HP Server Automation complements HP Insight Control to manage HP BladeSystem servers (487616-001, February 2008)

Figure
13
:
Rapid Deployment Pack
Server Automation
—
Software
p
olicies
The system administrator is almost finished with platform setup
.
All that remains is to install the
applications. Server Automation provisioning automates the time
-
consuming process of installing
software on managed servers.
A software policy encapsulates all steps necessary to install, configure,
and
run
an applicati
on. The policy might include other policies, such as those for patch and
application configuration, in addition to the information necessary to install an application package.
Wizards in Server Automation make it easy
for you
to create software policies fo
r each application in
an IT environment.
Before
applying
the software policies,
Server Automation discovers the newly created server
blade
s,
and the HP Server Automation agent is deployed to each one.
After
the server blades
appear as
managed systems,
atta
ch
one or more software policies, as shown in
Figure
14
.
You can assign
p
olicies directly to individual servers or to groups of servers.
Remediation is the step during which
Server Automation compares what is speci
fied in the software policy with what is installed on the
associated system, and
Server Automation
brings the system into compliance with the policy by
installing software or setting configuration values as necessary.
T
he system
is brought
into compliance
when the policy is first attached or scheduled for a later time.
To remove software, detach the policy
from the server
blade
s and remediate again.
If rules are configured to automatically assign server
blade
s to device groups, such as by IP address,
then
the policies associated with those groups are automatically attached to the new server
blade
s.
Installing the applications is as easy as viewing the systems in the Compliance Dashboard and
clicking
Remediate.