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Insight Dynamics - VSE for ProLiant Version 4.0 Release Notes > Chapter 1 New Capabilities

New Capabilities by Product Area

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The following sections list all of the new capabilities available in this release, organized by VSE product or functional area.

Virtualization Manager

  • Display of new managed system types, with meters and links to appropriate management tools

    • HP BladeSystem enclosures

    • HP BladeSystem server blades

    • Virtual Connect Domain and Connect Domain Groups

    • Logical servers

    • HP ProLiant servers

    • VMware ESX hosts and virtual machines

    • Microsoft Virtual Server hosts and virtual machines

  • The System tab has been replaced by a new Visualization tab

    • New look and feel improves visualization

    • Technology icons replace textual “view links

    • Display of power usage meters where applicable

    • Multiple perspectives for viewing managed systems, including “Physical and Virtual”, “Virtual Machines”, “Blades”, and “Logical Servers

  • User-configurable preferences for customizing the interface

Logical Server Management

This release includes Logical Server Management, a new capability within Virtualization Manager that is accessed through the Logical Servers perspective in the Visualization tab. (Logical Server Management is sometimes called LSA.)

A logical server is a set of configuration information that you create, activate, and move across physical and virtual machines. It contains the logical server definition and description, including the server compute resources (for example, number of processors and amount of memory), and the server connections to networks and storage fabrics.

When you activate a logical server, you create a virtual machine using hypervisor-based software, or a server profile on a bare-metal server blade using HP Virtual Connect technology. Logical servers can be defined using the Create Logical Server wizard, or created and activated via the import of an existing server blade or virtual machine.

You can manage logical servers using Virtualization Manager only on a Windows CMS, although you can create and perform operations on logical servers on Windows or Linux systems running on HP ProLiant servers.

The following logical server actions are available in this release:

  • Create a VMware ESX virtual machine-based logical server

  • Create a Virtual Connect-based logical server on HP BladeSystem server blades

  • Activate a logical server

  • Deactivate a logical server

  • Copy a logical server

  • Delete a logical server

  • Import the definition of an existing physical server or virtual machine into a logical server

  • Modify a logical server

  • Manage logical server storage pools

  • Move a logical server using a menu selection or drag and drop

  • Synchronize with server resources

  • View details of a logical server by clicking the Logical Server icon

  • View status of a logical server job

When assigning logical servers to target hosts, Capacity Advisor headroom ratings are displayed. Headroom ratings allow you to determine how well the logical server's resource requirements will fit on a proposed host.

You can synchronize your logical servers with any additions or changes to blade profiles or virtual machines (by, for example, VMware Distributed Resource Scheduler) in one of two ways.

  • Automatic inventory discovery. This discovery runs every five minutes, and locates blade profiles and virtual machines that have moved outside of logical server management. Virtualization Manager's definition is updated to include the location where a logical server resides.

  • The Tools->Logical Servers->Synchronize... menu selection. This synchronization, which you can run at any time, updates the logical server resource inventory to reflect the current status of underlying resources. (Synchronization can take up to several minutes to complete.) For server blade logical servers, these resources are server blades, domains, domain groups, enclosures, fabrics, and networks. For virtual machine logical servers, these resources are ESX Hosts, virtual machines, storage locations, and networks.

Logical Server Management Requirements

  • The Logical Servers feature in Virtualization Manager supports the following software. If you are using other versions of these products, intermittent failures, especially during moves, can occur.

    Requirements for ESX Virtual Machine Logical Servers

    • VMware ESX Server 3.0.2 (Build 52542) or higher, and VMware VirtualCenter 2.0.2 (Build 50618) or higher. If you are using VMware VirtualCenter 2.5, HP recommends the Update 1 version.

    • VMware VirtualCenter must be installed, and the VirtualCenter credentials must be registered in HP SIM. Use the Options->Virtual Machine Management->Security->VMware VirtualCenter Settings menu selection to configure VirtualCenter.

    • VMware Tools must be installed on the guest operating system. Use the Inventory menu in the VMware Virtual Infrastructure Client, then select Virtual Machine->Install/Upgrade VMware Tools.

    • The user root for each VM Host managed by VM Manager must be configured into HP SIM for the CMS on which logical server management in Virtualization Manager is running.

