IBM SMI-S Provider: Configuring the CIM Agent

  • kb1077
  • May. 31, 2011
  • 2 min read

How to configure the CIM Agent with the CIM interface for management applications.

Best Practice IBM SMI-S Provider

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Description

CIM agents provide a CIM interface for management applications. These include IBM TotalStorage Enterprise Storage Server (ESS), storage area network (SAN) Volume Controller, DS4000, DS6000, and DS8000, any SMI-S certified CIMOM, and tape and switch CIMOMs.

1. Installing the CIM Agent

  1. Download the dscimcli utility
  2. Install it on a separate server. For more information, please refer to the install documentation

2. Enabling the CIM Agent

The CIM agent has been embedded from Release 2.4 (Bundle 6.2.400.64) of DS8000 but has only been auto enabled and configured from Release 4 (Bundle 62.0.175.0). For releases prior to DS8000 release 4.1, you will have to enable the CIM agent on the HMC before you can use it.

IMPORTANT: Enabling DS8000 CIM Agent on DS8000 bundles 6.2.400.64, 6.2.400.66, 6.2.400.76, and 6.2.410.30 requires assistance from IBM Technical Support.

To enable the CIM agent:

  1. From the HMC Welcome page, click HMC Management. The HMC Management window is displayed
  2. Click Start/Stop CIM Agent. The HMC CIM Agent window is displayed with the current state of the CIM agent
  3. Select Start CIM Agent and click Apply. The CIM agent is started and the state is updated.

3. Configuring the CIM agent for HMC

For DS8000 release 4.0 and earlier, the CIM agent administrator and storage administrator are required to create and maintain user passwords for both the CIM agent and the DS8000 management applications. For DS8000 release 4.1 and later, the embedded CIM agent does not require configuration changes to manage DS8000 devices.

The DS8000 device user names and passwords are used to authenticate CIM client requests. The DS8000 administrator must create user names and passwords that CIM clients can use to attach to the CIM agent. Each user that is created must be in the administrator group. Users that are created in any group other than the administrator group cannot function with DS8000 release 4.1 and 4.2 CIM agents. The DS8000 administrator can use the DSCLI or the HMC console GUI to create the user names and passwords.

4. Verifying the CIM agent connection

To verify that the CIM agent software connects to the storage unit that you identified during configuration, run the following command:

 dscimcli -s https://hmc_ip:6989 -u DS8000user

  -p DS8000password lsdev -1

where

  • hmc ip is the IP address of the HMC
  • DS8000user is the user name that is used to log into the DS8000 Storage Manager
  • DS8000password is the password that is used to log into the DS8000 Storage Manager.

If the status returned in the output is failed, the CIM agent cannot communicate with the storage device.

Best Practice IBM SMI-S Provider