VSE Management 4.0: What's New

VSE Management Software Version 4.0 provides expanded platform support and powerful new capabilities.

Not all VSE Management Software products and features are available on all platforms. For detailed information about supported hardware and software, see the VSE Management Software Version 4.0 Support Matrix.

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

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 you create 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. They can also be created and activated by importing 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.

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 required resources fit on a proposed host.

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

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.
To perform live moves using VMware VMotion: VMware VirtualCenter 2.0.2 (Build 50618) or higher, with VirtualCenter credentials registered in HP SIM. If you are using VMware VirtualCenter 2.5, HP recommends the Update 1 version. To configure VirtualCenter, select OptionsVirtual Machine ManagementSecurityVMware VirtualCenter Settings.
VMware Tools must be installed on the guest operating system. From the Inventory menu in the VMware Virtual Infrastructure Client, select Virtual MachineInstall/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 OptionsProtocol SettingsGlobal 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 whether 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 does 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 OptionsProtocol SettingsGlobal 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 OptionsDiscovery 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, make sure your operating system image can 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 cannot view it in HP SIM. For more information, see the “Logical Servers” topic in Virtualization Manager help.

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
- Allows you to simulate making servers into virtual machines and making virtual machines into servers
In the Scenario Editor, improvements are made to the What-If ActionUndo, Edit, or View... page:
- You can delete or edit changes made to a scenario.
- 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 are added. Users can 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 can either 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 are 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 I/O, and disk I/O statistics.
- Power is included in scenario planning and associated with what-if systems.
- Power for all systems can be estimated, based on an automatic calibration process for systems that support power metering and on 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. This report shows metrics for Energy, Energy Cost, and Power Estimation by average, peak, and sustained peak values calculated monthly, quarterly, or yearly with totals.
Introduced the Capacity Advisor Scenario Comparison report, which provides a way to easily compare different scenarios within a single table. The comparison report also allows you 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.

gWLM can now predict when to allocate resources to certain workloads. If a workload has regularly occurring patterns of CPU usage, gWLM attempts to provide the workload with additional resources when they are needed. Previously, gWLM provided resources only in response to actual increased need.
gWLM can now form an SRD from members of a Global Instant Capacity (GiCAP) group. GiCAP version 8.02.01 is required. You must include each GiCAP group member in the SRD. Also, you can use Temporary Instant Capacity (TiCAP) within an SRD based on a GiCAP group.
New type of conditional policy based on time.
New type of conditional policy based on the existence of a file (useful during system or application start-up).
New type of custom policy that scales a metric (you provide through gwlmsend) to produce a CPU request.
New default Min Size value for gWLM-provided OwnBorrow policies. The default Min Size is now 0.0. This value enables lending when used with any compartment type. (If you are upgrading from an earlier version of gWLM, the default Min Size for that version is still used.)
New behavior for ticapByPolicy attribute in policy definitions in an XML configuration file. You can enable use of TiCAP on an SRD level (using the ticapMode attribute in an SRD definition) or on a policy level (using the ticapByPolicy attribute). Assigning a value to ticapByPolicy is now effective only when the policy is used in an SRD that has its ticapMode attribute set to off. When ticapMode is set to none or all, it takes precedence over ticapByPolicy.
Better adjustment to resources added from iCAP reserves or the vPar monitor. gWLM can now temporarily make use of these resources manually added to managed compartments. However, gWLM can use the additional resources only within the originally discovered bounds of the SRD; thus, if cores are added in excess of configured maximums, gWLM does not allocate them. Also, gWLM does not recognize online adds/removes of cells. Modify the SRD to take full, persistent advantage of additional resources.
You can now modify an SRD (rather than re-create it) to take advantage of changes in resources or compartment sizes on a managed system. When you modify an SRD, the Workload/Policy Settings screen now allows you to specify the size of the SRD based on the system changes made. Be sure to verify that the policies being used are appropriate for the adjusted SRD size.
The HP Systems Insight Manager Shared Resource Domains collection inside the All VSE Resources collection is dynamically populated with the names and hosts of all deployed SRDs. You can now create custom collections that allow you to view subsets of SRDs in the Shared Resource Domain view. For information about creating custom collections, see the online help in the Shared Resource Domain view.
New report items. The “resource audit” and “topborrowers” reports produced by gwlmreport have several new items:
- AvgCons: Average CPU consumption in terms of cores.
- CpuMinutesAlloc: CPU minutes allocated to the workload. For each sample in the report period, the length of the sample in minutes is multiplied by the AvgAlloc (average allocation) value for that sample. CpuMinutesAlloc is the sum of the results for all the samples.
- CpuMinutesCons: CPU minutes consumed by the workload. For each sample in the report period, the length of the sample in minutes is multiplied by the AvgCons (average consumption) value for that sample. CpuMinutesCons is the sum of the results for all the samples.
The AvgCons item also appears in the “abnormal utilization” report. For more information, see gwlmreport(1M).
Support for managing an SRD with nodes on a management LAN. For more information, see the HP Global Workload Manager Version 4.0 User's Guide.
Support for integrating gWLM with SAP. For more information, see the white paper Using Global Workload Manager with SAP at http://docs.hp.com/en/vse.html.

