Monitoring HP hardware without using SIM?

[DiPersiaTech]

I have a small environment that's running on one Proliant DL380 G5. Is there anyway to monitor this box for hardware failures and such WITHOUT loading HP SIM? Yes, I do get statuses in the vSphere client, but we're using to the native HP alerts if something goes south. Loading HP SIM for email notifications is like using an m80 in place of a sparkler!

[cookieme]

I have a small environment that's running on one Proliant DL380 G5. Is there anyway to monitor this box for hardware failures and such WITHOUT loading HP SIM? Yes, I do get statuses in the vSphere client, but we're using to the native HP alerts if something goes south. Loading HP SIM for email notifications is like using an m80 in place of a sparkler!

Haha I like your analogy! Yeah you can give Veeam Monitor (free) a try (http://www.veeam.com/esxi-monitoring-free.html). However, it is my understanding that you will need a separate computer with a constant network connection to your ESXi server in order to receive notifications.

Hope it helps!

[larvel]

I would also like to know how best to monitor the physical hardware that the esxi runs on. We use HP-servers, but the esxi is not bundled with the HP insight management.

We already use nagios for monitoring all other servers than esxi. Using another monitoring server og software just isnt an option. Does anyone know the best way to monitor disk-health og an HP-server with nagios?

[cookieme]

I would also like to know how best to monitor the physical hardware that the esxi runs on. We use HP-servers, but the esxi is not bundled with the HP insight management.

The HP integrated version of ESXi 4 is available directly from HP: http://h20392.www2.hp.com/portal/swdepot/displayProductInfo.do?productNumber=HPVM06

We already use nagios for monitoring all other servers than esxi. Using another monitoring server og software just isnt an option. Does anyone know the best way to monitor disk-health og an HP-server with nagios?

I don't have any nagios experience, but I have come across this script, which claims to work with nagios:

http://communities.vmware.com/thread/163730?tstart=30

http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-7170

Good luck

[larvel]

I`ve got most of it working bu using: check_esx_wbem.py

It checks the following:

'CIM_ComputerSystem',

'CIM_NumericSensor',

'CIM_Memory',

'CIM_Processor',

'CIM_RecordLog',

'OMC_DiscreteSensor',

'VMware_StorageExtent',

'VMware_Controller',

'VMware_StorageVolume',

'VMware_Battery',

'VMware_SASSATAPort'

My concern is that one of the hdd will crash and i will not notice it. Will this script report an error if ong hdd crashes?

The whole script can be found here:

http://www.monitoringexchange.org/cgi-bin/jump.cgi?ID=2697&view=File1;d=1

[cookieme]

Sorry I'm not the right person to answer that!

Btw did you make that script work on you ESXi host, i.e. running it locally or what did you do?

[larvel]

The script is executed on the nagios-server. You only provide the url, port (5989), username and password. I did not have to to anything on the esxi-servers. If you do a port scan on an esxi server you see that port 5989 is open.

[cookieme]

Ah I see. I don't use nagios (never heard of it until now) and I was interested in using this directly on my ESXi host to get the status and maybe send an automated email.

[larvel]

I strongly recommend nagios. It`s fairly easy to set up also. Nagios has the compatibility to send automated e-mails.

[DSTAVERT]

It is possible to script access to the ILO port. I seem to remember a script in these forums somewhere. I know you can retrieve disk information from the ILO port. HP also released a WBEM python script on sourceforge if I remember.

As cookieme suggested I would have a look at http://www.veeam.com/esxi-monitoring-free.html. It isn't just a monitoring tool. As long as the vi client is installed on the machine it is a complete management tool. You get a vCenter like view of your virtual infrastructure.

[cookieme]

It is possible to script access to the ILO port. I seem to remember a script in these forums somewhere. I know you can retrieve disk information from the ILO port. HP also released a WBEM python script on sourceforge if I remember.

Hmmm...this sounds interesting. As you are well aware from all my posts about monitoring I am still looking for a solution. You wouldn't happen to know how this works?

[DSTAVERT]

Have a look at. http://vmprofessional.com/index.php?content=vmpimlscan

That isn't the script I was thinking about but . . . .

There is a bit of information on the HP forums about scripting ILO. If you haven't used ILO get it set up on a server and have a look. It will be a work to get something scripted but it is possible SIM will recognize the ILO port and can return information from it as well. Quite sure you can do similar from nagios or any of the other opensource monitoring tools. Most of them use or can use scripts to return values.

[cookieme]

Thanks I've actually come across that script before, but I didn't spend enough time as I was looking for an easier solution. Anyway I will contact the author and ask for some help.

I use iLO extensively to access the console, so I'm familiar with its use just not scripting with it.

Thanks

[Schorschi]

ILO configuration and related scripting is based to a high degree on XML templates, the HP web site has a download able bundle of ILO scripting methods and techniques. It is not trivial to get some of the ILO scripts to work, but once you get the basics understood, it works.

[larvel]

Now I`m happy

As I said before the plugin that collecs info from esxi work.(Still using Nagios)

The problem was monitoring the disks.

What I`ve done is that I created a new virtual machine from the File menu in VMware Infrastructure Client. (Deploy OVS-templete The machine is automatically installed and is called "vSphere Management Assistant"

The guide can be found here:

http://www.vmware.com/support/developer/vima/vima40/doc/vma_40_guide.pdf

Follow the instrucions and the machine is set up.

From there I put the esxi servers in maintenance mode, uploded the script and executed the following command:

vihostupdate --server vm2.myfirm --install --bundle /tmp/hp-esxi4.0uX-bundle-1.1.zip (google the file name if you want to find it on hp.com)

Then i rebooted the servers and now Heath Status includes storage :smileygrin: (See the picure attached)

Hope this helps you guys!