What are the benefits of using HP Insight control environment?

Insight control environment is a suite of services that allow you to manage, deploy and optimize power in your HP infrastructure (HP ProLiant ML/DL 300,500 and 700 series servers and HP BladeSystem infrastructure).

Insight Control software uses an integrated installer to deploy and configure HP Systems Insight Manager (HP SIM) and essential infrastructure management software rapidly and consistently. These solutions deliver complete management for HP ProLiant and BladeSystem servers and infrastructure. HP Insight Control brings a single, consistent management environment for rapid deployment of the operating system and hardware configuration.

HP Insight Control also includes full capabilities to migrate complete servers (both physical and virtual) to new server (both virtual and physical), supporting conversion from physical to virtual and vice-versa and conversion between virtualization platforms from various vendors. In addition, Insight Control provides proactive health and performance monitoring, power management, performance analysis, lights-out remote management, and virtual machine management for HP ProLiant ML/DL 300,500 and 700 series servers and HP BladeSystem infrastructure.

Insight Control also extends the functionality of Microsoft® System Center and VMware vCenter Server™ by providing seamless integration of the unique ProLiant and BladeSystem manageability features into Microsoft System Center and VMware vCenter Server management consoles.

Insight Control includes several important functionalities:

HP Insight Control remote management, featuring iLO Advanced
This provides comprehensive lights-out remote management capabilities for ProLiant servers, including high-performance virtual KVM for routine and emergency remote administration, remote access to server power control and event logs, virtual media for simple deployment and update of remote servers, and single server power measurement and regulation.

HP Insight Control helps distributed IT teams effectively collaborate to solve complex IT problems. The shared console capability allows up to four team members to view and share control of a single virtual KVM session. In addition "console replay" captures and saves screen video to enable review of failure sequences and easily document complex configuration administrative tasks.

Key remote management features:

• Provides embedded hardware Graphical Remote Console capabilities that can turn a supported browser into a virtual desktop, giving the user full control over the display, keyboard, and mouse of the host server. The operating system-independent console supports graphic modes that display remote host server activities, such as shutdown and startup operations. It works with a standard browser and no additional software is required on the remote server or client system.

• The USB-based Virtual Media feature allows an IT administrator to boot the remote server using a standard 1.44-MB diskette on the client machine, a DVD/CD drive or USB flash drive on the client machine, or the image of a floppy diskette or DVD/CD from anywhere on the client's network. After the remote server has booted a USB-capable operating system (e.g., Windows® 2000, Windows 2003, or Red Hat Linux 7.2), the virtual device or ISO 9660 image is available as if it were a local USB device. The Virtual Media features save time and increase efficiency by eliminating the need to visit the remote server just to insert and use a diskette or DVD/CD. This feature allows administrators to carry out any of the following functions remotely from an applet user interface, command line or script.

• Integrates with enterprise-class directory services to provide secure, scalable, and cost effective user management. Directory services, such as Microsoft Active Directory and Novell eDirectory, can be used to authorize directory users with assigned user roles to Integrated Lights-Out (iLO) processors. With Active Directory, customers have the flexibility to integrate with or without a schema extension. An easy and reliable installation program is available to install a management console snap-in and extend customer's existing directory schema to enable directory support for the HP lights-out management products. A directory migration tool is available to automate setup for both methods of integration. Also supports the Active Directory nested groups feature.

• Provides advanced user authentication with two-factor authentication using digital certificates embedded on smartcards or USB flash drives. Using this form of strong authentication, iLO access can be restricted only to IT individuals possessing a certificate bearing smartcard or flash drive and a PIN.

• Integrates with Microsoft Terminal Services to provide a high-performance graphical remote console by automatically or manually switching to Microsoft Terminal Services when the operating system is fully loaded and available on the host system. When the operating system is not operational, continues to provide its secure, hardware-based Lights-Out console for end-to-end remote access to the host server. In addition, the Microsoft Terminal Services session is routed through the management network interface to improve production network security.

• Provides enhanced initial HP BladeSystem configuration and setup using the familiar Lights-Out interface. An embedded wizard guides users through initial Lights-Out, blade server and operating system configuration and installation including integrated activation of Virtual Media using the appropriate media such as SmartStart and OS DVDs or ISO 9660 images. In addition, Insight Control remote management automatically renders an HP BladeSystem rack image for easy point and click navigation between blades and enclosures within a single rack.