The Instant Capacity (iCAP) Manager is a web-based interface that can be used to monitor your Instant Capacity environment. There are several pages available in iCAP Manager, including the following:

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.

HP-UX 11i v3 (B.11.31) is now supported on the CMS as well as on managed systems.

Version A.03.00.00 of the VSE Management Software adds several new features and capabilities beyond those of version A.02.50.00:

Disaster recovery
- HP VSE now supports disaster recovery. For information, visit http://docs.hp.com/en/vse.html and locate the white paper Setting up VSE 3.0 on HP-UX for Disaster Recovery.
New command: vseassist
- To assist in troubleshooting the configuration of the VSE Management Software on your CMS and managed systems, a new command named vseassist is available with this release. This command performs a number of checks to identify VSE Management Software configuration problems in the following areas:
  CMS configuration
  Communication between the CMS and managed systems
  Managed system configurations
- You can execute vseassist from the HP SIM graphical user interface, from the command line on the CMS, or from the command line on a managed system. For details, see the new vseassist(1M) manpage included with this release. This manpage is also included in the “Command Reference” section of the VSE Management Software Quick Start Guide.
- Normally you do not need to install vseassist on managed systems. However, if mxexec is unable to copy and execute the command on a managed system, you can manually install or copy it to the managed system and execute it from the command line there. For additional information, see vseassist(1M).
HP VSE Managed Node Software Update (Install VSE Agents)
- Installing VSE agents on HP-UX managed nodes now permits selecting specific software products to install, rather than installing everything in the VSE agent depot on all nodes. When you select ConfigureConfigure VSE AgentsInstall HP-UX VSE Agents, the resulting screen allows you to select the specific software to be installed on the currently-selected set of HP-UX managed nodes.
- The HP-UX VSE agent depot also contains additional products, such as updates to other software often needed for correct operation of managed nodes within a VSE, such as Java™ and OpenSSH.
- VSE agents for HP-UX 11.31 are not included in VSE Management Software Version 3.0. They will be available from the HP VSE Managed Node Software Update site in the near future.
- Installation of managed system software for Linux and Microsoft Windows systems continues to operate as in VSE Management Software Version 2.5.
Application Discovery
- HP Application Discovery is a new addition to the VSE Management Suite that helps you do the following:
  Easily discover the location and number of applications in your network or data center. (See “Understanding Data Views” in HP Application Discovery Help.)
  Monitor the activity and resource usage of running processes and applications.
  Enable the provision of application data to gWLM for workload creation via HP Virtualization Manager. (See “Working Inside VSE” in HP Application Discovery Help.)
  Adapt templates to your environment for better discovery of your third-party and custom applications. (See “Getting Started: Refine Application Discovery” in HP Application Discovery Help.)
  Choose the event types for which you want to receive notifications and set their level of importance. (See “Getting Started: Set Event Attributes” in HP Application Discovery Help.)
- Access HP Application Discovery directly by selecting ToolIntegrated ConsolesApplication Discovery from the HP Systems Insight Manager menu bar.
Capacity Advisor
- Enhanced utilization forecasts, including:
  Ability to specify default and custom models used for calculating forecasts
  Ability to configure utilization trending options within the forecast models
- Serviceguard Intelligent Data Collection:
  Ability to associate workloads with Serviceguard packages, and track the utilization of those workloads across failovers
- Convenient flyover text on Edit Scenario screens
- Instant access to more information without having to leave the editor or switch tabs

Global Workload Manager

Use of Temporary Instant Capacity (TiCAP) resources can now be selected at the policy level (previously, it could be selected only at the SRD level).
For more information, see the online help topics about policy settings for utilization policies, OwnBorrow policies, or custom policies. If using the gWLM XML configuration file, see gwlmxml(4) for information on the ticapByPolicy attribute for the policyDefinition element.
Support for process maps (procmaps), which allow you to specify an executable that lists the PIDs of processes to be placed in a workload based on a pset or fss group.
For more information, see the topic "Create Monitored Workload" in the Virtualization Manager online help. If using the gWLM XML configuration file, see gwlmxml(4) for information about the script element used in the workloadDefinition element.
Ability to create workloads based on applications discovered to be running on the host, as determined by the Application Discovery product.
For more information, see the online help topic "Create Monitored Workload" in the Virtualization Manager help.
Ability to create conditional policies based on three Serviceguard conditions:
- Reduced Cluster Capacity
- Non-Primary Package Present
- Package Active
For more information, see the online help topic "Conditional Policy Settings" If using the gWLM XML configuration file, see gwlmxml(4) for information on the compositePolicyDefinition element.
Usability and performance enhancements. (Usability enhancements include, among others, the display/integration of SIM events in the Shared Resource Domain View. Also, this view now provides information on TiCAP spending.)
Shared Resource Domain tab now has a checkbox allowing you to enable/disable automatic refreshing of data on the tab.
Real-time reports and historical reports now offer “tear-off graph” links that display graphs in new windows.
The gWLM agent is no longer available on Linux.
Naming of a workload, policy, SRD, or metric:
- The initial character in a name can now be any of the allowed characters (previously, the initial character had to be alphabetic).
- The space character is now allowed in names.
The Secure gWLM Communications operations (available from the HP SIM menu bar by selecting ConfigureConfigure VSE AgentsSecure gWLM Communications ) now works without restarting HP SIM.
You can now use HP's optional performance and monitoring tool GlancePlus to view data about fss workloads managed by gWLM. (You must have bundle PRMLibraries C.03.03 or later installed. The bundle is available from http://www.hp.com/go/softwaredepot.)
The documents Getting Started with HP Integrity Essentials Global Workload Manager and HP Integrity Essentials Global Workload Manager Administrator's Guide are merged into a single document named HP Integrity Essentials Global Workload Manager User's Guide.
Support for Hyper-Threading.
New gwlmstatus command. This command displays status for the managed node's agent, SRD, and license. For more information, see gwlmstatus(1M).
New gwlmlistkeys and gwlmdeletekey commands. These commands can help resolve alias conflicts. For more information, see gwlmsslconfig(1M).
New option to gwlmagent: --restart. This option stops and starts an agent in a single command.
New discovery diagnostics displayed in the HP SIM interface and in the command-line interface.

Changes to the CSV output from the command gwlmreport extract.

New column headings added to support new features:

polTicapEnabled		Indicates whether the policy was configured to use TiCAP.
polActiveId		Helps determine the effective policy when using conditional policies.

For more information, see gwlmreport(1M).

New log files:

`/var/opt/gwlm/gwlmcommand.log.0`
		Log of gwlm command
`/var/opt/gwlm/gwlm.log.0`
		Log of gWLM interface in HP SIM

Partition Manager
- Partition Manager supports servers based on the HP sx2000 chipset, including HP Superdome (SD16B, SD32B, and SD64B models), rx8640, and rx7640.
- Partition Manager now provides integration with the HP-UX Peripheral Device Tool on nPartitions running HP-UX 11i v1 (B.11.11). When an I/O slot action is selected from the actions menu, Partition Manager attempts to launch the HP-UX Peripheral Device Tool (pdweb) to perform the action. This tool is only available on nPartitions running HP-UX 11i v1 (B.11.11) December 2006, 11i v2 (B.11.23), or later. If HP-UX Peripheral Device Tool is not running on the selected nPartition, and it is not configured to start on demand, Partition Manager cannot perform any actions on I/O slots or I/O cards.
- Updated online help for Partition Manager is available in the following languages: German (de), English (en), Spanish (es), French (fr), Italian (it), Japanese (ja), Korean (ko), Simplified Chinese (zh-cn), and Traditional Chinese (zh-tw). Only the English online help provides search capabilities and integration with the online help for other components of the VSE Management Suite.

Virtualization Manager

Partial integration with Application Discovery (View link is provided for systems managed by Application Discovery and workloads can be created with application type criteria).

The Create/Modify Workload screen now allows associating a workload with a Cluster/Package pair. To do this:

Select the Cluster radio button.
Select the cluster from the Cluster drop-down list.
Select the Package from the Package drop-down list.




	IMPORTANT: If all the nodes in a cluster are VM Hosts, the Cluster does not appear in the Cluster select drop-down list on the Create/Modify Workload screen because a user cannot create workloads on VM Hosts.

A workload associated with a Serviceguard package should appear on the same system as the package. When the package stops running, Virtualization Manager detects this and stops reporting that workload as being on that system. If, at a later time, this package starts running on a node of the cluster, Virtualization Manager starts reporting that workload as being on the system where the package is running.
Application-based criteria (via Application Discovery data) can now be specified for both monitored and gWLM workloads.

Virtual Machines Manager
- Virtual Switches tab, which has been added to the VM Host view, contains a list of all vswitches available on the VM Host and summary data for each.
- Virtual Switches property page, accessible by clicking on vswitch names (which are now hyperlinks), offers detailed information about individual vswitches.
- Add Storage Device and Add Network Device actions added to Modify task menu.
- Refresh Data buttons added to Add Storage Device and Add Network Device tasks.
- Summary page of Create VM wizard redesigned to consolidate summary data into one page and to display additional options for handling the situation where required resources are unavailable for any reason.
- Labels and other text within VM Manager modified for clarity, as necessary.
- Improved Start VM, Stop VM, and Delete VM tasks that include a command preview, as well as a new Restart VM task.
- New Start Vswitch, Stop Vswitch and Delete Vswitch tasks.

VSE Management 4.0: What's New

Technical documentation

New in Version A.04.00.07

New Capabilities by Product Area

Virtualization Manager

Logical Server Management

Logical Server Management Requirements

Application Discovery

Capacity Advisor

Global Workload Manager

HP Integrity VM Manager

Instant Capacity Manager

Partition Manager

vseassist

VSE Agent Software Installation

Utilization Provider

New in Version A.03.00.01

New in Version A.03.00.00