Family guide

Managing
HP Servers
Improve efficiency and accelerate service delivery

August 2015
Family guide | Managing HP servers

Why server management matters

Table of contents IT business decision makers are under increasing pressure to boost business results by using
IT to drive business transformation. Technology trends such as mobility, Big Data, and cloud
2 Why server management matters computing create tremendous opportunities and also new expectations of speed and scale.
2 HP server management—agile infrastructure While business pressures and opportunities magnify, most IT budgets and staffing levels are
management for accelerating IT service delivery flat or declining. Unfortunately, IT staffs are constrained by outdated operational models, often
with little time or budget to innovate.
3 HP server management portfolio
4 Converged management What’s more, many server administrators are struggling to effectively maintain the current server
6 Embedded management infrastructure sprawl, much less able to lead a transformation. Limitations of today’s infrastructure
9 Support management management tools, coupled with the pressure to minimize system downtime (planned and
unplanned), and enable anytime/anywhere accessibility are key reasons why infrastructure
12 Benefits of connecting to HP
management is one of the largest IT operational expenditures (OPEX) consuming IT budgets.
12 Managing servers in a small- to medium-sized
business environment
Today, most IT professionals wrestle with numerous management pains, including:
13 Management for hyperscale computing
environments • Siloed infrastructure and outdated IT operational models—IT departments are under increasing
pressure to enable top-line business results. The combination of server sprawl and an IT staff
14 Services for infrastructure management
accustomed to working with outdated IT models is no longer sustainable. Siloed infrastructure
15 Education Services for HP Servers with siloed management and processes leads to more steps, time, and opportunity for error.
15 HP Server Management feature comparison There are often too many non-standard manual tasks, an over-reliance on subject matter
experts, and an ever-expanding backlog of projects. The answer to these challenges is to follow
a new IT operational model—namely the software-defined data center (SDDC).
• Infrastructure management complexity—There are too many infrastructure management tools
HP server management portfolio
to learn and operate, resulting in high IT OPEX. This proliferation drives up software license
Converged management costs, as well as increases the time and cost of maintenance—including skills maintenance.
As the number of tools increases, the likelihood of poor integration and/or communication
Infrastructure management capabilities
designed for medium and enterprise data centers
between them also rises. The fact that new vendor management tools don’t always integrate
supporting servers, storage, and networking. with existing management standards on premise can result in process and administrative
inefficiencies, which drive up OPEX even further.
Embedded management
• Scale and speed—In enterprise data centers with thousands or tens of thousands of servers,
A set of essential yet powerful server management traditional infrastructure management tools cannot scale or operate at the high speeds
capabilities, embedded on all HP servers. necessary to effectively manage server sprawl. For example, in enterprise data centers, server
administrators often need a full week’s time to perform an essential firmware update across
Support management
thousands of servers. In contrast, infrastructure management tools designed for enterprise
Simplified and comprehensive IT support environments are ill-suited for smaller data centers because they require significant investment
automation of servers, storage, and networking in purchase cost, setup, installation, standalone appliances, and operating budget.
devices via a personalized online dashboard.
• Planned and unplanned downtime—In the world of enterprise IT, maximizing system uptime
is considered “table-stakes.” The cost to the line of business—as well as the time and cost
to detect, diagnose, and correct system errors—is a major concern for all IT organizations.
Depending on the line of business, the cost of downtime can be millions of dollars of lost
revenue. Knowing these costs, IT pros need tools and processes designed to eliminate or
dramatically reduce downtime created by planned or unplanned incidences.

To address these gaps and others not mentioned here, compute for the New Style of IT is
required—one that transforms IT by accelerating IT service delivery to keep pace with current
and future workload requirements, while also lowering cost.

HP server management—agile infrastructure management

for accelerating IT service delivery
HP servers deliver on the promise of providing you with low-cost, fast-to-deploy, and high-value
service delivery. And when combined with HP server management, this promise is further magnified.

HP server management is ideally suited for managing and supporting HP servers, including
BladeSystem and ProLiant rack and tower servers operating in small/midsize IT departments
and large enterprise data centers. In addition, HP server management offers out-of-the-box
integration with HP, VMware®, Microsoft®, and Red Hat® enterprise management solutions,
as well as easy integration with many other management products.

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24x7
Architected to include open industry-standard application programming interfaces (REST APIs),
HP server management enables IT staff to quickly and securely customize configuration and
provisioning of the entire HP ProLiant Gen9 server portfolio. The APIs also provide a common
language and interface for integrating into cloud-based environments such as Apache OpenStack.

With HP server management, you get the Flexible and agile, HP server management is designed to accelerate IT service delivery by
24x7 coverage you need to identify problems simplifying, automating, and lowering the cost associated with server lifecycle management
before they occur and keep your servers up and and support. The result—IT departments can unlock the full potential of their data center to
running—helping you to maximize uptime, boost support future growth.
productivity, and enhance business continuity.