      To configure HP SIM, on the upper, blue menu, select Options->Protocol Settings->Global Protocol Settings. Add the root user name and password pair for each VM Host to the list of Default WBEM Settings.

    • A virtual machine that is managed by logical server management must keep its Universal Unique Identifier (UUID) when prompted by VMware. When you power on a virtual machine on a hypervisor that was moved to a new location (for example, from one blade to another), a VMware message appears, asking you if you want to create a new UUID for the virtual machine, or keep the UUID that was generated for the virtual machine when the logical server was activated. Select Always Keep, then click OK to continue powering on the virtual machine. If you do not select Always Keep or Keep, the moved logical server will not operate correctly.

    • Logical server management supports ESX virtual machine logical server storage using the Virtual Machine File System (VMFS), DAS, or SAN datastores. Virtual machines that are created using raw device files are not supported in this release.

    Requirements for Virtual Connect Server Blade Logical Servers

    • Virtual Connect Enterprise Manager 1.10 or higher.

    • The following firmware: HP BladeSystem Onboard Administrator 2.20 or higher, HP Integrated Lights-Out 1.50 or higher, Virtual Connect Manager 1.22 or higher, and the latest available firmware update for your server blade BIOS.

      NOTE: If you encounter power issues on your server blades that interrupt operations such as moving and activating Virtual Connect blade logical servers, be sure that the firmware for Onboard Administrator is Version 2.20 or higher.
    • A user with Administrator privileges on the Onboard Administrator for each C-class enclosure that is managed by Virtual Connect Enterprise Manager must be configured into HP SIM for the CMS on which logical server management in Virtualization Manager is running.

      To configure HP SIM, on the upper, blue menu, select Options->Protocol Settings->Global Protocol Settings. Add the Administrator user name and password pair for each Onboard Administrator to the list of Default WBEM Settings.

  • In order to import a server blade or virtual machine into a logical server, the server or virtual machine must have the fully qualified DNS name or the host name in HP SIM. Use the Options->Discovery menu in HP SIM to perform a manual HP SIM discovery on the host name before you begin an import operation.

  • When moving or reactivating a Virtual Connect blade logical server, the list of available target server blades is created based on a number of compatibility factors, including blade model number and generation, mezzanine card, number of CPUs, and so on. However, this filtering does not include all possible factors that affect compatibility. HP recommends that before you move or reactivate a logical server, check that your operating system image will boot on the target server blade.

  • To use the logical server feature in Virtualization Manager, the following authorizations are required:

    • The VSE All Tools authorization (on the CMS) is required to operate on a logical server, regardless of the authorization required to operate on a specific host.

    • The VSE Monitor authorization (on the CMS and all managed nodes) is required to create and view a logical server.

    These authorizations apply to environments in which administrators manage all systems discovered in the CMS. If you use host-based authorizations and configure custom system lists to restrict authorizations for some administrators, and these administrators use logical servers, consider adding the Logical Servers system list with automatic updating for the specified administrator. Without this configuration, the administrator can create a logical server but will not be able to view it in HP SIM. See the “Logical Servers” topic in Virtualization Manager help for more information.

Application Discovery

  • Scalability and performance enhancements to support large configuration of managed systems (up to 500 systems).

  • User interface and help localized to Japanese.

  • Discovery of applications on HP Integrity servers running RHEL 5.x and SLES 10.x platforms.

Capacity Advisor

  • Improved user interface for better scalability

    • Multiple selection is allowed when deleting scenarios, moving workloads, and moving virtual machines

    • Create System and Create Workload accept a list of names for creating more than one system or workload at a time

    • Ability to simulate making servers become virtual machines and making virtual machines become servers

  • In the Scenario Editor, improvements have been made to the What-If Action->Undo, Edit, or View... page:

    • You can delete edit changes.

    • You can modify scaling multipliers directly in this screen.

    • Some changes shown as a group can be disabled or deleted as a single group, rather than individually.

  • Utilization limits for scenarios and workloads have been added. Users may now define when a system is full by specifying utilization limits for CPU, memory, network I/O, and disk I/O. These limits are honored by the HP Smart Solver and are used when moving workloads and running reports, and in headroom calculations.

  • Network and disk I/O are now viewable within scenarios and used throughout Capacity Advisor. The user is allowed to specify maximum expected data rates for network and disk I/O, or default to maximum observed values.

