HP DL360 HP VMware ESXi management environment - Page 2

Abstract VMware virtualization technology has changed the computing landscape, transforming IT infrastructure with market-leading virtual machine products. VMware ESXi is a next-generation thin architecture, providing an efficient foundation for building a dynamic, automated data center. HP has tightly integrated ESXi into ProLiant platforms, simplifying virtualization deployments. Introduction VMware ESXi is a "thin" architecture that removes the traditional console OS, improving reliability by eliminating many common security vulnerabilities. The HP integrated VMware ESXi ultra-thin hypervisor software is shipped on a USB key pre-installed in the internal USB port of the HP ProLiant server. The system boots directly from the USB key, so new servers are ready to run VMware ESXi right out of the box, providing greater speed and simplicity for customers new to virtualization. A menu-driven interface eases host configuration and setup for VMware ESXi. This method of distributing virtualization technology removes time-consuming installation steps, simplifies host configuration, and increases capacity expansion for customers who already use VMware's data center virtualization and management suite, VMware Infrastructure (VI). HP integrated VMware ESXi provides seamless, out-of-the box integration with HP Systems Insight Manager (HP SIM), the industry's only unified storage and server management platform. HP Systems Insight Manager 5.2, and later, software incorporates user-friendly features and an improved installation process, and it supports association and discovery for VMware ESXi. Enhanced hardware alerting and inventory management allows customers to actively receive information about the health of their ProLiant servers. This enables companies to eliminate risk, lower potential costs, and resolve server problems before they result in actual downtime. HP implementation of WBEM in ESXi On its own, VMware ESXi provides a simplified approach to managing server compute nodes with a robust set of standards-based management capabilities, freeing the administrator from day-to-day tasks. Administrators can also use the integrated remote command line interface (CLI) for storage, network, and host configuration, as well as for maintenance, patches and updates. VMware ESXi includes several key management components and approaches: • Remote Command Line Interface (Remote CLI) • Industry-standard monitoring protocols such as the Common Information Model (CIM) • Independent Software Vendor (ISV) solutions that leverage standard interfaces, the VI application program interface (API) and VMware Consolidated Backup HP adds to the manageability of VMware ESXi by integrating this thin architecture within ProLiant platforms, delivering active management and consolidated lifecycle management for a consistent, reliable experience. The integrated ESXi hypervisor incorporates HP Insight Management Web-based Enterprise Management (WBEM) providers. WBEM providers use the CIM standard to represent systems, networks, applications, devices, and other managed components in an object-oriented fashion. HP based its HP Insight Management WBEM Providers on the SMASH and SMI-S standards,1 extending those data models as necessary to support features specific to ProLiant platforms. HP Insight Management WBEM Providers (Insight Providers) are pre-installed along with integrated VMware ESXi on the internal USB key to provide active hardware management using HP SIM. These 1More information about CIM, Systems Management Architecture for Server Hardware (SMASH), and Storage Management Initiative Specification (SMI-S) is available in Appendix A. 2