HP server management portfolio

Comprehensive offerings for companies of all sizes
By providing a comprehensive set of management offerings—purposely designed and packaged
for small and large companies—HP an meet your management needs at every stage of the
server lifecycle. HP offers three types of server management solutions, designed for specific
customer types and requirements.

Get all the details Converged management—HP OneView is for enterprise data centers with a large number
Find the complete story on all three of the of devices that require agile 24x7 management, maximum uptime, and infrastructure
HP server management categories at management that spans servers, storage, and networking. This converged management
hp.com/go/servermanagement platform provides powerful software-defined process templates for automating infrastructure
configuration and provisioning, as well as for robust infrastructure health and monitoring.
HP OneView integrates into existing enterprise management tools such as VMware vCenter
Server and Microsoft System Center to streamline operations—saving you time and money.

Embedded management—A set of essential yet powerful server management capabilities are
embedded on all HP servers. These capabilities, such as HP Integrated Lights Out (HP iLO), are
designed to meet the needs of any organization, from enterprise to smaller IT environments.
In addition to embedded offerings like iLO, other products and tools such as UEFI, Intelligent
Provisioning, HP Smart Update Manager (HP SUM), Service Pack for ProLiant (SPP), HP RESTful
Interface Tool, Scripting Toolkit for Windows and Linux®, and HP Scripting Tools for Windows
PowerShell, are available to all HP ProLiant server customers.

Support management—Simplified and comprehensive IT support management for your

converged infrastructure of servers, storage, and networking devices via a personalized
online and mobile dashboard. HP Insight Online provides easy access to IT health and support
information for small environments that have little or no IT staff, where a trusted Channel
partner assists with server monitoring and support, and is a smart choice for enterprises that
want a global support view of their IT infrastructure. This is the ideal solution for providing 24x7
automated support, access to device information, easy contract and warranty management and
other support-related information required for faster problem resolution.

The remainder of this family guide describes these three server management categories in
detail. You can find additional information on the Web at: hp.com/go/servermanagement

Figure 1. HP Management ecosystem

Cloud
Management HP Helion Industry
Support ecosystem
Management Converged
Management
HP OneView

Insight Online
Embedded
Management
Storage Servers Networks

Services

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Converged management
Managing in real time
Managing more than just servers, converged management focuses on environment management
of all your data center devices, including storage and networks. When an event occurs, converged
management enables you to make the necessary changes to get systems back on line, and keep
them there. It is important to avoid problems like:
• Non-standard manual tasks
• Multiple handoffs between server, storage, and network administrators
• Incomplete process automation that complicates IT service roll-outs, increases management
task complexity, and causes costly errors

Reducing infrastructure complexity is easy with HP OneView. It transforms everyday

management of server, storage, and network resources in both physical and virtual
environments. Its software-defined approaches and collaborative solution shifts the focus
from “how devices run” to “how people work.” HP OneView unifies processes, user interfaces
(UIs), and the application programming interfaces (APIs) across server, storage, and networking
resources and automates lifecycle management to simplify operations. You can compose and
manage physical, virtual and cloud infrastructure essentially on demand either through the
user interface (the glass) or the API, giving you the ability to request, flex, update, and heal
resources quickly, more efficiently and with less error. And you can troubleshoot, resolve issues
and predict system behavior in minutes. This is how fast, simple and efficient IT works.

OneView speeds IT service rollouts and helps actively prevent error-induced downtime through
a template-based, software-defined approach to management. In addition, HP OneView saves
time by acting as an automation hub that performs infrastructure configuration and management
tasks at the request of other applications. This modern architecture is designed with open
integration to allow connection into your environment and to your enterprise partner solutions.

Designed to reduce OPEX and improve agility, HP OneView enables you to free-up resources
so you can focus on new initiatives that will help grow your business. HP OneView integrates
with VMware vCenter and Microsoft System Center; it also helps lay the foundation for
Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) delivery through the cloud solution of your choice.

Figure 2. HP OneView architecture

Software defined
Infrastructure-as-code

Ready-to-run
Management Appliance
HTML5 User Interface
Virtual Machine
HP OneView REST Custom User
converged management API Integrations
platform
Enterprise Integrations

Fabric Storage Server

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HP OneView supports multiple generations of HP ProLiant servers, and its partner ecosystem is
growing to deliver complementary operations management. Its virtual management appliance
can be freely downloaded to allow you access to everything you need. HP OneView Standard
requires no fee to use and provides health monitoring, inventory, reporting, and REST API access.
HP OneView Advanced licenses enable additional capabilities for active management of your
software-defined data center infrastructure.

HP Insight Control and Systems Insight Manager (SIM) are also available to support the
HP ProLiant server portfolio, including ProLiant Gen9 servers. HP OneView can coexist with
HP Insight Control, Virtual Connect Enterprise Manager, and SIM, but it is designed to replace
these products. With HP OneView, you can protect your investment in these existing tools,
while gaining the time you need to migrate to a modern management platform. To learn more,
visit hp.com/go/oneview.

