6 Simple Steps to Monitoring ESXi with Insight Remote Support

[#1]

This morning when I came into the office, it was so cold and rainy in Costa Rica that I had to make myself a warm cup of coffee to get things going. While I was getting my beverage ready, I could not avoid overhearing a conversation between two colleagues regarding ESXi hardware monitoring, and the steps it takes to get it working properly with HP Systems Insight Manager and Insight Remote Support Advanced.  

I decided to create this simple “informational guide” in order to clarify the steps necessary to properly configure VMWare ESXi managed nodes, and clear out any confusions when referring to Insight Remote Support Advanced and ESXi configuration.  

One of the most common questions about VMware and IRS is the fact that for VMware ESX Classic HP has developed HP SNMP Management Agents, which monitor the Server hardware and are in charge of sending notifications to IRS. Those cannot be use for the ESXi releases. Instead, HP has also created the very specific HP ESXi Offline Bundle for VMware ESXi. 

Another common inquiry is related to the ESXi distribution files being use by the end user to perform the ESXi installation.  ESXi could be downloaded from the VMware site, although this process does not include the HP ESXi Offline Bundle.  In order to download VMware ESXi with the HP Bundle integrated within, it must be downloaded directly from the HP Web Site.

You can download the HP VMware ESXi distribution files from the following sites:

The HP VMware ESXi 4.0

https://h20392.www2.hp.com/portal/swdepot/displayProductInfo.do?productNumber=HPVM06.

The HP VMware ESXi 5.0

https://h20392.www2.hp.com/portal/swdepot/displayProductInfo.do?productNumber=HPVM09.

Next, I will be sharing six simple steps to configure ESXi with HP SIM and Insight Remote Support Advanced. 

• The first step: Ask what type of ESX do you have running on your servers. If it is VMware ESX Classic, then you must download HP SNMP Management Agents from the HP Web Site. 

• Second step: Find out if VMware ESXi installation was performed using an HP VMware ESXi image.  Get the vm-support from ESXi server and verify by opening the file /bootbank/oem/oem.txt.  The HP version shows up “hp”, and the VMware version “general”. 

• Third step:  If you have determined that you have an HP VMware installation, it is not necessary to install the HP bundle, as the WBEM providers are already integrated. If the installation took place using the VMware ESXi you must download the bundle.  Below you will find the links to download the HP Bundle depending on the actual ESXi version installed.  

VMware ESXi 4.0 hp-esxi4.0uX-bundle-1.6-5.zip (3.1 MB)

VMware ESXi 4.1 hp-esxi4.1uX-bundle-1.1.zip (3.1 MB)

VMware ESXi 5.0 hp-esxi5.0uX-bundle-1.0-20.zip (7.3 MB)

• Fourth step: Perform the ESXi systems’ bundle installation using the vihostupdate utility, following the installation instructions to perform the task for each version of ESXi.

VMware ESXi 4.0 Installation Instructions

VMware ESXi 4.1 Installation Instructions

VMware ESXi 5.0 Installation Instructions

• Fifth step: Perform in the HP Systems Insight Manager GUI. The task consists of discovering the VMware ESXi systems and identifying all the attributes from the operating systems and hardware. This will allow your device to be selected by the Remote Support Configuration and Services as eligible. Besides identifying the server, you must add country code, site and contact information.  The identification process will require WBEM credentials to be added into the Options à Protocol Settings à Global Protocol Settings.  This can also be done from the Systems Properties page for each one of the ESXi devices.  I always recommend running an Identify Systems task from the Options menu right after adding the credentials.     

• Sixth and final step: Subscribe to WBEM Events from the Options à Events menu in HP SIM. This will enable the system to send indications to HP Systems Insight Manager, Systems Event Analyzer and consequently to HP Support Center creating a case automatically. 

So you see, setting up VMware ESXi systems to be monitored by Insight Remote Support Advanced is not that complicated.  It is just a matter of getting facts clear, updating the operating system if needed, and properly identifying those hosts prior to subscribing to WBEM events. 

