Network Management Center Blog : Network Automation

Fault and Performance management webinar with Analyst, Customer and HP

aruna13 — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 17:18:00 GMT

Hello,

Listen to an on-demand webinar where leading consumer customer, analyst Jim Metzler, and HP discuss integration of fault and performance management, discuss some of the relevant best practices, while identifying some of the key features in Hp's integrated fault and performance management solution. The panelists on the Webcast present three different perspectives – that of an industry analyst, a senior IT manager and HP's view on network management solutions.

Webinar recording:

· http://www.accelacomm.com/jaw/cli_NMCBlog/7/50673494/

Thanks
Aruna Ravichandran

The Next Big Automation Language

jd.brennan — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 17:40:00 GMT

From my perspective as a software developer, it looks like JavaScript is going to be the next big language for automation scripting. Perl is probably still the most popular scripting language on the planet, but it doesn't play well in the Java ecosystem which has become the standard platform for enterprise applications (including Network Automation and Network Node Manager).

The leading contenders for scripting languages in the Java world are Rhino (JavaScript), JRuby, Jython (Python) and Groovy. Since JavaScript has been the language of the browser for years, it seems well positioned to be the next big language. JavaScript has become my language of choice for accessing the Network Automation Java API.

What languages are you using for automation scripting? What do you see as the next big language? You should share your thoughts in the comments. Thanks!

Use case for ESX vSwitch policy compliance

steliodalo — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 06:46:00 GMT

I’ve been asked a few times now for an example of what some network engineers are doing with our HP Network Automation ESX driver. What kinds of things might you want to do with the vSwitch, which is not a very complex switch? How could the example I used earlier, CDP being turned off, happen when it’s policy to have it turned on for all switches, and you use cool NCCM automation like you have with HP NA to check configurations for policy compliance before they’re deployed?

What if the server admin chose to have it turned off when ESX was being tested in the lab, which really wouldn’t matter, but then that vSwitch configuration was not changed for the production servers? Now the vSwitches have CDP turned off. That won’t show up as an issue because you can’t see the devices when you run your compliance checks. But every vSwitch is out of compliance, and can’t be discovered using CDP. Double trouble. With HP NA you can discover the devices, test active configurations against policy, and then autoremediate. I just spoke to a customer that routinely rolls out 20-40 servers temporarily at month’s end to handle peak application load for one of their applications. Those are tens of vSwitches coming into and out of production over the course of a week or so for that one application, every month. For that period of time, the network team has no visibility into them coming or going, or what state they’re in while they are in production. And if there’s a performance issue, those devices, which connect to the physical network via physical NICs, come and go. How would you like to debug that performance issue?

Let’s go one step further. Wouldn’t it be cool if the ESX servers were managed by a server automation (SA) product with heterogeneous platform support that integrated with the network automation (NA) product with broad device support, so that SA could notify NA when the VMs were deployed. NA would bring them under management, run policy checks, auto remediate issues, and update a shared compliance dashboard? That would be data center automation. Shameless plug: hp.com/go/DCA. And if the NA product were integrated with fault, performance and IT process automation, then that would provide single-screen full network management automation. Another shameless plug: hp.com/go/ANLM. Why do I shamelessly plug our wares? Because the more I talk to network geeks, the more I hear that they had no idea how far we’ve come.

Cost Optimization “Top 10” Video

steliodalo — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 23:46:00 GMT

He’s back. This time, comic genius and Director of Solutions Marketing, Mark Leake, interviews Mark Ferrer, Head of Worldwide Sales for HP Software & Solutions. They give 10 ways to optimize costs using HP Software.

The video includes cameo appearances from two screen legends.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8BQ7beniqY

NNMi integration with HP System Insight Manager ( HP SIM)

aruna13 — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 04:40:00 GMT

Hi,

I have had several questions lately asking about the integration between NNMi and HP System Insight Manager.

The HP NNMi–HP SIM integration provides actions for accessing several SIM tool from the NNMi console. Wit this integration,

NNMi users can detect and investigate potential network problems for HP ProLiant servers and storage devices.

Detailed documentation outlining this integration can be found in our latest version of deployment and configuration guide at:

http://support.openview.hp.com/selfsolve/document/KM763632/binary/nnmi_deployment_guide_81x_p5.pdf .

Read chapter à Integrations and Plug-ins à HP System Insight Manager

Thanks,
Aruna Ravichandran
Sr. Product Marketing Manager
Network Management Center,
HP Software
aru@hp.com

HP NNMi–HP Network Automation Integration – Fault, Availability, Change and Configuration Management from a single pane of glass

aruna13 — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 22:31:00 GMT

Did you know that The HP NNMi–HP Network Automation (NA) integration combines NA’s configuration change detection capabilities with NNMi’s network monitoring capabilities, placing more information at your fingertips when problems occur?