Converged management with team-based collaboration

With one solution, one process, and one experience, HP OneView transforms the everyday
management of server, storage, and network resources in both physical and virtual
environments. Collaborative tools for the entire IT team provide productivity:
• Dashboard—Provides an at-a-glance view for compliance tracking, with a simple way to
manage servers at scale, while preserving “drill down” to examine device specifics. The
dashboard can be customized to display only critical user-specified information.
• Map View—Enables you to visualize the relationships between your devices to the highest
levels of your infrastructure.
• Smart Search—Allow you to instantly find what you are looking for without using long and
complicated tree views or special commands.
• Activity view—Displays and filters all tasks and alerts, enabling collaborative team
interactions using one tool.
• Mobile access—Enables access to data and files using a modern HTML5 user interface.
• Three years of 24x7 support and software updates—Ensures help is available when you need it.
• Integrated licensing—Includes HP Insight Control with your HP OneView license purchase so
you can transition at your own pace.

Software-defined approaches capture best practices

Capturing and standardizing your best practices is designed into the HP OneView architecture.
The software-defined structures enable your administrators to quickly and consistently
provision hundreds of enclosures, servers, or storage arrays—or to roll out changes to any
number of data center devices, all at one time. Software-defined approaches leverage the best
of your experts for continuous productivity.
• Profiles capture the entire configuration for a given resource in a single place. You can assign a
profile to any supported hardware without rebuilding or resetting any of the factors in the profile.
• Server profile templates to configure firmware baseline, BIOS and local RAID settings, boot order,
and network and storage configurations. Server profile templates allow a one step process of
request-response to make changes that simplify management and increases productivity.
• Non-disruptive, orchestrated and flexible firmware and device driver updates improve
IT performance and provide more efficient resource utilization.
• Groups provide specific recipes for building all or part of your infrastructure environment, such
as a workload type. Your admins can use these recipes to replicate resources elsewhere in
your enterprise.
• Sets allow you to designate collections of resource groups by a single name. Sets enable easy
reuse and assignments that scale quickly.

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“Between the ProLiant BL460c Gen8 blades and OneView, the

agility and speed to market we’ve gained is simply unmatched,
instead of spending 90% of our time on run and maintain
activities, that’s down to just 50% and dropping. It’s freed up
much more time for our architects and engineers to focus on
projects instead of break/fix. Giving that kind of time and
quality of life back to the IT team is invaluable. You can’t put
a price on that.”
– Hercu Rabsatt, Mansfield’s IT director

Open integration via REST API and message bus

To harness the full power of the HP OneView management architecture, you can use the
REpresentational State Transfer (REST) API and state-change message bus. With the REST API,
you can automate, integrate, and customize your management environment using your favorite
scripting or programming language. Open integration allows you to address a wide variety of
needs, including automating standard workflows or troubleshooting steps, integrating in-house
user customizations, automating integrations (for example, CMDB), connecting to service desks,
monitoring resources, and much more. Open integration allows you to drive the management
engine programmatically or pull data from it to for your custom use.

Enterprise partner integrations

Depending on your needs, you can use HP OneView with the VMware vSphere ESXi or Microsoft
Hyper-V hypervisor. And because HP OneView is vendor-agnostic, you can use it with servers
running Microsoft Windows®, Linux, or a heterogeneous mix of operating systems. Standard
enterprise integration solutions for HP OneView are provided for VMware vCenter, Microsoft System
Center, and Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization. Big Data analysis is available using the optional
HP Operations Analytics for HP OneView solution. Workflow integration with HP Operations
Orchestration is also available. In addition, any user can adapt their use of HP OneView for further
integration, automation, or customization using the REST API and scripting.

See table 1 to better understand the scope of features available with converged management.

Embedded management
Embedded management capabilities, standard with every HP ProLiant server
To help you manage your servers more easily—regardless of your location and without
impacting the operating system—every HP ProLiant Gen8 and Gen9 server includes
HP Integrated Lights-Out Management (iLO). This embedded management process runs on a
separate microprocessor chip (i.e., “out of band management”). This way, iLO remains always
available, even when the server suffers a failure. You can use iLO to determine precisely what
went wrong when a failure occurs, and then fix it quickly and efficiently, even if you can’t power
on your server.

With iLO, you can remotely manage your servers’ lifecycle—from initial installation/deployment
to daily management tasks such as power/energy management.

“...the iLO management engine provides remote management

functions that will save at least 50% of our administrator’s time.”
– Wang Sheng, Director of Enterprise Products, Ingram Micro

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Family guide | Managing HP servers

Deploying servers
In previous generations of HP ProLiant servers, legacy BIOS were used to configure servers
“We’re excited about the during boot time. Now with HP ProLiant Gen9 servers, the default settings to configure your
software advantages of server will be Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI)—an industry-standard interface that
improves security between the operating system (OS) and the system firmware—providing a
these new HP ProLiant Gen9 50 percent reduction in server boots1 and increasing server security with 4 new levels of Secure
servers with UEFI and Boot.2 HP ProLiant Gen9 servers support both legacy boot and UEFI boot modes, allowing users
Intelligent Provisioning…. to switch between both modes.