I hope this information comes in handy for anyone out there having issues understanding the the process and how to set it up properly when it comes to automating HP hardware running the ESXi operating system.   I enjoy assisting and collaborating with my fellow engineers around the globe.  Enjoy the rest of the day as I am sure I will!

[#2]

Good article! You might also be interested in a post we've written about monitoring ESX hosts in Opsview:

http://labs.opsview.com/2011/08/5-easy-steps-to-monitoring-your-esx-hosts-using-opsview/

[#3]

Are there any limits on esxi in terms of how many guests I can run on one esxi server or how much RAM/CPU I can assign to a guest?

[#4]

Does this enable VCA (Verison Control Agent) for monitoring firmware versions? Can firmware upgrades be applied from within ESXi (rather than boot from USB / CD / DVD)?

What about ACU (Array Configuration Utility)? We don't want to add disk space / volumes by doing a reboot and entering the BIOS.

[#5]

Hi, to answer your question, let me tell you there are not limitations at all.  The limitations are set based on the amount of hardware resources you have on your physical server to assign to your VMs.  For HP SIM and IRS monitoring purposes it is seem less

[#6]

Thanks for the write-up but I've got a problem at the second step. I don't have a \bootbank\oem folder in the vm-support results file. I only have the following files in the bootbank folder:

17/04/2012  10:22               167 boot.cfg
17/04/2012  10:22               548 m.z
17/04/2012  10:22           950,070 oem.tgz
17/04/2012  10:22            47,238 state.tgz
17/04/2012  10:22               168 vibddi
               5 File(s)        998,191 bytes

I had a look in oem.tgz and there was still no sign of the oem.txt file.

I'm running ESXi 4.1 Build 381591

Any thoughts?

[#7]

Hi,

Thanks for the article.

I've some trouble to completly integrate an ESXi 5.0 U1 in HP SIM (tried on 5.2, 6.1 and 7.0). I'm able to discover the ESXi and WBEM Health Status works well. However the Events tab stay desparately empty even if the health status shows some warnings or errors...

The problem seems to come from the WBEM Subscription. Depending of the version oh HP SIM the error's message is different. Here is the one for HP SIM 7.0

Create Subscriptions for:
esx01-44.intranet.cheops.fr
FAILED to create indication subscription.

Cause: Subscription infrastructure is not present or corrupted

Recommended Action: Update or reinstall the HP WBEM providers

Does anybody have an idea of what's going on ?

Thanks by advance

[#8]

The link referenced for the ESXi 5 instructions is broken.

[#9]

Since we are in the process of migrating to a Gen8 server with our ESXi environment this article was a very nice read.

What I'm wondering though; where are the SIM & SMH downloads for ESXi5 for the DL 380 Gen8 server? Are we supposed to download the new 'Insight Management' DVD? If so, why isn't this download easily available?

[#10]

Hi Boombeeshark,

Unfortunately, there is no VCA (Version Control Agent) available for monitoring firmware on ESX. 

In regards to ACU on ESXi systems you may download the HP ESXi Utilities Offline Bundle for Vmware ESXi 5.0 which includes the HPACUCLI.   

[#11]

Hi Andy,

For ESXi 4.1 please use the following instructions:

The simplest file to check is /bootbank/oem.tgz .

This file can be used to see who the Vendor is.

If the above file contains the following entries, then it means a flavor of HP as HP has added its agents for CIM communication.

drwxr-xr-x    0/0    0    2010-08-04    14:57:23    etc/cim/hp-smx/   
-rw-r--r--    0/0    2307    2010-06-07    05:00:42    etc/cim/hp-smx/hpSDR2Physloc.conf
-rw-r--r-T    0/0    0    2010-06-07    05:00:42    etc/cim/hp-smx/SMXMPLite.txt
-rw-r--r-T    0/0    0    2010-06-07    05:00:42    etc/cim/hp-smx/SMXPowerSupply.txt
-rw-r--r-T    0/0    0    2010-06-07    05:00:42    etc/cim/hp-smx/IMLCheckTimeStamp
-rw-r--r--    0/0    142    2010-06-07    05:00:42    etc/cim/hp-smx/hba.conf
-rw-r--r-T    0/0    0    2010-06-07    05:00:42    etc/cim/hp-smx/SMXEthernetPort.txt

[#12]

Hi Erwan,

I found the following article on the HP Web site which may fix your issue, although you mentioned you have tried with HP SIM 7.0. If this fix does not work for you, I recommend contacting HP Support Center and they should be able to provide you with python script to remove partial subscriptions that have been created in the process.

