HP Insight Control 6.3

Insight Control is a server management tool that allows you to unleash management capabilities built into every HP ProLiant BL, ML, and DL server. The result is superior management of physical and virtual servers, from any location. Insight Control integrates specific management functionality into HP System Insight Manager to manage server health, deploy and migrate servers quickly, optimize power consumption and performance, and control servers from anywhere.

With Insight Control, you can manage HP servers running Microsoft Windows, Red Hat and SUSE Linux, VMware ESX, Microsoft Hyper-V and Citrix XenServer environments. You can integrate Insight Control with leading third- party enterprise management consoles, including HP Operations Manager, Microsoft System Center and VMware vCenter. Insight Control is easy to buy, bundled with HP ProLiant servers and BladeSystem enclosures. You can also buy Insight Control standalone license.

• New G7 Servers supported:
• DL120 rack server (with iLO 3 capability)
• ML110 tower server (with iLO 3 capability)
• HP Integrity server enhancements for power management:
• Data Center Power Control (DCPC) support for SuperDome 2
• Power Management for BL Series - 800 Integrity server blades, featuring power regulator and dynamic power capabilities
• Support for new operating systems:
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1
• Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2011
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux: RHEL 5.6, RHEL 6.0
• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 10 SP4
• Support for new hypervisor versions:
• VMware ESX/ESXi 4.0 U3 and ESX/ESXi 4.1 U1
• Hyper-V support on Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1
• Pre-enablement of VMware ESX M/N in non-lockdown mode
• Linux SAN migration support
• Function improvements for mouse and keyboard after migrations
• Systems Insight Manager (SIM) enhancements also support:
• Federated central management server (CMS)
• Discovery and Identification of 3PAR Storage arrays
• PolyServe SQL database

Use Insight Control to deploy, migrate and virtualize servers

You have recently purchased 80 new ProLiant servers.

a) On 25 of these new ProLiant servers you plan to deploy the latest operating systems and new business applications. You will use the Insight Control server deployment feature to deploy new OS and new business application in minutes to get the servers for production faster.

b) You intend to replace 25 old x86 servers with 25 new, faster ProLiant servers for better performance. You also intend to retain the data (OS, application and configurations etc.) from the existing servers onto the newer servers. You will use the Insight Control server migration P2P feature to automatically migrate the data from the existing/old servers to the new ProLiant servers. You can use Insight Control remote management to track the status of deployment and migration.

c) You are also planning to virtualize 90 of your old/existing physical servers onto remaining 30 new ProLiant servers for reduced power and space utilization and you have zeroed in on VMware ESX servers and  Microsoft Hyper-V virtualization platforms. You can use Insight Control server deployment to deploy VMware ESX & Microsoft Hyper-V platforms on the new ProLiant servers. You can then use the Insight Control server migration P2V feature to migrate data (operating system, application, configuration etc) from your old 90 physical servers onto the virtual machines on the new virtualized ProLiant servers. You can use the Insight Control virtual machine management feature to manage these heterogeneous VMs.

Use Insight Control for complete life-cycle management of your HP ProLiant

a) Use HP Insight Control to centrally manage servers, storage and other infrastructure devices across heterogeneous operating system environments.

b) Use the HP Insight Control remote management feature for emergency remote administration, remote access to server power control and event logs, remote deployment and update of remote servers.

c) Use the HP Insight Control power management feature to monitor, manage and dynamically cap power consumption for your servers.

d) Use the HP Insight Control performance management feature to detect and resolve server performance bottlenecks based on resource usage and independent of server application.

e) Use the HP Insight Control virtual machine management feature to manage and gauge the health of physical and virtual servers.

Use Insight Control to minimize downtime by proactively relocating virtual machines

Use HP Insight Control to detect pre-failure hardware alerts on the HP ProLiant servers and initiate relocating virtual machines to other host servers before any downtime occurs. You can use Insight Control to handle the pre-failure alerts in conjunction with virtualization vendor.

Extensions for Microsoft System Center

For customers that are standardized on Microsoft System Center, the Insight Control extensions for Microsoft System Center make the management and deployment capabilities of Insight Control available from their System Center console.

Extensions for VMware vCenter Server

For customers that are standardized on VMware vCenter Server the Insight Control extensions for VMware vCenter Server make the management and deployment capabilities of Insight Control available from their vCenter console.

HP Insight Control is essential server management software that unlocks the management capabilities built into your HP ProLiant server.

	Deploy and migrate servers in a quick and reliable manner

• Use a fast, single drag-and-drop solution tool to completely automate almost everything from hardware configuration through OS and application deployment. Produce reliable and consistent configurations across multiple servers and even multiple sites.

Easy, accurate migration of servers

• Automate migration of workloads from existing servers to the latest HP ProLiant server technologies or to virtual machines on VMware ESX, Microsoft HyperV and Citrix XenServer hosts.

Firmware updates 

• Automate update of firmware and OS components together as part of a single task/application.

Template-based virtual machine deployment

• Facilitate easy deployment of virtual machines by offering a template function, including all relevant virtual machine disk information needed to create and register a new virtual machine.

	Proactively monitor the health and performance of your infrastructure

• Monitor system health and performance for physical servers and Virtual Machines (VMs). Access “phone home” and contract reporting through HP Systems Insight Manager (HP SIM) and Insight Remote Support Advanced (IRSA).

Increase server and user application performance

• Quickly pinpoint and resolve performance bottlenecks to increase server and user application performance. 

Prevent virtual machine failures

• Take predictive failure actions and move virtual machines before hardware fails in VMware environments. 

Easy to implement

• HP Services help you get up and running quickly so you can get the most out of Insight Control. 

	Control from anywhere to realize reduced travel budgets and improved system recovery times

• Take control of remote servers from any location whether the OS is running or offline. Up to four administrators can share a single session.

Capture and replay video

• Automatically capture video footage of failure sequences as well as complex configuration operations. 

Deploy servers remotely

• Perform unattended server deployment with remote deployment and remote operations such as switching the server on and off or rebooting. 

Manage virtual machines

• Unified management of physical and virtual infrastructure: Associate VMware, Microsoft and Citrix virtual machines with host servers and deploy, monitor, control, and move virtualized assets. 

	Optimize power confidently up to triple the capacity of your datacenter

• Measure power usage for groups of servers to know how many servers can be deployed per rack.

Regulate power usage

• Reduce the cost of operating servers.

Reclaim trapped capacity 

• Use Dynamic Power Capping to triple the capacity of your existing data center. Safely cap power usage to fit more servers within your existing power envelope, without putting the electrical infrastructure at risk.

Reduce cost and risks 

• Data Center Power Control ensures power and cooling delivery to critical workloads even in times of infrastructure failure.  Customers can also easily reduce power usage during peak power times to help them lower their energy bill.

Manage rack & power planning

• Plan a view of an entire data center showing entire electrical load of heterogeneous data. Identify areas where you are overloaded and where there is available capacity (manual topology).

Link IT and power facilities

Intelligent Power Discovery is the industry’s first energy-aware network between IT and facilities

• Associate servers to power circuits and improve power planning by using real-time power demands, not estimates.
• Show available capacity to easily identify where to deploy new servers, and identify electrical and thermal overloads where servers are at risk.
• Visualize data center thermals to find hotspots and identify at-risk services.
• Find power outlets that are not correctly configured and identify disconnects between actual and manual/imported data.

HP Insight Control is essential server management software that unlocks the management capabilities built into your HP ProLiant server.