HP Service Health Reporter

Release Notes

for the Microsoft Windows® operating system

Software version: 9.10

Publication date: September 2011

This document is an overview of the changes in HP Service Health Reporter (HP SH Reporter). It contains important information that is not included in the books or Online Help.

Introduction
What's New In This Version
Licenses
Installation Notes
Enhancement and Fixes
Known Problems, Limitations, and Workarounds
Documentation Updates
Internationalization
Integration with other HP Software Products
HP Software Support
Legal Notices

Introduction

HP SH Reporter is a cross-domain historical infrastructure performance reporting solution. It leverages the run-time topology information to display top-down reports from the perspective of BSM Business Services and Business Applications or HP Operations Manager (HPOM) Node Groups to the underlying infrastructure. It also displays reports from the perspective of infrastructure to the impacted Business Services and Business Applications or HPOM Node Groups.

HP SH Reporter contains the following features:

Out-of-the-box reports of infrastructure availability and performance metrics for systems, applications, business transactions, Key Performance Indicators, and Health Indicators. The reports are organized into the Business Service Management (BSM) and Infrastructure Management domains. Business Service Management includes reports for Service Health, Real User Monitor (RUM), and Synthetic Transaction Monitoring (BPM). Infrastructure Management includes reports for Consolidated Operations Bridge (OMi), HP Operations Manager, System Management, Virtualization Environment Management, and application-specific reports such as IBM WebSphere, Oracle database, Oracle WebLogic, Microsoft Active Directory, Microsoft Exchange, and Microsoft SQL Server.
Cross-domain reports that display data from different related domains to give a complete picture of the health and performance of your infrastructure aligned to the Business Services. Cross-domain reporting enables you to view the health, performance, and availability of your Business Services across all IT infrastructure layers such as applications and the underlying system resources utilized for those applications in relation to the Business Services being impacted, all at one place.
Embedded software product components such as SAP BusinessObjects for reporting, Sybase IQ database for storing, processing, and managing the performance data of your IT environment, and MySQL database for storing and managing the data processing streams at run-time.
HP SH Reporter uses the data that is collected by a diverse set of products that are part of the HP BSM products portfolio. Based on the topology service definition that you configure, the relevant content packs enable you to collect data from these data acquisition products. Examples of data acquisition products include HPOM with Smart Plug-ins, BSM Operations Management (OMi), BSM Business Process Monitor (BPM), BSM Real User Monitor (RUM), HP SiteScope, HP Performance Agent, and HP Operations agent.
HP SH Reporter provides two user interfaces—the Administration Console and the reporting user interface. You can use the Administration Console to configure, manage, and monitor the product and its environment. You can use the reporting user interface, called the InfoView, to view and customize the reports.

What's New In This Version

New features

HP SH Reporter 9.10 includes the following new features:

Supported Software

You can install HP SH Reporter on the Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 x64 Enterprise Edition with Service Pack 1 operating system.
HP SH Reporter provides support for Business Service Management 9.10, which includes OMi 9.10, BPM 9.10, RUM 9.10, and Run-time Service Model (RTSM) 9.10.

Data Collection

In the BSM Service and Operations Bridge (SaOB) deployment scenario, HP SH Reporter now provides content packs for databases—Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server, Web Application Servers—Oracle WebLogic and IBM WebSphere, and Microsoft applications—Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft Active Directory.
With the version of HP SiteScope 11.11 collecting additional VMware virtualization metrics, HP SH Reporter 9.10 now integrates with HP SiteScope 11.11 to provide a richer set of Virtualized Environment Management reports in its SaOB and Application Performance Management (APM) deployment scenarios.
In addition to the HPOM Node Group to physical node relationship, the HP SH Reporter topology collector now collects the HPOM Node Group to virtual node relationship. This feature enables you to perform the Node Group to virtual node navigation in the Virtualized Environment Management reports.