We effectively reduced server For a best-fit solution for your environment, you can choose from three of HP’s provisioning offerings:
deployment time by 30%.” • Intelligent Provisioning—Enables you to deploy and update servers right out of the box, with
no need for HP configuration CDs or DVDs. Intelligent Provisioning expedites server setup,
– Mike Owens, Manager, IT Lab Services,
configuration, and deployment steps previously required with traditional media. Plus, you can
Bally Technologies
quickly provision numerous systems in the same way by copying the Intelligent Provisioning
profile and automating deployment for consistent configuration settings.
• Scripting Tools (STK)—Uses flexible scripting to automate the steps during HP ProLiant server
setup. In a data center with thousands of servers, scripting tools offers huge time-saving
benefits, as well as frees up IT resources, ensures consistent server configurations, and cuts
deployment time. Current scripting tools include a scripting toolkit for Windows, for Linux, and
HP Scripting Tools for Windows PowerShell.
• HP RESTful Interface Tool—Similar to the STK, the HP RESTful Interface Tool (a new tool for
HP ProLiant Gen9 servers only) is an API you can use to configure all types of servers across all
operating systems, rather than using one tool for each with the HP RESTful API architecture.
The HP RESTful Interface Tool provides mass scripting configuration for rapid deployment of
multiple HP ProLiant servers.

Managing your servers

The HP iLO Advanced license offers the remote functionality required by today’s distributed
enterprises. With iLO Advanced, your IT managers can perform system administration tasks
remotely, without traveling to the physical servers.

Available with all HP ProLiant servers, HP iLO Advanced provides a fully integrated remote
console; virtual keyboard, video, and mouse (KVM); multi-user collaboration; console record and
replay; and GUI-based and scripted virtual media and virtual folders. You can also activate the
enhanced security and power management functionality to support your enterprise data center.

Key features include:

• HP iLO Federation, a key enablement feature lets you discover 100s of servers in seconds3 and
manage4 numerous servers as easy as one
• Kerberos authentication, enabling you to log in once and then navigate between servers—a
huge time-saving benefit
1
Number of reboots performed when configuring • Sophisticated remote administration to simplify server set up reducing cost associated with
BIOS, iLO, NIC using the pre-boot environment IT-related travel and unplanned downtime
and comparing a DL380 Gen8 with Legacy BIOS
• Engaging health monitoring, as well as power and thermal control
taking 4 system reboots and a DL380 Gen9 with
UEFI BIOS taking 2 system reboots. HP Labs,
Houston, TX, July 2014 For small and medium business we offer the HP iLO Essentials license with full remote server
2
Secure Boot authentication inclusive of all UEFI management via the Integrated Remote Console (IRC), virtual media, and built-in rapid discovery of
Drivers, any UEFI applications, OS Bootloaders all iLOs. This license is offered exclusively on all HP ProLiant Gen8 e-series servers, HP MicroServer
and Linux Kernel Modules. HP Labs, Houston, Gen8, and HP ProLiant Gen9 100 series servers and below.
TX, July 2014
3
Multi-casting method of communicating with The HP iLO Scale-Out license is tailored for Web hosting, cloud service providers, and high
186 iLOs and discovering them in 3.693 seconds. performance computing data centers, managing massive scale out environments. This includes
Comparing it against our previous generations sophisticated scripting tools that provides remote access through Text Console via SSH,
and competitors. Based on HP Internal estimates,
Management-at-Scale through server grouping with iLO Federation, dynamic power capping,
Houston, TX, USA, July 2014
4
Only available on HP ProLiant Gen8 and Gen9
email-based alerting and proactive notifications. It is available on the HP ProLiant Gen8 DL160,
servers. iLO Federation Management capabilities, all HP ProLiant Gen8 SL and BL servers and HP ProLiant Gen9 SL servers.
such as Group Firmware Update, Group Virtual
Media, Group Power Control, Group Power Detailed information on iLO license options is available under the “Licenses” section at
Capping, Group License Activation require an hp.com/go/ilo
iLO Advanced or iLO Scale-Out license

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Family guide | Managing HP servers

“With the newest version of iLO, we are able to set up alerts so

that when anything goes down, we know about it right away.”
– Eric Choi, Infrastructure Engineer, Plum Voice

“We’re excited about HP ProLiant Gen9 servers’ ability…With

HP SUM we can use both software and firmware to create
customized baselines, select only what we need to update, and
pull reports. This helps us…prevent the costs associated with
unplanned downtime due to out of date firmware. We can also
leverage the HP UEFI feature set to control the hardware from
the OS and to enable Secure Boot features.”
– Alan Lanteigne, Manager-Channel Ready Solutions, Interactive Intelligence, Inc.

