More HP sauce on ESXi 5.0

On my first post about HP ESXi 5.0 customized image I discussed about the new esxcli namespaces added by HP. But those tools aren’t the only ones included.

If you list the software bundles and filter the output to display only the included by HP will notice an hponcfg package.

~ # esxcli software vib list |grep Hewlett
char-hpcru            5.0.0.8-1OEM.500.0.0.434156         Hewlett-Packard     PartnerSupported  2011-05-24 
char-hpilo            500.9.0.0.8-1OEM.500.0.0.434156     Hewlett-Packard     PartnerSupported  2011-05-24 
hp-smx-provider       500.02.10.13.44-434156              Hewlett-Packard     VMwareAccepted    2011-05-24 
hpbootcfg             01-00.10                            Hewlett-Packard     PartnerSupported  2011-05-24 
hponcfg               03-02.04                            Hewlett-Packard     PartnerSupported  2011-05-24 
~ #

Hponcfg, also included on ProLiant Support Pack for Linux, is a tool that enable a System Administrator to manage the iLO of a ProLiant server from the operative system.

~ # esxcli software vib get -n hponcfg
Hewlett-Packard_bootbank_hponcfg_03-02.04
   Name: hponcfg
   Version: 03-02.04
   Type: bootbank
   Vendor: Hewlett-Packard
   Acceptance Level: PartnerSupported
   Summary: HP ProLiant Lights-Out Configuration Utility for ESXi
   Description: HP ProLiant Lights-Out Configuration Utility for ESXi
   Release Date: 2011-08-09
   Depends:
   Conflicts:
   Replaces:
   Provides:
   Maintenance Mode Required: False
   Hardware Platforms Required: HP, Hewlett-Packard Company, Hewlett-Packard, hp
   Live Install Allowed: False
   Live Remove Allowed: False
   Stateless Ready: True
   Overlay: False
   Tags:
   Payloads: hponcfg
~ #

The tool is located at /opt/hp/tools.

/opt/hp/tools # ls
hpbootcfg         hpbootcfg_esxcli  hponcfg
/opt/hp/tools #

Launch the utility without arguments and you will get the usage and it will also display current firmware version of the iLO.

/opt/hp/tools # ./hponcfg
HP Lights-Out Online Configuration utility
Version 3.2-4 (c) Hewlett-Packard Company, 2011
Firmware Revision = 1.26 Device type = iLO 3 Driver name = hpilo
USAGE:
  hponcfg  -?
  hponcfg  -h
  hponcfg  -m minFw
  hponcfg  -r [-m minFw ]
  hponcfg  [-a] -w filename [-m minFw]
  hponcfg  -g [-m minFw]
  hponcfg  -f filename [-l filename] [-s namevaluepair] [-v] [-m minFw]
  hponcfg  -i [-l filename] [-s namevaluepair] [-v] [-m minFw]
  -h,  --help           Display this message
  -?                    Display this message
  -r,  --reset          Reset the Management Processor to factory defaults
  -f,  --file           Get/Set Management Processor configuration from "filename"
  -i,  --input          Get/Set Management Processor configuration from the XML input
                        received through the standard input stream.
  -w,  --writeconfig    Write the Management Processor configuration to "filename"
  -a,  --all            Capture complete Management Processor configuration to the file.
                        This should be used along with '-w' option
  -l,  --log            Log replies to "filename"
  -v,  --xmlverbose     Display all the responses from Management Processor
  -s,  --substitute     Substitute variables present in input config file
                        with values specified in "namevaluepairs"
  -g,  --get_hostinfo   Get the Host information
  -m,  --minfwlevel     Minimum firmware level
/opt/hp/tools #

As a non intrusive example you can use -g switch to get the server info.

/opt/hp/tools # ./hponcfg  -g
HP Lights-Out Online Configuration utility
Version 3.2-4 (c) Hewlett-Packard Company, 2011
Firmware Revision = 1.26 Device type = iLO 3 Driver name = hpilo
Host Information:
                        Server Name: esxi01.hp.local
                        Server Number:
/opt/hp/tools #

I’ll let you to investigate the rest of the options carefully.

Juanma.

Introducing HP iLO app for iOS

Quietly released by HP less than a week ago, the HP iLO Mobile Application for iOS allows you to control your ProLiant server through their iLO console from your iOS device. It is compatible with iPhone 4/4S and iPad 1/2 and can be found on Apple AppStore.

The application is much more than a simple remote console to access the operating system running on the server. You can operate the power controls of the server, mount ISO images, access and interact with the iLO web interface and even launch iLO scripts from your mobile device.

Of course you can also store a list of the servers to manage and save the login the credentials for each of them.

The product page can be accessed here on the HP site. There is also a user guide with useful info and tips.

