HP VMware ESXi management environment integration note

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HP VMware ESXi provider and profile summary
The Insight Providers conform to the Systems Management Architecture for Server Hardware (SMASH)
and Storage Management Initiative Specification (SMI-S) standards. The Insight Providers extend the
CIM data model to provide administrators with information specific to ProLiant platforms. The Insight
Providers collect data from various sources such as drivers and system firmware to populate the data
model. HP SIM 5.3.2 or later provides seamless integration with the Insight Providers for ESXi,
including identification, inventory, event monitoring, and status polling.
ProLiant server information available using VMware’s vSphere client and
vCenter Server
Two versions of management software are also available directly from VMware:
 VMware ESXi includes a client application utility named vSphere client. vSphere client is a system
management program primarily focused on the management of virtual machines on individual
servers with certain hardware management capabilities included. vSphere client uses VMware CIM
providers to retrieve server hardware component information.
 VMware vCenter Server is another VMware management application available from the VMware
website. VMware vCenter Server is a system management program primarily focused on the
management of virtual machines with certain hardware management capabilities included.
VMware vCenter Server is capable of simultaneously managing multiple servers. It uses vSphere
client as its primary user interface to access each server.
Currently, vSphere client can display certain ProLiant server information by retrieving and decoding
data using the standard Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI). However, this interface is
limited and there is more detailed ProLiant server information available that vSphere client may
display incorrectly or not display at all (depending on vSphere client version) due to the HP IPMI
OEM-specific data implementation.
Comparison of HP SIM with HP Insight Providers and
vCenter Server/vSphere Client with VMware providers
The optimum system management environment for HP ProLiant servers is HP SIM with the HP Insight
Providers. This configuration gives HP ProLiant servers a superior set of management capabilities.
Table B-1 in Appendix B provides a side-by-side comparison of the information available in each
environment, sorted by data source.
Managing HP VMware ESXi
With HP VMware ESXi, ProLiant customers can plug new servers directly into their existing VMware
vSphere client environments, while ensuring active hardware management using Insight Providers.
HP VMware ESXi does not provide support for the System Management Homepage (SMH). In place
of SMH, HP SIM should be used to view management information for ProLiant servers running ESXi.
VMware ESXi provides a simplified approach to managing server compute nodes, with a robust set of
standards-based management capabilities. Administrators can also use the integrated remote CLI for
storage, network, and host configuration, as well as for maintenance, patches, and updates. The
automatic configuration capabilities in VMware ESXi provide detection, discovery, and intelligent-
default configuration.
HP VMware ESXi management capabilities are numerous: