standard XML to deploy and configure many servers
from a single configuration point such as HP SIM and HP Insight Control. Weve designed the HP Scripting Toolkit 2 to integrate into most custom deployment and configuration environments.

The capability to segregate the management network from the data network using the dedicated iLO Network port for
out-of-band communication, increased security and stability

The option for the management network and the data network to be physically the same by using the shared
system networking port capability on all HP ProLiant servers, giving you a choice for configuration

No requirement for you to install any software to manage communication across host LAN ports, or for you to enable
management network protocol ports on the host OS. This significantly reduces potential security threats, especially for those platforms that may interface directly to the Internet

To find out more about how HP ProActive Insight architecture gives you insight into your IT environment and capabilities that simplify and automate system provisioning, troubleshooting, and software updates, go to http://www.hp.com/go/proliantgen8 2 Find more information and download the HP Scripting Toolkit for Windows and the HP Scripting Toolkit for Linux at http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/servers/management/toolkit/stk/index.html

 The capability for the iLO 4 to behave as a Network Management Stack firewall between network management

protocol requests and the host-based applications/data stores. The exception here occurs when you use the SNMP pass-thru option. Client SNMP requests sent to iLO over the network pass to the host OS. The responses then pass to iLO and return to the client over the network. Alerts are not affected.

The iLO Management Engine includes monitoring, diagnostic, and support capabilities. The Agentless Management incorporated with iLO 4 performs the monitoring role. Figure 1 shows that iLO has access to all of the hardware sensors including temperature, fan, and power sensors. In addition, many HP adapters, including the HP Smart Array storage controller, can also communicate status to iLO. iLO reports status on all internally attached Smart Array managed disk drives.
Figure 1: The iLO Management Engine includes the core instrumentation logic to monitor hardware and the embedded Agentless Management with its SNMP stack

Its your choice. You can use either Agentless Management or existing HP Insight Management agents. The default iLO configuration uses Agentless Management without any agent software running on the OS. Agentless Management, health monitoring, and alerting begin working the moment you supply power to the server. Agentless Management runs on the iLO hardware, independent of the host OS and processor. With installation of the optional Agentless Management Service (AMS), Agentless Management can also retrieve specific host information such as OS name, OS version, and installed HP software versions.

Agentless Management with AMS

You install the optional AMS to collect additional OS data outside the scope of iLO 4 monitoring. As shown in Figure 1, the AMS functions under the host OS. AMS does not require any additional system management protocol installation on the host OS. Instead, the application communicates directly to the iLO 4 firmware using the existing architecture of the proven HP iLO Channel Interface, the iLO Driver in Figure 1. This interface uses industry standard PCIe memory transfer similar to storage and network devices. In Linux systems, the HP iLO Driver is maintained upstream in the Linux kernel source tree.

The AMS is part of the HP Service Pack for ProLiant (SPP) which installs AMS by default and needs no additional configuration. OS data collected by the AMS includes:

Host OS name and version Host network IP addresses Drivers and firmware versions of installed software Information about disk drives directly attached to the chipset (not using a Smart Array Controller)

HP AMS for Windows and Linux ProLiant Service Pack for ProLiant (SPP) and HP Intelligent Provisioning automatically install AMS when you perform an OS installation. The HP SIM Managed System Setup Wizard also installs AMS. HP AMS for VMware environments We deliver Agentless Management and Active Health for VMware with the HP Custom Image, the HP ESXi Offline Bundle, and in the Agentless Management Service Offline Bundle. The HP ESXi Offline Bundle includes the full HP Insight Management WBEM Providers and the Agentless Management Service Offline Bundle includes only the HP Insight Management WBEM Providers required to enable Smart Array information in VMware vCenter and online firmware update. You can manage your ProLiant servers with AMS by installing the HP Custom Image or the HP ESXi Offline Bundle. If you intend to manage your ProLiant servers using only Agentless Management, and dont need the full set of HP Insight Management WBEM Providers, you should install the Agentless Management Service Offline Bundle. The hp-ilo driver manages agent, WBEM provider, and tool application access to iLO. We include this driver in the HPcustomized VMware images. For raw VMware images, you must install the driver manually. We include the driver with the following packages:

Agentless Management Service Offline Bundle for ESXi 4.1 U2 or ESXi 5.x Agentless Management Service for ESX 4.1 U2 HP ESXi Offline Bundle for ESXi 4.1 or ESXi 5.x HP ESXi Utilities Offline Bundle for ESXi 5.x HP Management Agents for ESX 4.x

Comparison of OS-based agents and Agentless Management

The iLO Management screen allows you to configure the settings for SNMP, SNMP alerts, and Insight Manager integration. You must have the Configure iLO Settings privilege to change these settings. Depending on your configuration, you might need to install additional software. Table 1 shows a comparison of the information provided by Agentless Management and by the Insight Management Agents. Each item in the table indicates an individual agent/task.