Reporting

You can now view the HP SH Reporter reports from the MyBSM Dashboard, an HP BSM application.
A cross-domain application performance forecasting report—the RUM Application Infrastructure Forecast report—has been added to the Real User Monitor report folder.
Two new reports—the Event Distribution Executive Summary report and the Event Summary by ETI report—have been added to the Service and Operations Bridge (OMi) report folder.

Administration

The Data Audit feature in the Administration Console enables you to monitor the data flow across the various stages—data collection, transformation, and staging—before the data is stored in the database.

Documentation

The HP SH Reporter documentation set includes a Troubleshooting Guide, which you can use to resolve problems encountered while using HP SH Reporter.

Changed features

HP SH Reporter 9.10 includes the following changes:

Components

HP SH Reporter uses the updated version of the Sybase IQ database, that is, Sybase IQ 15.2 ESD 2. It also uses SAP BusinessObjects XI 3.1 with Service Pack 3.

Data Collection

In addition to HPOM for Windows, HP SH Reporter now supports HPOM for UNIX, HPOM for Linux, and HPOM for Solaris as topology service definitions in the HPOM deployment scenario.
HP SH Reporter supports topology data collection from the Oracle database for the HPOM for UNIX, HPOM for Linux, and HPOM for Solaris data sources and the Microsoft SQL Server database for the HPOM for Windows data source. HP SH Reporter selects the appropriate database during the configuration of the topology service definition in the Administration Console.
HP SH Reporter supports out-of-the-box collection of historical data from the preceding 15 days instead of 2 days.

Reporting

The Virtualized Environment Management report folder now provides common reports that display VMware data irrespective of whether the data is collected from HP SiteScope or HP Operations agent.
VMware reports in Virtualized Environment Management report folder have been redesigned for better usability and to support the VMware cluster environment.
The Service and Operations Bridge (OMi) reports now display data for the last 30 days from the specified date.
The overall usability of the reports has been improved.

Administration

The HP SH Reporter platform has been improved to provide better supportability and usability.

Licenses

HP SH Reporter provides the following licenses:

HP Service Health Reporter Software: This license includes the data collection framework, the SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise, a high-performance Performance Management Database for storing and processing the collected metrics, and the out-of-the-box content packs. Also included is an entitlement to collect and report on the metrics for up to 250 nodes.
Additional scalability packs of 250 nodes: Additional data collection and reporting entitlements can be added to grow the solution to fit your environment.

Installation Notes

Installation requirements, as well as instructions for installing HP SH Reporter, are documented in the Installation and Configuration Guide. For a list of supported hardware platforms, operating systems, and other products, see the Support Matrix.

Upgrading HP SH Reporter

If you want to upgrade from HP SH Reporter 9.00 to HP SH Reporter 9.10, contact the HP Software Support for assistance at: HP Software Support Online.

Enhancement and Fixes

This version of HP SH Reporter includes the following fix:

Fixed Defect

QCCR1A115553 — In the previous version of HP SH Reporter, the OMi Event Summary reports showed inconsistent event metric values.

Known Problems, Limitations, and Workarounds

This release contains some limitations and workarounds to help solve certain problems. To view the updated list of known issues and limitations, check the Release Notes available at the HP Software Product Manuals web site.

Known Problems and Workarounds

Installation

Problem

If Sybase IQ is installed on a system that uses the Intel EM64T processor, the Sybase IQ license type might not be the default OEM CPU license. This causes the Sybase IQ license to expire after a month and the database to stop working.

Workaround

After performing the post-install configuration steps, check the pmdb.lmp file located in the Sybase IQ database folder that was created during the post-install phase. Verify that the license type is LT=AC. If the value is not AC, change it to AC and restart the Sybase IQ database. For the steps to change the license type, see the Installation and Configuration Guide Chapter 4, "Configuring HP SH Reporter."

Coexistence

Problem

The installation of HP Operations agent 11.00 or later fails on a system where HP SH Reporter is already installed. There is no workaround for this issue. However, on a system where HP Operations agent is already installed, you can install HP SH Reporter.

