Understanding HP SIM’s Federated Search Architecture Technology brief Introduction ......................................................................................................................................... 2 Federated CMS ................................................................................................................................... 2 Implementing a Federated Search ..........................................................................................................
Introduction Federated Search is a component of HP Systems Insight Manager (HP SIM). Federated Search became available with the introduction of HP SIM 6.30 in April 2011. It enables concurrent multiple Central Management Server (CMS) searches, such as static inventory data and installed software. Prior to HP SIM 6.30, a single CMS performed searches for systems it managed such as servers, switches, Online Administrators (OAs), and iLO management processors.
Figure 1: This is an example of a distributed Federated CMS setup in a large enterprise company where each CMS manages the maximum HP recommended number of servers. In this example, the federated search would return 20,000 servers in addition to other systems, such as iLO management processors and switches.
NOTE: It is possible to override the default behavior and to use a fixed user account (for example, adminCMS1) to view all systems. For security reasons, HP does not recommend using fixed user accounts. Queries to each CMS return data only from systems that your user account is allowed to view. For example, John Smith logs into the main CMS with his user account, jsmith. The account jsmith has authorizations to view only certain systems on remote CMSes.
Figure 2: CMS users search for information about systems managed by the main and remote CMSes. = a system jsmith mjohnson Main CMS Remote CMS C Remote CMS A Remote CMS B jsmith jsmith mjohnson mjohnson jsmith mjohnson Configuring a Federated CMS Before you begin the configuration process, decide which CMS will be the main CMS. Figures 3 through 5 illustrate the steps to configure a Federated CMS.
The Federated CMS Configuration tool retrieves the CMS SSL certificate from the remote CMS (Figure 4). 1. The Federated CMS Configuration tool contacts the remote CMS. 2. The remote CMS returns its certificate. 3. You view and accept it, and the certificate installs on the main CMS. Figure 4: The Federated CMS Configuration tool retrieves the certificate from the remote CMS. Next, you must update the remote CMS to accept the main CMS security certificate (Figure 5). 1. Enter your user name and password.
Figure 6: This is a list of Federated CMSes available to search. Clear the checkbox of the CMSes you do not want to include in the search. Search criteria can contain system filters (for example, name, status, system type, and product) and software filters (for example, version). The federated search aggregates information returned from the remote CMSes and removes duplicate systems. You can export the returned list of systems to CSV files for more complex analysis; otherwise, the data is not saved.
Figure 7: In this example, search criteria include system filters. The information returned from the search is in the bottom section of the screen. Click Export to CSV to save the information to a CSV file.
Conclusion In the past, you were limited in your efforts to manage inventory companywide. You could only manage software and hardware inventories at the local CMS for systems it managed. Configuring a Federated CMS solves this problem by enabling searches across multiple CMSes from a main CMS. Setting up a Federated CMS in any environment with distributed CMSes is easy and secure. Send comments about this paper to TechCom@HP.com. Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/ISSGeekatHP.