Table 1: Information provided by Agentless Management and Insight Management Agents OS-based Agents Insight Management Agents Agentless Management Agentless Management without AMS Fans Temps Power supplies Memory CPU Smart Array SMART drive monitoring (connected to Smart Array) Internal HDDs connected to Smart Array Agentless Management with AMS Fans Temps Power supplies Memory CPU Smart Array iSCSI SAS/SATA HBA* SMART drive monitoring (connected to Smart Array and SAS HBA) Internal HDDs connected to Smart Array

Server Health

Fans Temps Power supplies Memory CPU

Storage

Smart Array SAS/SATA HBA/RAID Fibre Channel / iSCSI SMART drive monitoring (connected to Smart Array and SAS HBA) Tape External storage

NIC

MAC and IP addresses for standup and embedded NICs Teaming information Link up/down traps VLAN information

MAC Addresses for embedded NICs

MAC and IP address for embedded NICs Link up/down traps*

Other

OS information (host MIB) iLO data Performance data User configurable thresholds Logging events to OS logs Clustering information

iLO data Firmware inventory

iLO data OS information (host MIB)* Firmware inventory Driver/Service inventory Logging events to OS logs**

* Denotes that the data supplied by Agentless Management is not as extensive as the data supplied by the SNMP Agents. ** With iLO 4 v1.10 firmware, weve enabled AMS-based OS logging for Linux (var/message/log), Solaris, and VMware. Weve included Windows in upcoming releases.

Using Agentless Management with a combination of AMS, HP Insight Management Agents and/or WBEM providers
The AMS can run concurrently with our OS-based management software, but we recommend running only one: either AMS or our OS-based management software. Running both concurrently consumes more memory and processor cycles. In addition, using both Agentless Management and the SNMP agents may result in different alerts or duplicate alerts in HP SIM 7. If HP SIM 7 identifies that Agentless Management is in use, HP SIM first gathers data from the iLO Management Engine. If the iLO Management Engine and agents and providers are monitoring a particular component, HP SIM may receive duplicate data, a subset of data, or a superset of data for that component. To eliminate duplicate monitoring, perform either of the following procedures:

Stop or uninstall the Agentless Management Service. Stopping the Agentless Management Service stops the service
until you reboot the server. Rebooting re-enables the service.

Uninstall the agents or providers by using the install or remove software tool available in your OS.

Management and maintenance

When the iLO 4 default configuration for Agentless Management occurs, the iLO Management Engine alerts HP SIM 7. This is the preferred configuration and eliminates any potential for duplicate information from the managed server.

Management with HP SIM 7

To manage a ProLiant Gen8 server using Agentless Management, your management server must use HP SIM 7.0 or later. You also need to configure SNMP parameters so that HP SIM can exchange information with the server. iLO should be on the same networks as the management server and we recommend that you implement consistent network naming configurations through a shared Domain Name System (DNS). HP SIM 7 features HP SIM management enables you to:

Identify iLO processors Create an association between iLO and its server Create links between iLO and its server View iLO and server information and status

Agentless Management and integration with HP SIM 7 Weve designed HP SIM 7 to discover, identify, and interact with iLO. With the OS running, you can use the HP SIM 7 Management Console from a standard web browser to establish a connection to iLO, as well as receive alerts and collect information from iLO. Integration with HP SIM 7 provides:

SNMP trap delivery to HP SIM 7 - You can also configure HP SIM to forward events as SNMP traps to another
management application, or to a pager or email address.

Identification for management processors - All iLO devices on the network are classified in HP SIM 7 as management
processors.

Grouping of iLO management processors - All iLO devices can be grouped logically and associated within collections.
Collections are groups of systems and events that can be used for viewing information, or as a way to specify the targets for a particular action.

HP Management Agents or Agentless Management - iLO, combined with Agentless Management or the HP

Management Agents, provides remote access to system management information through the iLO network interface.

Support for SNMP management - HP SIM 7 can access Insight Management Agent information through iLO.
For more detailed information on Agentless Management and HP SIM, see the HP Systems Insight Manager and Agentless Management overview technology brief link in the For more information section at the end of this document.

