LENOVO TS430 User Manual
INTEGRATION ANALYSIS AND GUIDE:
LENOVO THINKSERVER TS430 IN AN HP ENVIRONMENT
FEBRUARY 2012
A PRINCIPLED TECHNOLOGIES TEST REPORT
Commissioned by Lenovo
You are expanding your IT infrastructure and it’s time to select new server hardware.
You’ve heard about the new Lenovo servers that can deliver everything you need for an
excellent price; same rack and tower form factors, same memory, drives, and processors
running the same operating systems. You’d like to take advantage of the price/performance
advantages of these Lenovo servers but you’re concerned they might not easily fit into your
existing management environment. The great news is that these servers will fit right in.
As an example, we looked at placing a Lenovo ThinkServer TS430, equipped with the
Lenovo Remote Management Module (RMM), into a representative HP Systems Insight
Manager (HP SIM) environment.
Our findings? The Lenovo ThinkServer TS430 offers the management capabilities an IT
administrator needs to effectively co-exist in an HP SIM environment. There was no need to
replace or augment the pre-existing management software. The TS430 joined the HP SIM-
managed group easily, and the IT administrator could access many of the same management
features directly through HP SIM, or through the advanced Lenovo Remote Management
Module.
In this report, we demonstrate the use of HP SIM managing the TS430. We show you
how to easily integrate the Lenovo ThinkServer platform into your existing HP environment. We
also show you the key management features that are available, and provide a step-by-step
guide to accessing the available management features of the server.
Integration analysis and guide:
Lenovo ThinkServer TS430 in an HP environment
A DAY IN THE LIFE OF AN IT ADMINISTRATOR
As a busy IT administrator, you juggle a wide range of tasks, from keeping up
with server maintenance to handling emergencies to planning new upgrades. You use
systems management software tools to remotely manage and monitor your servers. You
also rely on email alerting features to notify you in the event of a server malfunction or
sub-optimal operating conditions. You have spent numerous hours learning the features
and operation of your specific management tool and the last thing you want is to have
to learn another.
You already know that Lenovo servers are a great option for your environment
but you cannot afford the time to install and learn to use new management tools.
Lenovo make this part simple: You can easily add the Lenovo servers to your existing HP
SIM environment and still get the monitoring, alerts, and remote access features you
need, without spending any extra money on additional management software or
spending any extra time learning a new server management infrastructure.
LENOVO THINKSERVER TS430 INTEGRATED EASILY
In our tests, the Lenovo ThinkServer TS430 integrated easily into the HP-
managed environment. We used HP SIM’s most commonly used features—auto
discovery, health monitoring, fault management and event triggering, and inventory—to
evaluate the ease of manageability of the TS430.
We successfully used our existing HP SIM environment to discover and manage
the TS430. The normal steps and wizards associated with discovering an HP server
worked equally well with the TS430. We did note that some management features such
as fan monitoring were not readily available through HP SIM, but we demonstrate the
functionality is still there and provide an alternate approach by leveraging the
management capability provided by the RMM in the TS430, which is accessible through
the HP SIM interface.
In conjunction with HP SIM, the functions available through the Remote
Management Module of the Lenovo ThinkServer TS430 offer you a complete server
management solution without any licensing cost associated with HP Insight Control.
These features, including the optional virtual media and KVM console available with
RMM Premium, allow hardware monitoring that can alert you to a faltering component,
let you carry out many maintenance and repair operations remotely, and provide KVM
access that lets you work on the server remotely as if you were right beside it.
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Integration analysis and guide:
Lenovo ThinkServer TS430 in an HP environment
HOW WE TESTED
Our test bed consisted of three HP ProLiant servers and a single Lenovo
ThinkServer TS430. We used an HP server as the central management server running
the HP SIM management software. The HP servers had a mix of iLO2 and iLO3 for
remote management and the Lenovo ThinkServer TS430 had the Remote Management
Module Premium. All servers in our test bed ran Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 with the
latest available updates. See Appendix A for detailed hardware information.
Below is an overview of the use cases we performed on the Lenovo ThinkServer
TS430 in the HP SIM environment:
Discovery and configuration. We demonstrated successful discovery of the
Lenovo ThinkServer TS430 in HP SIM, and walk you through the additional
steps to configure your Lenovo server for the HP SIM environment.
Health monitoring. We viewed the basic health status, including network
connectivity, memory utilization and drive information on the Lenovo TS430
from HP SIM. We also show you additional monitoring features from RMM.
Inventory. We completed an inventory data collection of the Lenovo
ThinkServer TS430 in HP SIM and present the information it reported.
System events. We simulated loss of connectivity, fan malfunction, and
temperature warnings on the Lenovo ThinkServer TS430 and show how
these alerts display directly in HP SIM.
Email alerts. In addition to email alerting inherent to HP SIM, we configured
the Lenovo RMM to trigger email alerts for available platform events.
Remote functions. We accessed power cycling options from HP SIM and
RMM, as well as remote BIOS/BMC upgrade features from the RMM.
KVM console and virtual media. We used the KVM console and virtual
media features of the Lenovo RMM to access BIOS settings, configure a new
virtual drive in the RAID controller, access the LSI MSM tool for drive and
RAID controller email alerts, and show you how to complete additional
firmware upgrades.
The following sections cover each of these use cases in detail.
ABOUT THE LENOVO THINKSERVER TS430
The Lenovo ThinkServer TS430 server provides businesses with the superior
performance of the latest Intel® Xeon® processors, ample storage capacity of up to
16 TB, and 24/7 uptime reliability. It also provides a combination of powerful
manageability and hardware at a very attractive price.
Performance and storage capacity. The Intel Xeon processor E3-1200 family
that powers the ThinkServer TS430 provides a performance improvement of
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Integration analysis and guide:
Lenovo ThinkServer TS430 in an HP environment
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up to 30 percent over previous-generation Intel processors. Features such
as Turbo Boost 2.0 further increase processor performance when you need
it most. A storage capacity of 16TB SATA or 4.8TB NL SAS and eight hot-
swap drives provide you with plenty of room to grow.
Reliability. Optional redundant power supplies and a selection of RAID
adapters protect you from data loss.
Power efficiency and quiet operation. Intel Xeon E3-1200 family
processors, rated at only 80 watts, are more energy efficient than previous
generations. The ThinkServer TS430 is also certified with Energy Star 1.0,
and Climate Savers. Because Lenovo designed the ThinkServer TS430 to
perform at “whisper-quiet” noise levels, you can use your TS430 in a front
office without introducing an unacceptable level of noise.
Ease of use. ThinkServer EasyStartup is a convenient software solution that
enables you to easily install, maintain, and manage your ThinkServer TS430.
Its intuitive design makes it suitable for businesses with minimal IT staff.
Lenovo ThinkPlus® Productivity and ThinkPlus Priority Support further assist
you in installation and IT support, and the ThinkServer Management Module
(an industry standards-based management subsystem) makes remote
management easy.
For detailed information about the Lenovo ThinkServer TS430, visit the Lenovo
server site at Lenovo.com.
The Lenovo Remote Management Module
The Lenovo Remote Management Module (RMM), standard in Lenovo servers,
helps your IT staff manage your ThinkServer TS430 remotely while keeping your server
secure.1 The RMM allows proactive server management by helping you catch possible
failures before they occur, which minimizes downtime. Should a failure occur, the
Lenovo RMM lets you access and repair your server from any location.
This module, accessible from within HP Systems Insight Manager, allows you to
access convenient Lenovo management features, including the following:
Additional hardware monitoring
Updating the BIOS/BMC remotely
Power cycling the server remotely
KVM console (optional upgrade)
Remote virtual media (optional upgrade)
Note: On March 16, 2012, Lenovo released an update to the BMC firmware (ver. 2.60) that renamed the RMM to
ThinkServer Management Module (TMM) and TMM Premium for the optional remote KVM and media upgrade.
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Integration analysis and guide:
Lenovo ThinkServer TS430 in an HP environment
Figure 1. Select Discovery from the Options menu item.
DISCOVERY AND CONFIGURATION
Discovery of the Lenovo ThinkServer TS430 with RMM in HP Systems Insight
Manager is as easy as connecting the new server into your existing network
infrastructure. Once DHCP assigned an IP address (or you have assigned a static IP
address), HP SIM can discover the new server in the same way that it would an HP
server. In our study, we did not have to do anything specific to the Lenovo ThinkServer
TS430 to make it discoverable for HP SIM. Because WMI is native to Windows, you will
need to have a Windows-based OS running on your Lenovo ThinkServer TS430 to see
the WMI-based information.
To discover a system manually, which we did in our test environment, click the
Options menu on the home screen, and select Discovery. (See Figure 1.)
From the Discovery screen, you can configure the general settings and run the
discovery immediately or enable it to run on a schedule. (See Figure 2.)
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Integration analysis and guide:
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Figure 2. Configure Settings, run manual discovery, or enable schedule for auto-discovery.
Figure 3. Completing server discovery.