Insight Control remote management, which incorporates iLO Advanced, supports the latest iLO 3 release for a select grouping of HP ProLiant server platforms. Users of HP iLO 3 (version 1.05) can enjoy the following enhancements:

• Support for the next generation of HP ProLiant servers
• Faster Remote Console incorporating the newest technologies
• 3x Faster Virtual Media for ProLiant ML/DL series servers
• Launch URL or scriptable Virtual Media from Remote Console
• Streamlined user interface using Web 2.0 technologies
• AES (in addition to RC4) encryption in hardware for improved performance

HP Insight Control power management
HP insight control power managment is an integrated power monitoring and management application that provides centralized monitoring and control of datacenter power consumption and thermal output. This software solution provides new energy instrumentation levers into HP Systems Insight Manager for greater Unified Infrastructure Management, and is compatible with any operating system residing on the managed server. Insight Control power management provides efficient and effective tools needed to increase the capacity of your datacenter by reducing power and cooling requirements of ProLiant servers to an amount that accurately reflects the workload of your server. Built upon ProLiant Power Regulator technology it provides performance when you need it, and cost savings when you don't.

Key power management features:

• Provides a central location where power and thermal data for tens, hundreds, or thousands of servers may be viewed and managed.

• Limiting the server(s) power consumption to an average level, power capping can be set to minimize overall power consumption and heat output.

• Data Center Power Control is a new feature within Insight Control Power Management that allows customers to reduce their energy costs and take control of their power and cooling during catastrophic events. Customers set pre-defined rules to handle power and cooling rules. These rules act selectively on systems based on attributes and relationships to gracefully shutdown the OS or change iLO power regulator state. In addition customers can take control over their energy usage and power down non-essential servers during peak hours.

• Integration with facilities management software allows customers to do their planning on actual power data instead of estimates. Information from facilities management software will be imported into Insight Control power management allowing us to provide an electrical inventory along with load data.

• Discovery of metered PDU's allowing Insight Control power management the ability to measure power consumption for a heterogeneous environment. Includes the capability to monitor leading non-HP power distribution units (PDUs).

• Dynamic Power Capping represents a significant advancement in power management. Unlike previous power capping technologies Dynamic Power Capping will safely limit power usage with no performance degradation and without risk to electrical infrastructure. For single rack servers, power caps applied via the iLO management processor will limit power usage to a specific Watt or BTU/hr level. For enclosures of blades, users will set an enclosure level power cap, and the Onboard Administrator will dynamically adjust individual server power caps based on their specific power requirements. By capping power usage at historical peak power usage instead of significantly higher face-plate, ROM burn, or power calculator default values, IT organizations can fit up to 36% more servers in their existing rack infrastructure.

• Intelligent Power Discovery enables visualization of datacenter thermals with the management of mixed environments, with automatic detection of wiring errors and automatic updates for electrical inventory. Discovery capabilities have been enhanced with 'outlet control', which enables the intelligent power distribution units (PDUs) to manage each outlet where a device is plugged in - for enhanced power monitoring with remote control from Insight Control.

• Each graph has an Analysis dashboard that summarizes key information for the selected server(s). The data displayed varies for each graph and includes total power consumed in kWh, the estimated costs of powering and cooling the selected server(s) and the estimated costs saved through the use of policy-management based on HP's Power Regulator technology.

• Insight Control power management supports taking action on the selected server(s). Insight Control can change the HP Power Regulator settings on a single server or on multiple servers all at once. These actions may be executed immediately or scheduled to occur at a future time or on a recurring basis. Action scheduling can be used to set time-based power policies on single servers as well as collections of servers.

Insight Control performance management
HP Insight Control detects, analyzes, and explains hardware bottlenecks on HP ProLiant servers. HP Insight Control provides the tools you need to receive proactive notification of building bottleneck conditions, and debug existing performance issues. The performance information is analyzed to determine if there is a building or existing performance bottleneck issue. You can interactively display this information, log the information to a database for later analysis or reporting, and set up proactive notification using the HP Systems Insight Manager notification mechanism.

