When i tried to update/deploy an image from HP Device Manager 4.4 to a Compaq 6720T it constantly failed with the following error:

Fail to execute PushImage task
ErrorCode: 242, Error Detail: Failed to seek image file to end
Fail to execute common task
ErrorCode: 242, Error Detail: Failed to seek image file to end

After some troubleshooting i came to the conclusion that the HPDM agent is not up to date on the client. Make sure that your Agent and your HPDM are the same version, otherwise you can not image from HPDM. 
In HPDM there is the Agent tab, drag and drop the Update Agent template on the unit.  Once that is complete you should be able to image your system.

I wanted to know if a certain server had a Battery Backed Write Cache module (BBWC) on it’s array controller.

I suspected it did not, but I had to be sure. Since this server was running production I couldn’t open (Visual Inspection) or reboot it.

The server didn’t have Insight Agents installed so I couldn’t query it via iLO or the Insight Agents webpage either.

I knew that when you do a full install of the array controller bundled software it comes with a commandline tool, hpacucli.exe.

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Nagios is a powerful monitoring system that enables organizations to identify and resolve IT infrastructure problems before they affect critical business processes.

After experiencing problems with a HP Proliant DL380G6 that unexpectedly restarts, caused by a Automated Server Recovery (ASR), monitoring the status of the Citrix XenServers running on HP Proliant Servers is required in Nagios.

Nagios is a flexible solution that can be expanded with plugins. Plugins can be found at Nagios Exchange, this is where I found the check check_hpasm plugin (direct link). Unfortunately this plugin does not check the ASR status.

In this article I will describe how I’ve configured Groundwork (using Nagios) to monitor the health of HP Proliant Servers and expanded the check_hpasm plugin to check for ASR health.

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For the project where i worked on lately i documented the BIOS settings i have made with the reason why. These are the BIOS settings i use for a HP BL 460c G6 blade where vSphere ESXi 4.1 will be installed on. The bold words in the left column are the options to  be adjust. the location is written above in the same column but may vary between BIOS version.

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I was deploying virtualized Citrix XenApp Servers on HP BL460c G6 servers and somehow the storage (direct attached) responded very slowly.

I had expected reduced performance (see my earlier post) since I didn’t have the  Battery Backed Write Cache module installed.
I did order them but had to start deployment before they arrived.

I did not however expect such an extreme bad performance. Deployment took ages or sometimes failed completely and when logging in to a VM it responded very sluggish.

Disk Latency

I looked in the vSphere console what the Disk Latency was. Latency under 10ms is usually considered good while a latency between 10 and 20ms is a potential performance problem.

I was shocked to notice that the Disk Latency was much higher with peaks toward 2.000 ms (2 seconds!):

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I ran into an error when I was upgrading hardware on an HP BL460c G6 Blade.

After placing 2 new (larger) hard drives the Array Configuration would hang after saving the configuration (It just kept blinking “Saving Configuration…” forever.

After a reset the Smart Array Controller (P410i) halted a very long time on Initializing and eventually failed.

I retried the whole procedure with the same result but this time the controller reported: “previous lockup code 0xAB”.

My next step would be a firmware update and this kb article from HP confirms that it was indeed a firmware issue: HP Serial Smart Array Controllers P410/411/212/712m/410i – May Hang with Lockup Error Code 0XAB Configured in Zero Memory Mode.

This kb article also tells me why I didn’t have this error on another blade: that one had the Battery Backed Write Cache module.

Today we got to the second stage of upgrading the customer VMware environment. The first stage was the test and Development cluster. This cluster consists 6 HP DL 380 G5 rack mounted servers and with the install script we have made it was a peace of cake! In stage 2 we upgrade (by reinstallation) a part of the production environment when we did the scripted installation all looked well installation process in running writing his image reboot and then the blade server booted the old ESX 4.0 installation instead of the new ESXi 4.1 installation. What the [beeeeep]  is going on? it should be getting in the second part of the installation script where it will set vSwitches settings e.g.. The problem was in the part of the script where the script choose the first discovered disk to install onto we had used this command:

autopart –firstdisk –overwritevmfs

But with a HP Proliant blade (BL 460c G6) this will not work unless you uses the command like this :

autopart –firstdisk=hpsa,cciss,local –overwritevmfs

the hpsa is for SA P410i BL460C G6 the cciss is for SA E200i BL460C G1 and local is for the OTA servers.

