Sun N1 System Manager 1.3 Discovery and Administration Guide

Choosing a Method of Discovery

This section describes how to choose which method of discovery is best for your installation. The method you choose is related to how you have cabled and configured the N1 System Manager environment. For details on the configuration of the management network, see Sun N1 System Manager Connection Information in Sun N1 System Manager 1.3 Site Preparation Guide.

Note –

If your installation provides only a management network, or only a provisioning network, the N1 System Manager must operate in restricted mode. See Restricted Mode Capabilities for details.

The types of discovery available in this version of the N1 System Manager are as follows:

SP-Based Discovery

Discovery of a manageable server through its Service Processor (SP). Choose this method of discovery if you want the N1 System Manager to be able to completely manage and monitor servers. Also, choose this method of discovery if your data center configuration allows the N1 System Manager to connect to both the provisioning and management networks.

See SP-Based Discovery for details about this method of discovery.

OS-Based Discovery

Discovery of a manageable server using its operating system (OS). Choose this method of discovery for servers that are already running a supported OS.

If you require full manageability of servers, do not choose this method of discovery, because the N1 System Manager must run in restricted mode as described in Restricted Mode Capabilities. Consider configuring your data center's N1 System Manager installation so that the management server is connected to both the provisioning and management networks, which allows SP-based discovery to be used.

See OS-Based Discovery for details about this method of discovery.

Manual Discovery

Discovery of a manageable server manually, using its MAC address and model name. Choose this method if you want to discover servers that satisfy the following conditions:

The server does not have an installed OS.
You cannot access the server's service processor and are therefore unable to use SP-based discovery.
The server hardware appears in the supported hardware list. See Manageable Server Requirements in Sun N1 System Manager 1.3 Site Preparation Guide.

This method of discovery is useful if your data center configuration does not allow the N1 System Manager to connect to the management network. If you require full manageability of servers, do not choose this method of discovery, because the N1 System Manager must run in restricted mode as described in Restricted Mode Capabilities.

See Manual Discovery for details about this method of discovery.

Note –

Once you have used the N1 System Manager to discover manageable servers, rehosting of the management server is not supported.

For details on rehosting, see Management Server Rehosting in Sun N1 System Manager 1.3 Installation and Configuration Guide.

The procedures in this chapter focus on discovery of manageable servers using the command line. You can also use browser interface, or a special Discovery wizard. For information about how to use the browser interface, see the Sun N1 System Manager 1.3 Online Help. The wizard help is separate from the main online help, as shown in the following figure.

Graphic illustrates where wizard help is located.

Capability of Managed Servers Based on Discovery

Depending on how a server was discovered, some features are not be available. The following table shows the features of the N1 System Manager that are available for a managed server once it is discovered.

Table 4–1 Capabilities of a Managed Server Based on Discovery Method


Feature	Discovered by Service Processor	Discovered by OS	Discovered Manually
Power control	Yes	No	No
Serial console [Availability of these capabilities also depends on your choice of hardware. Serial Console access and firmware updates are not supported for Sun Fire V490, V890 and X2100 servers, regardless of the method of discovery.]	Yes	No	No
Firmware update	Yes	No	No
Hardware sensor monitoring	Yes	No	No
OS provisioning	Yes	No	No
OS provisioning with netboot option	Yes	Yes	Yes
Package/patch/rpm deployment	Yes	Yes	Yes
Display Model	Yes	Yes for Sun Fire^TM X4000 series servers running supported versions of Linux of Solaris 10 update 1 or above, and if recorded correctly in BIOS. Otherwise, no.	Yes
Display Manufacturer	Yes	Yes	No
Support for base management and OS monitoring	Yes	Yes	Yes
Launch web console (Sun Fire X4000 series servers only)	Yes	No	No
Enable/Disable Locator	Yes	No	No
Enable/Disable Monitoring	Yes	Yes	Yes
Show server output [show server output includes locator, power status, hardware health, hardware type, processor, memory, serial number]	Yes	No	No
Show server serial number	Yes	Yes for Sun Fire X4000 series servers running a supported Linux or Solaris 10 update 1, if the BIOS has the serial number. Otherwise no.	No
Show server management IP	Yes	Yes (provisioning IP address used for discovery)	No
Initial server name	IP address used to discover the server	IP address used to discover the server	Name is supplied in file

The features that are available for a managed server are displayed in the managed server's Capabilities table. The Capabilities table is available in the Server Details page in the browser interface or by using the show server command.