Without exiting NNMi, you can connect to NA to view information about NA-managed devices and configuration change events. While in NA, you can perform any NA functions for which you have the necessary credentials.

The HP NNMi–HP NA integration adds configuration menu items for opening connections to NA. The integration also adds menu items for viewing configuration information on devices managed by NA. These tools provide the following functionality:

• View detailed device information, including vendor, model, modules, operating system version, and recent diagnostic results.

• View device configuration changes and configuration history.

• Compare configurations (typically the most recent and last previous configurations) to see what changed, why, and who made the changes.

• View device compliance information.

• Run NA diagnostics and command scripts from NNMi nodes.

• (NNM iSPI NET) Detect connections with mismatched speed or duplex configurations.

Value

• Alarm integration—NNMi integration communicates NA configuration change information to the NNMi console, enabling you to quickly identify whether configuration changes may have caused network problems. From within NNMi, you can quickly access NA functionality to view specific configuration changes anddevice information, identify who made the change, and roll back to the previous configuration to restore network operation. Because a majority of network outages are caused by device configuration errors, this feature can enhance both problem identification and response time in resolving network downtime.

• Access to NA configuration history from NNMi—In the NNMi console, a device-level menu provides access to NA features for reviewing configuration changes. For any device in the NA database, this feature displays configuration changes side-by-side so that you can easily view changes. You can also view configuration history.

• Operations efficiency—Network operations personnel can monitor and investigate information from two data sources within a single screen.

Supported Versions

• NA version 7.50 or higher with the latest consolidated patch

• NNMi version 8.11 or higher on the Windows, Linux, or Solaris operating system Only

HP Software Network Management goes to Interop, Las Vegas with ProCurve Networking next week

Michael_Procopio — Wed, 13 May 2009 16:16:00 GMT

by Aruna Ravichandran

HP's Network Management Center (NMC) products, Network Node Manager i software (NNMi) along with Network Automation, will be showcased on the exposition floor at Interop, happening next week from May 18 – 22nd in Las Vegas, Nevada. We will be showcased at the HP booth (booth # 1319) along with Procurve Networking. We would love for you to stop by and give us an opportunity to demo our NMC products.

The Interop conference URL is http://www.interop.com/lasvegas , or visit the fun HP-ProCurve microsite for Interop at http://tinyurl.com/dcxy32 .

The HP Software Network Management center crew (Aruna, Darren, Doug, Stelio, Darren) would love to chat with you, so please stop by!

Network Automation connects to the CMDB

Michael_Procopio — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 17:11:00 GMT

We recently got some questions on the post Network Automation 7.5 reporting for duty.

How would HP NA integrate with a CMDB like BMC Atrium?

You have two different options. You could build the integration with your own tools using the Network Automation (NA) API(s) or access data directly out of the database. We publish the APIs and the database schema so that you can access the data that you need to import into a CMDB. The other option would be to leverage our SAR (Server Automation Reporter) product. It mines data from NA and stores it in its database for long-term storage and reporting. It includes connectors for various CMDBs so that it can feed HP uCMDB or other vendors products.

If NA can discover components on a network, can it supply the information about CI's to a CMDB?

Yes, NA captures very detailed asset and configuration information from network devices that can be fed into a CMDB. We have a number of customer that have implemented a similar solution.

Thanks to Darren Burton of the Business Service Automation team for answering the questions.

Related information:

Network Automation Software - demos, webinars, analysts papers and more here
Server Automation Reporter - datasheet
Automated Network Lifecycle Management - this site has large set of whitepapers and analysts papers on the broader topic
Universal Configuration Management Database (uCMDB) - demos, webinars, analysts papers and more here

Gartner gives HP Network Automation highest possible rating of Strong Positive

Michael_Procopio — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 00:27:00 GMT

