HP Integrity rx5670 Server - Manual (Page 6)

Replicate Agent Settings tool
Overview
Chapter 1 6
Overview
The HP Network Configuration Utility (NCU) enables configuration of network adapters
and teams of network adapters installed on an Integrity server. To better support server
management, the NCU has been enhanced using the Replicate Agent Settings tool of HP
Systems Insight Manager (HP SIM). The replication tool enables HP SIM to retrieve
Web Agent configuration settings from a source server and distribute that configuration
remotely to one or more target servers.
This chapter assumes that you have a basic familiarity with HP SIM, and provides
step-by-step instructions to replicate network configuration settings from one server to a
group of target servers using the Replicate Agent Settings tool of HP SIM.
You can use the Replicate Agent Settings tool to configure target servers based on
configuration information transferred from a source server. The target system does not
have to be identical to the source system. Both NICs and teams of NICs can be
configured on the target system. The Replicate Agent Settings tool modifies the
configuration of the NICs on the target system according to the NIC properties specified
on the source system.
When the Replicate Agent Settings tool runs, NICs are identified by their relative order
in the system. The relative order is determined by the slot and port order in the system.
NICs embedded on the system board are assigned the lowest numbers, followed by NICs
ordered by their slot number with the lowest slot number listed first. Multiport NICs are
ordered by ascending port number within each slot.
NICs on the target system are configured to match the corresponding NIC number on
the source server. The first NIC on the target system is configured using data from the
first NIC on the source server; the second NIC on the target system is configured
according to the saved data for the second NIC on the source server, and so on. If the
target system has more NICs than the source server, then the extra NICs retain their
current settings. If the target system has fewer NICs than the source server, data for
additional NICs on the source server is ignored.
Teams are created on the target system consisting of the same relative NICs that are
teamed on the source server. For example, if NICs 3 and 5 are teamed on the source
server, then the same teaming information is transferred to the target server, and NICs
3 and 5 are teamed on the target system during the replication operation. In general, the
NICs on the target system team do not have to be the same type of NICs that are teamed
on the source server. However, some NICs cannot be teamed and an error is returned if
an attempt to form a team is made with invalid combinations of NICs. For example,
NICs without common speed capabilities cannot be teamed on a load balancing team.
An error is returned if the NICs forming the team on the source server are not present
on the target system. For example, if NICs 3 and 5 are teamed on the source server but
the target system has only four NICs, an error is reported and the configuration is not
applied.
When teams are configured on the target system, the team properties are set to the
values transferred from the corresponding team on the source server. Properties not
transferred (and properties specified with invalid data values) are configured using their
default settings.