HOWTO: Use HP Power Manager Agent on ESX Server 3.5

If you are using the HP Power Manager (HPPM) product in a configuration with only ESX servers, HP has an excellent document on recommended configuration settings here:

HP Power Software Installation and Configuration Guidelines for VMware ESX

If your HP Power Manager server is installed on another machine (say, a Windows management server) and you want to install the agent software on ESX Server, the HPPM server will not be able to communicate with the agent on the ESX host unless you open TCP port 3573. To do this you need to enable inbound access to the ESX host on port 3573.

If you are savvy with the ESX console, you can use the esxcfg-firewall tool to add this exception. Alternatively, you can create a custom ESX firewall rule using XML firewall definition files.

To manually add the firewall exception using the esxcfg-firewall tool, use the following command:

esxcfg-firewall –openPort  3573,tcp,in,HPPMAgent

Then restart the HP Power Manager by entering:
service DevMan restart

You can also create your own XML firewall definition and enable the rule from within vCenter using the tips suggested here:
http://communities.vmware.com/thread/137600