HP LeftHand SAN Solutions

HP LeftHand SAN Solutions Support Document Installation Manuals Installation and Setup Guide Health Check

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Installation and Setup Instructions Overview The LeftHand Networks Health Check Utility is used to send monitoring log file information from customer sites to LeftHand Networks for troubleshooting and proactive health monitoring. The Health Check Utility must be run on a Windows machine where the SAN/ iq Centralized Management Console (CMC) is installed. The CMC must have network access to the Network Storage Modules (NSMs) as well as Internet access to securely ftp log files to LeftHand Networks. The Health Check Utility needs only to be installed on one machine, so long as that machine has access to all the NSMs in the environment. Upon receipt, the logs are scanned, summarized, and sent to LeftHand Networks Technical Support for processing and actions. The processing currently looks for alerts relating to disk, motherboard and cpu temperatures, network interface down, store status, manager status, volumes status. If the log processing finds an action required with any of these, customers with Premium support contracts will receive an email notification. Disclaimer LeftHand Networks does not represent that by installing the Health Check Utility all potential errors will be identified. The Health Check Utility should not be viewed as a replacement to normal system monitoring. In the event that potential issues are identified, LeftHand Networks will make reasonable efforts to proactively notify the customer in a timely manner. 3

Required Prerequisites Prior to installing the LeftHand Health Check Utility the following items must be completed. These may vary depending on the OS version and Service Pack the server is running. Windows firewall must allow ftp access The Windows Internet Connection Firewall (ICF) must be configured to allow downloads from ftp. If firewall modifications are necessary, set up standard passive, outgoing only ftp, which is port 20 (primary) and 50000 thru 65000 (passive). The destination is ftp.lefthandnetworks.com which is 15.192.32.69 Windows 2003 SP1 and Windows XP SP2 disable this ability by default. Scheduler service must be enabled The standard configuration for Windows XP SP2 and Windows 2003 SP1 has Scheduler Service disabled Data Execution Protection (DEP) capability of Windows 2003 SP1 may cause an error during the install. If this occurs, disable this service during the install process. For more information on disabling DEP, please the following Knowledge Base article: https://www.lefthandnetworks.com/member_area/ dl_file.php?fid=645 Procedure Step 1 Go to www.hp.com/go/support to acquire the latest Lefthand Health Check or LeftHand Support Console utility. Step 2 Copy the.exe file to a Windows system running the LeftHand Centralized Management Console (CMC). Make sure the chosen server follows the prerequisites listed above. It is recommended that you use the Administrator login on the Windows Server when installing this tool. The user ID that is used to run this tool will be set as the user that runs the Scheduled Task. 4

Step 3 Double click the.exe file on the Windows Server to run the LeftHand Networks Health Check Utility InstallShield Wizard and click Next. If there is an earlier version of Health Check installed, version 6.06 will attempt to uninstall it. If this does not work, uninstall the previous version manually before proceeding. For information on uninstalling previous versions, refer to the FAQ at the end of this document. 5

Step 4 Read the License Agreement. If you agree to the terms, select I accept the terms of the license agreement and click Next. 6

Step 5 Enter your user name and your company name. Please provide a valid company name as this will be used to help identify the source of the logs and to enable the email notification for premium customers. Also, please remove all spaces and special characters from the company name. Use underscore as a separator when necessary, as shown below. 7

Step 6 Select either the Complete setup, or the Custom setup, then click Next. The default setting is Complete, which uses the setup parameters recommended by LeftHand Networks. If choosing the Complete option, skip to Step 8 in these instructions. If you wish to customize the types of information gathered by the utility, or change other setup parameters, select the Custom selection. 8

Step 7 NOTE: This step applies only if the Custom setup was chosen in Step 6. If you chose the Complete setup, skip to Step 8 below. To use the default installation location, click Next. If you wish to choose another location, select Change. Browse to and select the preferred location, or enter the correct path. Click OK, then click Next. 9

Step 8 Enter a time for the scheduled task to run each day. If a default time is already entered, please change it to your preferred time. A recommendation would be to choose a time in the early morning when you feel that your system may be less busy. Enter a valid e-mail address. The e-mail address should be of the person or group alias designated to receive the notification from us regarding the log analysis results or required action items. It is important to ensure that this e-mail address can receive messages from LeftHand Networks/HP. Premium customers will receive automated email notifications from this account. This field will also be used to identify the source of the logs. This is a required field and must be properly formatted, i.e. youremail@domain.com. Note- If you want to include more than one address, put them here, separated by semi-colons, but no spaces. Example: me@domain.com;you@domain.com. If more than two addresses, we recommend setting up an alias instead. 10

