PowerGUI – HP Virtual Connect Power Pack
Synopsis:
This PowerPack extends PowerGUI with a set of folders, nodes, links and actions that allow you to manage HP Virtual Connect Modules used in the c class blade chassis. The powerpack utilises the ssh command line tool plink to administer the virtual connect remotely and securely. The thick client experience gives an administrator more power to customise day-to-day tasks when compared with the standard web interface. Using the methods demonstrated in this pack, an administrator can customise actions to suit their environment and ease the burden around supporting Vitrual Connect Domains.
Requirements:
Powershell V2
Putty Plink.exe in the system path (Can be downloaded from http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html ). It is necessary to make a manual connection with putty or plink to the host in order to store the host key.
Quest have a modified version of Putty/Plink that can automatically store the host key. This is generally not recommended due to the security implications however it may be suitable for certain secure internal networks (http://rc.quest.com/downloads.php?project=PuTTY ). All the scripts call the shared script function 'run-plink' and there is a commented example of using Quest's Plink with the auto_store_key_in_cache switch.
How to install:
1. Download the HPVC Powerpack attached to this article
2. Run PowerGUI
3. In PowerGUI, select File, PowerPack Management and then Import
4. Expand the "Virtual Connect" node and select "Managed VCs" to add a VC. Double click the new host to cache the password and activate the connection.
5. You are now set to navigate the nodes and explore your VC.
Supported features:
The powerpack is able to configure practically all aspects of the virtual connect domain. The comprehensive shared script makes use of advanced functions to turn the ssh text output into .net objects which can be easily manipulated. The shared script can also be placed in a module for use on the command line as well as within PowerGUI. The Virtual Connect command line reference can be found at http://bizsupport1.austin.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c02180008/c02180008.pdf. The pack has been used against firmware 2.31 and 3.11.
Below is a partial list of the supported features and several screenshots of the powerpack in action.
• Configure Networks, uplink sets and server profiles
• Create, edit and delete users
• Configure LDAP settings for authentication
• View and edit SNMP settings
• View and configure uplink ports and check statistics
• Power on & off servers
• View system log
Revision history:
November 15, 2010
Initial Release 1.0.0.1
Credits
Thanks to the VMWare Powerpack which I used as the basis for the "Managed VCs" node.
What is virtual connect? http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/blades/virtualconnect/infrastructure.html
Virtual Connect is technology that rethinks how blade servers are connected to your LAN and SAN and brings benefits to everyone involved. It reduces cables and saves work for everybody—server, LAN and SAN administrators. And because you’ve virtualized the connections to the outside world, you can make changes without impacting other systems—or other departments.
Virtual Connect Flex-10 technology builds even more flexibility into each server blade to add 4x more NICs without more hardware, fine-tune bandwidth of each connection and cut network hardware costs up to 75%. Virtual Connect is the right technology at the right time to transform your infrastructure and uncover its full potential.
Virtual Connect Ethernet and Fibre Channel modules are interconnect options for HP BladeSystem c3000 and c7000 enclosures used in place of conventional pass-thru or managed switch modules. They abstract and pool the server-edge connections so they look like NICs and HBAs to the external LAN and SAN. This allows server administrators to independently manage server blades and their connectivity to, so you can maintain high-availability connections throughout your server racks as you securely administer Media Access Control (MAC) addresses and World Wide Names (WWN) for each server.
With HP Virtual Connect, you can connect and pre-assign all of the LAN MAC addresses and SAN WWNs that the server pool might ever need—at the same time that you wire the rack and enclosures. With Virtual Connect Flex-10 technology, you choose how many NICs are on each server and set the bandwidth of each NIC in increments of 100 Mb. Then, when each server blade is installed, the server administrator can quickly assign whatever LAN and SAN connections are needed for that server. No more coordinating with LAN and SAN administrators or waiting for them to be available. It , saves time, frees LAN/SAN resources, and gives your server administrator the ultimate flexibility to do what’s needed, when it’s needed.
If the server administrator needs to move that profile to a different bay, it’s done with a mouse click. If he needs to change the network connections on a profile, again, it is done with a few mouse clicks. Failing over to a spare server, moving a server from a development environment to a test environment (with different LAN and SAN connections), or moving a group of servers to a different application sub-network happens with a few mouse clicks by the server administrator.
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