HPE OneView software provides management tools for converged infrastructure and are used by system administrators to provision, control, and manage software-defined data center components. System administrators use one unified interface, HPE OneView to automate data center maintenance and management tasks. These data center maintenance and management tasks traditionally required numerous manual steps and multiple management tools.
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Background
Converged infrastructure is managed as one unit rather than as separate components, from a single console using orchestration software supplied either by the vendor or by a third party. It has been advised that system administrators use as few tools as possible to manage converged infrastructure components; according to published reports, productivity is reduced in environments that require the use of many different tools. Converged infrastructure management involves managing both the underlying hardware and the operations software that runs on top of the hardware, such as a private cloud. System administrators have found it efficient to use one management platform to manage both hardware and private cloud software. The relationship between applications and the converged infrastructure changes whenever profiles are updated and new enclosures are brought on line. A unified platform can help system administrators keep track of this change, monitor the status of all of the components, and keep track of all of the systems involved. Because of this rapid pace of change, it is important to maintain audit records and track all related converged infrastructure assets and resources. Management software that includes templates that can be preconfigured in advance enable system administrators to add new hardware and software. According to published reports, a complete HPE converged infrastructure system includes templates for converged infrastructure management best practices.
Lifecycle management
HPE OneView is designed to be used by system administrators to manage the lifecycle of HPE servers, including the HP BladeSystem and HPE ProLiant generation 6, 7, 8 and 9 servers. According to published reports, system administrators can install HPE OneView and deploy and provision a hypervisor cluster in 75 minutes, due to the close integration between HPE OneView, HPE servers, and HP Virtual Connect virtualization technology. The software includes support for the representational state transfer (REST) application programming interface (API) and a message bus, both of which administrators can use to write scripts that automate system management tasks and to integrate with other platforms and third-party tools. A set of libraries on github provide access to software development kits (SDKs), Windows PowerShell and Python libraries produced by HP that can be used to extend the functionality of HPE OneView.
Support for virtualization
Using HP OneView, administrators can provision and maintain firmware across HPE BladeSystem enclosures, servers, and Virtual Connect modules. They can also use HPE OneView to manage a virtual LAN (VLAN) through the network edge. Administrators can work directly from the VMware vCenter console using an HPE OneView Plug-in for the vCenter virtualization console. HPE OneView has reduced the number of steps it takes to carry out tasks such as setting up a new cluster from 15 steps to five, due to the capability the software provides to manage and automate operations for VMware vSphere hosts and clusters.
Consumer-application inspired features
The HPE OneView interface mimics the interfaces of popular consumer applications, to help administrators manage servers, according to published reports. It has been reported that unlike legacy administrative tools, which manage devices, HPE OneView is designed to help administrators enable tasks. Using a visual map-like interface similar to that of consumer mapping programs, system administrators can use one screen to view all of their data center resources and see how those resources are linked together. The HPE OneView “SmartSearch” technology build around Apache Lucene provides a Google-like interface from which administrators can search for information about all of their converged infrastructure resources. Workflow provisioning templates and social collaboration tools help administrators manage their data centers more efficiently.