HP Network Node Manager iSPI Network Engineering Toolset Diagnostics Server Release Notes

Software Version: 10.00 / July 2014

The HP NNM iSPI Network Engineering Toolset diagnostic server extends the powerful network management capabilities of NNMi by providing additional troubleshooting and diagnostic tools for network engineers.

For a list of supported hardware platforms, operating systems, and databases, see the support matrix. You can find both the Support Matrix (supportmatrix_en.html) and the Release Notes (releasenotes_en.html) at the root directory of the installation media.

Overview of this Version
Installation Guide and Support Matrix
Licensing
Known Problems, Limitations, and Workarounds
HP Software Support
Legal Notices

Overview of this Version

Overview of the NNM iSPI NET diagnostics server 10.00 Release

Diagnostic flows are run by NNM iSPI NET during the lifecycle of management incidents. These diagnostic flows automate the gathering and analysis of information from network devices. Diagnostic flows log into network devices using SSH or Telnet and run a series of commands defined in the flow. These commands extract troubleshooting information from specified network devices. Diagnostic flows can be run automatically when incidents are registered or manually by the operator against a node or incident.

The NNM iSPI NET diagnostics server consists of an embedded version (9.07) of HP Operations Orchestration (HP OO) and HP OO flows.

For a detailed overview of NNM iSPI NET diagnostics server 10.00, see Introducing HP NNM iSPI Network Engineering Toolset Software in the Planning and Installation Guide (see Installation Guide and Support Matrix).

Installation Guide and Support Matrix

Installation requirements, as well as instructions for installing NNM iSPI NET diagnostics server, are documented in the installation guide provided in Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) format. The document file is included on the product's installation media as install-guide_en.pdf.

For a list of supported hardware platforms, operating systems, and databases, see the Support Matrix.

Licensing

NNMi installs with an instant-on license for NNM iSPI NET that is valid for 60 days. After 60 days, the NNM iSPI NET diagnostic flows are no longer run if you do not obtain a permanent license. To view information about your NNM iSPI NET license, open the NNMi console and select Help → System Information. From the NNMi informational window, select View Licensing Information.

For information about installing and managing licenses, see the Installation Guide.

New Features in version 10.00

The NNM iSPI NET 10.00 is now available on Linux. You can install the NNM iSPI NET on one of the supported Linux operating systems. For a list of supported operating systems, see the Support Matrix (supportmatrix_en.html).
The NNM iSPI NET 10.00 diagnostics server provides a new version of the embedded OO server (9.07), a new OO content release (9.00.06), and a hotfix (hf_142835) to provide updated browser support for more recent versions of Firefox and Internet Explorer.
The NNM iSPI NET 10.00 integration with NNMi in High Availability and Application Failover environment is supported. For more information, see Planning and Installation guide for NNM iSPI NET 10.00.
The NNM iSPI NET 10.00 allows you to run the flows at any time by means of custom baseline flows. For more information, see Planning and Installation guide for NNM iSPI NET 10.00.

Known Problems, Limitations, and Workarounds

The NNM iSPI NET diagnostics server is initially configured using self-signed certificates. When browsers first connect to the server after installation, an invalid certificate message is displayed due to this configuration. You can continue to the HP OO web site by selecting the appropriate link, depending on your browser type. To alleviate this condition, the HP OO PAS certificate needs to be signed by a valid Certificate Authority. After NNM iSPI NET diagnostics server installation is complete, generate a Certificate Signing Request for the HP OO PAS certificate, and submit the request to your preferred Certificate Authority. After a new certificate is returned by the Certificate Authority, this certificate can be imported back to the PAS keystore (rc_keystore). If the Certificate Authority you utilize is already trusted by Java by default, no further action is needed. If the Certificate Authority you utilize is not trusted by Java by default, import the signed certificate to the NNMi truststore again. Consult the Installation Guide for details on this process.
The NNM iSPI NET diagnostics server is not supported for use in High Availability (HA) or NNMi application failover implementations. The NNM iSPI NET diagnostics server must be installed on a system separate from the multiple nodes participating in an HA model. Each node in an HA implementation can be bound to the single separate NNM iSPI NET diagnostics server and can dispatch requests to this node.
The NNM iSPI NET diagnostics server is not supported for use in cluster configurations as provided in the standard HP Operations Orchestration product. The full HP Operations Orchestration product must be purchased and used if you want to facilitate clustering as supported in this implementation.
When you click on the results link in the Diagnostics tab of a node or incident and the diagnostics flow result is no longer available in the NNM iSPI NET diagnostics server (or HP OO), the following message is displayed in the browser: "Dhamra.dhamra.reports.individual.cannot_find_repair_history[1]". This message indicates that the records in the HP OO database have been removed. This situation can occur if the NNM iSPI NET diagnostics server is reinstalled, if the supporting MySQL database is reinitialized, or if the supporting MySQL database records have been removed.
When implementing the use of customer-defined HP OO flows in NNMi, only incidents which have a Source Object bound to the incident are able to invoke flows. You can determine if a Source Object is bound to an incident by looking at the Source Object column when viewing incidents or by opening the incident and checking the Source Object field. A value of "None" indicates the incident is not bound to a Source Object. If you manually attempt to run diagnostics from the incident form, the following error message will be displayed: "Invoke of service com.hp.ov.nms.events:name=Rba method submitIncidentsForFlowExecution for ids:[nnnnn] failed: javax.management.RuntimeMBeanException caused by java.lang.NullPointerException".

