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HP Systems Insight Manager Technical Reference Guide

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  Discovery and Identification   

Discovery and Identification

»Table of Contents
»Index
»Notices
»Introduction
»Product Overview
»Getting Started
Discovery and Identification
»Configuring Automatic Discovery
»Configuring Discovery General Settings
»Managing Discovery Templates
»Adding a System Manually
»Managing Hosts Files
»Identification
»Manage System Types
»Users and Authorizations
»Networking and Security
»Monitoring Systems, Clusters, and Events
»Storage Integration
»Managing with Tasks
»Tools that Extend Management
»Partner Applications
»Reporting
»Administering Systems and Events
»Troubleshooting
»Reference Information
»Printable version
»Glossary
»Using Help
» Automatic Discovery
» First Discovery
» Subsequent Discoveries
» Manual Discovery
» Related Procedures
» Related Topics

Any type of discovery can only be performed if you have full-configuration-rights.

There are two types of discovery:

  • Automatic discovery. The process that HP Systems Insight Manager (HP SIM) uses to find and identify the systems on your network and populate the database with that information. A system must first be discovered to collect data and track system health status.

  • Manual discovery. The process that enables you to bypass a full automatic discovery and add single or multiple systems to the database, create or import the HP SIM database hosts file, and create or import a generic hosts file.

Automatic Discovery

A system must first be discovered to collect data and track system status. The Automatically discover a system when an event is received from it feature is disabled by default and can be enabled by selecting it in the General Settings section. Automatically discover a system when an event is received from it does not support IPX-based SNMP traps. You must enable the default System Automatic Discovery process for discovery to run. Go to OptionsDiscovery, select the default task and click [Enable]. It is suggested to edit this task as well to ensure the IP range is correct.

To access the General Settings section, select OptionsDiscovery, select the Automatic tab, and then click Configure general settings, click Automatic in the Do this now to finish the installation section of the introductory page, or click discovery in the Manage section of the Home page.

HP SIM performs automatic discovery using the Internet Protocol (IP) and Internetwork Packet Exchange (IPX) (Windows only) protocols.

You must enable the default System Automatic Discovery task for discovery to run. Select OptionsDiscovery, and select System Automatic Discovery task. Click [Enable], to enable this task. HP suggests that you edit the task and verify that the IP range is correct.

IP Protocol

HP SIM discovers systems running the IP protocol when it pings systems in a listed range of addresses. It defaults to the local subnet, a range that corresponds to the IP addresses assigned to the system where HP SIM is running. You can change the address list to indicate other systems or segments of the network you want HP SIM to discover.

Web agents are not discovered unless HTTP is enabled on the Global Protocol Settings page in the HTTP settings (default) section. To enable HTTP, refer to Protocols - Setting Global Protocols for information. To ensure that clusters are discovered in auto-discovery, IP range pinging must be selected in the Configuration section and the cluster IP address and all node addresses must be listed in the Ping inclusion ranges, templates and/or hosts files section. To access the Configuration section, select the Automatic tab and click [New] for a new discovery task or click [Edit] to edit an existing discovery task.

HP SIM uses a globally unique system identifier to help identify HP systems with multiple IP addresses.

IPX Protocol

HP SIM discovers systems running the IPX protocol by listening for Service Advertising Protocol (SAP) broadcasts generated by IPX systems. Novell NetWare 3.x servers automatically make SAP broadcasts. Novell NetWare 4.x or later servers can be configured to make SAP broadcasts.

IPX is only supported on a Windows-based central management server (CMS) system and only discovers NetWare servers.

The following conditions are unique with the IPX protocol:

  • IPX discovery only discovers one Network Interface Card (NIC) per machine.

  • IPX systems only discover NetWare servers.

Event Based Auto-Discovery

Event based auto-discovery is disabled by default. You can enable this feature by selecting Automatically discover a system when an event is received from it. If selected, event based auto-discovery adds any systems that send SNMP traps, WBEM indications, or other events to HP SIM that do not have a matching IP address in the database. The Ping exclusion ranges, templates, and/or hosts files option allows the entry of any IP addresses that you want excluded from event based auto-discovery. If SNMP is disabled on the Global Protocols Settings page under OptionsProtocol SettingsGlobal Protocol Settings, then SNMP traps are ignored. If WBEM is disabled, then WBEM indications are also ignored.

