White Papers for iDRAC9 with Lifecycle Controller Technology

General Overview

Comparison of iDRAC8 versus iDRAC9 Features (New for 14G)

Ordering New Features and Options on iDRAC9 and 14G PowerEdge Servers (New for 14G)

iDRAC9 with Lifecycle Controller—Best in class management for Dell EMC 14th generation PowerEdge Servers (New for 14G)

14G Support for HTTP and HTTPS across iDRAC9 with Lifecycle Controller Interfaces (New for 14G)

Comparing in and out-of-band functionality for Dell EMC PowerEdge servers (New for 14G)

Dell EMC PowerEdge Software Server Licensing  (New for 14G)

Systems Management Overview Guide v12(New for 14G)

Using Server Message Block (SMB) in iDRAC9 of Dell EMC PowerEdge Servers (New for 14G)

Networking and I/O configuration

(Direct from Dev) Multi-Vector Cooling (New for 14G)

Network Switch Connection View (New for 14G)

iDRAC Connection View(VIDEO) (New for 14G)

Understand Network Adapters Relationship with iDRAC (New for 14G)

Disabling a Third-Party PCIe Card Cooling Response with Dell PowerEdge Servers 

IPv6 Best Practices using iDRAC 

Managing IO Identity and Server State Information 

Optimizing I/O Identity and Applying Persistence Policy on Network and Fibre Channel Adapters 

Retrieving Server OS Networking Information through iDRAC 

Understanding PreBoot Networking on Dell PowerEdge Servers 

Auto-Discovery Network Setup Specification

Configuring BIOS and NIC Using RACADM through Dell iDRAC

Converged Network Adapters with NIC, iSCSI, and FCoE Support

OS to BMC Pass-through operation

FCoE Boot Configuration Setup on Intel Card

FCoE boot using Broadcom card

Network IO Identity

Reinitiate Auto-Discovery

Remote NIC Configuration Management  

Scripting and Server Configuration Profiles

Automated Server Management with PowerShell Using iDRAC REST API (New for 14G)

Server cloning by using Server Configuration Profiles (SCP) on Dell EMC PowerEdge servers (New for 14G)

RESTful Server Configuration with iDRAC REST API (Updated for 14G)

Optimizing WS-Man to retrieve Lifecycle Logs from iDRAC9 (New for 14G)

Implementation of the DMTF Redfish API on Dell EMC PowerEdge Servers (New for 14G)

WSMAN File Transfer(New for 14G)

Overview of Dell Systems Management using IPMI 

Understanding Physical Computer System View Profile Implementation 

Lifecycle Controller Workflow Optimization

Lifecycle Controller (with WS-Man) Best Practices Specification (Jan 2017)

Lifecycle Controller 2 Web Services Interface Guide (WS-Man Scripting Guide) for Windows  (Jan 2017)

Lifecycle Controller 2 Web Services Interface Guide (WS-Man Scripting Guide) for Linux (Jan 2017)

Dell PowerEdge Redfish API Overview

AutoConfig - Enabling rapid configuration of Dell servers using DHCP (Updated for 14G)

Creating Applications using the WSMAN API 

Methods to Save and Restore PowerEdge Server Configuration Settings and Firmware Images 

Using Filter Dialects with the WSMAN API 

Automatic Backup Server Profile

Creating and Managing Server Configuration Profiles

Hardware Inventory Viewing Script

How to Build Inventory Reports 

iDRAC Cloning

Import and Export Server Profiles

Server Configuration Profile - XML File Structure (files )

BIOS and UEFI

Signing UEFI images for Secure Boot feature in 14G Dell EMC PowerEdge servers (New for 14G)

Secure Boot Management on 14G Dell EMC PowerEdge servers (New for 14G)

Configuring Low-Latency Environments in PowerEdge Servers

Defining a Secure Boot Policy 

OS deployment

Unattended Installation of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Operating System on Dell PowerEdge Servers Using iDRAC With Lifecycle Controller
Unattended Installation of Windows 2012 (12G and 13G)

Operating System Deployment in PowerEdge Servers

Operating Systems Deployment using iSCSI or FCOE LUN

Updates

After Meltdown- a quick reminder about PowerEdge BIOS update best practices

Firmware Update Dependency with Lifecycle Controller on 14G Dell EMC PowerEdge servers (new for 14G)

Creating and updating iDRAC repository with Repository Manager

Lifecycle Controller with Dell Repository Manager

PowerEdge Updates with Repository Manager Best Practices Guide

Recommended methods of Updating Firmware on Dell Servers

Recommended Workflow for Performing Firmware Updates on PowerEdge Servers

Remote Firmware Update

Using Dell Repository Manager to create a Bootable ISO and perform updates

Storage & PERC

Online Capacity Expansion (OCE) and RAID-Level Migration (RLM) of VDs using PERC 9 & PERC 10 (New for 14G)

Dell’s vFlash SD Flash Media Card – Better Endurance and Performance via Over-Provisioning