HP Systems Insight Manager 6.3 - Cannot Grant a WBEM Subscription to an ESXi Server Built from VMwar...

[#13]

Hello Ken,

I fixed the broken link for the ESXi 5 instructions, thank you very much for letting us know, your help is well appreciated.   

[#14]

Hello Mr. Gelderblom,

For DL 380 Gen 8 servers there is no Systems Management HomePage available, the only local system management software on this system you might find it here.

If you require assistance adding ESXi systems to Insight RS and HP Systems Insight Manager please follow the instructions on a previous article and we will gladly assist you.

[#15]

tHi,

I follow this procedure with success for connect my esxi5 node to Hp insight manager.

I veryfied that when, for example, I unplug one power supply to server, I don't receive trap on sim...

Must I configure other ?

thanks

Luc

[#16]

Hello Luc,

Test events cannot be sent from ESXi hypervisor, please read page 4 at the end, under section Sending Test events in VMware environments,

http://bizsupport2.austin.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c02531448/c02531448.pdf

Pulling hardware components in order to generate an actionable event is a not supported task.   As stated on the document, “only physical events due to actual hardware status changes will prompt WBEM indications to be sent”.

Thanks for your comments,

[#17]

We upgraded to esxi 5 with the HP vmware image.  After upgrading we could see the disk status in the vSphere client, however a couple of hours later, the status was gone.  

I can still see the disk status from the command line with ./hpacucli but I cannot create WBEM subscriptions in HP SIM v7 plus the storage is no longer visible under health status in the vSphere client.  We experienced this problem on multiple HP servers. Is this a known issue?

[#18]

Hello Mathijs, although you upgraded to ESXi 5, make sure you have the latest WBEM providers installed, you can verify the version by running esxcli software vib list | grep Hewlett

The latest bundle can be found at the following site:

HP ESXi Offline Bundle for VMware ESXi 5.x

Install from ESXi host, with offline bundle on ESXi host:
esxcli software vib install -d <ESXi local path><bundle.zip>

Run identify one more time against the server from HP SIM, make sure under system page for that server you are able to see WBEM as management protocol, if not add the credentials under edit systems credentials. 

[#19]

Hi,

Is there a way to use HP ACU GUI for a ESXi 5.1 host.

I see that we can use HP ACU CLI which is has not that user friendly to use.

Thanks,

Suhail.

[#20]

Hello SSuhail,

Unfortunately HP has no develop a GUI for ACU on ESXi 5.1 at this point.

For other readers that might be interested in the application, this is the link to download the latest ACU CLI for ESXi.

RECOMMENDED * HP ESXi Utilities Offline Bundle for VMware ESXi 5.x

Regards,

[#21]

Is any posiblity to restart wbem provider on ESXi 5.0 host without rebooting hole system? In HP SIM the system shows that a disk is failed, but no trap is sent to SIM and no event created.

[#22]

Hello Shatra,

Restart the CIM server daemon in the security profile of the host in the vCenter. If you continue not receiving the indications, make sure you have created the subscription from the Options --Events menu in HP SIM and finally make sure you are running HP SIM 7.1 with all the patches which is the version currently supporting ESXi 5.0.

[#23]

We're seeing the same thing as Mathijs, the HP management agents stop working after some time, where "some time" may be between hours and days. "Reset Sensors" doesn't work.

The only way to fix it is by SSH'ing to the host and running

/sbin/services.sh restart

You'll notice that'll restart the HP management stuff as well, making the status readable again in the vSphere client. (I haven't tried just restarting the HP management agents instead of all the services).

We too have this issue on multiple servers from multiple generations (like DL380G7 and DL380 Gen8).  So I'm pretty sure the HP management agents are buggy.

