Big Dave's Dream IT Contracts! [LONDON]

HPOM v9 Config Sync Issue Workaround

I saw an issue the other day that suggested the automatic configuration synchronisation between primary and DR HPOM v9 management servers (using opccfgsync) wasn't working entirely as HP have documented.

We had a space issue on a DR server and on closer examination I saw that despite the config being copied across as expected, the cleanup variables (as described in the Admin Ref guide) were being ignored).  Subsequently, the old sync files were not being deleted and therefore the filesystem was filling up.

On investigation into the sync logfiles, I noticed a couple of errors listed in some files, so my theory is that because of this error the sync process just flips out and doesn't exit cleanly and continue with the cleanup operation.  You'd think there would be an error reported, but no.  Especially when I was running the sync as part of an HPOM schedule policy.

After a lot of head scratching, I eventually started playing with the scenario file and tweaking the original one suggested by HP to not include various settings, just to see if that made any difference.

Bingo!

In the end by omitting the FORWARDING_MANAGER and RESPONSIBLE_MANAGER lines (I am guessing the names as I am not in the office now) that worked and the config was copied (as indeed it seemed to have been anyway), but critically, the housekeeping now worked as designed and the number of sync files reduced to 3, deleting all of the older ones (as I wanted).

Hurrah!

Hope this helps anyone else having issues with the sync process & housekeeping.  If you have any questions just fire me a message or check me out on FB at https://www.facebook.com/EnterpriseMonitoring

All the best,

Dave Gerrish

www.protocolsoftware.com - new website coming soon

twitter - @openview

HP OMi 10 Demo and Overview

HPOM Migration to OMi - Preparation

Just starting to take a look at OMi to plan migration from HPOM v9 - looks like a completely different and re-worked front-end.

First thing I need to do is work out all the main priorities before I can plan this in more detail - for example working out where the equivalent config items from HPOM v9 are in OMi - then I can check where functionality has been superseded in the new tool, or where any rework is required.

I have a rough plan jotted down already, so will share this with you in due course.

If you've migrated to OMi I'd appreciate your views on approach/problems etc., or if you are considering the migration yourself please sign-up and then I can keep you updated as to progress, and hopefully help you out also!

Have a great day,
Dave

Synchronising 2 NNMi Servers (Production and DR)

Synchronising 2 NNMi servers is not simple and straightforward as you would hope/expect.

Unlike HPOM (OML) for example, where you can simple download configuration and upload it again (or in the case of v9.2+ where you can automatically synchronise 2 systems), NNMi doesn't have a neat way to achieve this.

The situation is over complicated with the 2 database options used by NNMi - Oracle and the embedded Postgres database.

According to HP, the Postgres/embedded version has better options for exporting and importing the data to a 2nd server for DR purposes, but using Oracle the solution is far from simple or elegant.  I can't even get a clearly-defined process from HP support which is worrying.

At the moment I am experimenting with the export and import tools, which seems to cover all of the config settings, but at the moment it's reporting errors importing the trap definitions into the DR NNMi server.  This is critical of course, because if the DR server doesn't have the correct trap definitions configured then the alerts won't look the same on the server if we failover or go into DR (disaster recovery) mode.

I'm working with HP support to resolve this, but once again it highlights the poor development of these tools and the lack of adequate and sufficient error reporting.

I'll let you know how I get on.

Dave

NNMi Auto-trimming of Events

Something that caught me out recently was that NNMi has a hard limit of 100,000 alerts.

HP support couldn't give me a definitive answer on what happens when that limit is reached, and experience tells me NNMi doesn't seem to handle this very well, and we have witnessed alerts being dropped rather than some form of round-robin, drop the oldest type functionality...

So, you should definitely configure the NNMi auto-trimming of events functionality as described here.  I have no idea why HP don't have this set in the GUI, or on by default...

This example is on linux:

cd /var/opt/OV/shared/nnm/conf/props

 vi nms-jboss.properties

Uncomment the following line, or copy as I have done, and set to TrimOnly - you can set the archive mode also, just check the required setting and manual to be sure

#!com.hp.nnm.events.snmpTrapAutoTrimSetting=Disabled

com.hp.nnm.events.snmpTrapAutoTrimSetting=TrimOnly

Then set the % of alerts (of the 100k limit) at which the trim operation should start:

#!com.hp.nnm.events.snmpTrapAutoTrimStartPercentage=50

com.hp.nnm.events.snmpTrapAutoTrimStartPercentage=50

Then set the % of alerts to delete during the trim:

#!com.hp.nnm.events.snmpTrapAutoTrimPercentageToDelete=25

com.hp.nnm.events.snmpTrapAutoTrimPercentageToDelete=50

Then run ovstop / ovstart to make the functionality live.

  

Summary:

100k is the hard limit...

Therefore this process starts trimming at 50% (50k)...

It will trim 50% of the alerts, therefore down from 50k to 25k…

Therefore event levels should always be between 25-50k.

That's what I have seen in testing anyway :-)

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