Maintaining your servers’ software and firmware

Just as all cars require regular maintenance to remain in peak condition, all servers need
periodic updates to firmware and drivers for the server, options, and infrastructure. The
problem with server maintenance, however, is downtime. The HP Smart Update solution
limits downtime by offering online updates that are needed only once each year. With the
highly reliable HP Smart Update process, your servers are more stable, and they require less
maintenance. The HP Smart Update solution includes:
• HP Service Pack for ProLiant (SPP)—Delivers updates to firmware, drivers, and tools for
supported HP ProLiant servers and HP BladeSystem infrastructures. With SPP, you can
download all the updates, and then deploy them on all your servers, all at once. HP tests the
SPP with specific attention to interaction between firmware, drivers, and utilities. With the
SPP Maintenance Supplement Bundle, you can establish a cadence to update your server
using an SPP release twice per year (April and October) or once a year, whichever best fits your
maintenance schedule. SPP is available as part of your server’s warranty or support agreement.
• HP Smart Update Manager (SUM)—The engine/application that deploys the updates from the
SPP on local or remote HP ProLiant servers and HP BladeSystem infrastructures. HP SUM helps
you inventory and identify which servers require updates, gets the necessary components
from the SPP, and then performs the respective updates individually, as a group, or at scale.
HP SUM simplifies the update process, making HP servers much easier to manage by letting
you know what’s happening throughout the update process. The tool provides a graphical user
interface (GUI), scriptable command line interface (CLI), and an interactive CLI. HP SUM supports
online updates in Windows, Linux, and VMware environments. In addition, HP SUM offers
comprehensive reporting to ensure the latest drivers, software, and firmware are implemented
into the server environment.

Addressing your servers’ health

Serving as the “black box” for your HP ProLiant server, Active Health System (AHS) monitors all
server activities and logs every movement, temperature, event—everything—including:
• Health—The actual status of hardware and software
• Configuration—How the server is set up for use
• Run-time telemetry—Real-time server statistics, such as how hard the hard drive is working

AHS data can be automatically sent to HP for analysis via HP remote support tools, such as
HP Insight Online direct connect or HP Insight Remote Support 7.x—resulting in faster time to
resolution of system problems. And that means less unplanned downtime. AHS checks server
health once a week, but you can order a manual check if you suspect a problem.

HP provides embedded remote support that allows you to enable remote support directly from
iLO (also OA and IP) without installing OS agents on the device, which greatly reduces the time
to activate remote monitoring.

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Operating “agentless”
By design, the client-server system includes a software agent, which acts as an intermediary
and allows the server to perform required tasks without involving the client machine’s user.
While many computer configurations rely on agents to perform essential tasks, using an agent
poses numerous problems for the client, including:
• Opening potential security holes
• Using client resources that could be better used to run applications
• Interfering with client operations

Instead, HP iLO uses an agentless management approach, which makes it possible for iLO to
update both clients and servers without incurring any of these problems—and without affecting
the operating system in any way. As a result, your setup is more secure and reliable.

Five stages of the server lifecycle, and the HP tools you can use at each stage

Server lifecycle stage Embedded management tools

Provision • UEFI to configure BIOS settings

• Intelligent Provisioning for OS driver and firmware deployment at setup
• Scripting Tools to deploy server configuration settings on multiple servers
• iLO virtual media to deploy servers remotely
• HP RESTful Interface Tool is a simplified programmatic computing tool that
leverages an industry-recognized RESTful API to standardize server interactions

Monitor • iLO
• Intelligent Provisioning

Optimize • Smart Update solution for server maintenance

• iLO with licenses for power capping, temperature control, etc.

Support • Intelligent Provisioning to run server diagnostics

• iLO to view server logs
• iLO and Intelligent Provisioning enable easy HP remote support registration

Retire • Intelligent Provisioning to erase server profiles

See the feature comparison in table 1 for details on the capabilities available with
Embedded management.

Support management
Anytime, anywhere IT management
Taking a cue from the universal appeal of online banking, HP Insight Online enables you to see
everything IT from anywhere at any time. HP Insight Online and related remote support tools
are available at no additional cost to you, as part of your HP warranty or support agreement.
With HP Insight Online, you can:
• Save time and resources—Insight Online and HP remote support tools monitor your hardware
around the clock, open support cases for you, and deliver parts or top-notch service personnel
to your door, based on the service level you’ve chosen. Through automation, you’ll enjoy up to
55 percent faster problem resolution and 77 percent reduction in downtime.5

IDC White Paper Sponsored by HP and Intel®,

5

The Business Value of Connected Support from

HP, Doc# 254594, March, 2015

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Family guide | Managing HP servers