My versions of the HP software installed:

~ # localcli software vib list | grep -i hp
char-hpcru 5.0.3.09-1OEM.500.0.0.434156 Hewlett-Packard PartnerSupported 2013-01-17
char-hpilo 500.9.0.0.9-1OEM.500.0.0.434156 Hewlett-Packard PartnerSupported 2013-01-17
hp-ams 500.9.2.0-11.434156 Hewlett-Packard PartnerSupported 2013-01-17
hp-build 5.32.5-434156 Hewlett-Packard PartnerSupported 2013-01-17
hp-smx-provider 500.03.01.10.2-434156 Hewlett-Packard VMwareAccepted 2013-01-17
hpacucli 9.20-9.0 Hewlett-Packard PartnerSupported 2013-01-17
hpbootcfg 01-01.02 Hewlett-Packard PartnerSupported 2013-01-17
hponcfg 04-00.10 Hewlett-Packard PartnerSupported 2013-01-17
scsi-hpsa 5.0.0-28OEM.500.0.0.472560 Hewlett-Packard VMwareCertified 2013-01-17
scsi-hpvsa 5.0.0-36OEM.500.0.0.472560 Hewlett-Packard PartnerSupported 2013-01-17
vmware-esx-hp_vaaip_p2000 2.1.0-2 Hewlett-Packard VMwareAccepted 2013-01-17
ata-pata-hpt3x2n 0.3.4-3vmw.510.0.0.799733 VMware VMwareCertified 2013-01-17
hpnmi 2.0.11-434156 hp PartnerSupported 2013-01-17
~ #

I've looked this up and as of this writing those are the latest versions of everything.

[#24]

Hi,

The links to the instructioms refererd does not seem to be working?

VMware ESXi 4.0 Installation Instructions

VMware ESXi 4.1 Installation Instructions

VMware ESXi 5.0 Installation Instructions

Thank You.

Regards,

Sanjay

[#25]

Hi,

thx for your blog.

I am still looking for an answer.

When using HP Hardware with ESXI 5.1.....are the any possibilities to upgrade firmware using HP SIM/HP System management Hompage instead of using ILO/CD/USB ?

I tried to create a baseline in HP SIM, but i can`t create one.

Anybody?

Thx!

[#26]

Some followup feedback regarding our problem where the disk status would disappear after a while in the vsphere client, this is solved now!!

@charles_quesada thank for your feedback!

@Glenn Matthys

In the end our problem was resolved after updating all firmware with HP SUM. I suspect the raid controller firmware was causing the HP management agents to crash somehow.

I thought this would solve the WBEM subscription problem too but this is still not working.  This is what we can see in the HP IRS messages.  We even have this problem with the root user.

Protocol : Web-Based Enterprise Management (WBEM)
Service : Session Connection
Type : CONNECTIVITY
Status : SUCCESS
Description : "Session Connection Open in Success"

Created : 2013/04/02 14:38:57

Protocol : Web-Based Enterprise Management (WBEM)
Service : Subscription Manager
Type : SUBSCRIPTION
Status : FAILURE

Description : The WBEM subscription to jep-esx10-lvn.jaspers-eyers.be has failed.
Detailed : 1. Check that the connectivity check has passed. Without connectivity, subscriptions will not succeed. 2. Check that the credentials are still valid.
Created : 2013/04/02 14:39:47

[#27]

For anyone who needs the missing instructions on step 4 for esx 5. (for people who had to download the offline bundle. 

1) Download the bundle.zip.

2) Use WinSCP or similar to copy the name_of_bundle.zip to say the tmp directory on the ESXi 5.0 host server.

3) Put the host server into maintenance mode.

4) Use PuTTY or similar to establish an SSH connection to the host server, and run the command:

esxcli software vib install -d /tmp/name_of_bundle.zip

5) Reboot the host server.

[#28]

The ESXi 5.0 offline bundle can be found here (previous links dont work)

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=US&swItem=MTX-83...

Or search HP site for: VMware ESXi 5.0 insight manager drivers