Hardware Sentry KM for PATROL 10.0.01
Hardware Sentry KM for PATROL 10.0.01 fixes some issues in version 10.0.00. Therefore, Hardware Sentry KM for PATROL 10.0.00 is no longer available for download and is replaced with version 10.0.01. Note that all new features, improvements and fixed issues released with Hardware Sentry KM for PATROL 10.0.00 are now included in version 10.0.01.
Fixed Issues
| • | Temporary files are not deleted on remotely monitored systems through SSH. |
| • | Timeout error when monitoring remote IBM AIX systems through SSH. |
| • | The ProtocolStatus-Command parameter triggers a false alarm for certain remote hosts. |
| • | Password may appear in plain text when a command times out or fails. |
| • | Connectors for Storage systems no longer work when leveraging a locally installed instrumentation layer. |
Hardware Sentry KM for PATROL 10.0.00
Important Information
The BMC patch 11.0.00.01: Patch 1 for BMC PATROL Agent 11.0.00 must be installed to use any version of Hardware Sentry. Version 11.0.00i of the PATROL Agent on Windows prevents Hardware Sentry from operating properly. While apparently successfully loaded, Hardware Sentry fails to start and can neither monitor the local system or the remote systems. An error message is displayed stating that no hardware connectors are loaded and that the product needs to be re-installed.
Some connection protocols leveraged by Hardware Sentry now require Java v1.8.00 or higher to operate properly. Ensure that the required Java Runtime Environment (JRE) version is installed on the same system that runs the PATROL Agent. A package for a suitable Java Runtime Environment is available for download on the Sentry Software Web site.
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What's New
Functionality
| • | Hardware Sentry now supports the monitoring of a Windows server from another Windows server through command lines execution. |
| • | Hardware Sentry now supports the monitoring of systems and devices through the HTTP protocol. |
| • | A new parameter, LEDIndicator, is added to the MS_HW_LED application class to report on the state of the LED, typically On, Off or Blinking. The value of the Status parameter (MS_HW_LED) now depends on the LEDIndicator state instead of the former Color parameter which has been removed. |
| • | The MS_HW_CAPACITYREPORT application class has been removed and replaced with the MS_HW_REPORT application class that provides additional information about a system and the KM at a given time to help solve hardware discovery issues. |
| • | Remote host monitoring: Hardware Sentry now offers the possibility to add remote hosts to your monitoring environment individually or in a batch when the hosts share the same configuration settings (OS, protocol, credentials, etc.). The Internal ID, which is used to identify a group of hosts, allows you to identify quickly the hosts that are part of a group in the PATROL console. |
| • | A new configuration variable (snmpRetryIntervals) has been added to Hardware Sentry to specify the interval (in milliseconds) at which the SNMP client must retry its requests until a response is received or the timeout is reached. |
| • | Brocade SAN Switch (Brocade MS_HW_BrocadeSwitch.hdf): Hardware Sentry does not report values above 100 % collected by the MS_HW_NETWORK/ErrorPercent parameter. The highest value for this parameter is set to 100 % to avoid unnecessary alerts. For information, the actual number of errors is provided in a System Output Window message (SOW). |
| • | Hardware Sentry now allows you to provide a single FQDN to associate the system to a device in TrueSight or to provide a comma-separated list of FQDNs when you choose to configure remote monitoring for multiple hosts. FQDNs are composed of the device hostname and domain name and therefore constitutes a more secure way to locate and identify a device, particularly in cases where hostnames or IP addresses cannot be resolved. |
| • | Alert Actions: Hardware Sentry now triggers specific events by default (rather than Standard 41) to allow events to be forwarded with custom content. |
Changes and Improvements
Functionality
| • | Hardware Sentry can now be configured to automatically delete previously-discovered devices whose ID numbers have changed after a reboot operation. This setting prevents false 'missing device' alerts to be triggered. Note that devices that went missing during the start up (reboot) operation will not be reported as missing. |
| • | Remote monitoring through Telnet is no longer supported. Hardware Sentry now automatically uses the SSH protocol for monitoring remote hosts that were formerly monitored through Telnet (the /SENTRY/HARDWARE/<host ID>/osCommandProtocol configuration variable is no longer available). Also, remote monitoring through the SSH protocol has been greatly optimized to improve resource management. Verify that the SSH protocol is available on systems that previously used telnet. |
| • | A new configuration variable (enabledProtocols) has been implemented to list the protocols that are enabled to establish connections with the monitored devices. Users now need to select the protocols they wish Hardware Sentry to use to communicate with the monitored devices. |
| • | Hardware Sentry now fully supports Java 9. |
| • | Hardware Sentry allows connection and authentication against a remote system with SSH and keyboard-interactive authentication (no actual interaction with the user is required while connecting to the system). |
| • | Unknown Status Management: By default, Hardware Sentry now triggers an Internal KM Issue Notification that displays an error message in the System Output Window of the PATROL console when an unknown status is collected. You need to manually deselect this option if you want to disable the notification. Also, the default values of the unexpectedStatusInternalIssueNotification configuration variable are now (0;1): Status is OK and an Internal KM Issue notification is triggered. |
| • | Hardware Sentry KM management: Hardware Sentry now uses the CMA mode only if an applicable policy is enabled in CMA. Also, users can manage other loaded KMs running on a PATROL Agent from CMA and still configure Hardware Sentry from the Classic Console. |
Fixed Issues
Functionality
| • | When deleting a host through the "Remove this System" KM Command, Hardware Sentry attempted to remove all thresholds associated with the selected host. In some circumstances, the query identifying the thresholds to be removed returned an unexpected result and the entire PATROL Agent configuration was deleted. |
| • | Java processes would sometimes keep on running after a restart of the PATROL Agent preventing proper Hardware Sentry upgrades. |
| • | The size of the header buffer used by SSH, SNMP, and WBEM requests has been increased to ensure the proper execution of requests producing large result outputs. |
| • | SNMP v3 Client: SHA authentication is now fully supported as a valid authentication scheme by the Java Collection Hub. |
| • | Event messages generated by Hardware Sentry are no longer limited to 2048 characters to avoid truncated display. |
Monitored Components
| • | Network LinkSpeed values (MS_HW_NETWORK) above 20GB/sec are now properly collected and reported. |
Connectors
Hardware Connectors are *.hdf files that describe how to discover hardware components for specific platforms. Connectors also detect failures and performance deterioration that Hardware Sentry interprets and reports in the PATROL Console.
The Hardware Connector Library lists all the connectors available for Hardware Sentry, provides a description and valuable information about the platforms and operating systems to which they relate, along with installation procedures. Read the Hardware Connector Library 6 Release Notes to learn more about the latest updates, changes and improvements brought to the connectors for Hardware Sentry version 10.0.01.
Supported Platforms
See the Supported Platforms and Requirements documentation for further information.
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