HP Insight Control for Linux 7.1 Installation Guide

• Pre-execution Environment (PXE) for booting
1
• HTTP/HTTPS
• rsync
• Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP)
• Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP)
All systems, routers, and firewalls involved in Insight Control for Linux communication must be
configured not to block this traffic. Table 9 (page 22) lists the inbound network ports on the CMS
that must be open on a firewall.
The OS deployment features of Insight Control for Linux do not communicate through proxy servers
and require direct network connectivity between the CMS and the managed systems.
In addition, the OS deployment features of Insight Control for Linux require that managed systems
use DHCP if they are booted through PXE.
You must have administrative access to your DHCP server because Insight Control for Linux requires
specific DHCP options, which are described later in this chapter. If the managed systems are not
on the same subnet as the CMS, you must configure your routers to pass DHCP requests to your
server.
4.1.3 Networking best practices
DHCP is not a requirement for Insight Control for Linux if you are using virtual media to boot
managed systems. However, if you are using DHCP, the dynamic and unpredictable nature of
DHCP can cause a variety of usability and reliability issues in Systems Insight Manager and Insight
Control for Linux if it is not configured correctly.
If you are using DHCP to PXE boot managed systems, Systems Insight Manager and Insight Control
for Linux work best when all managed systems have predictable and permanent IP addresses and
those IP addresses translate properly into host names, either in DNS or in the /etc/hosts file.
For this reason, HP recommends that, as a best practice, you configure your DHCP server to simulate
static addressing by manually coding each server's MAC address and IP address into the DHCP
configuration. In addition, HP recommends translating those hard coded addresses into valid host
names either in DNS or in a local /etc/hosts file.
HP also recommends that all possible name resolution sources agree for the CMS host name. This
means that DNS, the hostname command, the /etc/hosts file, and the option host-name
entries in the /etc/dhcp.conf file must return the same result for the CMS host name. Otherwise,
some tools might be inconsistent.
NOTE: The option host-name entries are optional in the dhcp.conf file and are not required
by Insight Control for Linux.
More information about networking best practices is provided throughout this chapter.
IMPORTANT: Several security implications exist if you choose to have the CMS manage nodes
from a NIC that is accessible from the Internet. HP does not recommend this configuration. If you
choose to use this configuration, be sure to take strong network precautions to protect the ports
opened by Insight Control for Linux and the services listening on them, such as using a firewall
and an intrusion detection system.
4.2 Supported network configurations
Insight Control for Linux works within a variety of network configurations. But, there are some
architectural dependencies that must be met to enable the CMS to properly discover, deploy, and
manage the HP ProLiant servers in your environment.
28 Configuring the network