Understanding Real Time Storage Configuration for PERC9(new for 13G)
Managing Web Server Certificates on iDRAC (New for 13G)
Express Flash NVMe PCIe SSD Devie Monitoring, Inventory, and Configuration (New for 13G)
vFlash Overview

vFlash Partition Management 

vFlash using the Lifecycle Controller GUI

Security

DellEMCiDRACResponsetoCommonVulnerabilitiesandExposuresCVE-2018-1212(March2018)

Cyber-Resilient Security in 14th generation Dell EMC PowerEdge servers(Feb 2018)

Dell EMC iDRAC Response to CVE-2017-1000251 “BlueBorne”[26 Sept 2017]

(Direct from Dev) System Erase on PowerEdge Servers(New for 14G)

(Direct from Dev) Security in Server Design (New for 14G)

(Video) Secure Boot Configuration and Certificate Management using RACADM (New)  

(Video) Secure Boot Configuration and Certificate Management using WSMAN (New)  

Securing 14th generation Dell EMC PowerEdge servers with System Erase (New for 14G)

Factory Generated Default iDRAC9 Password(New for 14G)

Active Directory Integration & Certificates

Active Directory Setup Using Lifecycle Controller

Integrate iDRAC8 with Active Directory

Monitoring and Alerting

Understanding OpenManage Mobile (OMM) and Quick Sync Security (New for 14G)

Understanding iDRAC Quick Sync 2 (New for 14G)

Managing the Rollup Health status by using iDRAC on the Dell EMC 14th generation and later PowerEdge servers (New for 14G)

Monitoring & configuring Server Group by using iDRAC Group Manager (New for 14G)

Managing iDRAC9 Event Alerts on 14th generation (14G) Dell EMC PowerEdge Servers (New for 14G)

Accessing Remote Desktop using VNC on PowerEdge Servers (New for 14G)

Web Services Eventing Support for Hardware Inventory and Monitoring 

Pre-failure alerts provided by Dell server systems management 

Enhanced Out of Band Performance Monitoring 

Agent-free Inventory and Monitoring for Storage and Network Devices

Discovering Features in the iDRAC Remote Services API

Support Assist & Part Replacement

SupportAssist Collections on Dell EMC’s 14th generation of PowerEdge servers (New for 14G)

SupportAssist on Dell EMC’s 14th generation of PowerEdge servers (New for 14G)

Motherboard Replacement

Lifecycle Controller Part Replacement

Part Replacement

iDRAC Service Module (iSM)

Installing iDRAC Service Module (iSM) by using iDRAC9 on the 14th generation (14G) Dell EMC PowerEdge server (New for 14G)

iDRAC Service Module 2.1 or later on Ubuntu & Debian Linux Operating Systems

iDRAC Service Module - Windows Management Instrumentation

iDRAC Service Module - iDRAC CPU Hard Reset

iDRAC Service Module - iDRAC Access via Host OS

iDRAC Service Module - iDRAC SNMP Alerts

iDRAC Service Module - In-band iDRAC SNMP Alerts

iDRAC Service Module - iDRAC Access via Host Operating System

This technical white paper explains the factors driving the introduction of the factory generated default password feature for iDRAC9 for Dell EMC 14th generation (14G) PowerEdge servers. Also, it provides guidance on how to adopt the feature in terms of best practices for provisioning, configuring, and maintaining. Each of the above practices have a strong influence on the secure operation and assurance of iDRAC9 for 14G PowerEdge Servers. The feature has a major impact on the default user account password in terms of the factory-default or shipping value. Prior to this generation of servers, the password was a publically well-known value calvin used across all servers. This technical white paper introduces this new feature and attempts to cover the main aspects that are crucial in comprehending its impact on the system management processes and procedures.

Dell EMC OpenManage Plug-in for Nagios Core

Download - Documentation - Videos - Whitepapers - Discussion Forum

Overview:

Dell EMC OpenManage™ Plug-in for Nagios Core provides a proactive approach to data center management that delivers features for monitoring 12th and later generations of Dell EMC PowerEdge servers through an agent-free method using Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller (iDRAC) with Lifecycle Controller (LC) technology, DellEMC Modular infrastructureandDellEMC, Storage andNetworking devices in the Nagios Core console. With this plug-in, customers have comprehensive hardware-level visibility of PowerEdge servers, DellEMC modular infrastructure, andDellEMC storage andnetworkingdevices including overall and component-level health monitoring for quicker fault detection and resolution.

What is new in Version 2.13.0?

