PCM+ Agent with ONE zl Module Installation and Getting Started Guide 2009-11

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Getting Started
Overview
with ONE zl Module (J9496A) ships with the HP ProCurve PCM+ Agent
Application pre-installed on a ProCurve ONE Services zl Module. If you
already have a ProCurve ONE Services zl Module, you install the HP ProCurve
PCM+ Agent Application to run on it. In this guide, a ProCurve ONE Services
zl Module running the HP ProCurve PCM+ Agent Application is referred to as
a PCM+ Agent Module.
Deploying PCM+ Agents
Starting with PCM+ 3.0, Agents now manage network devices and communi-
cate their status to the Server, while supplying policies and configuration
information from the Server to the network devices. Using Agents to manage
specific parts of your network allows improved granularity of control at each
location, and increased efficiency, while maintaining centralized network
management.
A local Agent is the Agent that resides on the PCM+ 3.0 (and later) Server. All
other PCM+ Agents are remote Agents. Adding a remote Agent to your
network is determined by several factors:
■ The number of devices to be managed.
■ The location of the devices to be managed. With a remote Agent, time-
based policies can be configured to execute at a time that is optimal for
the location of the Agent and its managed devices.
■ The location of firewalls in your network.
■ Network management decisions on what devices a network administrator
can view and manage.
Initiating Communication
By default, thePCM+ Agent Module waits for a PCM+3.10 Server to initiate
communication, using the default Agent settings (for more information, see
“Configuring and Managing Agents” in the HP ProCurve Manager Network
Administrator's Guide Version 3.10). When an Agent is installed behind a
firewall, the network administrator faces some difficult decisions about
whether to allow management traffic such as SNMP, Telnet, HTTP to penetrate
the firewall from the outside. Using an Agent-initiated connection can solve
this problem. Opening the connection from an Agent inside a stateful firewall
will ensure that information can flow bi-directionally over its session with the
PCM+ Server.