Key performance management features:

• Monitors the hardware performance continuously, compares it with known performances capabilities of each component and determines, in real time, what components are experiencing performance issues.

• Creates events when the performance state of a server changes. Insight Control detects these changes early, displaying a warning before an actual bottleneck happens.

• Provides an interactive, online debugging tool that can be used in real time to understand and correct performance issues. The tool provides precise indications of what the issue is, why it is of concern, and what can be done about it. Features such as real-time performance graphing allow system administrators to decide whether an issue needs to be addressed immediately or corrective actions can wait.

• Can be configured to log server performance data. This data can later be extracted and replayed in offline analysis just as if the user was sitting in front of the server when the performance issue happened. When used in conjunction with the dynamic performance graphing and altering features, administrators can determine if an off-hours performance issue needs to be addressed immediately or corrective steps can be put off until normal business hours.

• Analyzes the configuration of server components and determines if the server configuration contains potentially problematic configurations. Potential issues such as PCI bus imbalance, SCSI drives operating at reduced speed, and inactive network ports are detected and reported.

• Supplies a summary report that shows the percentage of time the server was in a bottleneck state or near-bottleneck state and overall performance utilization for a system broken down by its subsystems combined with a complete inventory report of that server.

• Supports performance monitoring and analyses of select MSA shared storage devices. This functionality provides full drill-down capabilities from a server to attached shared storage devices, and from there "drill-up" to the attached servers.

Insight Control server deployment
HP Insight Control offers a complete deployment solution for HP servers. Insight Control automates the process of deploying and provisioning server software, enabling companies to quickly and easily adapt to changing business demands. Insight Control server deployment includes the ProLiant Integration Module (PIM) and Integrity Integration Module (IIM) which consist of software optimizations for HP servers, including the HP scripting toolkits, configuration jobs for industry-standard leading operating systems, sample unattended files, and HP server support packs that include software drivers, management agents, and important documentation. Deploying servers can be accomplished either through imaging or through scripting. Insight Control supports deploying Windows, Linux, VMware ESX and Microsoft Hyper-V systems.

Key server deployment features:

• Provides a fast, easy, drag-and-drop solution for deploying standard server configurations and software builds in an automated fashion from a remote console

• Simplifies automated server deployment allowing companies to rapidly respond to changing workloads

• Improves overall consistency of configurations across multiple servers

• Establishes virtual presence and control for server deployments and redeployments within the data center or at remote locations, eliminating the need for IT personnel to be physically present

• Reduces IT resource requirements during large-scale deployments

• Provides scripts developed, tested, and supported by HP to enable rapid deployment of HP servers

• The ProLiant Integration Module provides latest versions of the SmartStart Scripting Toolkit, HP optimized drivers and management agents pre-loaded in the deployment console

• HP supplied deployment events and scripts, using SmartStart technology, maximize productivity -by automating the process of server configuration and software deployment - driving world-class levels of IT efficiency and decreasing the Total Cost of Ownership

• Operating System integration is a snap with HP supplied configuration events for both Microsoft Windows and Linux further simplifying the initial OS deployment and driver integration steps all in an automated fashion

• Supports SAN Boot or SAN Attach deployment on ProLiant BL servers and select ProLiant DL servers.

HP BladeSystem deployment optimizations:

• Enables rapid serviceability with Rip-and-Replace features. Pre-failure alerts enable proactive replacement of blade servers for service. New blades automatically assume personality of previous server based on location in enclosure and rack.

• Blade servers are easy to identify by physical location in racks - blades are displayed with easy to understand icons of rack, enclosure, bay

• With Virtual Rack, Enclosure, Bay features, users can now assign an event to be executed the first time a blade is inserted into the bay. The user will have the ability to create a virtual enclosure and its associated virtual bays via a console interface and the ability to associate a single event with the bays of the enclosure when they are created.

Insight Control server migration
HP Insight Control makes it easy to upgrade or replace your existing server, or to implement virtualization. HP Insight Control enables you to replicate your well-functioning, but under-performing or over-provisioned server to a new physical or virtual server in an automated, accurate and affordable way.