• Agent-free monitoring support for thelatest14thGenerationofnew14G Dell EMC PowerEdge Servers

• Agent-freemonitoringplatforms–R440,R540,T440,T640,M640,FC640,C4140,andAMDEPYC™ Platforms(R6415,R7415,R7425)
• iDRACRedfishRESTAPI support for VxRail™discovery,inventory and NutanixXC-SeriesmonitoringofPowerEdgeServerplatforms
• Supportfordiscovery,inventoryandmonitoring of Dell EMC Hyper-convergedInfrastructure(HCI)platformsNetworkingswitches-C-Series,S-Series,N-SeriesandZ-Series
• SimplifiedPlug-ininstallationanddeploymentbyremovingmultipledependenciesonopensourcecomponentsandPerlmodules
• Improvedandfasterdiscovery,inventoryandservicecheckswiththenewPlug-Inarchitecturecompletelyre-writteninPython
• Enhanced HardwareWarrantymonitoringsupportHostandServicechecks

Existing Key Features in Dell EMC OpenManage Plug-in for Nagios Core

• Discover and monitor following Dell EMC devices:
  • Dell EMC PowerEdge 12th and later generation of servers
    
  • Dell EMC PowerEdge M1000e, VRTX, and FX2/FX2s modular infrastructure
  • DellEMCHyper-ConvergedInfrastructurePlatforms-VxRail,XC-Series 
  • EqualLogic PS-Series Storage Arrays
  • Compellent SC-Series Storage Arrays
  • PowerVault MD 34/38 Series Storage Arrays
• Provide basic system information including component-level details the following Dell EMC devices:
  • Dell EMC PowerEdge 12th and later generation of servers
    
  • Dell EMC PowerEdge M1000e, VRTX, and FX2/FX2s chassismodularinfrastructure
  • DellEMCHyper-ConvergedInfrastructurePlatforms-VxRail,XC-Series
  • EqualLogic PS-Series Storage Arrays
  • Compellent SC-Series Storage Arrays
  • PowerVault MD 34/38 Storage Arrays
• Monitor health of the following components of the supported Dell EMC devices:
  • Power Supply, Fan, I/O, Slot, and KVM of the supported Dell EMC chassis
  • Enclosure, Controller, Physical Disk, and Virtual Disk of PowerEdge VRTX Chassis
    
  • PCIe of PowerEdge VRTX and PowerEdge FX2/FX2s chassis
  • Member Physical Disk, Storage Pool, and Group Volume of Dell EqualLogic PS-Series Storage Arrays
  • Physical Disk and Volume of Compellent SC-Series Storage Arrays
• Provide warranty information of the supported Dell EMC devices
• Monitor SNMP alerts from all the supported Dell EMC devices
• View alert Knowledge Base (KB) information of the following Dell EMC devices corresponding to a SNMP alert for faster troubleshooting:
  • 12th and later generations of Dell EMC PowerEdge servers
  • Dell EMC PowerEdge M1000e, VRTX, and FX2/FX2s chassis
  • EqualLogic PS-Series Storage Arrays
• Launch the following web consoles from Nagios Core to perform further troubleshooting, configuration, or management activities:
  • iDRAC web console
  • Chassis Management Controller (CMC) Console
  • EqualLogic Group Manager Console
  • Compellent StorageEnterprise Manager Console

Key Business Benefits

• Protect existing investment in Nagios Core product to easily integrate and monitor Dell EMC servers, modular infrastructure and storage within customer’s infrastructure
• Improve operational efficiency and flexibility in managing large heterogeneous data center environment
• Increase productivity by reducing time to maintain, monitor and troubleshoot any issue in server infrastructure
• Make informed and rapid decisions impacting the availability of data center resources

Licensing Details

Dell EMC OpenManage Plug-in for Nagios Core is available as a software download offered at NO CHARGE to customers.

Download

• Dell EMC OpenManage Plug-in for Nagios Core

Documentation

Technical Articles & Whitepapers

• Installation of Dell OpenManage Plug-In for Nagios XI on CentOS (NEWNov2016) 
  
• Installalation of Dell OpenManage Plug-In for Nagios Core on Ubuntu OS (NEWOct2016) 
• Using Dell OpenManage Plug-in for Nagios Core on CentOS and Ubuntu OS
• SNMP Parameters Configuration script for Dell iDRACs in a large customer environment using RACADM

• Agent-free Monitoring of Dell PowerEdge 12G Servers in Nagios Core and Nagios XI Whitepaper 

Videos

• Overview of Dell OpenManage Plug-in v2.0 for Nagios Core
  
  [View:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xs04YsjSZGE:550:415]
• Upgrading to Dell OpenManage Plug-in version 2.0 for Nagios Core
  
  [View:https://youtu.be/hmbyPduR1s8:550:0]
• Overview of Dell OpenManage Plug-in v1.0 for Nagios Core
  
  [View:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=py_XIwI7lIg&list=PLe5xhhyFjDPdcgpUUUik7XfP8Z_SUJkFX&index=4:550:0]
• Installation of Dell OpenManage Plug-in for Nagios Core
  
  [View:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWN0QX6a030&index=1&list=PLe5xhhyFjDPdcgpUUUik7XfP8Z_SUJkFX:550:0]
• Integrating SNMP traps in Dell OpenManage Plug-in for Nagios Core
  
  [View:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XaFI1YgyGc:550:0]
• Un-installation of Dell OpenManage Plug-in for Nagios Core
  
  [View:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcGOSx3bXO4&list=PLe5xhhyFjDPdcgpUUUik7XfP8Z_SUJkFX&index=3:550:0]