by Stelio D'Alo

Network change and configuration management (NCCM) matters. That’s what network engineering teams are telling us. And when we check back with them, they often describe to us how the investment in our automation software paid for itself in months. I mention this because it’s a topic that everyone I talk to has on their mind: which IT software investments are safe bets? One of the reasons they are able to get that kind of ROI is because, they tell me, our app is easy to install and fast to become productive with, in part due to the browser-based GUI. More and more customers are starting to use HP NA (Network Automation) with HP NNMi (Network Node Manager i) and/or HP OO (Operations Orchestration) (see the Automated Network Lifecycle Management page hp.com/go/ANLM for additional material). As referenced in the Gartner report, the trend is towards linking Network Engineering to Network Operations and the rest of IT. Change management can be a pain , or it can be something that helps reduce mundane work and steal back some time to do those things that matter more. “Currently, NCCM tends to be a discipline unto itself, but in the future, it must increasingly be considered part of the configuration and change management processes for an end-to-end IT service and viewed as an enabler for the real-time infrastructure (RTI). This will require participation in the strategic, companywide change management process (usually implemented through the IT service desk tools) and integration with configuration management tools for other technologies, such as servers and storage.” Gartner MarketScope for Network Configuration and Change Management G00162055,Debra Curtis, David Williams, 21 November 2008*. You can access this report from our website on the HP Network Automation page under the +Analysts link, hp.com/go/NAsoftware. What’s your experience? Have you saved a ton of time with HP Network Automation software? If you have, and are willing to share an example, we’d love to hear from you.

I’m Stelio D’Alo a senior marketing manager for the Business Service Automation solution from HP Software. My background encompasses more than 20 years of industry experience in the fields of data center automation, enterprise software and telecommunications systems in Canada, Europe and the United States. I work with HP teams, including HP Partners, that help companies automate their data center operations with solutions including HP Network Automation, HP Network Node Manager and HP Operations Orchestration software.

*The MarketScope is copyrighted 21 November 2008 by Gartner, Inc. and is reused with permission. The MarketScope is an evaluation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner's analysis of how certain vendors measure against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the MarketScope, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest rating. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose

NNMi / NNMi Advanced / NNM iSPI Performance patch available has new functionality

Michael_Procopio — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 03:58:00 GMT

Network Node Manager i (NNMi) 8.11 is now available. This applies to NNMi, NNMi Advanced and NNM iSPI Performance. In addition to a variety of defect fixes, we have included some new functionality. All of the new functionality is turned off by default, so check the docs to see how to turn on what you want.

Some of this functionality may have been discussed before but for completeness…

• Custom poller collection (NNMi NNMi Advanced) – this allows you to pick an OID you would like to poll and set a threshold. You can also define the state of the OID based on a returned value and have that state reflected on the node and/or create incidents. This is useful if you have some special metric you want to monitor and be alerted when it goes off your norm.

We had many requests for this functionality. There is a new doc just for this called - Online Help: Custom Poller for Administrators. In addition, a whitepaper called - NNMi Step-by-Step Guide to Using the NNMi Custom Poller White Paper. You can find these at the same place as all the manuals at the Selfsolve site.

• Application Level Failover (NNMi, NNMi Advanced) – this is the ability to have a backup NNMi system monitor the primary and assume polling et al if the primary is unavailable. This is useful when your organization doesn’t use a cluster technology for failover. Read the post on Application Level Failover

• Enhanced Network Automation Integration (NNMi, NNMi Advanced) – this includes a variety of integration capabilities but there is one I think is really cool – automated duplex mismatch detection. (Note this requires the iSPI Network Engineering Tool Kit).

• MyBSM Integration (NNMi, NNMi Advanced, NNM iSPI for Performance). What is MyBSM? It is portal in our BAC (Business Availability Center) product. NNMi and iSPI Performance windows are now also portlets that are usable by the MyBSM portal. In addition, you can create new portlets.

• Enhanced Performance Insight integration (NNM iSPI for Performance) – this is near and dear to my heart as I was previously the product manager for both these products. In NNMi 8.10, device metrics were added to iSPI Performance. However, the existing Datapipe that brings information from iSPI Performance to Performance Insight only brought interface data over. Now device metrics move to Performance Insight and are shown in the Device Resources reports.

• LDAP support - Support for users, passwords and roles from an enterprise directory service through Active Directory.

• Alcatel Device Support

• Migration tools to help you migrate from 6.x/7.x to 8.x

nnmmigration.ovpl - Runs on the NNM 6.x/7.x system and calls several other migration tools
nnmtrapdload.ovpl - Imports NNM 6.x/7.x trapd.conf definitions as Incident configurations. See the nnmtrapdload.ovpl reference page
nnmmibmigration.ovpl - Imports the MIB definitions from the NNM 7.x snmpmib file.
snmpCapture.ovpl - Lists the NNM 6.x/7.x community strings.
nnmmapmigration.ovpl - Runs on the NNM 6.x/7.x system to gather node group and background information about the NNM 6.x/7.x location submaps for one OVW map

You can find the patches at http://support.openview.hp.com/selfsolve/patches - Search for NNM810W_00002 (updated)

For the Network Management Center Michael Procopio, LinkedIn.com/in/mjprocopio

Join the other conversations

Operations - hp.com/go/ITOpsBlog

Business Service Management - hp.com/go/BSMblog

HP Network Automation 7.5 reporting for duty

Michael_Procopio — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 05:28:00 GMT

by Stelio D’Alo

Hi, and thanks for checking out my first post. I’d like to introduce you to a relatively new member of the HP network management software family, HP Network Automation software, a network change, configuration and compliance management application.