Following are a couple of screenshot from the app running on my iPad and another one taken from HP with the output generated by an iLO3 script.

Main screen

Configure iLO screen

iLO script output

Juanma.

HP Technology@Work On Tour 2011 – Madrid

The HP Technology@Work On Tour arrived yesterday to Madrid. This event has been a great opportunity for everyone to see the proposals from HP for Converged Infrastructure, Network Security and Datacenter Transformation.

The event is not as big as the HP Tech@Work from other years or the HP Discover that will be held in Las Vegas next June, instead HP in EMEA decided to bring a small show to several European cities like Paris, Madrid or Amsterdam and show there our stuff in all its greatness :-)

I didn’t planned in the beginning to go to HPTAW2011, I really had a lot of work to do this week, but suddenly I found on Monday that Hans Vredevoort (@hvredevoort) was coming to Madrid invited as Press and I really wanted to meet him. Hans is a great guy and I like to chat with him on Twitter, he’s also an MVP and the owner of Hyper-V.nu, one the top blogs about Microsoft Hyper-V.

We had the chance to share a couple of beers and have a fantastic conversation about the state of the industry, virtualization, blade servers, storage, HP 3PAR and HP products in general. We also made a small tour through the booth to see the demos and speak with some of my colleagues from HP  and from sponsors like Brocade, Microsoft and VMware. I want to make a special mention about my colleague Simon Leech from HP Networking who was very kind and talked with us about HP Tipping Point security products

Finally I had the opportunity to take a couple of pictures of the booth and the almighty Superdome2 :-D

I don’t want to finish my post without mentioning th people from the registering area, I wasn’t registered to the event but since I was an HP employee they were so kind to provide me with the proper accreditation that allowed to enter the booth.

Juanma.

HP ProLiant servers management with hpasmcli

Hpasmcli, HP Management Command Line Interface, is a scriptable command line tool to manage and monitor the HP ProLiant servers through the hpasmd and hpasmxld daemons. It is part of the hp-health package that comes with the HP Proliant Support Pack, or PSP.

[root@rhel4 ~]# rpm -qa | grep hp-health
hp-health-8.1.1-14.rhel4
[root@rhel4 ~]#
[root@rhel4 ~]# rpm -qi hp-health-8.1.1-14.rhel4
Name        : hp-health                    Relocations: (not relocatable)
Version     : 8.1.1                             Vendor: Hewlett-Packard Company
Release     : 14.rhel4                      Build Date: Fri 04 Jul 2008 07:04:51 PM CEST
Install Date: Thu 02 Apr 2009 05:10:48 PM CEST      Build Host: rhel4ebuild.M73C253-lab.net
Group       : System Environment            Source RPM: hp-health-8.1.1-14.rhel4.src.rpm
Size        : 1147219                          License: 2008 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
Signature   : (none)
Packager    : Hewlett-Packard Company
URL         : http://www.hp.com/go/proliantlinux
Summary     : hp System Health Application and Command line Utility Package
Description :
This package contains the System Health Monitor for all hp Proliant systems
with ASM, ILO, & ILO2 embedded management asics.  Also contained are the
command line utilities.
[root@rhel4 ~]#
[root@rhel4 ~]# rpm -ql hp-health-8.1.1-14.rhel4
/etc/init.d/hp-health
/opt/hp/hp-health
/opt/hp/hp-health/bin
/opt/hp/hp-health/bin/IrqRouteTbl
/opt/hp/hp-health/bin/hpasmd
/opt/hp/hp-health/bin/hpasmlited
/opt/hp/hp-health/bin/hpasmpld
/opt/hp/hp-health/bin/hpasmxld
/opt/hp/hp-health/hprpm.xpm
/opt/hp/hp-health/sh
/opt/hp/hp-health/sh/hpasmxld_reset.sh
/sbin/hpasmcli
/sbin/hpbootcfg
/sbin/hplog
/sbin/hpuid
/usr/lib/libhpasmintrfc.so
/usr/lib/libhpasmintrfc.so.2
/usr/lib/libhpasmintrfc.so.2.0
/usr/lib/libhpev.so
/usr/lib/libhpev.so.1
/usr/lib/libhpev.so.1.0
/usr/lib64/libhpasmintrfc64.so
/usr/lib64/libhpasmintrfc64.so.2
/usr/lib64/libhpasmintrfc64.so.2.0
/usr/share/man/man4/hp-health.4.gz
/usr/share/man/man4/hpasmcli.4.gz
/usr/share/man/man7/hp_mgmt_install.7.gz
/usr/share/man/man8/hpbootcfg.8.gz
/usr/share/man/man8/hplog.8.gz
/usr/share/man/man8/hpuid.8.gz
[root@rhel4 ~]#

This handy tool can be used to view and modify several BIOS settings of the server and to monitor the status of the different hardware components like fans, memory modules, temperature, power supplies, etc.