·        Agent-free monitoring support for 14^th Generation of Dell EMC PowerEdge Servers

·        SimplifiedPlug-ininstallationanddeploymentbyremovingmultipledependenciesonopensourcecomponentsandPerlmodules

Dell EMC OpenManage Plug-in for Nagios XI

Download - Documentation - Videos - Whitepapers - Discussion Forum

Overview

Dell OpenManage™ Plug-in for Nagios XI provides capabilities for monitoring 12th and later generations of Dell EMC PowerEdge servers through an Agent-Freemethod using Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller (iDRAC) with Lifecycle Controller (LC), Dell Modular InfrastructureandDell, Storage andNetworking devices directly from within the Nagios XI console. With this plug-in, customers have comprehensive hardware-level visibility of Dell EMC PowerEdge Servers, DellChassisModularInfrastructures, andDell Storage andNetworkingdevices including overall and component-level health monitoring for quicker fault detection and resolution.

What areisnewinVersion3.0?

• Agent-freemonitoringsupportfor new14GDellEMCPowerEdgeServersplatforms–R640,R740,R740xd,R940,C6420,R440,R540,T440,T640,M640,FC640,C4140,andAMDEPYC™ Platforms(R6415,R7415,R7425)
• iDRACRedfishRESTAPI supportfordiscovery,inventoryandmonitoringofPowerEdgeServerplatforms
• Agent-freediscovery,inventoryandmonitoringofDellEMCHyper-ConvergedInfrastructureplatforms-VxRail™andNutanixXC-Series
• Supportfordiscovery,inventoryandmonitoringof DellEMCNetworkingswitches-C-Series,S-Series,N-Series,Z-Series,andBladeIO(MIOA/MXLforM1000e,FN-IOM/FN-IOAforFX2/FX2s)
• SimplifiedPlug-ininstallationanddeploymentbyremovingmultipledependenciesonopensourcecomponentsandPerlmodules
• Improvedandfasterdiscovery,inventoryandservicechecks with the newPlug-Inarchitecturecompletelyre-writteninPython
• EnhancedHostandServicechecks
• EnhancedH/Wwarrantymonitoringforallsupporteddevices

Existing Key Features ?inOpenManagePlug-InforNagiosXI

• An automated and guided Dell EMC Configuration Wizard for discovery and monitoring configuration for following Dell devices:

  • Dell EMC PowerEdge 12th and later generation of servers

  • Dell EMC PowerEdge M1000e, DellPowerEdge VRTX, and DellPowerEdge FX2/FX2s chassis

  • Dellmodularinfrastructure

  • EqualLogic PS-Series Storage Arrays

  • Dell

  • Compellent SC-Series Storage Arrays

  • Dell

  • PowerVault MD 34/38 Series Storage Arrays

• Provide basic System information including Component-level details of the following Dell devices:

  • Dell EMC PowerEdge 12th and later generation of servers

  • Dell EMC PowerEdge M1000e, DellPowerEdge VRTX, and DellPowerEdge FX2/FX2s chassis
    

  • Dellmodularinfrastructure
    

  • EqualLogic PS-Series Storage Arrays

  • Dell

  • Compellent SC-Series Storage Arrays

  • Dell

  • PowerVault MD 34/38 Storage Arrays

• Monitor Overall Health including health of the following components of the supported Dell devices:

  • CPU, Memory, Physical Disk, Virtual Disk, Controller, Fan, Power Supply, Battery, Temperature Probe, Voltage Probe, Network Device, SD Card, Amperage Probe, Intrusion and FC NIC of the Dell PowerEdge Servers

• • Power Supply, Fan, I/O, Slot, and KVM of the supported Dell chassis
    

  • Enclosure, Controller, Physical Disk, and Virtual Disk of Dell PowerEdge VRTX Chassis

  • PCIe of Dell PowerEdge VRTX and PowerEdge FX2/FX2s chassis

  • Member Physical Disk, Storage Pool, and Group Volume of Dell EqualLogic PS-Series Storage Arrays

  • Physical Disk and Volume of Dell Compellent Storage Arrays

• Provide Warranty information of the supported Dell devices and alert based on days remaining for warranty expiration

• SNMP alerts monitoring from all the supported Dell devices

• View Alert Knowledge Base (KB) information of the following Dell devices corresponding to a SNMP alert for faster troubleshooting:

  • 12th and later generations of Dell EMC PowerEdge servers

  • Dell EMC PowerEdge M1000e, DellPowerEdge VRTX, and DellPowerEdge FX2/FX2s chassis

  • Dellmodularinrastructure

  • EqualLogic PS-Series Storage Arrays

• Launch the following 1:1 and 1:Many web consoles from Nagios XI to perform further troubleshooting, configuration, or management activities:

  • Dell

    • iDRAC web console

    • DellforPowerEdgeServersandHCI(VxRail,XC-Series)computenodes

    • Chassis Management Controller (CMC) Console

    • DellforM1000e,VRTXandFX2/FX2s

    • EqualLogic Group Manager Console

    • DellCompellentforPS-Series Storage Arrays

    • CompellentEnterprise Manager Console forSC-SeriesStorageArrays

  Business Benefits

  • Protect existing investment in Nagios XI product to easily integrate and monitor Dell servers, chassis and storages within customer’s infrastructure

  • This eases the administrator’s burden by having a single pane of glass to monitor the heterogeneous hardware platforms, which eventually improve the operational efficiency and flexibility in data center management

  • Increase productivity by reducing time to maintain, monitor and troubleshoot any issue in server infrastructure

  • Make informed and rapid decisions impacting the availability of data center resources

  Licensing Details

  Dell OpenManage Plug-in version1.0 for Nagios XI is available as a software download offered at no charge to customers.

