HP ESXi offline bundle not working?

[AndyShine]

I'm running 6 x ESXi 5.0 hosts on HP BL460c blades (a mix of G6 and G7's)

I'm attempting to get better h\w status info by installing the HP ESXi Management Bundle using Update Manager.

I've configured the UM to download the vibs directly from the HP depot. Examining the Patch Reposity show this has been successful.

I've created a dynamic Host Patch baseline to include patches from the 'Hewlett-Packard Company' vendor (product any, Severity any, category any. Currently showing 23 patches in the baseline). I attached it to the datacenter containing the hosts. I've scanned and remediated. Re-scanning gives me a nice green tick. So far so good, however ..

If I look on the Hardware Status tab I can't see anymore info (i gather I should see extra sensors related to power and storage? Not sure)

I'm also implementing HP Insight Manger for Vcenter. In vsphere Client, when I select a host and then the HP Insight Mangement tab I get 'This program cannot display the webpage'. This might be a seperate issue 😞

Is there a way to prove the HP agents are installed \ returning info?

Thanks

[karthickvm]

Hi Andy,

To Check if HP Vibs are installed , run the below command.

esxcli software vib list|less

this will give information about all installed vibs in the ESXi. Also try to install the vib manually on one host and see if that is working.

http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2005205

[AndyShine]

I can see VMware and Dell vibs (I have a Dell SAN so that makes sense) but no HP.

Looks like Update Manager  hasn't installed the HP agents 😞

I'll try the manual install method....

[MKguy · Accepted solution]

I've created a dynamic Host Patch baseline

You need a Host extension baseline and not a regular Host patch baseline. While you can add extensions to Host patch baselines, they will have no effect when remediating. Then make sure you remediate with the according Host extension baseline.

Some hints on the creation of custom baselines can be found here (shameless self-plug):

http://alpacapowered.wordpress.com/2012/06/05/esxi-hp-updates/

http://alpacapowered.wordpress.com/2012/09/06/september-esxi-hp-updates/

[VMMS]

Hi There,

First verify that HP offline bundle is installed

Remember you need to reboot the host for the updates to take effect.

Go to vCLI and run > vihostupdate.pl  server xxxx  --username  xxxx  --password  xxxx –query

It will show if HP bundle and HP NMI driverfor VMware are installed.

If bundle is not installed … download the appropriate bundle e.g.  for Esxi  5.0  download “ hp-esxi5.0uX-bundle-1.3-12.zip bundle.

Install the bundle on the ESXi host.

Install remotely from client, with offline bundle on ESXi host:
> esxcli -s <server> -u root -p mypassword software vib install -d <ESXi local path><bundle.zip>

Then you need to configure SNMP.

Run following command to configure SNPM (trap target, snmp port, community  I have used example you might different port and community name);

> vicfg-snmp.pl --server xxxx --username xxxx --password xxxx –t xxxx@161/public

To Verify SNMP settings use;

> vicfg-snmp.pl --server xxxx --username --password xxxx --show

If configured fine you should be able to have hardware info and home page should work.

Regards

[AndyShine]

Changing the baseline to Host Extension has fixed my initial problem : the HP bundle is now returning info about local storage (for example)

I'm now trying to get the Insight Controll for Vcenter working. Note I didnt install the storage part (we use dell storage) and I'm not trying to connect to an Insight management installation.

I've installed the product and have the 3 services running (HP Common Services, HP Insight Control for Vcenter and the UI Manager service). During the install I entered credentials (windows domain account) that have vcenter administrator permissions on the vcenter root object. The same permissions are inherited on the Host objects.

On the vSphere client, I have the HP Insight Management Admin and the management deployment icons as well as the HP Insight Mangement tab when I highlight a host. However, when I click the Insigt Management Admin icon i get a blank web page with the error 'Navigation to web page was cancelled'. Same message when I select the host Insight Management tab.

I  tried re-installing after I got the HP bundle working but no joy. My guess is its a permissions problem on the web page(?).

[ray_diack]

Andy, did you ever get to the bottom of your Insight Control "navigation cancelled" error?  I'm getting the same with vSphere 5.1 and version 7.1 of the HP Insight Control plugin.

[AndyShine]

Ray,

Sadly, No. I'd still like to get it working but have more pressing things to work on (sigh)

Let me know if you fix it !

Regards

Andrew

[ray_diack]

OK, thanks Andrew.  I've posted to the Insight forum as well, but nothing so far:

http://h30499.www3.hp.com/t5/ITRC-HP-Systems-Insight-Manager/Insight-Control-for-vCenter-Navigation-...

I might try log something with HP.  Will post back if we find anything helpful.

[MKguy]

These generic IE error messages which could be anything are seriously annoying.

Unfortunately I don't have the HP Insight Control plugin installed and probably won't bother to, so I can only venture a few uneducated guesses.

Can you access the tab from a vSphere Client installed on the same system the Insight Control server is running on (e.g. your vCenter)?

If the service is working properly, then you should be able to access the raw Insight Control URL with any browser directly too. You may receive a blank page or something but not an IE error message. Check which port the "frontend" service runs on and try connecting with a browser (probably via https://)

[MKguy]

Oh wait, I actually do have it installed on a test vCenter after all! And I can access the Insight Management Tab without a problem (but not from my client as I can't access port 3504 from here). Make sure the plugin is loaded properly in the vSphere Client.

From the system running the vSphere Client, you should be able to access the Insight Control website via:

https://[INSIGHT-CONTROL-SERVERNAME.DOMAIN]:3504

after a certificate warning it should just display:

Insight Control for VCenter UI Manager

You can also directly access the sub URLs like /static/host_overview.html

Also download this file:

https://[INSIGHT-CONTROL-SERVERNAME.DOMAIN]:3504/static/plugin_config.xml

and check if the servernames in there are correct. It's located in C:\Program Files (x86)\HP\HP Insight Control for vCenter\uim\static if you need to change anything.

[MKguy]

While I'm at it: Cool directory traversal HP built there:

https://NotSoPrivate:3504/static/..%2F/server.key

-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----
[...]
-----END PRIVATE KEY-----

https://ugh:3504/static/..%2F/config.json/

"vcenters" : [ {
      "ip" : "MyAboutToGetBorkedvCenterServer",
      "username" : "domain\\UserWithvCenterPermissions",
      "password" : "oops/ithink/this/isreversable+"
    } ],

I wouldn't really recommend anyone to use this software at the moment.

[ray_diack]

Hahaha, wow that's dodgy!!  Hopefully there's a patch soon.  Thank you for your suggestions - you were on the right track.  Someone responded to my HP forum post with a suggestion to import the vcenter self-signed cert into the trusted root cert store, and after restarting vSphere client, it started working at last:

http://h30499.www3.hp.com/t5/ITRC-HP-Systems-Insight-Manager/Insight-Control-for-vCenter-Navigation-...

I got to the cert by browsing to https://myvcenter:3504/ as you suggested.

thanks!

Ray

[hath91]

I ran the command .\vihostupdate.pl server x.x.x.x -username root -password <password> -query, the commands ran succesfully, however, a screen pops up and goes away without reporting any data....any thoughts?

Thanks,

-B