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Cooling is Key For HP Management Software

With system management topping many IT departments’ priority lists these days, HP (Quote) today added to its arsenal of server and storage management software. The systems vendor unveiled HP Insight Control Environment, a management software suite targeted at its ProLiant ML pedestal and DL rack-mount servers, which run popular flavors of Windows, Linux and Novell operating […]

Written By

CB

Clint Boulton

Jan 16, 2007

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With system management topping many IT departments’ priority lists these
days, HP (Quote) today added to its arsenal of server and
storage management software.

The systems vendor unveiled HP Insight Control Environment, a management
software suite targeted at its ProLiant ML pedestal and DL rack-mount
servers, which run popular flavors of Windows, Linux and Novell operating
systems.

HP Insight Control Environment, which covered strictly HP ProLiant BL blade
servers as Insight Control Datacenter Edition in its previous incarnation,
remotely monitors and deploys computer resources. The software also manages
power consumption and server performance and conducts vulnerability scans and
applies patches.

Insight Control Environment, which costs $549 per server for either ProLiant
ML or ProLiant DL systems, includes Systems Insight Manager 5.1.

The glue of HP’s infrastructure management software, Systems Insight Manager
is a management console that allows customers to more easily manage HP
servers and storage, as well as reduce downtime. SIM 5.1 boasts a warranty and
service contract reporting utility, which reduces asset tracking.

Scott Farrand, general manager of industry standard server software at HP,
said the latest incarnation of Insight Control Environment features two
new products, entirely home-cooked by HP engineers: Insight Power
Manager and Service Essentials Remote Support Pack.

As the name implies, Insight Power Manager helps customers improve the way
energy is piped throughout the datacenter by measuring and reporting power
consumption and inlet air temperature across hundreds of ProLiant or
BladeSystem servers.

Farrand said the tool, at $99 per server, lets systems administrators set
power regulation policies across Intel Xeon and AMD Opteron CPUs on servers
so that power does not go to waste. This helps IT departments keep energy
costs in check.

Such software is a boon at a time when the industry is burning up over the
high temperatures in datacenters from maxxed out servers. Too much heat can
seriously reduce the life of a server, preventing IT departments from
realizing the planned return-on-investment of the machines.

HP, along with Sun Microsystems (Quote), IBM (Quote),
Dell (Quote) and others all have proposed different ways to
solve the power dilemma. HP introduced a Dynamic Smart Cooling system late last year.

Service Essentials Remote Support Pack, the other new tool in Insight
Control Environment, reads the server and storage inventory from SIM. It
allows users to click on a button to view the kind of warranty or support
contract each machine has and lets administrators know when the support
contract expires.

The tool will then provide an alert to HP services to help the admin learn
about repair and replacement procedures, or even let the admin engage in an
online support call with HP services to remedy a problem. If necessary, the
admin may also request the dispatch of an on-site HP engineer.

The pack lets HP quickly respond to customer inquiries and provides greater
accuracy in fulfilling the replacement process of warranted part failures.

Farrand also said HP is offering a Linux version of Insight Control
Environment, albeit without the ingredients of the original system.

This article was first published on InternetNews.com. To read the full article, click here.