  Download

  • Dell OpenManage Plug-in for Nagios XI

  Documentation

  v3.0	v1.0
  Installation Guide	InstallationGuide
  User'sGuide	User's Guide
  Release Notes	ReleaseNotes

  Technical Article & Wikis

  • Installation of Dell OpenManage Plug-In for Nagios XI on CentOS (NEWNov2016) 
    
  • Installation of Dell OpenManage Plug-In for Nagios Core on Ubuntu OS (NEWOct2016) 
  • Agent-free Monitoring of Dell PowerEdge 12G Servers in Nagios Core and Nagios XI Whitepaper

   

  Videos

  • Overview of Dell OpenManage Plug-in for Nagios XI

  [View:https://youtu.be/3AlbEtgV__Y:550:0]
  

  • Installation of Dell OpenManage Plug-in for Nagios XI 

  [View:https://youtu.be/SSYHJ-aTizc:550:0]
  

   

Reference list for updated names of attributes and possible values for Dell Command | Configure

To be updated soon...........

Dell Client Command Suite Webcast

Join our weekly webcast to discuss the Dell Client Command Suite and other systems management topics of interest to Dell customers.  

When: Thursdays at 10am US Central Time (see schedule below for details) Download a calendar invite (.ics) here

Where: http://delltechcenter.adobeconnect.com/command/

Upcoming Webcast Topics

Previously Recorded Webcasts

OpenManage Integration for VMware vCenter

OpenManage Management Pack for vRealize Operations - Downloads

1.1 (Requires OMIVV v4.0 or higher)
1.0 (Requires OMIVV v4.0 or higher)

OpenManage Integration for VMware vCenter - Manuals

4.1
4.0.1
4.0

iDRAC9 Home

What's new in iDRAC9?

The integrated Dell Remote Access Controller 9 (iDRAC9) with Lifecycle Controller is embedded within every Dell EMC PowerEdge™ server and provides functionality that helps IT administrators deploy, update, monitor, and maintain  servers with no need for any additional software to be installed.   iDRAC functions regardless of operating system or hypervisor presence because from a pre-OS or bare-metal state, iDRAC is ready to work because it is embedded within each server from the factory.  The new iDRAC9 delivers the following revolutionary systems management capabilities:

• Industry leading firsts

• • Multi Vector Cooling for precise air flow cooling of 3rd party PCIe cards.
  • Connection View provides the switch and port for iDRAC, LOM’s and Dell supported PCIe cards.
  • Expanded “Agent free” storage management functions such as Online Capacity Expansion (OCE) and RAID Level Migration (RLM)
  • Quick Sync 2 with BLE/Wi-Fi for at the server mobile/tablet access
  • System Lockdown feature restricts use of Dell tools to make changes to BIOS, iDRAC, firmware, etc  (Security)

• Automation additions
  • Support for Redfish 2016.R1 and .R2
  • Server Configuration Profile (SCP) new features
  • local file streaming via Wsman and Redfish
  • HTTP/S file transfer
  • available in JSON format along with XML
  • firmware repository  based updates

• Security Improvements
  • Random Password is the default iDRAC password (“calvin” is an orderable option)
  • Security warning banner on log in page
  • Hardware Root of Trust for iDRAC and BIOS booting

• GUI Enhancements
  • Full HTML5 web interface for faster page loading and ease of use
  • Export and import SCP
  • Added Power Control and Next Boot options in HTML5 vConsole (huge customer demand, including Dell IT)
  • BIOS configuration in the iDRAC GUI
  • Group Manager – self-contained code in iDRAC allows SMB customers a quick health overview of all servers in the group

• SupportAssist – faster time to resolution

• • iDRAC Service Module (iSM) is pre-installed on the iDRAC; helps gather logs used to troubleshoot errors
  • SupportAssist 1x1 ‘phone home’ service to Dell Support – great for SMB customers
  • SupportAssist Collector now includes iDRAC core dumps, hardware crash dumps, and ESXi logs for more accurate resolution
  • SupportAssist Viewer – detailed log report for customer viewing by standard web browsers.

If you are new to iDRAC with Lifecycle Controller, check out the "how to" videos we have on youtube.com here.

The Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller (iDRAC) is designed to make server administrators more productive and improve the overall availability of Dell servers. iDRAC alerts administrators to server issues, helps them perform remote server management, and reduces the need for physical access to the server.

