HP system management home page and a MSA 1500

[pnicka]

I have 4 HP Proliants DL380 G5'srunning ESX 3.0.2 connected to a MSA1500 via fiber switches. I installed the HP management agents (including the storage agent) version 7.9 on the servers. The agents see the HBA's (Brocade QLE2460) but do NOT see the MSA or the attached hard drives. I want to be able to monitor the MSA1500 and the physical hard drives use the HP system management homepage and the Insight Insight Manager.

Has anyone successfully done this? If so, please help.

After 16 hours on the phone with HP tech support they claim it is no possible and said the only way to monitor the MSA harddrives is with the HP Storage Essentials tool. Is this true?

P.

[Pheatus]

Have you tried rebooting your ESX? It's possible that it only shows after a reboot.

I've had this with a Windows 2003 machine before. Not sure about the ESX though.

/Sebastian

[pnicka]

I've rebooted many time. It makes no difference. I'm in the process of building a Windows server to connect the SAN. If the management agents work then I will know that it is an ESX problem.

[Pheatus]

Good idea. (Then you'll also have the ACU to configure your MSA easier too)

I know the 7.9 PSP has some issues (some process that's running numberous times), but I just checked our customers setup (MSA1000 + ESX with PSP7.90) and there I see the connectivity with the SAN.

[pnicka]

You can see ann the hard drives and the MSA using the System Managent Home Page and SIM?

[pnicka]

System Management home page and SIM can see the SAN and the hard drives using the windows 2003 server. So, this is a problem with ESX and the management agents. Unfortunately, I can not add another server to our data center $$$$.

Does your ESX server see the SAN using the System Management Home Page?

[lholling]

We have 7.90 running in our environment connected to a MSA1000 in our test lab and it is working. Have you tried the following (located in the Agent readme)

For the storage agents to display the correct information for the Qlogic and

Emulex HBAs, the libraries corresponding to the Qlogic and Emulex driver

versions have to be installed on the ESX Service Console.

Please ensure that you run through these instructions ONLY if you do not see a

link for either the HBA or the target drives in the System Management Homepage.

The following steps guide you through the installation for the corresponding

libraries -

1. Download the libraries for the driver loaded in the vmkernel from the

following links:

Link for Emulex libraries - http://www.emulex.com/ts/docoem/vmware/index.html

Link for Qlogic libraries - http://support.qlogic.com/support/oem_product_detail_vmware.asp

2. Stop the 'hpsmhd' and 'hpasm' agents by issuing the commands,

'service hpsmhd stop' and 'service hpasm stop' from the service console

(you must be logged in as a user having administrative privileges).

3. Remove the older corresponding libraries from the '/opt/compaq/storage/bin'

directory. ('libdfc.so' for Emulex, and 'libqlsdm.so' for Qlogic).

4. Install the libraries which were downloaded in step 1 using the install

script present in those packages.

5. For the Qlogic libraries you might have to rename the library file. Use the

following command to rename the library file -

'mv /usr/lib/libqlsdm-ia32.so /usr/lib/libqlsdm.so'

5. Restart the 'hpsmhd' service first using the command 'service hpsmhd start'.

Then, start the 'hpasm' service using the command 'service hpasm start'.

Leonard...

[Slavek]

I have exactly the same problem with our two DL580 hosts connected to a MSA 1000. The HP agents are able to see the HBAs fine but there is no presence of the physical hard disks. Has anyone tried loading the recommened third-party libraries?

[lholling]

Hi There

Yep I installed them on our test servers (which are connected to the MSA1000) and it seems OK as we have been running them for about a month.

Leonard...

[Slavek]

I had the QLogic files loaded onto one of our servers. We can now see the vmfs volumes off the MSA 1000 but no individual drives showing under External Storage Connections. Just the HBA connections are listed. We use the HP FC1142SR boards. Any ideas?

[pnicka]

I did load the third party drives. System management home page is still unable to see the physical drives. I've tried ESX 3.0.1 and 3.0.2. I've also tried HP management agents 7.6b, 7.8, and 7.9. With NO success.

HP is well aware of the problem but has been ZERO help. I have pushed the problem through our sales rep and am waiting on a return call. In the mean time, I am holding the Invoices!

[pnicka]

What type of HBA's are you using? We are using the HP FC1142SR (QLE2460-HP). Maybe it's a HBA problem?

[lholling]

Hi There

We are using the HP Branded Emulex LP1150

Leonard...

[Slavek]

I wonder iif there is any setting on our HP FC1142SR boards or maybe the MSA1000 switches that might be blocking status of the physical hard disks.

[Schorschi]

What you want is not possible in the sense that to fully monitor the MSA and provide configuration management support, you must attached a Windows box to the MSA as well. This is the recommended solution from HP. I am not kidding, that is what HP recommended. The server agents do not see the complete storage environment, for example, on-line flashing of the MSA controllers, etc. HP EVA has some quirks alone the same lines as well. HP does not create their tools for ESX, Command Exec for EVA for example.

Also, never use third party drives, HP will disavow all issues when they discover this. Yes, I know HP marketing says you can use them, but when we had an issue in the lab with Maxtor Atlas drives having S.M.A.R.T. timing issues and spin timing issues, HP demanded we replace all drives with HP drives, or HP would not honor any issues on the MSA.

Never mind the fact, that many 3rd party drives can not have their firmware flashed via the HP tools and methods, we had so many issues in the lab, we gave up on the idea before leaving the lab. The only environment that proved stable, and provided complete monitoring, was attaching a Windows box to the MSA with the ESX hosts, and using only HP components, i.e. drives.