ServerView Suite

[jka]

Hi folks,

I have two Fujitsu Servers (models below). I am trying to understand and then probably deploy ServerView. As far as I see, ServerView Suite consists of bunch of different software (OperationMAnaeger, RAID Manager etc...).

In a hope to see or change RAID configuration on my Primergy Server TX1320 , I installed RAID Manager on Windows VM that is hosted on the same server on Hyper-V, but wasn't able to do anything. It shows only information related to that VM. Please advise.

The questions is: Can I manage my Primergy servers by using ServerView products? Is it possible to update BIOS or change RAID mode through ServerView? If yes, what do I need to do?

Models:
PRIMERGY RX2540
PRIMERGY TX1320

Thank you.

Best
JKA

[Davie]

Hi JKA - lots of questions!

You are basically correct. The whole ServerView suite is a collection of programs, all with different functions, which together make a whole family of utilities

These components can be summed up as follows...

1) ServerView Installation Manager: This is the bootable CD that assists you in installing an Operating System (Windows or Linux)
2) ServerView Agents: The SNMP agents that monitor and serve up information about the state of the hardware. Agents also include a small utility called System Monitor which can be used to monitor and manage just the local server. System Monitor also includes an Update Manager component which will scan your hardware and the download site, looking for updates to your drivers/BIOS/firmware/application software and pre-fetch them to the local server ready for installation
3) ServerView Operations Manager: A much larger version of the System Monitor mentioned above, which will monitor and manage multiple servers. Usually run on a dedicated Management station (possibly a VM). Very useful for managing a lot of servers but not so easy to set up as it is much more complex. If only managing a small handful of servers, I personally would just use System Monitor
4) ServerView RAID manager: Manages your RAID subsystem and allows you to monitor and configure your RAID controller

If RAID manager is installed on a VM it won't see any "local" disks, but you can get it to add the "host" server so it can monitor and manage the real physical controller and disks belonging to the host

In addition to all the applications mentioned above, on all PRIMERGY servers (except the very basic entry level TX1310) you have a hardware management controller (iRMC) on the motherboard. This has its own network management port and can be used for remote management and monitoring

[jka]

Hi Davie,

Thank you for helpful answers.

The main reason for testing ServerView is that I wanted to update firmware and change RAID from my machine, remotely, and not going in the server room.

ServerView Installation Manager - It can help me to deploy Windows and Linux on any physical/virtual machine or only machines that are hosted on Fujitsu Servers?

So, all of these solutions have to be installed directly on the host, for example Windows Server 2016 and not on a VM. As I am running Hyper-V on Primergy Server, I am not able to install it directly on the host. Is there any workaround, maybe to deploy on independent machine that can remotely connect to all Fujitsu Servers?

iRMC is really useful, but I can´t update firmware or change RAID.

I would like to learn more about ServerView.

Thank you

[Davie]

Installation manager will help you deploy an operating system onto either a physical or virtual server but it must be a PRIMERGY (no third party servers are supported)

Agents must be installed on the physical host (not a VM)

As I said earlier, RAID manager can be installed on a VM - you just need to add the VM's "parent" host into the interface and add the Admin password of the host so that the VM can get the information from the host OS. I know this works with ESX - just not sure about Hyper-V - it maybe needs something else (agents?) also installed on the host OS for the VM to talk to.

Even if you are running the graphic-less version of Hyper-V on the host, it should be possible to install agents, RAID manager on there - RAID manager is a web base utility so as long as you have the RAID manager software installed on the host, you should be able to access it from a web-client system