• Prevent problems and reduce risk—Automated support and improved management of

IT infrastructure enable you to benefit from up to 77 percent reduction in downtime.5 Our highly
accurate diagnostics mean almost 100 percent first-time fix rate.5 These actions stabilize your
systems and provide reassurance to the business. HP Proactive Care Services provide year-round
support and personalized consultation, so your business can properly maintain and proactively
protect your devices. A twice-yearly scan offers recommendations and advice for device health,
as well as analysis of firmware and patch revision and updates. Quarterly incident trend reports
help identify configuration or environmental issues to keep your devices operating at peak
condition. Together with HP Insight Online remote monitoring and easy-access dashboard,
Proactive Care Services can assist your business in further reducing device downtime.
• Stay informed and in control—Access HP Insight Online anywhere at any time and easily share
IT operations and support information with colleagues and HP partners. This way, you can
eliminate surprises related to warranty or support coverage end dates, resulting in 77 percent
time saved managing contracts/warranties.5
• You’ll see at a glance whether your contracts and warranties are expired, expiring in 30 days, or
expiring in a year—giving you better control over your budget, as well as your IT environment.

“The companies I work with find that Insight Online is one of the
biggest advantages of HP remote management tools. Customers
like the idea of being able to see the status of their HP system
from anywhere.”
– Mikael Christenson, senior consultant, ATEA

How does it work?

HP Insight Online is a feature in the HP Support Center portal. From the dashboard, you can
view all your devices remotely monitored by HP. Powered by support automation tools,
HP Insight Online monitors hardware health, tracks server configuration information, and
automatically generates service alerts and support cases when necessary. A separate section
in Insight Online enables HP Authorized Partners to view your IT asset and support information,
and deliver proactive service and expert advice.

Using the Insight Online personalized dashboard (Figure 3), you can easily track service events
and support cases, monitor and manage devices, view device configurations, and proactively
monitor your HP contracts and warranties, including service credit balances. With the Insight
Online personalized reporting feature, you can easily create, view, and download reports to help
you remain up to date. With the variety of reports available—hardware configuration, active and
closed service events, open and closed support cases, warranties, firmware, and contracts—
and a range of formats,6 reports can be tailored to meet your business needs.

In addition, you can use the HP Insight Online dashboard in the HP Support Center mobile app to remain
up to date on what’s happening with your IT environment, whether you’re in the office or on the road.

Figure 3. HP Insight Online personalized dashboard and mobile device interface

HP Insight Online reports are available in a range

6

of formats, including pdf, xls, and csv

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Family guide | Managing HP servers

“With remote management tools like HP Insight Online, we have

reduced our time spent supporting our infrastructure and
minimized our unplanned downtime by 80%. Being able to see
the status of our systems from anywhere gives us the peace of
mind to focus our resources on driving business by creating
our next big game.”
– Hoang Minh Chinh, CTO Sgame

“A week ago I had an HDD go down on one of the servers that

I recently set up with Insight Online direct connect. Within two
hours I received an email from the HP team advising me of the
failure and wanting confirmation on my end that it was not a
false positive. Once the alert was verified as true, I sent a
return email along with a shipping address for delivery of the
HDD. This was delivered in two days (which is very good for
the location). The part was swapped over and case closed.
This was a fantastic seamless experience.”
– HP public sector customer

Automation is key
With HP Insight Online’s automation tools, your servers’ health is monitored 24x7. In case of
hardware failure, the problem is automatically reported to HP or your preferred authorized
HP support provider. A support case is opened for you, regardless of the time of day. Rather
than spend time finding your support contract information, collecting log files, and logging the
problem, HP (or your authorized HP service partner) will contact you to confirm the event and
verify where to send the part or the service professional. Once the support case is open, you
can go to the Insight Online dashboard to view key event information, such as severity, problem
description, date, and time information, as well as the case status.

Securing your IT information

HP Insight Online collects only system-level data, and all data is sent over encrypted lines.
HP maintains secure databases and protects access to your Insight Online account using
standard username and password credentials.

Choose the right-fit remote support tool

Select from two different options for transmitting hardware failure and diagnostic information
to HP support or to your HP authorized partner. Both choices are integrated with HP Insight
Online and are easy to set up and configure:
• HP Insight Online direct connect allows HP ProLiant Gen8/9 servers and BladeSystem c-Class
enclosures to transmit hardware failure and diagnostic information directly to support
professionals for analysis, case generation, and automated parts replacement at a low cost,
and with no host server required. HP Insight Online direct connect is well suited for small- to
medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and remote sites that need 24x7 remote monitoring and
automatic case creation for their ProLiant servers. Setup for the first device requires less
than 10 minutes to complete, and less than five minutes for each additional device (based
on HP internal estimate).

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• HP Insight Remote Support software uses a central connection to provide similar remote
monitoring, diagnostic, and notification capabilities as HP Insight Online direct connect.
HP Insight Remote Support uses an on premise hosting device to collect data and deliver it
securely to HP. Insight Remote Support 7.x offers some specific capabilities that might be more
suitable for larger IT environments. These features include monitoring:
––Pre-Gen8 HP ProLiant servers
––HP Storage and HP Networking products
––Large IT environments; Insight Remote Support 7.x monitors environments with up to 3,500
IT devices; additional hosting servers can be deployed to monitor larger environments

You can also use Insight Remote Support software to manage one IT environment while using
Insight Online direct connect to manage another, and view the consolidated information from
multiple environments through the HP Insight Online portal.