Step 9 NOTE: This step applies only if the Custom setup was chosen in Step 6. If you chose the Complete setup, skip to Step 10 below. The following selection defaults are based on best practices from LeftHand Support. This level of data provides helpful information to minimize the time it takes to troubleshoot an issue in your environment. We strongly recommend you keep the default settings. However, the table below gives you information on each selection to allow you to make the choices that best fit the policies in your environment. In order to schedule a task make sure Create a scheduled task is checked. Once you have adjusted any information you need to, click Next. 11

Description of Information that is collected: Description Create Scheduled Task Use Passive FTP Collect Only NSM Info Collect Event Logs Collect Mini Dumps Collect Registry Info Collect SysInfo Upload Files Why Needed & Impact Schedules a task to automatically run the LeftHand Health Check Utility and send log files to LeftHand Support for analysis on a regular basis By default, the utility is configured to use passive ftp. This prevents call back to the customer server, and thus is a more secure. Information is collected relating to the versions of key software components, iscsi settings, and event logs. This allows LeftHand to correlate issues detected on the NSMs with configuration info and events on the server. This NSM only option disables all monitoring of server information Sends the Windows Event logs to LeftHand Support. This allows LeftHand to correlate issues detected on the NSMs with events on the server to help root cause problems. Sends information on any irregular shut downs with the Microsoft Windows Environment to LeftHand Support. This allows LeftHand to correlate issues detected on the NSMs with events on the server to help root cause problems Sends Microsoft Windows Registry information to LeftHand Support. This allows LeftHand to correlate issues detected on the NSMs with configurations on the server to help root cause problems. The utility runs msinfo32 and sysinfo. This information allows LeftHand to correlate issues detected on the NSMs with configurations and events on the server to help root cause problems. However, this will cause high CPU usage for 5 to 20 minutes. The utility runs daily and should be scheduled for quiet hours. Automatically send the collected information to LeftHand Support. Required Yes If you would prefer active FTP, deselect this item. If you do not wish the software to monitor server information, select the NSM only option to disable all monitoring of server information If you do not wish to send Window Event logs to LeftHand, deselect this option If you do not wish to send information on irregular Windows shut downs to LeftHand, deselect this option If you do not wish to send Window Registry Information to LeftHand, deselect this option If needed, you can de-select the sysinfo options above. In this case the Health Check utility resource consumption will be negligible. If you do not allow any outgoing access from your server, you can collect the data into files and send them as zip files to LeftHand Support. 12

Step 10 Enter the Username and Password for the admin user, and verify the Password. Note that this is the same username/password used to log in to the NSMs using the Centralized Management Console. This tool assumes that the same password applies for each NSM that is to be monitored. After you have entered the information, click Next. 13

Step 11 Enter the IP addresses of every storage module, separated by spaces, using the example below. Do not separate with commas. Do not enter the Virtual IP address itself here. Note that you may enter an address range as well, but only do so if every address in the range belongs to a storage module. After you have entered the IP(s), click Next. 14

Step 12 Click Install to begin the installation of the Health Check Utility as well as the setup of the Scheduled Task. 15

Step 13 You will see confirmation of files being copied. Depending on the number of storage modules in the list to be monitored, this may take a few minutes (approx. 30 seconds per module). 16

Step 14 Enter your password at the DOS command window that is running the taskscheduler. This is the admin password used to log in to the server. 17

Step 15 Upon completion, you should receive status stating that the Install Wizard completed successfully. If it did not, please call LeftHand Technical Support for assistance. Click Finish. **Important** If you add additional storage modules to your cluster or management group you will need to re-install the Health Check Utility to monitor the newly added modules. This step is critical because the installation process creates a required monitoring user account on the storage modules. When you re-install, type N when it prompts you to remove the scheduled task and after the install completes, modify the scheduled task properties to add the IP addresses of the newly added storage modules. 18

Step 16 Verify that a task named LhnHealthChkV6_06 is now created in Control Panel >Scheduled Tasks. If the scheduled task was not created, 1 Uninstall the health check utility using the information in the FAQ at the end of this document. 2 Reinstall the utility while double checking all entries. If the scheduled task still will not create, you may have to create the scheduled task manually. Manually Creating the Scheduled Task When creating the scheduled task manually, refer to the following notes, and the figure below. Notes Use the format below for the command line in the Run: field: C:\PROGRA~1\LEFTHA~1\LEFTHA~1\LHNsupport.exe p c your_company_name -m youremail@domain.com a nsmusername/password 1.1.1.1 2.2.2.2 where 1.1.1.1 and 2.2.2.2 are the IP addresses of the NSMs to monitor. Make sure the Start in: field has the syntax shown below, with the exception that the drive letter may be different. Make sure the Run as: field is similar to below, with your local information substituted. Select Set Password and fill in accordingly. After the scheduled task has been created, right-click the task and rename it to LhnHealthChk. Right-click on the LhnHealthChk scheduled task and click on Run. Verify that there is no error message in the Status column. If a previous LeftHand scheduled task exists with a name such as LHNsupport, LeftHand, SANsupport, an earlier version of LhnHealthChk or something similar, delete the old task. 19