Key server migration features:

• Perform Physical-to-ProLiant (P2P), Virtual-to-ProLiant (V2P), Physical-to-Virtual (P2V), or Virtual-to-Virtual (V2V) migrations from a single integrated user interface

• Supports Migrations from any x86/x64 server regardless of vendor to the latest HP ProLiant or BladeSystem server technologies

• Source can be any x86/x64 server with a supported OS or a supported VM-type

• Destination can be a supported HP ProLiant or BladeSystem server or a supported virtual machine

• Heterogeneous virtualization platform support: Ability to migrate between virtualization platforms; VMware ESX, Microsoft Hyper-V and Citrix XenServer

• Automates the migration of the OS, application and data from an existing physical server or virtual machine to a new ProLiant server or virtual machine. Manual steps required to do the migration are eliminated. Automatically install the latest PSP when migrating to a ProLiant server (P2ProLiant or V2ProLiant).

• The extremely intuitive user interface enables migration to be kicked off with no prior training required.

• The source server is always available just the way it was running before the migration since no additional drivers are installed on the source server. No modification to the source server ensures a consistent image between source and destination.

• Having no source device driver dependency enables the migration of any x86/x64 source server running a supported operating system.

• Match availability of drive space on the destination server by excluding drives and partitions and/or resizing NTFS partitions during the migration. The size of the NTFS partitions may be increased or decreased.

• Tried and tested with the correct destination device drivers for all supported destination servers.

• Support for migrations in a SAN environment when migrating to HP BladeSystem c-Class, including migrating servers from direct attach storage to boot from SAN.

Insight Control virtual machine management
The HP Insight Control significantly extends HP Systems Insight Manager (HP SIM) capabilities to manage virtual machines. HP Insight Control seamlessly merges hardware and heterogeneous virtualization management of VMware ESX, Microsoft Hyper-V, Citrix XenServer, and Xen (on RHEL & SLES environments) virtual machines

Insight Control enables you to get the most out of a unified physical and virtual server infrastructure. Insight Control offers the only-out-of-the-box solution that can receive a predictive failure alert and automatically evacuate all VMs from a VMware ESX host server by initiating VMware DRS.

Key virtual machine management features:

• Provides associations between virtual machines and physical host and integration into a single console and enables all tasks to be run from the Insight Control console, leveraging existing discovery, identification and notification processes.

• Provides control functions for virtual machines in VMware ESX, Microsoft Hyper-V, Citrix XenServer and Xen on RHEL & SLES from a central console that allows users to manage virtual machines in a consistent manner irrespective of virtualization layer.

• Provides start, stop, pause, reset, move, copy, backup, create template and restore functions for VMs remotely from the Insight Control console.

• Flexible move capabilities allow multiple usage scenarios. In high-availability situations that do not allow service interruptions, Live Move (initiate VMware vMotion technology from Insight Control - requires VMware vCenter) can be used (for VMware ESX hosts only). Where flexibility is required to execute fast moves between dissimilar host hardware, SAN-based fast move can be enabled (VMware ESX hosts only).

• In high-availability situations, quick move capabilities can be used for HP integrated Citrix XenServer 5.0 or above (resource pool environment only) and Microsoft Hyper-V (MSCS clusters only).

• Where the VM Host is not connected to a SAN, a file-copy move can be used.

• Enable Failed Host Recovery situations by assigning alternate hosts to VMs. If host fails, quickly restart VM on new host.

• Make informed decisions on workload optimization with "at a glance" single view of virtual machine and associated host server performance. Set usage thresholds for CPU, memory, and disk usage and proactively receive alerts in SIM when thresholds are exceeded and take corrective action.

• Automatically respond to predictive hardware failures on VMware ESX host servers by relocating VMs before a server fails, reducing downtime.

• Launch VMware vCenter or Microsoft System Centre Virtual Machine Manager from Insight Control to perform tasks as needed. View VMware ESX host cluster and resource pool properties from VMware vCenter in the Insight Control console.

• Collect events from VMware ESX and VMware vCenter to use HP Insight Control as your central event consolidation and alerting tool.

• Enables the safe and orderly shutdown of VMware ESX hosts when the VMware's DPM has freed up a VMware ESX host to shut down for power saving purposes.

For more information on HP insight control, its features and what it can do for you please do not hesiate to contact me