Download the iDRAC9 with Lifecycle Controller Specification Sheet here.

( top )

Networking Cheat Sheets

OpenManage Essentials

OpenManage Enterprise Tech Release is now available

OpenManage Enterprise is the next generation OpenManage Essentials.  It simplifies, centralizes and automates the full span of server lifecycle management activities – discovery, configuration, deployment, updates, and remediation – within a single console that unifies management of tower, rack and modular platforms.  OpenManage Enterprise assists in standardizing and supporting your IT management policies and practices.

Please visit the OpenManage Enterprise page for more information.

OpenManage Essentials information continues below

Contents: Download - Documentation - Whitepapers - Videos - Forum - Blogs - FAQ 

OpenManage Essentials (OME) is a systems management console that provides simple, basic Dell hardware management and is available as a free download.

OpenManage Essentials 2.4 is now available (Jan 25th, 2018). It brings a lot of great new features and enhancements to the product.

Dell OpenManage Essentials (OME) version 2.4 is the latest release of our easy to install, intuitively simple to use, and customer-acclaimed, One-to-Many systems management console that is optimized to provide comprehensive lifecycle management of Dell PowerEdge modular, rack and tower servers.  OpenManage Essentials also delivers extensive infrastructure health monitoring, control, and support for Dell servers, storage, networking, business clients, firewall appliances, and 3^rd party hardware.   

TheHotfixforSystemUpdateissuesinOME2.4isavailablenow.Hereisadirectlinktodownloadthesame:

https://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/Drivers/DriversDetails?driverId=PW6NG

HerearetheinstructionsforinstallingtheHotfix:

1. EnsurethatyouhaveOpenManageEssentialsversion2.4installed.
2. DownloadOpenManageEssentials_2_4_0_1_A00.exe(Hotfixexecutable)andrunitasAdministrator.
3. VerifythattheHF1013.2.4isshownbyhoveringthemouseoverOMEversionintheAboutwindow.

OpenManageEssentialsversion2.4.0.1(HotfixHF1013.2.4)providesfixesforthefollowing:

• The'Non-CompliantSystems'viewhasdevicesorupdatesmissing,oriscompletelyblank.Inafewinstances,whenthecatalogisupdatedortheComplianceviewisrefreshed,theConsolestopsrespondinganddisplaythemessage:'Unhandlederrorintheapplication.Thedatacachedidnotrefreshcorrectly'.
• The'Non-CompliantSystems'viewismissingHyper-VserverswhicharemanagedbytheoperatingsystemIPaddress.

Key NEW features& Enhancements available with OpenManage Essentials v2.4:

• Support of streaming functionality for the server configuration deployment and configuration compliance tasks.
• Ability to create and manage multiple firmware baselines from repository manager files.
• Support for associating custom device groups with a firmware baseline.
• Support for generating firmware compliance report of custom device groups and updating non-compliant devices based on compliance report.
• Support for the latest models of 14th generation PowerEdge servers and networking devices.
• REST API enhancements:
  • To list and manage discovery ranges for the discovered devices.
  • To manage device groups, add and delete devices from the device groups.
  • To generate firmware compliance reports of device groups.
  • To generate configuration compliance reports of device groups.
  • To view additional inventory information such as controllers, physical disks, power supplies, switches, and virtual disks related information displayed in OpenManage Essentials GUI.

Enhancements:

• Ability to view configuration compliance reports of device groups.
• Ability to view the number of tasks being executed.
• Also refer the Release Notes to know the key fixes available in this release. 

Key NEW features & Enhancements available with OpenManage Essentials v2.3 and onward:

• Support for simplified device configuration deployment and configuration compliance features by separating deployment templates and configuration baseline.
• Enhancement in the chassis configuration baseline and deployment template with additional configuration settings for compliance, deployment, and export features.
• Remediate configuration drift against the server and chassis baselines.
• Backup and restore server profiles for existing operation without redeploying the servers.
• Support for SNMPv3-based discovery and events.
• Simplified modular infrastructure configuration management by combining chassis and IOA configurations.
• Simplify template editing for boot configurations, network interface settings, and IOA VLAN attributes.
• Enabling OpenManage Essentials to be used in data centers where ICMP ping is blocked.
• Enabling the device type-based discovery in the guided wizard.
• Enabling rediscovery of server or chassis by configuring the static IPv4 address during the configuration deployment task.
• Support for the following devices:
  • Additional models of networking, storage, and Disk Backup devices:
    • Storage: Compellent SC7020 
    • Networking: S6010 - ON, S6100 - ON, S4048T – ON
    • Disk Backup: DR4300, DR4300e, DR6300
  • VxRail and XC series hyper-converged infrastructure
    
    