  • The HP Smart Solver allows system administrators to generate capacity planning information in an automated fashion, thus saving the time and effort required to manually plan the placement of workloads on systems. With HP Smart Solver you can automate the following:

    • Server consolidation planning for deploying tens or hundreds of servers

    • System and virtual machine consolidation

    • Workload consolidation

    • Load balance of servers or VM Hosts

    You can constrain the solution by adjusting the following elements:

    • Placement strategy

    • Simulation interval

    • Resources to be used (pre-existing and template-generated)

    • Utilization limits for CPU, memory, and network and disk I/O

    • Forecast growth-rate as a percentage when projecting into the future

  • Headroom ratings have been added to the Move Workload and Move VM screens, to various reports, and to the Smart Solver.

  • System power has been added as a utilization and planning metric throughout Capacity Advisor.

    • Power utilization is displayed in the profile viewer, along with CPU, memory, network and disk I/O statistics.

    • Power is included in scenario planning and associated with what-if systems.

    • Power can be estimated for all systems, based on an automatic calibration process for systems that support power metering, and a manual calibration process for systems that do not.

    • A configuration checklist leads the user through the configuration of iLO and Insight Power Manager for systems that support power metering to enable automatic power calibration.

    • The Power report provides in-depth power metrics that can be analyzed and manipulated within a scenario. This allows a more valuable comparison of power utilization and cost constraints. The metrics Energy, Energy Cost, and Power Estimation by average, peak, and sustained peak values calculated monthly, quarterly, or yearly with totals are shown on this report.

  • Introduced the Capacity Advisor Scenario Comparison report, which provides a way to easily compare different scenarios within a single table. The comparison report also provides the ability to constrain CPU, memory, and power values for simulated configurations. Estimates are based on actual resource utilization and are displayed graphically.

  • Added the Extended Performance Management Pack, which allows data to be exported from HP Performance Management Pack (PMP) to the Capacity Advisor database and which normalizes the date interval of collected data to Capacity Advisor defaults.

  • Added support for localization of the Capacity Advisor user interface and help in Japanese.

Partition Manager

This release of Partition Manager includes support for cell online activation and cell online deactivation. For details, see the “Activate Cell Online” and “Deactivate Cell Online” help topics.

vseassist Troubleshooting Utility

  • All vseassist diagnostics that were present in VSE 3.0 are now available on the following configurations:

    • On Windows CMS for HP ProLiant Windows, HP Integrity Windows, and HP-UX managed systems

    • On HP-UX CMS for HP-UX and HP Integrity Windows managed systems

  • Compatible with all previous released versions of VSE.

  • The following new checks have been added:

    • The VSE License check was modified to use the new VSE licensing functionality to verify that each managed node has a permanent or a trial license.

    • The VMM status check for ProLiant Windows verifies that VMM Windows Service is installed and running on the CMS. There are also new checks to see if the version of the VMM agent running on each of the VM Hosts is compatible with the VMM service running on the CMS and to verify if the VM Host or Guest will allow Capacity Advisor to collect performance data.

    • The Virtual Connect Enterprise Manager status check for ProLiant Windows CMS: verifies that VCEM is installed and responsive.

    • The Logical Server Management check for ProLiant Windows verifies that the LSA and LSA Controllers services are installed and running.

    • The iCAP status check for HP-UX managed nodes verifies the health status of iCAP.

VSE Agent Software Installation

  • Installation of agent software to HP Integrity or HP ProLiant Windows managed systems is supported on HP ProLiant Windows CMS. This capability is accessed via Configure->Configure VSE Agents->Install Windows VSE Agents.

  • Installation of agent software to HP-UX Integrity and PA-RISC managed systems is supported on HP ProLiant Windows CMS. This capability is accessed via Configure->Configure VSE Agents->Install HP-UX VSE Agents.

  • Installation of agent software to HP Integrity Linux managed systems is supported on HP ProLiant Windows CMS. This capability is accessed via Configure->Configure VSE Agents->Install Integrity Linux VSE Agents.

  • Individual Windows and Linux agents can now be selected for install; you do not have to install the entire set of agents to each managed system.

Utilization Provider

Support for the following platforms has been added:

  • RHEL 5

  • SLES 10

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