Administrator's and User's Guide for SFM HP-UX 11i v3 September 2012

1 Introduction
The System Fault Management (SFM) supports HP Integrity Superdome 2 (HP Superdome 2), Intel
Itanium 9500 Processor Series based servers, HP Integrity BL860c i2, BL870c i2 & BL890c i2
Server Blades, and rx2800 i2 in addition to other HP Integrity Servers. All the features supported
on systems running the HP-UX 11i v3 operating system are available for HP Integrity Servers.
This chapter introduces you to the System Fault Management (SFM) software and the tools that
SFM includes.
The chapter discusses the following topics:
• “Overview” (page 7)
• “Features and benefits” (page 7)
• “Components of SFM” (page 9)
• “User interfaces” (page 16)
• “Architecture” (page 16)
Overview
The SFM software is a collection of tools used to monitor the health of HP servers running HP-UX
that report hardware errors and take corrective measures, where applicable, to ensure availability
and reliability of the server. The SFM retrieves information about a system’s hardware devices such
as CPU, memory, power supply, and cooling devices. SFM operates within the Web-Based
Enterprise Management (WBEM) environment.
WBEM is an industry-wide standards-based initiative to aid the management of large scale systems.
HP-UX WBEM environment has the following components:
• A WBEM infrastructure, such as HP WBEM services. SFM uses the Common Information Model
Object Manager (CIMOM) WBEM service to route query requests and responses between
WBEM providers and clients. Clients must be compliant with the Common Information Model
(CIM) (2.8 or later) schema of the Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF).
• A WBEM-based network management application, such as the HP Systems Insight Manager
(HP SIM) and HP System Management Homepage (HP SMH), a user interface for controlling
and monitoring resources within a large-scale system. SFM can use HP SIM to display query
information for local systems.
• WBEM providers that obtain information. SFM includes instance and indication providers,
which are one set of WBEM providers among many. SFM providers query and provide system
hardware property and event information.
You must be familiar with WBEM technology before reading this guide. For more information on
WBEM technology, see the HP WBEM Services for HP-UX and Linux System Administrator's Guide
and HP WBEM Services Release Notes at:
http://www.hp.com/go/hpux-networking-docs
Features and benefits
SFM dynamically queries property information about a hardware device on a local system. It offers
the following features and benefits:
• Displays information on standards-compliant graphical and command-line system management
applications, such as HP SIM and HP SMH.
• Operates within the WBEM environment.
• Supports the Central Management Server (CMS) running on HP-UX, Linux®, or Windows®.
Overview 7