SNMP Authentication Failure traps do not trigger an automatic discovery. However, any other trap will do so.

Auto-discovery is disenabled by default, but you can enable discovery from the Discovery page by selecting the Automatic tab, and then selecting the System Automatic Discovery task in the table and clicking [Enable]. Alternatively, you can click [Edit]. In the Schedule section, select Automatically execute discovery every: and set the discovery time. If you disable automatic discovery, no new automatic discovery is performed until you enable it by visiting the Discovery page and making your selections. You can also perform a manual discovery any time that you choose. Refer to Discovery and Identification - Configuring Automatic Discovery for more information on scheduling automatic discovery.

Discovery Templates

Discovery templates are files that can be used by automatic discovery in lieu of typing the addresses directly in to the Ping inclusion ranges, templates and/or hosts files or Ping exclusion ranges, templates and/or hosts files fields. They are designed to be used as a quick way to change the scope of automatic discovery. To access the discovery template section, select the Automatic tab from the Discovery page and then click Manage templates.

For example, you can configure a discovery template with a broad range of addresses that are discovered infrequently when you want to issue a broad range ping. When needed, the template can be used as input in the Ping inclusion ranges, templates and/or hosts files field of the Edit Discovery section. To access this section, select OptionsDiscovery, select the Automatic tab and then click [Edit]. The templates also enable you to quickly change the scope of discovery without having to cut and paste addresses or manually re-enter the ranges.

After creating a discovery template, to reference it in automatic discovery use @template_name in the Ping inclusion ranges, templates and/or hosts files or Exclusion ranges, templates and/or hosts files fields. Refer to Managing Hosts Files - IP Ranges for more information.

Since discovery now supports multiple schedules and configurations (ranges), the need for templates is significantly reduced. It is suggested to leverage several different discovery schedules and configurations instead of utilizing discovery templates.

A single discovery template cannot include both included and excluded ranges. You must create a separate template for use in each field of automatic discovery. Template files cannot be nested, that is, a template file cannot contain another template file name through the @template_name reference.

The format of a discovery template is the same as that used in the Ping inclusion ranges, templates and/or hosts files and Ping exclusion ranges, templates and/or hosts files fields when configuring automatic discovery.

Access discovery templates, by clicking Manage templates under the For all automatic discoveries section on the Discovery page. Refer to Discovery and Identification - Managing Discovery Templates for information on creating a discovery template file.

Hosts Files

Use an existing hosts file, a file created from the HP SIM database, or an HP SIM exported hosts file as the basis for adding systems. Typically, the file is a listing of the names of systems, their IP addresses, and any alias names that are used on the system.

Importing the hosts file bypasses the need for an immediate discovery. For example, in the case of a catastrophic system failure, you could import a backup hosts file as the basis for reconfiguring your management environment and automatically repopulating the database. Adding the systems using the hosts file utility does not replace systems in the database. For example, if a system listed in the hosts file has the same IP address as an existing system, the duplicate is ignored. Any systems that previously existed in the database are not modified.

You can import hosts files from the following sources:

  • The HP SIM database, which imports the system data, creates a hosts file, and sorts the data types according to your selection

  • Another system that has an existing hosts file

Select the Hosts Files tab on the Discovery page to create and manage hosts files.

First Discovery

You can start a discovery in several ways:

  • Execute discovery immediately from the DiscoveryAutomatic page, select the discovery task, click [Edit] to configure the discovery task for your environment, and then click [Run Now]. The discovery process starts immediately. The discovery progress is updated as the systems are discovered, until the discovery process is complete.

  • Allow sufficient time for a complete discovery and identification to finish. Times vary, depending on your network, bandwidth, and discovery settings. In most cases, the discovery process finds all systems by pinging the network.

Subsequent Discoveries

You can run discovery at any time from the DiscoveryAutomatic page. For subsequent discoveries, you can specify which subnets or systems to interrogate, which protocols to use, and which schedule to follow. Select IPX as a discovery protocol if your network includes Novell systems.

For the most comprehensive discovery and identification, always select SNMP, DMI, WBEM, and HTTP as the protocols on the OptionsProtocol SettingsGlobal Protocol Settings page. Configure default community strings and WBEM passwords on the Global Protocol Settings page. Refer to Protocols - Global Protocols for additional information.