Data Collection

Problem

QCCR1A123033 — In a Microsoft Exchange cluster environment with active and passive nodes, HP SH Reporter does not collect any data for passive nodes that are switched to active.

Workaround

This is an HP Operations agent-related issue. To monitor the clustered Exchange nodes, the Microsoft Exchange Smart Plug-In (SPI) is used. By default, the HP Operations agent enables the SPI policies for both active and passive node. When an active node is switched to passive, the Operations agent disables the corresponding policies. However, when the passive node is switched back to active, the HP Operations agent fails to enable the policies. Therefore, HP SH Reporter does not collect data from these nodes. To resolve this, you must manually enable the SPI policies when switching a passive node to active. For the steps to manually enable or disable policies in HP Operations Manager, see the HP Operations Manager Online Help.

Problem

QCCR1A127320 — In the HPOM deployment scenario, fact data collected for the domain manager instance (dmgr) of the IBM WebSphere node is moved to the %PMDB_HOME%\collect\failed_to_transformed folder as data reconciliation fails. Therefore, no data for the domain manager instance is displayed in the IBM WebSphere reports.

This is an IBM WebSphere SPI-related issue where the SPI fails to log any data for the domain manager instance in the WBSSPI_METRICS data source. During data collection, HP SH Reporter collects the dimension data for the domain manager from the WBS_METRICS data source. However, because of missing dimension data, the collected fact data cannot be reconciled, and therefore, no data for the domain manager instance is displayed in the reports. There is no workaround for this problem.

Problem

QCCR1A127588 — getLastTime() for a class under CODA datasource is returning different value from getLastTime() for the same class under SCOPE ds.

In HP SH Reporter, reconciliation failure occurs at times for data collected from some HP Operations agent systems in cases where there is a last logged time mismatch in the metadata of SCOPE and CODA. This is an HP Operations agent issue. There is no workaround for this problem.

Reports

Problem

QCCR1A119410 — Certain Microsoft SQL Server reports such as MSSQL Database Performance Summary and MSSQL Database Lock Summary, intermittently show negative values for some of the metrics.

This is a Microsoft SQL Server database SPI issue where the SPI records negative values for certain metrics. HP SH Reporter collects these values and displays them in the respective reports. There is no workaround for this problem.

Problem

QCCR1A123333 — Microsoft Exchange SPI: Some key metrics like ADSITE_NAME anf SERVER_NAME are NULL/Empty for certain duration.

Because of this, in certain Microsoft Exchange reports, EMPTY appears as a prompt value for the Exchange Server Name in the Prompts window. If you select EMPTY as the prompt value and generate the report, data appears in the report for the selected server name.This is a Microsoft Exchange SPI-related issue. If an Exchange server or Active Directory site is down, the SPI logs NULL values for the SERVER_NAME and ADSITE_NAME metrics respectively. HP SH Reporter collects the empty string as dimension data and applies a Configuration Item (CI) ID to it. Based on the collection policy, HP SH Reporter collects data for this CI ID and displays the same in the report. There is no workaround for this problem.

Problem

QCCR1A124810 — In certain IBM WebSphere reports, such as Thread Pool Performance Overview, WebSphere Thread Pool Performance Details, Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) Performance Overview, and WebSphere EJB Performance Details, NA is displayed for certain metrics.

This problem occurs because the IBM WebSphere SPI logs negative values for certain metrics in the WBBSPI_RPT_METRICS data source, from where HP SH Reporter collects the data. However, this is an IBM WebSphere issue where the Application Server MBeans generates these negative values for a few counters, which the SPI collects. A support case has been raised with IBM WebSphere for this issue. There is no workaround for this problem.

Problem

The values of certain CPU and memory configuration metrics, such as limits, reservations and share values, of nodes, guests, and resource pools in Virtualized Environment Management reports may not match with those in the vCenter server.