What is HP Network Automation software (HP NA)?

Many of you will have known it as Opsware Network Automation System, or Opsware NAS.

I’m often asked by NNM customers if HP NA can replace NNM. The answer is a definite no, because they offer related, but different capabilities. HP NA is a companion to NNMi and many other HP software applications. HP NA is an integrated part of both the integrated data center automation solution in the HP Business Service Automation suite as well as integrated with HP NNMi software. Whereas NNMi software is our latest network management solution, HP NA is a network change and configuration management, or NCCM, product. The two get along famously, and actually have little overlap in features.

NNMi + NA deliver network lifecycle management for Operators and Network Engineers. You can start with either product and add the other later, or start with both. You can even install both products on a single server for many network environments.

What’s the latest version?

HP Network Automation 7.5 is the latest release, and includes many new customer-driven capabilities, including

• Advanced bare metal and template based provisioning
• VLAN templates and virtual device drivers ease server virtualization management
• Advanced Multi-tenancy support for Managed Service Providers
• Additional NNMi integrations

What this means:

• It helps you automate the rollout and management of cloud infrastructures
• New features specifically for those of you who are Managed Service Providers
• Faster provisioning of new network devices and virtualized infrastructures
• We have drivers for Cisco Call Manager, extending coverage for VoIP
• GUI based Network Driver Studio allows you to develop your own drivers

Basically, we have increased what we can automate for you. Provisioning, visibility into what devices are in your network and how they’re configured; and compliance/policy enforcement is what NA is all about. The more we automate the faster you can do your job the more you save. One of my favorite user stories is about the network engineers in a customer that automated to the point they started getting to take most of their weekends off for the first time in a long time. Now that’s the kind of thing we like to hear about. And the additions to the integration with NNMi provides more functions via a “single pane of glass”

Want more?

I’ll be back with more information on this software, and NA usage to realize incredible ROI. In the meantime, please visit us at hp.com/go/NAsoftware.

I’m Stelio D’Alo a senior marketing manager for the Business Service Automation solution from HP Software. My background encompasses more than 20 years of industry experience in the fields of data center automation, enterprise software and telecommunications systems in Canada, Europe and the United States. I have presented at numerous events worldwide, and am currently focused on working with organizations that are automating their data center operations with solutions including HP Network Automation, HP Network Node Manager and HP Operations Orchestration software.

Screenshot: NNM can launch directly to an NA configuration differences screen

HP Software Universe and the big announcements

Michael_Procopio — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 15:49:00 GMT

HP Software Universe is in Vienna, Austria this week.

We have a number of announcements we will make there this week in Business Availability Center, Business Service Automation, Operations Center, Service Center and uCMDB. The title of the news advisory is HP Unveils New Software Solutions for Better IT Operations Management.

Announcements

The Network Management Center (NMC) is announcing version 8.10 of NNMi, NNMi Advanced, a set of Smart Plug-ins and a number of new integrations. NMC is also part of the Better Business Service Management announcement.

NNMi v8.10 adds a number of features:

Advanced map support - hierarchical container views built from node groups
Thresholding on device metrics such as CPU and memory. Also checking status on items such as fans and power supplies
iSPI Performance also adds reporting on device metrics
Path View is enhanced to support integration (NNMi Advanced only) with HP Route Analytics software (RAMS). This shows directional equal cost multi-paths
Support for application level failover. This adds to the high availability support using cluster technology.
A new version of AlarmPoint, 4.0, is shipping in the box with NNMi 8.10
And an advanced version of NNMi with the creative name NNMi Advanced - which adds HP RAMS integration and support for virtualized networks: HSRP, VRRP and aggregated ports

Also announced are a set of new add-ons called Smart Plug-ins or iSPIs:

iSPI Network Engineering Toolkit - provides troubleshooting help. An embedded run time version of Operations Orchestration with run-books we wrote. A Find command to 1/ find where a host is connected to the network given an IP address, host name or MAC address and 2/ find all hosts connected to a switch. Trap analytics to help tune the management environment.
iSPI IP Telephony - discovery and management of Cisco and Nortel IP Telephony
iSPI Multi-protocol Label Switching (MPLS) - discovery and management of MPLS including L3 VPNs, L2 VPNs and Traffic Engineered (TE) tunnels
iSPI IP Multicast - discovery and management of IP Multicast networks