Potential Installation Issues

Loading NNMi flows into the embedded HP OO 9.07 server can take upwards of 60 minutes. The installation process, as noted below, reconfigures the embedded HP OO server with new SSL certificates, which requires a stop and restart of the HP OO RSCentral service. The initial stop of the RSCentral Windows service might take 10 minutes with a Java process showing 100% CPU load. The service eventually stops and the installation completes. Please be patient during this processing.
The NNM iSPI NET diagnostics server installer requires an HTTP connection to the NNMi management server. If you have disabled HTTP on the NNMi management server, you will need to re-enable HTTP before running the NNM iSPI NET diagnostics server installer.
The NNM iSPI NET diagnostics server installer cannot run from a UNC based path. The installer must run from the local file system.
The NNM iSPI NET diagnostics server installer adds several components to the system: .NET if not installed on Windows and HP OO. The installer makes decisions based on what it finds on the system.
- HP OO on Windows requires .NET Framework 2.0 Service Pack 1 and either 3.0 or 3.5 SP1 with ASP.NET enabled. On Windows Server 2008, .NET Framework 3.5.1 must be added using "Server Manager" and can't be installed via the iSPI NET diagnostics server installer. The iSPI NET diagnostics server installer will report the error ".NET V3 Framework Not Installed. Exit Code: 5100" if it tries to install the .NET V3 framework and the system is not yet properly configured. To fix this start "Server Manager". Click on "Features". Select ".NET Framework 3.5.1" and install this feature. You may be prompted to add other required Roles as well. Once .NET Framework 3.5.1 is added as a feature to the system, you can rerun the iSPI NET diagnostics server installer and it will detect that .NET Framework 3.5.1 is now installed.
- If HP OO already exists on the system, the embedded HP OO and .NET are not installed. In this case, only the NNM iSPI NET diagnostic flows are loaded in the existing HP OO, and the installer binds this system to the specified NNMi management server. In order to accomplish binding to the NNMi management server, the HP OO system's certificates must be inspected and possibly changed to provide a proper hostname within the certificate. See the Installation Guide for details on setting up proper certificates. If these manual steps are not followed, the installer reports an error when binding to the NNMi management server.
In certain situations you may have uninstalled HP OO and then wish to reinstall the NNMi SPI NET diagnostics server. After uninstalling HP OO several files will remain in the HP OO installation folders which will impact reinstallation of the NNM iSPI NET diagnostics server. Previous versions of the NNM iSPI NET diagnostics server installer would not detect this condition and reinstallation of the iSPI NET diagnostics server would fail to regenerate appropriate SSL certificates for use in HP OO and NNMi. Diagnostics flows would never properly be submitted to HP OO due to the use of invalid certificates. The 10.00 version of the NNM iSPI NET diagnostics server installer will detect this condition and will prompt the user to remove these files before proceeding. If the user answers no, the NNM iSPI NET diagnostics server installer will abort. If the user answers yes, the NNM iSPI NET diagnostics server installer will remove the prior configuration files before continuing.
If a problem occurs during the HP OO installation step but after the database and user have been created, you can restart the installation using the Start Again button. Before you start the install again, you must change the selected MySQL database name. If you do not change the database name, the installation will fail again when it attempts to create the same database a second time.

English Locale Only

On non-English systems, the HP NNM iSPI NET diagnostics server runs in the English locale.

Domain Name System (DNS) Configuration Known Problems

Security as implemented using a certificate-based infrastructure relies heavily on a well-configured Domain Name System (DNS) to convert discovered IP addresses to hostnames. An improper configuration can result in NNMi being unable to dispatch requests to the HP OO system. See the Installation Guide for more details on proper hostname resolution of the HP NNM iSPI NET diagnostics server system by NNMi.

HP Software Support

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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.

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