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) Question: Answer: What specifically does Health Check monitor? The utility monitors over 20 different parameters including disk errors, memory usage, kernel errors, store errors, RAID errors, controller status, heat, flash device errors and other software errors. There are over 150 rules applied to the logs to detect problems and help with timely identification and resolution. A subset of the alerts relating to disk, motherboard 20

and cpu temperatures, network interface, store status, manager status, volumes status are checked and reported in the email notification sent to Premium customers. Question: Answer: Question: Answer: Where should I install this utility? Ideally, you should install the utility on one of your application servers attached to the SAN that has the CMC installed, and has outgoing FTP access. Since the utility collects data from both the application server and the SAN, we can correlate problems from both sides. It is only necessary to install the utility on one server. Does this utility place any overhead on my system? Yes. The utility runs msinfo32 and sysinfo, which can cause high CPU usage for 5 to 20 minutes. The utility runs daily and should be scheduled for quiet hours. If needed, you can de-select these options in step 9 above and in this case the Health Check utility resource consumption will be negligible. Question: Answer: How much room does it take up on my system? The utility takes about 80MB of space, regardless of the number of NSMs. Question: Answer: Question: Does this utility open any security holes? The utility is configured to use passive ftp (no call back) by default. The utility by default will export configuration information about the application server including version information and certain registry keys. If you are concerned about this information being sent to LeftHand, you can disable those collection items in step 9 above. If you do not allow any outgoing access from your server, you can collect the data into files and send them as zip files to LeftHand Support. What ports does this utility use? 21

Answer: The utility uses port 20 as the primary TCP port. Ports 50000 thru 65000 are used as passive ports. These connect to www.lefthandnetworks.com, 15.192.32.69. You should configure your firewall to allow outgoing communication for these ports and IP address. Question: Answer: Question: Answer: Question: Answer: Question: Answer: Why do you collect any information on the application server? We collect information relating to the versions of software components, iscsi settings, and event logs. This allows LeftHand to correlate issues detected on the NSMs with configuration info and events on the server. If you do not wish the software to monitor server information, in step 9 above there is an NSM only option that will disable all monitoring of server information. How do I uninstall the LeftHand Health Check Utility? You can uninstall version 6.6, or previous versions of Health Check by running it again and selecting Remove or via the Microsoft Add or Remove Programs feature in the Control Panel. Confirm that you want to uninstall at the next screen. Once complete, check under Scheduled Tasks to ensure the task was deleted, if not, select the task and delete. How do I know the LeftHand Health Check Utility completed successfully? Look at the last run of the scheduled task. The result should be 0x0. For more information, on the toolbar, click Advanced/ View Log. This provides details on scheduled tasks. For more information on result codes see Microsoft Knowledge Base Article #267031 Result Codes in Scheduled Tasks Indicate an Error Occurred in the Task. How do I run a task from a user account other than the account under which the Health Check Utility was installed? Open the scheduled task, under the Task tab you can change the parameter Run as: account and set the correct password. 22

Question: Answer: How do I change the options for data collection that I selected in Step 9 of the LeftHand Health Check Utility installation process after the tool has been fully installed? You can either reinstall the program and select Modify, or you can change the options in the command line of the scheduled task. Below are the codes for the command line options: Default: <path>\lhnsupport.exe p -c your_company_name -m youremail@domain.com -a admin/password 10.20.49.41 Example: To turn off the registry and sysinfo items you would edit the command line through the scheduled task interface: <path>\lhnsupport.exe -R -I p -c your_company_name -m youremail@domain.com -a admin/ password 10.20.49.41 ********************************************************* LHNsupport.exe [OPTIONS] [-a user/pass NSM-IP [NSM-IP] [...] See Step 9 above for more details on the options listed below. Options: -a username/password used for NSM Authentication -c company name -E skip server Event logs -h show this Help -I kip server system Info (msinfo32) -l ogfilename log output and errors to named logfile -n gather NSM logs only (implies -E -I -M -R) -M skip server Mini dump files -m e-mail contact -p passive ftp -q quiet -R skip export of server Registry keys -U skip ftp Upload (implies -Z) -v verbose (default) -Z leave Zip file in place for review 23