!!!!! Warning !!!!!

When using this option un-present all LUN of the responding Host before installation or else you will end up with an new installation of ESXI on your First available LUN

I am working with Ingmar Verheij on a SCOM management pack for HP EVA.

This management pack will query real-time data using SMIS-S and it requires the Python scripting language and the PyWBEM library.

In this post I will describe how to install Python and PyWBEM.

First we need to install Python, I took the version 2.6.6 (32 bit version). You can download it from this link.

Note: There are quite some language changes in Python 3.x so if you don’t want to adapt the PyWBEM code choose a 2.x version!

The Python installation is pretty simple, I accepted the default settings:

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In my last blog i told that i  had some issues with lost of LUN after the installation of the HP agent within a ESX 4.0 update 1 host. As i expected in my blog about  lost iSCSI LUN during hp agent installation the cause is the storage agent that is installed with the installation of the HP agent. The storage agent policy is default set to yes but in my case it must be set to no. There is a KB form VMware and HP where it says don’t use (disable) the  agent. How to and the exceptions can be found in VMware KB1004771  or the HP support document with Document ID c01519875.

I was installing a HP agent (hpmgmt-8.3.1) and following a instruction i had used successfully before and during the installation  i made the snmpd.conf  so everything works as planed (that was wishful thinking) with enough empty chairs around me somebody cam and visit me yeb it was good old Murphy! I finish the installation tested the https://<hostname>:2381 site and it worked. But i am raised with Microsoft so i did a reboot. I did not watched the boot screen. I logged on to the Host using the virtual infrastructure client and went to the only datastore i had configured. En that’s when i noticed it  and i got sad! The datastore was empty when opening. So with some hope i click on the / and it went looking dot by dot by dot. You get the picture and finally a strange error.

First i looked at the other host that has this LUN published  but the same here. The virtual machines could not be management any more. So i went to the configuration tab en then to the storage adapter section and selected the iSCSI Software adapter. In the detail screen below the view i saw the LUN as it should be but ( there is always a but) i had a miss match with the size of the LUN i touch it should be around 600 GB but the ESX host said it was 0 GB He that is not nice! Where are my bits and bytes my virtual Machines? Fortunately this is not a production environment and is still under construction.

When i went in to the vmkernel log i found the following rules:

Jan 28 22:09:43 esx102 vobd: Jan 28 22:09:43.570: 3585102404us: [vprob.storage.connectivity.lost] Lost connectivity to storage device blablablabla. Path vmhba33:C0:T0:L6 is down. Affected datastores: "Store1_lab".
Jan 28 22:26:01 esx102 hpasmlited[2858]: Process has been instructed to stop from the user interface. Starting Shutdown process. . .
Jan 28 22:26:06 esx102 snmpd[2572]: Received TERM or STOP signal…  shutting down…
Jan 28 22:29:34 esx102 vobd: Jan 28 22:29:34.040: 4775572238us: [vprob.storage.connectivity.lost] Lost connectivity to storage device t10.9454450000000000000000003000000020A10000F0000000. Path vmhba33:C0:T0:L6 is down. Affected datastores: "StoreBlabla".

Oka my thoughts something went wrong with the installation of the HP agent . but why must it ****** my datastore?  First i uninstalled the HP agent. How to do this is explained in the ./hpmgmt/831/README.txt of the unwrapped files of the HP agent in the installation directory.  next i rebooted the system. I still could not access my LUN and it still said it was 0GB.  when looking in the message log i found that i had a reservation conflicts on the SCSI bus. So i had an SCSI reservation issue that is locking the LUN. Because only two host have this LUN published and the environment is still under construction i reboot the other host to but no such luck.

when i googled reservation conflicted ESX and iSCSI the first hit was very useful he had a similar problem by a different cause. The key for unlocking is: Open the console and type:

vmkfstools -L lunreset /vmfs/devices/disks/<name of LUN>

The name of the LUN can be found in the View section of the iSCSI Software adapter. I sill don’t known for sure what the cause of my problem is. I think it has something to do with the storage agent start-up policy section in the installation of the HP agent. For now no agents on my HP DL 380 G5 host.