• Enhancements:
  • Increase in the time interval of the Alert Ignore Action to receive ignore duplicate alerts to a maximum of 24 hours.
  • Ability to save the purged alerts after the maximum size of alerts log is reached.
  • More information in both inventory and hard drive information report to identify if a hard drive is self-encryption capable or Self-Encrypting Drive (SED).
  • Enabling support of Programmable MUX (PMUX) mode for VLAN configuration and VLAN deployment features on IOAs.
  • Capability to export the discovery ranges.
  • Ability to view the virtual I/O pool size of the I/O identity types during the creation of a virtual I/O pool.
  • New capabilities and enhancements in the REST interface. 
  • 45% increase in control and scalability across managed devices -  from 5500 to 8000

Existing OpenManage Essentials features also available now in OME v2.4:

• Stateless computing with centralized management of server virtual I/O addresses within OME - Server Configuration Management
  • Simplify server provisioning through profile-based deployments
  • Enable elasticity of compute resources through definition of a stateless computing pool in a Boot-from-SAN environment
  • Enable simplified server migration for disaster recovery operations
• Interconnects Management for PowerEdge Modular Infrastructure within OME – Server Configuration Management
  • Simplify M series blade I/O Aggregator and FN IO Module provisioning through template-based deployments
  • Simplified I/O connection and vLAN management for PowerEdge modular infrastructure through an easy tabular interface. It provides direct mapping between blade NIC ports and IOA/IOM server facing ports.  vLAN on the IOA/IOM server facing ports can be directly managed.
  • Automate vLAN provisioning as part of blade provisioning by extending server template to include definitions for vLANs on the corresponding IOA/IOM server facing ports.
• Simplified discovery for Dell PowerEdge modular infrastructure (M1000e, FX2 and VRTX)
  • Elimination of multiple steps in establishing discovery ranges for various components (CMC, iDRACs, and IOAs)
  • Automated speedy discovery of Dell modular infrastructure through use of a single CMC credential 
• Report enhancements include the availability of additional reports and categorizations
• Alert enhancements provide root-cause sources and recommendations on how to resolve issues
• Integration with Dell ProSupport SupportAssist for proactive remote support, automated support case creation and hardware failure notification sent securely to Dell technical support for intelligent issue analysis, diagnosis, and part-replacements upon customer request
• Comprehensive, deep management visibility and control for Dell blades and Chassis Management Controller (CMC), Dell storage and networking devices, and Dell AppAssure through a context sensitive link and launch of the respective element management interface
• Geographic View at-a-glance visibility of VRTX and FX2 systems’ physical locations geographically mapped
• Agent-free OOB inventory and update of 11^th, 12^th ,13^th and 14^th generation PowerEdge servers
• Agent-free monitoring of 12^th ,13^th and 14^th generation PowerEdge servers
• Traditional agent-based systems management functionality in all supported 11^th, 12^th, 13^th and 14^th generation PowerEdge servers
• Monitoring of non-Dell HW devices through import of 3^rd party HW SNMP MIBs
• Reporting of Warranty expiration and comprehensive inventory reports
• Hardware component-level monitoring and updates for PowerEdge servers, blade systems and internal storage arrays
• Support and control of Dell hardware in Windows, Linux, VMware, Hyper-V and OpenSource  environments
• Enhanced management functionality through integration with the following Dell solutions:
  • Dell KACE K1000 Appliance – comprehensive, economical and straightforward management of both clients and servers through a single interface
  • Dell Repository Manager – version control and scheduling of PowerEdge server updates 
  • Dell OpenManage Power Center – optimization of  PowerEdge power usage

Dell OpenManage Essentials Core Features:

OpenManage Essentials is available as a free download from the Dell Support Site. The OME console's inventory function integrates with the Dell Repository Manager to automatically facilitate the creation of custom repositories of new updates for your systems.  

If you are new to the product, Take the Quick Tour or watch the OME Overview Video below:

Download  

• Download OpenManage Essentials 2.4
  • Previous versions available in the Archive section below
• Download the Dell Troubleshooting Tool
• Download the Dell SNMP Configuration Tool

License Info:

Licensing OpenManage Essentials “Server Configuration Management”:  OpenManage Essentials (OME) is available as a free software download.  The download of OpenManage Essentials software also includes the opportunity to download and activate Dell SupportAssist services. In addition, Dell offers fee-based “Server Configuration Management” licenses that enable template–based deployment and configuration of bare-metal PowerEdge servers, detection of server configuration drift, virtual IO management. and state-less computing, among several additional management capabilities.  “Server Configuration Management” licenses are available at both POS (Point-Of-Sale) with a server purchase and APOS (After-Point-Of-Sale) for 12^th,  13^th and 14^th generation PowerEdge servers.  License SKUS for OpenManage Essentials “Server Configuration Management” are as follows:   

• POS:      634-BBWU (12^th and 13^th generation PowerEdge servers)
• APOS:    634-BBWT (12^th and 13^th generation PowerEdge servers)
• POS:      528-BBWT (14th generation PowerEdge servers)
• APOS:    528-BBSB (14th generation PowerEdge servers)

For additional information, please contact a Dell Sales Representative. 