See table 1 to better understand the scope of features available. Learn more at
hp.com/go/insightonline/info.

Benefits of connecting to HP
Unlock all of the benefits of your technology investment by connecting your HP Servers. A key
element to ensure simplified support is getting your Gen9 and other generations of servers
connected to HP. Achieve up to 77 percent5 reduction in downtime, near 100 percent7 diagnostic
accuracy and a single consolidated view of the IT environment. The benefits of connecting your
server infrastructure to HP include—24x7 monitoring, pre-failure alerts, automatic call logging, and
automatic parts dispatch. HP Proactive Care Services and HP Datacenter Care Service customers
will also benefit from proactive activities to help prevent issues and increase optimization.

Managing servers in a small- to medium-sized business

environment
HP iLO Essentials—grow your business with confidence
Where large enterprises enjoy the luxuries of large IT budgets, longer delivery schedules, and
dedicated IT staff, smaller company owners face a series of constraints.
• Budgets are shrinking, with each dollar carefully scrutinized
• Schedules are growing ever shorter, as smaller businesses attempt to deliver new products
and services before their competition
• Personnel are stretched thin, and they are responsible for multiple disciplines—some of them
outside their area of expertise

With so many business-critical activities to complete, smaller organizations are often forced
to overlook day-to-day server management. While this is completely understandable, lack of
server management can lead to system failures, application downtime, reduced productivity,
and ultimately, lost revenues.

Today, smaller businesses can automate server management using HP iLO Essentials. Designed
specifically for small- to medium-sized companies, HP iLO Essentials is a set of fundamental
capabilities that you can use to overcome the top management challenges you face.
• Increase efficiency—Your IT resource (you or your partner) will enjoy extra time to focus on
revenue-generating activities or build new tools to more efficiently operate your business.
Using iLO Essentials, you can remotely set up and deploy a server, as well as load OS and
ISO images from anywhere, using virtual media for remote software updates and file copies.
––Complete IT maintenance and updates outside production hours, with no effect on normal
business operations
––Provide a better work/life balance for your IT resource

HP CSC reports 2014–2015

7 ––Enable more productive staff members, allowing them to focus on value-added projects

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• Save time and money—With HP iLO Essentials, you receive remote management, monitoring,
and diagnostics capabilities. You can quickly and easily set up/configure/provision a server,
and then deploy it—from any location. In addition, 24x7 monitoring includes your servers and
operating systems.
––Remotely access servers anywhere at any time via a Web browser or mobile device; use a
KVM with a graphical user interface
––Make management mobile; take your business with you using the free HP iLO Mobile App
––Drive down expenses for both travel and unplanned downtime
• Increase productivity and service levels—The HP iLO Mobile App enables you to do everything
you would normally do at your desktop while on the go such as:
––Operate the server power switch
––Use the remote console to interact with the operating system, including changing the BIOS
and ROM configurations
––Mount an ISO CD/DVD image; the disk image is available on the server as a USB CD/DVD drive;
you can boot from the disk image and deploy an operating system
––Launch HP iLO scripts and monitor their progress
––Access the iLO Web interface
––Store the list of servers you want to manage

For more information on iLO Essentials, go to: hp.com/go/ilo/essentials.

Management for hyperscale computing environments

HP Insight Cluster Management Utility
Based on extensive experience delivering high-performance computing (HPC) solutions,
HP developed the HP Insight Cluster Management Utility (Insight CMU). This advanced solution
enables cost-effective, user-friendly, error-free management of high-performance clusters.

Designed for managing a large number of standalone systems, HP Insight CMU is the perfect fit
for HP ProLiant Gen9 servers. HP Insight CMU:
• Enables an at-a-glance, per-server view of your HP ProLiant Gen9 servers
• Manages performance with features for rapidly identifying and addressing intra-node anomalies
• Allows rapid provisioning of software to all nodes of a server
• Provides frictionless, scalable operating environment installation, remote management,
and analytics

Figure 4. HP Insight Cluster Management Utility

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HP iLO Scale-Out
Uniquely designed to meet the requirements of massive scale-out compute environments,
HP iLO Scale-Out provides hassle-free remote management for HP ProLiant SL Gen9 server
platforms. For maximum data center efficiency, you can use HP iLO Scale-Out to:
• Remotely deploy and configure servers anywhere, at any time
––Text console via Secure Shell; these advanced scripting tools redirect text data from the
video chip over a highly secured network
––Serial record and playback saves the output data to iLO memory, enabling you to access the
data later
• Reduce energy costs and reclaim power capacity
––Power management and 24-hour dynamic power capping capability safely limit power usage
without impacting performance by capping peak power usage instead of average usage
• Identify changes and server events as they happen or before
––Email-based alerting provides proactive email notifications before system failures occur
––Remote system log stores a duplicate record of all iLO event history at a remote location

