Linux best practices using HP Service Pack for ProLiant (SPP) and Software Delivery Repository (SDR)

At this time, with the exception of NIC drivers, we provide Linux drivers in binary RPM Package Manager (RPM) format.

The binary RPM have the file extension .rpm and typically have either kmp or kmod in the filename. The NIC drivers

are available as source RPMs and have the file extension src.rpm.

If obtained from the SDR, you can compile the binary RPMs on a “build machine,” and then distribute them to the target

servers. The compilation takes place on the build machine so the target server does not need the compilation

environment. Before updating NIC drivers using the SPP, the target server must include the compilation environment.

The RPMs contain the dependency requirement definitions. This facilitates the creation of a SPP RPM repository.

In the future, we will transition all SUSE Linux Enterprise Server and Red Hat Enterprise Linux drivers to the Kernel

Module Package (KMP) format, delivering binary RPM packages, which will simplify driver installation and support as you

upgrade the kernel on the target server.

For details about the compilation environment, see the SPP Release Notes.

For details about using the dependency-resolving installation tool, see the

Getting Started Guide. You can configure your

target system to use the SDR or to mirror the SDR, and then perform your installation from your local copy of the

repository.

Using a script to install the SDR components

We recommend using the HP script, bootstrap.sh to simplify the process of configuring your target system. Once

created, you can transport the configuration to other similar systems and distribute it through normal configuration

management processes.

After modifying your target system to point to the SDR, use the distribution-specific installation tool to install the

components. For example, to install the health agents on the latest Red Hat Enterprise Linux system, type:

yum install hp-health

If needed, and assuming your target system has access to the Linux distribution through other configured repositories,

any needed dependencies for the HP components should get automatically resolved. After installing the components,

you can configure them as necessary for your environment.

To configure SNMP, run the script:

hpsnmpconfig

hpsnmpconfig modifies the configuration file /etc/snmp/snmpd.conf, which you can then copy to other servers.

For details about using the dependency-resolving installation tool, including the download for the bootstrap.sh

script, see the Getting Started Guide.

Using HP SUM as an RPM package

In addition to getting the HP SUM deliverable from the /hp/swpackages directory on the SPP, you can also find

hpsum-*.rpm in native RPM format on the SDR. There is a version of the hpsum-*.rpm for each supported OS and

architecture type.

Since the SDR is a yum-based repository, you can search for the HP SUM package:

yum search hpsum

Or, immediately install it by executing the following command:

yum install hpsum

Since the SDR is web based, you can browse and download the package manually, and then utilize the RPM to perform

the install by executing the following command:

rpm –Uvh hpsum-5.1.0-<version>.<OS>.i386.rpm

There is a plugin for YUM that enables you to download HP SUM or an RPM package without performing an installation.

In order to utilize this functionality, you must install the following package:

yum-downloadonly

To install the downloadonly package, use the YUM command:

yum install yum-downloadonly