Reconfigure iLo network settings using HPONCFG

I recently found myself in a situation where I had rebuilt and shipped a server to a remote office but forgotten to configure the iLo settings. Normally this wouldn't be to big an issue - except A) The IP address and default gateway were pointing to a subnet which no longer existed and B) The HP System Management Homepage wasn't connecting to the agents correctly.


Fortunately the HPONCFG utility came to my rescue. This little tool is installed as part of the ProLiant Support Pack and can be used to make config changes to iLo without the need to reboot. Default install directory = C:\Program Files\HP\hponcfg.


To write the current iLo configuration simply open a cmd prompt and execute the following command:


C:\Program Files\HP\hponcfg>hponcfg /w iLoConfig.xml


To change settings you need to create an xml file containing the parameters you want to change, formatted using the RIBCL language. RIBCL allows you to write XML scripts to configure and manage iLO config settings.


To modify the network settings I created the following script:

NOTE: The USER_LOGIN and PASSWORD tags are required, and must contain data, although any data is accepted.


And then run the script like so:


C:\Program Files\HP\hponcfg>hponcfg /f your_script_name.xml

Troubleshooting HP Systems Insight Manager (HPSIM) High CPU Usage

Scenario:


A service provider monitoring 750+ systems on a single HP SIM box, experiences high (near to 100% or 3GHz) CPU utilization – mainly due to the processes sqlservr.exe and mxdomainmgr.exe. The HP SIM box is in a VMware environment, has 1 vCPU, and – as in all good environments – they don't want to just chuck resource at it - especially as it is only a monitoring box and otherwise works fine albeit a bit slow - but see if some performance optimization can be done.


Resolution:


Optimize the HP SIM Scheduled tasks


1: Log in to HP SIM https://HPSIM Server:50000 with an authorized account
2: From the menu bar → Tasks & Logs → View All Scheduled Tasks...







3: Enable the 'Delete Events Older Than 90 Days' task (by default runs once a week and this is fine)





4: Configure the task 'Hardware Status Polling for non Servers' to poll using the schedule guidelines below


Number of systems -> Hardware Status Polling for non Servers


Less than 250 --> Use default of 30 minutes
250 to 500   --> Change to 1 hour
501 to 2000   -->  Change to 2 hours
2001 to 5000   -->  Change to 4 hours or greater


5: Configure the task 'Hardware Status Polling for Servers' to poll using the schedule guidelines below


Numbers of systems -> Hardware Status Polling for Servers


Less than 250 -> Use default of 5 minutes
250 to 500 -> Change to 15 minutes
501 to 2000 -> Change to 30 minutes
2001 to 5000 -> Change to 1 hour


*These are based on the suggested polling intervals from HP


Note: The tasks should be configured so there is no crossover - don't have both running at the same time
The chart below shows CPU usage before and after the changes.







Postscript:


i: Even though this was for HP SIM 5.3, this similarly applies to other versions of HP SIM – HP SIM 5.X, HP SIM 6.X ….


ii: The service provider in question runs 5 Insight boxes, managed by different internal teams, monitoring over 2500 systems.


iii: Semi-related - if operators report the web ui is slow, try disabling script scanning from the workstations anti-virus (at least for the internet browser process)