ISS Technology Update, Volume 7 Number 3 - Newsletter

ISS Technology Update Volume 7, Number 3
7
Enhancing setup and usability in HP Systems Insight Manager 5.2
About HP SIM
HP Systems Insight Manager (HP SIM) 5.2, released in February 2008, represents a significant milestone in the continuing
evolution of the product. Although HP SIM 5.2 includes some new features and support, the primary focus for this release was
to greatly expand the product’s ease-of-use. This effort included making significant changes to the configuration process as well
as creating new organizational tools that make it easier for the user to perform important tasks such as managing
communications and launching tools.
Improving HP SIM configuration – enhancements to the First Time Wizard and to the
Configure and Repair Agents tool
With the introduction of HP SIM 5.2, the role of the First Time Wizard has been expanded beyond that of simple discovery to
include enhancements that help the user set up and configure many of the HP SIM options, including new options that
streamline the program’s interface:
• Selecting Managed Environment. This option allows the user to configure Insight Manager for only those operating systems
that will be managed. The HP SIM interface is then streamlined to remove any menus, collections, or reports that are not
needed.
• Configuring Managed Systems. The First Time Wizard now runs a subset of the full “Configure or Repair Agents” tool
immediately after initial discovery in order to allow configuration of events monitoring, SSH access, and trust relationships for
the managed systems.
In addition to these changes, the full Configure and Repair Agents tool has also been enhanced. For Windows-based systems,
users can now use this tool to both install and configure the required software agents needed to manage the systems, rather
than having to perform these tasks separately as in the past.
New Manage Communications tool
HP SIM 5.2 also introduces the Manage Communications tool, which makes it easier to manage communications between
systems and the HP SIM central management server. As shown in Figure 3-1, Manage Communications provides a single
location that displays the status of key communication pathways to the selected systems being managed:
• Identification (WBEM, SNMP, and so on)
• Events subscriptions
• Run Tools (SSH and trust configuration)
• Version Control configuration (Windows and Linux only)