What's New
Coverage
Provides hardware monitoring for the HP BladeSystem racks through the Onboard Administrator. This connector enables monitoring of:
| • | Temperature sensors (MS_HW_TEMPERATURE) |
| • | Power supplies (MS_HW_POWERSUPPLY) |
| • | Other devices (MS_HW_OTHERDEVICE) |
| • | Enclosure model (MS_HW_ENCLOSURE) |
Provides environmental information (temperatures, fans, etc.) and boards status on Sun Fire M4000, M5000, M8000 and M9000 servers. This connector is to be used mainly on Solaris operating system and enables monitoring of:
| • | Voltage sensors (MS_HW_VOLTAGE) |
| • | Power supplies (MS_HW_POWERSUPPLY) |
| • | Other devices (MS_HW_OTHERDEVICE) |
| • | Memory modules (MS_HW_MEMORY) |
| • | Enclosure model (MS_HW_ENCLOSURE) |
Provides hardware monitoring through the VMware ESXi agent, and enables monitoring of:
| • | Power supplies (MS_HW_POWERSUPPLY) |
| • | Memory modules (MS_HW_MEMORY) |
| • | Enclosure model (MS_HW_ENCLOSURE) |
The following monitoring features have been implemented for Sun servers:
| • | Monitoring power consumption on Sun Fire F12K, F15K, E20K and E25K systems |
| • | Monitoring environment and disk information on Sun SPARC T1/T2 using the SUNWexplo package and the ALOM card “inband”. |
The BMC’s WMI patch (2.5.00.033a.zip for Portal 2.5.00 or 2.6.00.004.zip for Portal 2.6.00) is now included in BPM Express for Hardware v2.6.00
Addition Configuration Properties
Addition configuration properties such as setting the timeout values, specifying the WBEM/WMI name spaces, etc. is possible using the rsmcfg.properties file.
Version Compatibility and Migration
Automatic migration to v2.6.00 is possible if you are using v 2.5.00. In such case, upload the new v2.6.00 BMC Performance Manager Express for Hardware PAR file to the Portal, and the migration will be done automatically.
 This new version includes the BMC Portal WMI patch. Follow the instructions provided in the ReadMe file (ins_readme_2.6.00.pdf) for a successful upgrade.
Structural enhancements in BMC Performance Manager Express for Hardware from version 2.6.00 necessitate using BMC Portal v2.5.00. Hence, automatic migration from previous versions (2.2.x or 2.3.x) of BMC Performance Manager Express for Hardware is not feasible.
For v2.6.00 therefore requires un-installation of the previous version (v2.2xx/2.3.xx) and v2.6.00 needs to be freshly uploaded and installed on BMC Portal v2.5.00.
Changes and Improvements
| • | Hardware (Other) application class: WBEM has been added to the input properties and credentials |
| • | HP BladeSystem: c-Class and p-Class: Monitoring of HP BladeSystem enclosures (both c-Class and p-Class). BPM Express for Hardware now discovers and monitors the blade servers in the enclosure as well as the network switches (Ethernet and FC). It also reports the power consumption of the enclosure |
| • | HP MP/GSP Card: BMC Performance Manager Express for Hardware now fully supports a broader range of MP/GSP cards; and power consumption parameter values are now collected when available |
| • | Linux systems equipped with SmartMonTools: BPM Express for Hardware now reports the status of each disk in addition to PredictedFailure and Temperature parameters |
| • | Sun servers: Connecting to the ALOM card over the network is no longer mandatory for monitoring of Sun SPARC T1/T2-based servers (sun4v). BPM Express for Hardware can report hardware information using the Sun Explorer's snapshot "in-band" utility. Root privileges are required |
| • | SSH/Telnet: In v 2.6.00, a single SSH/Telnet session is established for each collect i.e. every 5 minutes and any/all commands are executed using the same session. The session is closed only at the end of the collect |
| • | Protocol availability tests: The protocol availability test will be performed uniquely for those protocols whose authentication credentials are provided. This is done to prevent unnecessary resource utilization |
| • | SNMP Java Library: The latest version of SNMP Client by by Westhawk Ltd is included in this version of BPM Express for Hardware |
Fixed Issues
| • | HP BladeSystem: c-Class and p-Class: Problem in collecting the parameter values for the class Power Supply |
| • | Blade application class: The discovered blade instances were not displayed at all on the Portal if its Status parameter returned the value “UNKNOWN” |
| • | HP-UX systems installed with Integrated Lights-Out Management Card (iLO) management card or, service processor MP or GSP commands: On some HP-UX servers, most hardware components and sensors were properly discovered but no collect was performed for all |
| • | HP-UX: Error in correctly detecting the HP-UX platform type and The CPU usage shoots up when verifying the state of the physical disk |
| • | HP-UX (Physical Disk size): The size of the physical disk on HP-UX machines was not displayed correctly |
| • | IBM AIX: Error in collecting values for all parameters belonging to the network class |
| • | IBM BladeCenter: The value was not collected correctly for the Status parameter for power supply; and the value was not collected correctly for the SpeedPercent parameter for fans |
| • | Management cards (HP iLO, Sun ALOM etc.) using SSH/Telnet connections: Problem in establishing interactive SSH/Telnet sessions |
| • | Sun servers: An issue with the activation of the Temperature, Voltage and Speed parameters on some sun4u systems; an issue when monitoring a Sun SPARC T1/T2-based server (sun4v) through its ALOM card in SSH; and a monitoring problem for Sun Fire M4000, M5000, M8000, M9000 |
| • | Telnet Client: The script files were not properly copied on the remote element |
| • | Grayed out parameters: On the first collect for each element, BPM Express for Hardware creates a temporary file on the RSM. From the second collect onwards it uses this file to retrieve and store data. At the second collect, BPM Express for Hardware was unable to detect this file resulting in no display of data. All parameters were grayed out |
| • | Excess CPU usage: The decryption process of connector files used by BPM Express for Hardware was consuming excess CPU resources |
| • | RSM folder name identification problem: The RSM folder structure name was not always correctly identified |
| • | RSM service stop unexpectedly: A regular expression used in the AWK function of BPM Express for Hardware made the RSM crash |
| • | Duplicate instances: Duplicate instances were created when a detected connector file retuned a 'FAILED" status |
| • | Storage Add-on for BMC Performance Manager Express for Hardware: Problem in automatic detection of the WBEM namespace in SMI-S compliant SAN switches |
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