This discrepancy in data is because HP Performance Agent collects configuration and performance data of virtualization elements (nodes, guests, resource pools) by connecting to individual ESX Servers instead of the vCenter server. Therefore, the value of the configuration metrics displayed in the reports will match with those seen by connecting to individual ESX Servers. This is a VMware limitation and a support case has been raised against VMware. To view the VMware support case, see KB Article: 2004028.

Problem

In the Prompt dialog box of three Exchange Server reports—Exchange EdgeTransport Queue Details, the Exchange EdgeTransport SMTP Details, and Exchange HubTransport SMTP and DSN Details—the Edge Transport server name is not listed. Therefore, the reports cannot be generated.

Workaround

This problem occurs because in the Exchange Server environment, if the Exchange Server Edge Transport role is installed on a standalone system, it is not a part of any Active Directory domain. HP SH Reporter does not get the server name of the Edge Transport role and therefore, it does not appear in the Prompt dialog box of the reports. To resolve this problem, you must manually type the SERVER_NAME of the Edge Transport server in the right pane of the Prompt dialog box.

Problem

QCCR1A125323 — Certain Exchange Server reports that show data for Mailbox performance and Public Folder performance appear empty.

This is a Microsoft Exchange SPI-related issue. This problem occurs because in an Exchange cluster environment, at times, the SPI logs data for the host name of the Exchange Server instead of the logical name or exchange cluster name of the Exchange Server. However, in HP SH Reporter, the data reconciliation rules are written based on the logical name or exchange cluster name of the Exchange Server. Therefore, during reconciliation, the relevant fact data does not get loaded, which causes the reconciliation to fail and the reports to appear empty. There is no workaround for this problem.

Problem

QCCR1A126930 — Negative values appear for network-related metrics in some System Management and Virtualized Environment Management reports such as SM Systems Top Ten Report By Network Volumes, SM Heat Chart, SM System Inventory, SM System Comparison, SM System Usage Detail, SM Virtualization Physical System Summary, and SM Virtualization Top 10 ESX Nodes.

This is an HP Operations agent-related issue where for some versions of ESX servers (ESX 4.1), HP Operations agent logs zero or negative values for network-related metrics such as avgNetIORate. There is no workaround for this problem.

Problem

QCCR1A125519 — In the SM Virtualization Cluster Detail Inventory or SM Virtualization VMware Inventory reports, the ESX host name is displayed as the cluster name for non-clustered ESX servers.

This is an HP Performance Agent-related issue where HP Performance Agent logs the ESX host name as the cluster name. HP SH Reporter collects this information and displays it in the reports.

Limitations

Installation

You must make sure that the folder path where HP SH Reporter is to be installed does not contain any space or special characters except hyphen and alphanumeric characters.
Installation of the product on non-English folder path is not supported. For example, if the product is installed on a Japanese system, the folder path should be provided in English and not Japanese.

Data Collection

In the HPOM deployment scenario, if you configured multiple HPOM topology data sources, and data collection from one HPOM server fails, then data collection does not take place from any of the other HPOM sources. In addition, data collection continues to take place for all the HPOM agents that were discovered prior to the collection failure. Since the HPOM node list in HP SH Reporter is not updated to the latest node list available in the HPOM servers, the list of HPOM agents from which data is collected may not be the complete set.
In the HPOM deployment scenario with medium volume deployment (500 to 5000 nodes), reconciliation can sometimes fail for fact data because of the following limitations in the HPOM topology collection:
- The topology collector discovers the dimensions but does not discover the required attributes for those dimensions. Although fact collection occurs for the discovered dimensions, reconciliation fails for the fact data because the dimension attribute is not available. Therefore, the CSV files are moved to the %PMDB_HOME%\collect\failed_to_transformed folder.
- The topology collector only discovers partial dimension data for a particular view because of HP Operations agent database-related issues. For example, the topology collector discovers the host as a dimension. However, certain host resource dimensions, such as CPU, are not discovered. Since fact collection is configured at the host level, fact data for all dimensions, including CPU, under that host is collected. However, because the dimension data for CPU is not available, reconciliation fails and the CSV files are moved to the %PMDB_HOME%\collect\failed_to_transformed folder.
If HP SiteScope is used to manage nodes in your environment, HP SH Reporter displays those nodes as HP Performance Agent-managed nodes in the Administration Console. The Collection Status pane on the Home page of the Administration Console displays the total number of HP Performance Agent nodes, which includes HP SiteScope-managed nodes as well.

