Getting Started with HP Systems Insight Manager 7.0 or Greater in a Smaller Windows Environment

Additional Systems Insight Manager capabilities

Systems Insight Manager provides a rich set of functionality to enhance management of your IT

environment. After you have completed the basic setup described in this document, you can

implement additional capabilities. For more information, see the HP Systems Insight Manager User

Guide at

http://www.hp.com/go/insightmanagement/sim/docs.

Version Control

Version Control can save time and support costs by ensuring the consistency of your server system

software. Systems Insight Manager catalogs HP system software such as BIOS, system drivers, Insight

Management Agents, HP utilities, and firmware on managed systems, and compares them to the latest

available from HP or with a standard baseline set that you define. The system software and the

baseline definitions are stored in a Version Control Repository on the CMS. You can configure the HP

Version Control Repository Manager (HP VCRM) to automatically retrieve the latest software and

firmware from

http://hp.com. You can also configure systems to compare installed software with that in

a selected baseline set. Systems Insight Manager alerts you of discrepancies so that you can use

Systems Insight Manager to schedule an update of a system or groups of systems. For more

information, see the HP Systems Insight Manager User Guide at

http://www.hp.com/go/insightmanagement/sim/docs. For more information regarding Version Control,

see the manuals at

http://h18013.www1.hp.com/products/servers/management/agents/documentation.html.

Note:

This paper describes how to install and populate the Version Control

Repository Manager to assist in the initial deployment of the ProLiant

Support Pack for Windows to multiple managed systems. To learn how to

set up version control in its entirety, see the HP Systems Insight Manager

User Guide.

Reporting

Systems Insight Manager collects comprehensive system data, enabling you to quickly produce

detailed inventory reports on an ad-hoc or regular basis. Reports can be saved in HTML, XML, or

exported to a CSV file. Systems Insight Manager can assist in identifying systems that might need CPU

or memory upgrades before migrating to the latest operating system. For more information, see the HP

Systems Insight Manager User Guide at

http://www.hp.com/go/insightmanagement/sim/docs or on the

Management CD.

Tool definition files

Tool definition files enable you to launch tools on a managed system from the Systems Insight

Manager menu. Tool definition files are useful if you have developed your own scripts or in-house

applications to assist in administrative tasks. Tool definition files are simple XML documents that

describe the type of tool to be run, such as command line or web launch, and the title and location of

the new menu item. A tool definition file can also specify any restrictions such as device filters or

operating system filters. For more information, see the HP Systems Insight Manager User Guide at

http://www.hp.com/go/insightmanagement/sim/docs.