For more information on HP iLO Scale-Out, you can visit: hp.com/go/ilo/scale-out

Choosing the right-fit HP iLO solution

HP iLO Essentials Fundamental server management capabilities designed specifically for smaller
organizations

HP iLO Advanced Smart remote server management functionality without compromise, designed
for distributed enterprise environments

HP iLO Scale-Out Uniquely designed to meet the requirements of massive scale-out compute
environments, such as those used by Web hosting and service providers

Services for infrastructure management

No matter how you choose to manage your server environment, HP Technology Services can
help reduce risk and provide a stable IT infrastructure.
• Design and implementation consulting advice helps you make the right decision for your needs
today and as your IT environment changes.
• Several choices of installation services—from basic installation to tailored implementation
and knowledge transfer—enables your staff to quickly utilize the system management tools.
• Education Services provide easy access to classroom or Web-based training. Get the hands-on
experience you need to learn the features and functions of your HP management software.
• Reduce risk. Stay informed and in control using HP Proactive Care Services as part of your
ProLiant server support. Combining the tools of HP Insight Online with HP support technology,
proactive scans, firmware/software revision report, trend/incident analysis, and advice can
help lower the number of service calls and reduce your unplanned downtime by as much as
77 percent5—helping you achieve greater stability within your data center.

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Education Services for HP Servers

HP is a leading provider of technology training in the marketplace. You have the opportunity to
learn from the very experts who create, manage and enhance HP technologies and are leaders
in supporting open source. Enable your workforce to take the step from using HP Servers to
leveraging it for innovation on behalf of your company. Our trainings can be tailored for each
team member according to specific technologies or ecosystems under their responsibility.

We offer a wide range of training for supporting and managing HP Servers.

HP ProLiant/HP Integrity Servers HP ProLiant Gen9, HP Moonshot, HP Apollo,

HP Integrity Superdome X
Converged infrastructure HP BladeSystem, HP ConvergedSystem
Software-defined management HP OneView, HP Insight Online
and automation
Embedded management iLO, UEFI, PowerShell
Virtualization management HP Virtual Connect, VMware
Operating system Linux, Microsoft
Open source OpenStack

HP Server Management feature comparison

Get the features/functions you need
Your organization has specific needs for server management. Use the table 1 to ensure you purchase the right HP solution to meet those needs.
Please refer to the HP QuickSpecs for specific details on each product.

Table 1. HP Server Management feature comparison

HP Server Management Embedded management Converged management Support management

Built-in intelligence on every Software-defined converged Online dashboard automating
HP server for configuration, management for servers, the converged management
OS install, remote control, storage, and networking support experience
and firmware management (via HP OneView Advanced) (via HP Insight Online)
(via embedded technologies)
Automated support and case management Yes
Contracts, warranty, and service credit management Yes
Direct connect registration with no host server Yes
Channel partner accessible Yes
Network management using HP Virtual Connect Yes
Storage and SAN provisioning Yes
Software-defined flexibility using server profiles, Yes
templates, groups, and sets
Advanced power, thermal, and location management Yes
Collaborative user interface with Smart Search, Yes
Activity View, and Map View
Enterprise partner integrations: VMware vCenter and Yes
Microsoft System Center
Open development platform using REST APIs Yes Yes

Firmware and driver maintenance Yes Yes

Server provisioning configuration replication Yes Yes

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Table 1. HP Server Management feature comparison (continued)

HP Server Management Embedded management Converged management Support management

Built-in intelligence on every Software-defined converged Online dashboard automating
HP server for configuration, management for servers, the converged management
OS install, remote control, storage, and networking support experience
and firmware management (via HP OneView Advanced) (via HP Insight Online)
(via embedded technologies)
Integrated remote console, virtual media, and folders Yes Yes
Record and replay with global collaboration Yes Yes
Virtual power management Yes Yes
Remote serial console (virtual serial port) Yes Yes
Pre-boot health summary and iLO reboot switch Yes
(when server is down)
iLO Federation Yes
Mobile app Yes Yes
Security: Server configurations, encryption, and role-based Yes Yes Yes
Dashboards and downloadable reports Yes Yes Yes
24x7 health, alerts, and notifications Yes Yes Yes

The HP server families Learn more at

hp.com/go/servermanagement
A server for every need
HP understands that when it comes to servers,
one size does not fit all. That’s why we offer
you a comprehensive array of server families,
purpose-built for a wide variety of business needs.

• HP ProLiant rack and tower server family guide

• HP BladeSystem family guide
• HP Moonshot System family guide
• HP Hyperscale solutions family guide
• HP Integrity Servers family guide
• HP Integrity NonStop Server family guide

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© Copyright 2014–2015 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. The only
warranties for HP products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein
should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.
Microsoft and Windows are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies. Intel is a trademark of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and other countries.
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