HP Insight Control for Linux

HP Insight Control for Linux v6.3 enhancements include:

• Support for new G7 Servers
• Support for new versions of Linux Operating systems
• RHEL 5.6 and RHEL6.0
• Support for new versions of virtualization software
• Vmware ESX &and ESXi 4.0U3, 4.1U1
• KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) virtualization support for host-guest discovery and association on RHEL 5.6 & RHEL 6.0
• Xen support on RHEL 5.6

HP Insight Control for Linux supports HP ProLiant Blade-, Rack-, Tower-, and Scalable- servers (BL-, DL-, ML-, and SL-series servers). Systems supported include HP BladeSystems (c7000 and c3000), HP Rack servers (DL1000, DL785, DL500s, DL300s, DL180s, DL160s), HP Tower servers (ML300s), and HP Scalable servers (SL6000). Servers with IPMI (Intelligent Platform Management Interface), iLO, iLO2, and iLO3 (Integrated Lights Out) capabilities are supported. Check the Product Support Matrix for support on specific models.

ProLiant Support Packs (PSPs) are available to support operation with a wide variety of Linux operating systems at the Linux ProLiant website.

HP Insight Control for Linux v6.3 is available for immediate delivery, with license keys available for purchase. Customers purchasing the current version of Insight Control for Linux have full upgrade rights to v6.3 to protect their investment.

HP Insight Control for Linux is licensed on a per-server basis. Purchase the number of licenses that you need. You can purchase a single license or a flexible quantity license of HP Insight Control for Linux, each of which comes with one-year of 24 x 7 HP Software Technical Support and Update Service. 

You also have the option of purchasing licenses with your HP ProLiant servers. After you purchase the required number of licenses, you can either download a copy of the HP Insight Control for Linux ISO image or purchase an HP Insight Control for Linux DVD media kit. You will only require one download or media package.

HP Insight Control power management provides Dynamic Power Capping to reclaim trapped resources in your infrastructure - and adds capabilities for Data Center Power Control, facility tool integration, and power monitoring.

Control for managing virtual host and guest environments is provided for VMware ESX and ESXi (host installation) and XEN® (open source hypervisor). Discovery and associations for KVM environments are supported. HP's Insight Control for Linux central management server can be run from within a XEN® virtual machine guest.
Remote management provides secure shell capabilities with integrated remote access and server control.

The HP Insight Control for Linux management solution provides industry-leading power capabilities for industry-standard ProLiant servers based on measurement, visibility, and optimization. 

Dynamic Power Capping can optimize power "on the fly" across CPUs, Servers, and Enclosures for worry-free, hardware-based power management.  HP Insight Control measures power usage AND controls power on a dynamic basis to optimize on a fractional-second-basis for maximum utilization of the power reserve in the system.

Datacenter Power Control provides uptime for critical applications, particularly when the datacenter hasn’t kept pace with demands and when infrastructure failure impacts critical IT services.  This capability also helps to decrease power consumption when users are participating in demand response programs.

HP Insight Control for Linux provides integrated capabilities for imaging & provisioning, deployment, and firmware updates for the Linux user.  Standard deployment support uses PXE boot and DHCP.  Virtual Media is also supported for environments without DHCP or those needing a more secure medium.

Microsoft Windows® can be deployed using generic ISO mounting capabilities on iLO-based servers. These same capabilities can be used to deploy for any generic ISO image.

A software repository can be populated by the user with any variety of objects for deployment, such as custom scripts, installation scripts, images, firmware, agents, etc.  Standard KickStart and AutoYAST scripts can be used, customized, and deployed.  Firmware update capabilities are integrated and can accelerate version control processes.

Deployment methods include both a robust standard mode and a high-performance "Avalanche" mode optimizing both time and network bandwidth.

HP Insight Control for Linux provides integrated capabilities for health and performance management of physical and virtual nodes in the infrastructure. Capabilities are fully accessible via browser (GUI) or command line (CLI) interfaces.  A wide variety of metrics are available for observation, evaluation, and action – and can be user customized.

Thresholds can be set by the user and alerts are forwarded to HP SIM for further use in user’s Enterprise Management System of choice.

Issue resolution allows user-control of detailed graphical reporting of stored metrics. Data can be exported in standard formats to meet custom reporting needs.

Details on what data and support are provided with different agents are in the user documentation.  Low level agents, called hp_health agents, are recommended for proper operation on HP systems with iLO capabilities, but these are not needed on IPMI-based systems. 

The user chooses the number and type of agents to be used with Insight Control for Linux.  HP Insight Control for Linux supports SNMP, WBEM, and open source agents. 

Maximum “performance-on-the-problem” is achieved using lightweight out-of-band metrics collection without compromising environment control:
The advantage of this approach allows efficient metrics collection for health and performance management -- i.e. when using the recommended minimum set of agents, the combined system usage is significantly less than one percent (<<1% system usage).