Maintenance with HP Intelligent Provisioning

If you decide to let the iLO 4 default configuration install Agentless Management, you dont have to worry about updates. Intelligent Provisioning builds on proven technology and stores all required firmware and drivers on a NAND flash chip residing on the ProLiant Gen8 server motherboard. Intelligent Provisioning replaces SmartStart and provides an improved user interface and all of the specific tools, drivers, and agents that you need to setup, deploy and maintain your specific Gen8 server. With Intelligent Provisioning, there is no media. Just press F10 to get started. Intelligent Provisioning uses a built-in version of HP SUM to ensure that iLO 4 has the latest agents, software, drivers, and firmware from hp.com, or a local repository on your own network. You can find the full suite of ProLiant server and blade server drivers, agents, firmware, and systems software in the SPP at: www.hp.com/go/spp/download.

When to use to OS-based agents

In some cases Agentless Management is not the best choice. This section expands on the information in Table 1 using examples of cases when OS-based agents continue to be the best monitoring and reporting solution.

Monitoring performance
If you want to detect, analyze, and explain hardware performance bottlenecks on HP ProLiant servers, Insight Control performance management (ICperf) is an effective software solution to accomplish those objectives. ICperf provides the tools you need to receive proactive notification of developing bottleneck conditions, and debug existing performance issues. You can monitor performance on one or more servers and log the information to a database for later analysis or reporting, and set up proactive notification using the HP SIM notification mechanism. HP SIM installs ICperf on the same server as the HP SIM console and requires data from specific set of OS-based agents, in this case, Insight Management Performance agents. These agents record OS hardware and software performance counters and play them back for ICperf.

Monitoring storage networks

Agentless Management with AMS currently features the ability to monitor Smart Array controllers attached to internal drives and iSCSI SAS/SATA HBAs. There continue to be situations in which you need to use traditional OS-based agents to monitor elements of the storage network. You need OS-based agents to monitor:

ProLiant direct-attached storage not on a Smart Array controller ProLiant direct-attached storage in an expansion cabinet (JBOD). In addition to the drives, you want to monitor drive
power supplies and fans.

Fibre Channel/FCoE HBA networks - You can use AMS to monitor these HBAs, but not information about the storage
network itself.

Other reasons to install OS-based agents

There are other reasons to install OS-based agents. If you are managing a ProLiant Gen8 server using HP SIM 7 or HP Insight Control 7, these reasons include:

Unique features Use OS-based agents when you need the unique features supplied by the Insight agents or
providers, such as the ability to set disk utilization thresholds that generate an event when crossed. generations and migrate, or not migrate, to Agentless Management at your convenience.

Consistency - You can continue to utilize existing practices for management established with earlier ProLiant Third-party management applications - Unless specifically enabled to understand iLO and Agentless Management,
most management applications will treat the iLO as a separate device from the host in which it resides, and will present host information separately from the information gathered from iLO. In this case, continuing to utilize the management agents or providers will give you an integrated view of health and other metrics.

Health threshold - Use OS-based agents when you want to use a system health threshold for disk utilization.

Conclusion
HP Agentless Management offers important advantages over traditional OS-based agents. You have access to SNMP reporting on all core server hardware conditions without relying on OS-based agents, even in pre-OS conditions. This means you get reporting regardless of OS and without incurring server processor overhead. Use AMS to deliver more information about the server and the OS than you get with Agentless Management alone. AMS lets you use only the OSbased agents you need in a lightweight service. This means faster reporting with less overhead. AMS provides most of the critical OS-related reporting that you need, but there are some situations where it makes sense to continue using traditional OS-based agents. When this is the case, HP Insight Agents are the solution. They provide the monitoring you need while allowing you to aggregate and manage your servers effectively. We recommend that you check iLO and AMS updates as support expands to cover more system events.

For more information Visit the URLs listed below if you need additional information.

Resource description HP iLO Management Engine technologies Technology brief HP Systems Insight Manager 7.0 and HP Agentless Management overview Technology brief HP iLO 4 User Guide

Web address http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c03207602/c032 07602.pdf http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c03306157/c033 06157.pdf http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/DocumentIndex.jsp?lang= en&cc=us&contentType=SupportManual&prodTypeId=329290&prodSeriesId=521 9994&docIndexId=179111 http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/servers/management/unified/infolibraryf m.html www.hp.com/go/simple-fw-sw www.hp.com/go/SmartUpdate www.hp.com/go/intelligentprovisioning www.hp.com/go/ilomanagementengine www.hp.com/go/ilo http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/servers/management/toolkit/stk/index.h tml

Systems Insight Manager 7.1 User Guide Service Pack for ProLiant Intelligent Provisioning iLO Management Engine iLO 4 HP Scripting Toolkit for Windows and Linux

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Copyright 20XX Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. The only warranties for HP products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein. Trademark acknowledgments, if needed. TC1206919, Created September 2012