It can be used in two ways:

• Interactive shell
• Within a script

The interactive shell supports TAB command completion and command recovery through a history buffer.

[root@rhel4 ~]# hpasmcli
HP management CLI for Linux (v1.0)
Copyright 2004 Hewlett-Packard Development Group, L.P.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
NOTE: Some hpasmcli commands may not be supported on all Proliant servers.
      Type 'help' to get a list of all top level commands.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
hpasmcli> help
CLEAR  DISABLE  ENABLE  EXIT  HELP  NOTE  QUIT  REPAIR  SET  SHOW
hpasmcli>

As it can be seen in the above example several main tasks can be done, to get the usage of every command simply use HELP followed by the command.

hpasmcli> help show
USAGE: SHOW [ ASR | BOOT | DIMM | F1 | FANS | HT | IML | IPL | NAME | PORTMAP | POWERSUPPLY | PXE | SERIAL | SERVER | TEMP | UID | WOL ]
hpasmcli>
hpasmcli> HELP SHOW BOOT
USAGE: SHOW BOOT: Shows boot devices.
hpasmcli>

In my experience SHOW is the most used command above the others. Following are examples for some of the tasks.

- Display general information of the server

hpasmcli> SHOW SERVER
System        : ProLiant DL380 G5
Serial No.    : XXXXXXXXX     
ROM version   : P56 11/01/2008
iLo present   : Yes
Embedded NICs : 2
        NIC1 MAC: 00:1c:c4:62:42:a0
        NIC2 MAC: 00:1c:c4:62:42:9e

Processor: 0
        Name         : Intel Xeon
        Stepping     : 11
        Speed        : 2666 MHz
        Bus          : 1333 MHz
        Core         : 4
        Thread       : 4
        Socket       : 1
        Level2 Cache : 8192 KBytes
        Status       : Ok

Processor: 1
        Name         : Intel Xeon
        Stepping     : 11
        Speed        : 2666 MHz
        Bus          : 1333 MHz
        Core         : 4
        Thread       : 4
        Socket       : 2
        Level2 Cache : 8192 KBytes
        Status       : Ok

Processor total  : 2

Memory installed : 16384 MBytes
ECC supported    : Yes
hpasmcli>

- Show current temperatures

hpasmcli> SHOW TEMP
Sensor   Location              Temp       Threshold
------   --------              ----       ---------
#1        I/O_ZONE             49C/120F   70C/158F
#2        AMBIENT              23C/73F    39C/102F
#3        CPU#1                30C/86F    127C/260F
#4        CPU#1                30C/86F    127C/260F
#5        POWER_SUPPLY_BAY     52C/125F   77C/170F
#6        CPU#2                30C/86F    127C/260F
#7        CPU#2                30C/86F    127C/260F

hpasmcli>

- Get the status of the server fans

hpasmcli> SHOW FAN
Fan  Location        Present Speed  of max  Redundant  Partner  Hot-pluggable
---  --------        ------- -----  ------  ---------  -------  -------------
#1   I/O_ZONE        Yes     NORMAL 45%     Yes        0        Yes          
#2   I/O_ZONE        Yes     NORMAL 45%     Yes        0        Yes          
#3   PROCESSOR_ZONE  Yes     NORMAL 41%     Yes        0        Yes          
#4   PROCESSOR_ZONE  Yes     NORMAL 36%     Yes        0        Yes          
#5   PROCESSOR_ZONE  Yes     NORMAL 36%     Yes        0        Yes          
#6   PROCESSOR_ZONE  Yes     NORMAL 36%     Yes        0        Yes           

hpasmcli>

- Show device boot order configuration

hpasmcli> SHOW BOOT
First boot device is: CDROM.
One time boot device is: Not set.
hpasmcli>

- Set USB key as first boot device

hpasmcli> SET BOOT FIRST USBKEY

- Show memory modules status

hpasmcli> SHOW DIMM
DIMM Configuration
------------------
Cartridge #:   0
Module #:      1
Present:       Yes
Form Factor:   fh
Memory Type:   14h
Size:          4096 MB
Speed:         667 MHz
Status:        Ok

Cartridge #:   0
Module #:      2
Present:       Yes
Form Factor:   fh
Memory Type:   14h
Size:          4096 MB
Speed:         667 MHz
Status:        Ok

Cartridge #:   0
Module #:      3
Present:       Yes
Form Factor:   fh
Memory Type:   14h
Size:          4096 MB
Speed:         667 MHz
Status:        Ok
...