And new integrations:

With HP RAMS for alerts and Path View in NNMi Advanced only
With HP Network Automation - synch of community strings, Access Control Lists (ACLs) and the like. Notification of maintenance windows so that NNMi won't send alerts during scheduled downtime.
With uCMDB - first NNMi becomes the authoritative source of network CIs. Also, NNMi can query uCMDB to find out which services the selected object rely on. This allows the operator to know, prior to taking a device offline, which important services might be impacted.
With Operations Manager - bidirectional sync of incidents. This and the uCMDB integration together allow all for complete ITIL closed loop incident process
With Real User Monitor (RUM) - to determine if an application slowdown RUM detected is more likely to be the network or not

All of this together is what we are calling Automated Network Lifecycle Management that I covered in the last post.

The connection with RUM is a part of Application Aware Network Management (AANM). Our integration with NetScout's nGenius is also part of AANM.

For more information on all of the above, go to the Automated Network Management Lifecycle page.

Vienna

The Network Management Center is also on the demo floor at HP Software Universe Vienna. The NMC training sessions are:

Tuesday, December 9^th

TS-TU-1700/2 HP Network Node Manager i-series: Ready for Primetime, a deep dive presentation

- Pete Zwetkof, Product Manager NNMi

- Larry Besaw, R&D Architect NNMi

Wednesday, December 10^th

TS-WE-1015/5 Automated Network Lifecycle Management Technical Blueprint

- Pete Zwetkof, Product Manager NNMi

TS-WE-1515/A HP Network Management Center Advanced Workshop

- Pete Zwetkof, Product Manager NNMi

Thursday, December 11^th

TS-TH-0900/8 HP Network Node Manager i-series: deployment, migration and optimization

- Kevin Smith, R&D Engineer NNMi

BS-TH-1500/1 Users like simplicity; serve them through automated operations

- Thomas Edberg, HP

- Lars Erik Gjervan, NetCom, Norway

This post is getting long so I will end for now but I'll have additional posts on Vienna and the products later.

For the Network Management Center - Michael Procopio

Salt Lake City UT ANLM seminar

Michael_Procopio — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 22:08:00 GMT

If you are in the Salt Lake City, UT, area please join us for a seminar. We are doing this with our partner Greenlight Group. We will be covering the HP Automated Network Lifecycle Management (ANLM) solution. The event is this Thursday 11 Dec 2008; the invite is here.

I haven't covered ANLM yet in the blog so let me provide some background.

The product most folks know us for is Network Node Manager, no surprise - it has been around for 15 years. But we have done a lot more since NNM came out, even beyond the NNMi re-write. The integration of these other products are what we call ANLM.

We built a Smart Plug-in for NNMi called the iSPI for Performance; it provides unified fault and performance. It collects interface and device metrics and reports on them. The "so what" about this iSPI is it can show you the performance information on the NNMi map and a in a path view.

We have a product called HP Route Analytics software or RAMS. This product connects to the network like a router. It listens to and records the router-to-router messages. With this information, RAMS can show a complete network, detect changes in real time and do "what if" analysis

We purchased Opsware and got NAS, now called HP Network Automation (NA). This is a network change and configuration management (NCCM) system. As part of ANLM, we have a tight integration between NNMi and NA.

We also got Opsware Process Automation, now called HP Operations Orchestration (OO). This is IT process automation (or Run-book automation) software. We have built a Smart Plug-in for NNMi called iSPI for Network Engineering Toolkit (iSPI NET) that uses an embedded version to OO to implement run-books for troubleshooting network problems.

HP Performance Insight reporting software has been around for a while and integrates with NNMi as well.

HP Universal Configuration Management Database (uCMDB) came from a combination of organic investment and acquisitions. The integration with NNMi makes NNMi the authoritative source of network Configurations Items (CIs) and allows NNMi to determine the potential impact of a network device on an upper level service (ex: order entry).

NNMi is also integrated with HP Business Availability Center's Real User Monitor and Operations Manager (formerly OVO). The connection with Real User Monitor allows the detection of an application slowdown to directly launch an NNMi path view to see the performance along the path. This quickly tells the operator this is likely a network problem or likely not a network problem providing faster problem isolation.

These are all the components that make up ANLM; we will be talking about how their integration helps folks do a better job managing their networks at reduced cost and showing demonstrations. I'll do a post next week on how the event went.

For the Network Management Center - Michael Procopio