Restricted Mode Capabilities

If your data center configuration does not allow the N1 System Manager to connect to both the management network and the provisioning network, the N1 System Manager operates in restricted mode.

The restricted mode is related to the privileges associated with the role of N1 System Manager users. Depending on how the N1 System Manager is configured, the administrator should assign the appropriate restricted mode role to users.

If the N1 System Manager is configured so that it only has access to the provisioning network, the administrator should assign only the ProvAdmin restricted mode role to non-root users.
If the N1 System Manager is configured so that it only has access to the management network, the administrator should assign only the MgmtAdmin restricted mode role to non-root users.

When the N1 System Manager is operating in restricted mode, users should be assigned only those privileges associated with the ProvAdmin or MgmtAdmin restricted mode roles, depending on the configuration. The ProvAdmin and MgmtAdmin restricted mode roles have been created specifically for the N1 System Manager's restricted mode of operation. It is possible to delete or modify the ProvAdmin and MgmtAdmin roles. Any custom roles you create should conform to the privilege set included in the ProvAdmin and MgmtAdmin roles, for stable performance of the product in restricted mode.

For information about roles, see Introduction to User Security.

Some N1 System Manager functions are not available based on whether your restricted mode installation has access to a management network only, or a provisioning network only. The following table lists all the commands that are valid for each restricted installation mode. If your installation provides only a management network, then only those items marked X in the management network column are available in the restricted mode. If you have only a provisioning network, then only those items marked X in the provisioning network column are available in the restricted installation mode.

Table 4–2 Restricted Mode Command Map


Command	Management Network	Provisioning Network
`add group`	X	X
`add osprofile`	-	X
`add server feature`	-	X
`add role`	X	X
`add user`	X	X
`connect`	X	-
`create firmware`	X	-
`create group`	X	X
`create notification`	X	X
`create os`	-	X
`create osprofile`	-	X
`create update`	-	X
`create role`	X	X
`delete firmware`	X	-
`delete group`	X	X
`delete job`	X	X
`delete notification`	X	X
`delete os`	-	X
`delete osprofile`	-	X
`delete server`	X	X
`delete update`	-	X
`discover`	X	X
`exit`	X	X
`help`	X	X
`load server firmware`	X	-
`load group firmware`	X	-
`load server osprofile`	-	X
`load group osprofile`	-	X
`load server update`	-	X
`load group update`	-	X
`remove group`	X	X
`remove osprofile`	-	X
`remove server`	X	X
`reset`	X	X
`set firmware`	X	-
`set group`	X	X
`set notification`	X	X
`set os`	-	X
`set osprofile`	-	X
`set role`	X	X
`set server agent SSH`	-	X
`set server SSH`	X	-
`set server filesystem threshold`	-	X
`set server IP`	X	-
`set server IPMI`	X	-
`set server locator`	X	-
`set server monitored`	X	X
`set server`	X	X
`set server name`	X	X
`set server note`	X	X
`set server refresh`	X	X
`set session`	X	X
`set user`	X	X
`show firmware`	X	X
`show os`	-	X
`show osprofile`	-	X
`show update`	-	X
`show group`	X	X
`show job`	X	X
`show log`	X	X
`show privilege`	X	X
`show notification`	X	X
`show role`	X	X
`show server`	X	X
`show session`	X	X
`show user`	X	X
`start group command`	-	X
`start server command`	-	X
`start group`	X	-
`start server`	X	-
`stop job`	X	X
`stop notification`	X	X
`unload server`	-	X
`unload group`	-	X