Status indicators indicate when discovery is running, and the column, Last Run, displays running, the percent complete, and the number of pings attempted and systems processed are displayed. A processed system is one whose IP address has been identified or found to be unresponsive. A processed system is not necessarily added to the database.

Manual Discovery

Manual discovery enables you to bypass a full discovery. With manual discovery, you can:

  • Add a single system to the HP SIM database

  • Add multiple systems through hosts files

  • Create and import an HP SIM hosts file

  • Import a hosts file that was created or exported from Insight Manager (WIN32) (the hosts file automates the process of adding systems or restoring system information)

  • Create or import a generic hosts file to automate the process of adding systems or restoring system information

  • Set up systems before they are physically on the network

    The system is added to the database with the IP address as the system name. After the system is up on the network and identification runs, the system name is updated with the system name instead of IP address.

You can access the manual discovery page by:

  • Clicking OptionsDiscovery and selecting the Manual tab

  • Clicking Manual in the Do this now to finish the install section of the introductory page

  • Clicking discovery in the Manage section of the Home page

Options for Adding a Single System

  • Know the IP address or hostname of the system. If you know at least one of these, HP SIM can find the other by validating the information with the Domain Name Service (DNS) for the network.

  • To add a cluster and its nodes, enter each IP address separately.

  • Decide if you want to set the system type, subtypes, or WBEM credentials as well as the product model.

  • Specify the WBEM Settings for the system on the System Protocol Settings page. You can override the default user name and passwords by selecting the use custom settings and entering appropriate user names and passwords.

  • Specify the SNMP settings for this system to be unique or match the global discovery settings. The current system default settings are displayed. If you override the default and specify a different value, that community string must be supported on the system. If it is not, and one of the defaults is supported, then HP SIM reverts back to the default value. You can modify the following settings:

timeoutThe amount of time HP SIM waits for an SNMP response when it sends a request to the system. The default timeout value appears. If a response is not received within the time interval, HP SIM might determine that the system does not support SNMP. Decreasing this value can result in increased network traffic because the number of attempts is accelerated. Use caution when changing this value. A value of three seconds usually works for a LAN. However, If systems are connected through a WAN, try a higher value, for example, ten seconds.
retriesThe number of additional times after the first attempt is made to communicate with a system before attempts stop.
community stringsA community string sets up authentication that enables or prohibits communication between the system and the console. The community string of the console must match the community string of the system. Use the read-only community string to read variables. Use the write community string to modify variables. Although only one community is valid for a communication attempt, a system can belong to multiple communities. However, HP SIM only uses one community string when communicating to a system.

If an IP address is used, it must be properly resolved to a name for the name to be displayed in the GUI.

Refer to Discovery and Identification - Adding a System Manually for the steps to add a single system to the database.

Related Procedures

» Discovery and Identification - Configuring Automatic Discovery
» Discovery and Identification - Configuring Discovery General Settings
» Configuring Automatic Discovery - Creating a New Discovery Task
» Configuring Automatic Discovery - Editing a Discovery Task
» Configuring Automatic Discovery - Disabling or Enabling a Discovery Task
» Configuring Automatic Discovery - Deleting a Discovery Task
» Configuring Automatic Discovery - Running a Discovery Task
» Managing Discovery Templates - Creating a New Discovery Template File
» Managing Discovery Templates - Editing a Discovery Template
» Managing Discovery Templates - Deleting a Discovery Template
» Discovery and Identification - Adding a System Manually
» Managing Hosts Files - Creating a New Hosts File
» Managing Hosts Files - Editing a Hosts File
» Managing Hosts Files - Deleting a Hosts File
» Managing Hosts Files - Adding Systems in a Hosts File to the Database

Related Topics

» Discovery and Identification - Managing Hosts Files
» Discovery and Identification - Managing Discovery Templates
» Discovery and Identification - Identification
» Configuring Discovery General Settings - Discovery Filters
» Administering Systems and Events - Data Collection
» Administering Systems and Events - Status Polling
» Administering Systems and Events - Protocols
» HP Systems Insight Manager Technical Reference Guide - Discovery and Identification