In the scripting mode hpasmcli can be used directly from the shell prompt with the -s option and the command between quotation marks, this of course allow you to process the output of the commands  like in the below exampl.

[root@rhel4 ~]# hpasmcli -s "show dimm" | egrep "Module|Status"
Module #:      1
Status:        Ok
Module #:      2
Status:        Ok
Module #:      3
Status:        Ok
Module #:      4
Status:        Ok
Module #:      5
Status:        Ok
Module #:      6
Status:        Ok
Module #:      7
Status:        Ok
Module #:      8
Status:        Ok
[root@rhel4 ~]#

To execute more than one command sequentially separate them with a semicolon.

[root@rhel4 ~]# hpasmcli -s "show fan; show temp"

Fan  Location        Present Speed  of max  Redundant  Partner  Hot-pluggable
---  --------        ------- -----  ------  ---------  -------  -------------
#1   I/O_ZONE        Yes     NORMAL 45%     Yes        0        Yes          
#2   I/O_ZONE        Yes     NORMAL 45%     Yes        0        Yes          
#3   PROCESSOR_ZONE  Yes     NORMAL 41%     Yes        0        Yes          
#4   PROCESSOR_ZONE  Yes     NORMAL 36%     Yes        0        Yes          
#5   PROCESSOR_ZONE  Yes     NORMAL 36%     Yes        0        Yes          
#6   PROCESSOR_ZONE  Yes     NORMAL 36%     Yes        0        Yes           

Sensor   Location              Temp       Threshold
------   --------              ----       ---------
#1        I/O_ZONE             47C/116F   70C/158F
#2        AMBIENT              21C/69F    39C/102F
#3        CPU#1                30C/86F    127C/260F
#4        CPU#1                30C/86F    127C/260F
#5        POWER_SUPPLY_BAY     50C/122F   77C/170F
#6        CPU#2                30C/86F    127C/260F
#7        CPU#2                30C/86F    127C/260F

[root@rhel4 ~]#

If you want to play more with hpasmcli go to its man page and to the ProLiant Support Pack documentation.

Juanma.

HP resources for VMware

The reason for this post is trying to be a single point of reference for HP related VMware resources.

I created the list for my personal use while ago but in the hope that it can be useful for someone else I decided to review and share it. I will try to keep the list up to date and also add it as a permanent page in the menu above.

General resources

• HP virtualization with VMware – This is the main page about VMware in the HP site. It has dozens of links to White Papers, webinars, podcasts and other HP sites about VMware.
• HP and VMware Virtualization Alliance – The HP-VMware Alliance page in the VMware site. It has several areas that outline the different HP-VMware joint solutions.
• VMware Enterprise Library at HP – Case studies, White Papers and Datasheets.
• HP Insight Control for VMware vCenter Server

VMware on ProLiant

• ProLiant server VMware support matrix – This page is the Rosetta Stone for every VMware installation on HP hardware. It has every HP Proliant Blade/Server cross-referenced in a table with every ESX/ESXi version from the 2.1 to the 4.1. The vSphere tab has also a column about VMware FT support.
• VMware demos in HP hardware – This site has a few interesting videos demoing VMware products in HP hardware.
• ESX4 images for the G7 ProLiant Blades.
• HP sizing tool for Vmware vSphere
• HP Management Agents for ESX 4.x
• HP Virtual Connect Flex-10 and VMware vSphere 4.0
• Cisco Nexus 1000V on HP BladeSystem

HP StorageWorks

• VMware Storage Solutions from HP – Includes the ESX/ESXi 3.x and 4.x support matrices for HP Storageworks systems.
• Running VMware vSphere 4 on HP LeftHand P4000 SAN Solutions – Excellent White Paper, a must for every VMware-Lefthand infrastructure.
• HP EVA and vSphere 4 best practices
• HP XP24000 and vSphere 4 best practices
• VMware vCenter Plug-in for HP StorageWorks Arrays – Great video by Calvin Zito (@HPStorareGuy)
• HP P4000 VAAI demo – Video of the demo showed at VMworld 2010 San Francisco.
• HP StorageWorks drivers – Including the virtualization adapters for VMware SRM for EVA, XP and P4000 systems
• HP P4000 VSA – Product page of my beloved VSA :-)

VDI

• HP Client Virtualization – HP main site about VDI, not exclusively about VMware but very intersting.
• HP Virtual Desktop Infrastructure with VMware View – HP VDI solution with VMware View main site.
• HP Reference Architecture for VMware View with HP StorageWorks P4800 BladeSystem SAN

vCloud Director

• HP Cloud Map with BladeSystem Matrix for VMware vCloud Director – A demo showing what can be done by combining the HP Matrix and the awesome vCloud Director.