

               H E W L E T T - P A C K A R D  C O M P A N Y

               HP NIC Agents for VMware ESX Server 2.5 and 3.0

                               Version 7.6.0
                                July 13, 2006


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1.  Introduction

2.  Documentation Updates and Corrections

3.  Known Issues

4.  Installation
    4.1  Before installation
    4.2  Installing the HP NIC Agents
    4.3  After installation

5.  Bug Fixes/New Features

6.  Supported Products


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1.  Introduction

    This HP NIC Agents software release contains the SNMP Network Interface 
    Card Agents and related files that enable Linux to support the NIC 
    reporting features of Insight Manager 7.


2.  Documentation Updates and Corrections

    None.


3.  Known Issues

    1) The NIC agents will not recognize network configuration changes,
       such as adding or removing an interface from a network team, until 
       a full poll duration has passed. For information to be consistent 
       between all agents after a configuration change, a full poll cycle 
       must pass for each agent - poll times can be different for each
       agent. See poll_time later in this document for details on the 
       polling duration of the NIC agents.

    2) The NIC agents link status traps are to notify system administrators
       of link transitions. Some drivers don't distinguish between a
       initial link status message and link transition messages.
       The NIC agents monitor for network driver messages containing
       "ethN: NIC Link is UP" and "ethN: NIC Link is DOWN" as initial 
       startup messages, and "ethN: NIC Link is Up",
       "ethN: NIC Link is Down", "ethN: NIC Link is up", and 
       "ethN: NIC Link is down" as link state transitions. Some drivers,
       such as the tg3, don't distinguish between the initial link status 
       and link transitions - the driver logs "...link up...", and
       "...link down...". The NIC agents also scan for those strings
       for complete coverage of the HP supported NICs.

    3) Network interfaces must be named eth0 through ethN, network bonds
       (teams) must be named bond0 through bondN, and VLAN interfaces
       must be named ethN.X or bondN.X (N is the interface number and X 
       is the VLAN tag).
       
    4) Link status traps forwarded from RIB/iLO don't contain the IpAddress
       field, while traps sent directly from the NIC agents do.



4.  Installation

    4.1 Before installation

        1) The HP NIC Agents require:
               - HP ProLiant Advanced Server Management Package, 
                 version 7.6.0, (hpasm-7.6.0-x)

               - VMware ESX Server 2.5 and 3.0

               - HP tested and supported NIC drivers for ProLiant servers from
                 http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/servers/linux/
                 softwaredrivers.html

               If using network teaming (bonding), the tested and supported
               bonding driver available from
               http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/servers/linux/
               softwaredrivers.html must be used.

               If using VLANs, the tested and supported 8021q driver available 
               from http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/servers/linux/
               softwaredrivers.html must be used.

        2) The HP NIC Agents are configured to start at the same runlevels 
           as the snmpd daemon. Ensure the snmpd daemon is configured to 
           start at the desired runlevels before installing the HP NIC Agents, 
           otherwise the HP NIC Agents will need to be manually configured 
           after installation using chkconfig or a similar utility.

    4.2 Installing the HP NIC Agents

        Use following command to install or upgrade HP NIC Agents:

        # rpm -Uvh cmanic-7.6.0-5.vmware.linux.rpm


    4.3 After installation

        a. The HP NIC Agents are configured to start at the same runlevels 
           as the snmpd daemon. To start the NIC agent immediately after 
           installation, enter the following command:

           # /etc/init.d/cmanic start

        b. The latest HP tested and supported NIC drivers for ProLiant servers
           that have been tested with this agent should be downloaded from
           http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/servers/linux/
           softwaredrivers.html.

        c. The following command line arguments can be passed to cmanicd from 
           the /opt/compaq/nic/etc/cmanicd script:
 
           -p poll_time specifies the number of seconds between data 
              caching/poll intervals. NIC drivers are only queried when a 
              request comes in and the cached information is older than the 
              specified poll interval. The default value is 20 seconds. The 
              minimum poll time is 10 seconds.
 
           -s set_state specifies whether SNMP set commands are allowed for 
              this agent. A set_state of OK (default) means that SNMP set 
              commands are allowed. A set_state of NOT_OK means that SNMP set 
              commands are not allowed.
 
           -t trap_state specifies whether the NIC agent is allowed to send 
              traps. A trap_state of OK (default) indicates the NIC agent may 
              send SNMP traps. A trap_state of NOT_OK means that NIC agent is 
              not allowed to send traps.

           -U <string> specifies the string that the NIC agent should look
              for to generate link UP trap. The NIC agent always generates
              Link UP traps on seeing "Link is Up" string in the driver logs.
              This option can be used to specify additional strings that the
              NIC agent should look for to generate link UP trap.

           -D <string> specifies the string that the NIC agent should look
              for to generate link DOWN trap. The NIC agent always generates
              Link DOWN traps on seeing "Link is DOWN" string in the driver
	      logs. This option can be used to specify additional strings
	      that the NIC agent should look for to generate link DOWN trap.

           For example, to set the poll interval to 30 seconds and prevent 
           traps one would change PFLAGS= to PFLAGS="-p30 -t NOT_OK" in the 
           /opt/compaq/nic/etc/cmanicd script. The resource control script to 
           start the cmanicd daemon is cmanic (/etc/init.d/cmanic).

	   The /opt/compaq/nic/etc/cmanicd script takes care of passing
	   "-U" and "-D" option depending on the value of UPSTRING
	   and DOWNSTRING shell variables.

	   In order to pass "-U" command line option one would change
	   UPSTRING= to UPSTRING="Link is UP" in the
	   /opt/compaq/nic/etc/cmanicd script.

	   In order to pass "-D" command line option one would change
	   DOWNSTRING= to DOWNSTRING="Link is DOWN" in the
	   /opt/compaq/nic/etc/cmanicd script.

5.  Bug Fixes/New Features

     Added support for NC325m, NC326m and NC360Tn


6.  Supported Products

    Refer to the "Linux Server Certification Matrix" at 
    http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/servers/linux/hplinuxcert.html 
    for a complete list of HP ProLiant servers that have been tested with
    VMware ESX Server 2.5 and 3.0.


    Use of this software on equipment not specifically tested by HP may
    produce unreliable or undesirable results. HP does not warrant the 
    fitness or compatibility of this software on untested hardware.

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