Once the discovery is complete, you can select the newly discovered system and
run the Managed System Setup Wizard to install the monitoring and remote command
features. (See Figure 3.) When completing discovery on the Lenovo ThinkServer TS430,
some of the agent-based features were not available because they are inherent to HP-
specific hardware. However, this did not affect our configuration process.
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Integration analysis and guide:
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The main HP Insight Control console now displays the TS430 under Systems and
Events Collection in the All Systems group. You should see an entry for the server itself
and a separate entry for the Remote Management Module (RMM) with the description
of Baseboard Management Controller. When discovered by HP SIM, HP Servers will
automatically link the server and the management processor together. For the Lenovo
ThinkServer TS430, HP SIM is able to recognize the server and management processor IP
addresses but is unable to link them to each other, instead generating a third ghost
entry without an IP address listed. To organize our newly discovered server, we created
a collection in HP SIM for the Lenovo ThinkServer TS430 by right-clicking the server or
RMM and selecting Create new collection.
Compiling and registering the management information base (MIB)
To complete the discovery and configuration process, you need to compile and
add a MIB, which requires being able to access the Lenovo Remote Management
Module. The Lenovo RMM is accessible by using the following steps:
1. In the System and Event Collections pane in the HP Insight Control system
screen, expand All Systems, and click the management IP address of the Lenovo
system.
2. Click Tools & Links.
3. Click Remote Management Module.
4. Enter the appropriate credentials (default username and password are
lenovo/lenovo).
Adding the bmclanpet MIB to HP Systems Insight Manager enhances the
integration of the Lenovo ThinkServer TS430 baseboard management controller (BMC)
into HP Systems Insight Manager by enabling Simple Network Management Protocol
(SNMP) trapping. This allows additional warnings and hardware status messages to be
visible directly within the HP SIM. To compile and add the MIB, complete the following
steps:
1. Collect the following files from their respective locations onto the HP SIM
server:
a. bmclanpet.mib, from http://ipmiutil.sourceforge.net/docs/bmclanpet.mib
b. mcompile.exe, from C:\Program Files\HP\Systems Insight Manager\lbin
c. mxmib.exe, from C:\Program Files\HP\Systems Insight Manager\bin
2. Copy mcompile.exe, mxmib.exe, and bmclanpet.mib files from their respective
locations into C:\Program Files\HP\Systems Insight Manager\mibs.
3. Open a command prompt window, and navigate to the \mibs folder.
4. Type mcompile bmclanpet.mib and press Enter. This generates the file
bmclanpet.cfg.
5. Using the same command prompt window, register the MIB into the HP Systems
Insight Manager database. To do so, type mxmib bmclanpet.cfg and
press Enter.
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Integration analysis and guide:
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6. Restart HP Systems Insight Manager and you should be able to see the newly
Figure 4.The System(s) screen showing normal status.
7. Go into the Lenovo Remote Management Module Web GUI (accessible within
HEALTH MONITORING
ThinkServer TS430 hardware. This included health statuses on components such as
network connectivity, memory utilization, and drive information among others.
and events being monitored. A green checkmark indicates normal functioning. The line
above the table defines the various symbols used to indicate status. The collection we
created for the Lenovo server, shown in Figure 4, displays our server by its OS-based IP
address and the Management Processor, which is the listing for the RMM. The legend at
the top of the table depicts what each symbol stands for. For example, the question
mark means Unknown status. An “i” in the Software status column indicates the
presence of informational messages. As for the abbreviated column names, HS stands
for Health Status, MP stands for Management Point, SW stands for Software status, PF
stands for ProLiant Essentials Performance Management Pack status, and ES stands for
Event Status.
added MIB under OptionsEventsSNMP Trap Settings…
HP SIM from the Tools & Links tab for the BMC IP address of the discovered
Lenovo ThinkServer TS430), and under Trap Settings, enter the IP address of the
management server running HP SIM and apply the changes.
Using the HP SIM environment, we were able to monitor a range of the Lenovo
In HP SIM, the default table view of the servers shows the status of components
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Integration analysis and guide:
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Figure 5. The Systems screen showing the loss of network connection.
For this guide, we made changes to the Lenovo system in order to show how
these events would change on the status monitor. We simulated a loss of connectivity
by unplugging the Ethernet cable. Figure 5 shows the change in status when HP SIM
could no longer establish connectivity with the Lenovo ThinkServer TS430.
See that the Management Processor is marked Critical and the Lenovo Server is
showing an informational sign. By clicking the “i” or Event tab, HP SIM displays the
events for the system and shows that the link is down. (See Figure 6.)
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