The HP Virtual Server Environment : nPartition Management Paradigms (part 2) - Remote Management via an nPartition Paradigm, Remote Management via the MP Paradigm

Remote Management via an nPartition Paradigm

Figure 2 shows the paradigm of remote nPartition management via an nPartition in the complex. This paradigm can be used with all architectures of HP nPartition servers.

Figure 2. Architecture of Remote nPartition Management via an nPartition

The management paradigm depicted in Figure 2 involves logging into a remote system separate from the nPartition or complex to be managed. The remote system can be any HP-UX, Windows, or Linux system capable of running the nPartition commands and the parmgr GUI. This use model is extremely powerful in that an administrator may perform management of all the HP nPartition servers in the data center from a central management station. Additionally, the task of running the nPartition commands and parmgr GUI are offloaded to the remote system and the nPartitions are left to execute their production workloads.

note

Remote management via an nPartition requires certain security measures to be taken on the remote system to establish a trust relationship between the nPartition and the remote system. See the product manual pages and documentation for specific instructions on performing these steps.

In order to perform remote management as depicted in Figure 2, the nPartition commands require command-line options for specifying the remote nPartition's hostname or IP address, username, and password. Given the address and authentication credentials, the nPartition commands send WBEM requests to the WBEM or WMI Server over a secure channel.

Listing 2 is an example execution of an nPartition command using remote manage ment via an nPartition. In the example, the parstatus command sends remote WBEM requests to the nPartition with the hostname rex01 as the user root. Notice that the password is not specified directly on the command line; instead, the command prompts for the password. It should be noted that some of the command's output has been removed for formatting purposes.

Listing 2. nPartition Command Using Remote Management via an nPartition

# /usr/sbin/parstatus -C -h rex01 -u root: Please enter the password for user root: [Cell] CPU Memory OK/ (GB) Hardware Actual Deconf/ OK/ Location Usage Max Deconf Connected To ========== ============ ======= ========= =================== cab0,cell0 Active Core 4/0/8 4.0/0.0 cab0,bay0,chassis0 cab0,cell1 Active Core 4/0/8 4.0/0.0 cab0,bay0,chassis1 cab0,cell2 Active Core 4/0/8 4.0/0.0 cab8,bay0,chassis0 cab0,cell3 Active Core 4/0/8 4.0/0.0 cab8,bay0,chassis1 Notes: * = Cell has no interleaved memory.

The Partition Manager GUI also provides the ability to switch between the complexes being managed as shown in Figure 3. The top portion of the dialog labeled “A remote nPartition” provides the ability to switch between any nPartitions in the data center as long as the WBEM or WMI Server is running and the additional components shown in the figure are present on the nPartition.

Figure 3. Partition Manager Remote Management Interface

Remote Management via the MP Paradigm

The final nPartition management paradigm, remote management via the MP, is presented in Figure 4. This paradigm is not available on the first-generation HP nPartition servers. Instead, only HP nPartition servers with the sx1000 chipset and later support this management paradigm.

Figure 4. Remote nPartition Management via the MP Paradigm

The use model depicted in Figure 4 allows the full nPartition management stack to be run on a remote system that is separate from the complex being managed. In fact, there need not be any nPartitions running or defined in the complex for this architecture to function properly. The only requirement on the complex is for housekeeping power and network connectivity to the MP.

Performing remote management using IPMI over a local area network (LAN) as depicted in Figure 4 involves providing command-line options to the nPartition commands for the MP's hostname or IP address and password. The address and password are passed to the nPartition provider, which uses the credentials to send IPMI requests directly to the MP over the LAN interface.

note

Remote management via IPMI over LAN is the only management paradigm that can be used to make changes to the SCCD when the nPartition configuration privilege is restricted.

Listing 3 shows an example execution of an nPartition command using remote management via IPMI over LAN. In the example, the parstatus command sends WBEM requests to the nPartition provider on the local system and the nPartition provider sends an IPMI message over the LAN interface directly to the MP. The hostname of the MP in this listing is rex-s. Once again, some of the command's output has been removed for formatting purposes.

Listing 3. nPartition Command Using Remote Management via IPMI over LAN

# /usr/sbin/parstatus -C -h rex-s -g Please enter the IPMI password: Note: The -g option may require up to 2 minutes to complete. Please wait... [Cell] CPU Memory OK/ (GB) Hardware Actual Deconf/ OK/ Location Usage Max Deconf Connected To ========== ============ ======= ========= =================== cab0,cell0 Active Core 4/0/8 4.0/0.0 cab0,bay0,chassis0 cab0,cell1 Active Core 4/0/8 4.0/0.0 cab0,bay0,chassis1 cab0,cell2 Active Core 4/0/8 4.0/0.0 cab8,bay0,chassis0 cab0,cell3 Active Core 4/0/8 4.0/0.0 cab8,bay0,chassis1 Notes: * = Cell has no interleaved memory.

The parmgr GUI provides the ability to connect directly to the MP of a complex for remote management via IPMI over a LAN. The lower portion of the dialog labeled “A remote partitionable complex” shown in Figure 3 provides the ability to specify the MP's hostname or IP address and the IPMI password. When parmgr is provided with the MP's hostname and IPMI password, messages will be sent from nPar provider directly to the MP via IPMI over LAN.