Reports

The System Management reports specific to host resource may not display any data for the deployment scenarios where RTSM is the topology service definition. This is because the host resources such as CPU, memory, and file system may not get populated in the RTSM and therefore, their details would not be collected in HP SH Reporter.

Miscellaneous

HP SH Reporter does not support non-ASCII login names.

Documentation Updates

The HP SH Reporter 9.10 documentation set includes the Troubleshooting Guide and the updated versions of the guides that were a part of the documentation set in the 9.00 release.

The complete documentation set is available on the HP Software Product Manuals web site. Use your HP Passport account to access this site, or register a new HP Passport identifier. Choose the "service health reporter" product, "9.10" product version, and then choose your operating system. From the search results, open the Documentation List and click the link for the appropriate version of a document.

The PDF manuals are located in the Documentation directory on your installation media. After installation, the manuals are available at: <Installation_Directory>\HP-SHR\PMDB\Documentation. Here, the <Installation_Directory> is the location where you have installed HP SH Reporter. You can also open these documents by clicking Start > Programs > HP Software > SH Reporter > Documentation.

You must have Adobe Reader installed to view files in PDF format (*.pdf). To download Adobe Reader, go to the Adobe web site.

Troubleshooting Guide

The Troubleshooting Guide, available in both PDF and HTML formats, provides information about how to resolve problems encountered in reports and other components of HP SH Reporter. You can open the Troubleshooting Guide from the Administration Console by clicking Help > Troubleshooting Guide on the left pane.

Internationalization

HP SH Reporter is internationalized and can be used on operating systems configured for non-US-English locales that are supported by the operating systems. Those locales include Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, and French.

Integration with other HP Software Products

HP SH Reporter integrates with different HP Software products. For a detailed list of supported products, their versions, and patch details, see the Support Matrix.

HP Software Support

This web site provides contact information and details about the products, services, and support that HP Software offers. For more information, visit the HP Support web site at: HP Software Support Online.

HP Software support provides customer self-solve capabilities. It provides a fast and efficient way to access interactive technical support tools needed to manage your business. As a valued support customer, you can benefit by being able to:

Search for knowledge documents of interest
Submit and track progress on support cases
Submit enhancement requests online
Download software patches
Manage a support contract
Look up HP support contacts
Review information about available services
Enter discussions with other software customers
Research and register for software training

To access the Self-solve knowledge base, visit the Self-solve knowledge search home page.

Note: Most of the support areas require that you register as an HP Passport user and sign in. Many also require an active support contract. To find more information about support access levels, go to: Access levels.

To register for an HP Passport ID, go to: HP Passport Registration.

Legal Notices

Confidential computer software. Valid license from HP required for possession, use or copying. Consistent with FAR 12.211 and 12.212, Commercial Computer Software, Computer Software Documentation, and Technical Data for Commercial Items are licensed to the U.S. Government under vendor's standard commercial license.

The only warranties for HP products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.

The information contained herein is subject to change without notice.

For information about third-party license agreements, see the Licenses3rdParty directory on the product installation media.

For information about open source license agreements, see the LicensesOpenSrc directory on the product installation media.

Trademark Notices

Adobe® is a trademark of Adobe Systems Incorporated.

Microsoft® and Windows® are U.S. registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.

UNIX® is a registered trademark of The Open Group.

Java is a registered trademark of Oracle and/or its affiliates.

Acknowledgements

This product includes software developed by the Apache Software Foundation (www.apache.org/).

This product includes software developed by Andy Clark.