Discuss

• OpenManage Essentials Discussion Forum 

• OpenManage Essentials Blog Posts 

Learn

• OpenManage Essentials 2.4 Documentation - (Release Notes, Manuals, Support Matrix, User's Guide, White papers)
• OpenManage Essentials 2.3 Documentation - (Release Notes, Manuals, Support Matrix, User's Guide, White papers) 
• OpenManage Essentials 2.2 Documentation - (Release Notes, Manuals, Support Matrix, User's Guide, White papers) 
• OpenManage Essentials 2.1 Documentation - (Release Notes, Manuals, Support Matrix, User's Guide, White papers) 
• OpenManage Essentials 2.0.1 Documentation - (Release Notes, Manuals, Support Matrix, User's Guide, White papers)
• OpenManage Essentials 2.0 Documentation - (Release Notes, Manuals, Support Matrix, User's Guide, White papers)
• OME Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) 
• OME Tips and Tricks
• OME vs Dell IT Assistant
• OME Quick Tour
• Tutorial videos as the bottom of this page
• Service Offering: Remote Installation and Configuration of OME

Whitepapers and Best Practices

Video 1: Creating a Template

Video 2: Creating a Virtual I/O Pool (OME 2.3)

Video 3: Creating a Compute Pool

Video 4: Deploying a Template (Stateless Deployment)

Video 5: Replacing a Server

Video 1: Adding Devices to the Bare Metal and Re-purpose Device Group

Video 2: Configuring Credentials and Scheduling Inventory

Video 3: Configuring a Deployment Share

Video 4: Creating a Configuration Template

Video 5: Deploying a Bare Metal Device

Video 6: Detecting Configuration Drift

Video 7: Auto Deploying Bare Metal Devices

0:08 - Installing OpenManage Essentals 
0:56 - Discovery and Inventory 
2:03 - Monitoring Health of Devices 
2:43 - Using the Home Portal
5:58 - Deploying Updates
7:03 - KACE Integration + MonitoringOpenManage 

	OpenManage Essentials and Repository Manager Integration
	Enable SNMP on OpenManage Server Administrator for ESXi4
	Enable SNMP on OpenManage Server Administrator for Windows
	Enable SNMP on OpenManage Server Administrator for Linux (RHEL)
	Dell OpenManage Essentials with KACE Integration
	OpenManage Essentials Custom Alerts
	OpenManage Essentials Apply System Updates
	Installing Dell OpenManage Essentials
	OpenManage Essentials Discovery and Inventory
	Dell OpenManage Essentials Discovery

Firmware catalog for Dell customized VMware ESXi images

What is a firmware catalog?

A firmware catalog is an aggregation of all firmware bundles that is supported on multiple generations of DellEMC servers. 

Firmware catalogs for DellEMC customized VMware ESXi

DellEMC started releasing firmware catalogs for Dell customized versions of VMware ESXi releases. The intent of this catalog is to announce the recommended firmware versions for Dell customized versions of VMware ESXi for various server models and peripherals. NOTE that the catalog contain firmware versions for all the generations of servers and corresponding peripherals. Hence it's advised that end users go through the compatibility matrix carefully to assess the support stance for the specific server model and  the peripheral that they use for a specific version of VMware ESXi. 

The DellEMC customized VMware ESXi 6.5.x compatibility matrix is available here. The DellEMC customized VMware ESXi 6.0.x compatibility matrix is available here. 

This specific Dell tech center page contain a table which maps the recommended firmware for Dell customized VMware ESXi images. This blog will be modified as and when new catalogs are released on a quarterly basis. 

Containers Compendium

Among our OpenStack Customers, we often get asked to explain containers – including what they are, their benefits, challenges, trends and adoption, and how they relate to other technologies ranging from bare metal, to virtual machines, to microservices, as well as how they complement OpenStack cloud platforms.

Listed here are several new resources intended to address these questions. 

SolutionBriefontheDellEMCReferenceArchitectureforRedHatOpenShiftContainerPlatform

DellEMC,RedHatandIntelhavecombinedtobuildareferencearchitectureforRedHatOpenShiftContainerPlatform.RedHatOpenShiftistheindustryleadingKubernetes-basedcontainerorchestrationplatformfordevelopmentanddeploymentofcloudnativemicro-serviceapplications.

OpenShiftenablesdevelopmentagility,exceptionalrun-timescalability,fullapplicationlife-cyclesupport,healthandintegritymanagementinaself-serviceplatformsolutionenvironment.OpenShiftprovidesthehighestcostefficienciescurrentlyavailablewithfullDevOpsintegration.

TheDellEMC/RedHat/IntelvalidatedOpenShiftReferenceArchitectureisamusthavefordemandingdigitaltransformationsolutions,startingwithdevelopmenttocustomersatisfyingdeliveryofapplicationservices.

Thought Leadership Paper on the Real Adoption and Use Cases for Containers in 2017

To address the current state of container usage and adoption, together Dell EMC, Intel, and Red Hat commissioned a research study from Forrester Consulting to evaluate how enterprises are currently using containers and what challenges and benefits they are experiencing.

The key findings are that containers are indeed exploding in popularity, and companies are using them in production as well as development and testing environments as they gain trust in this rapidly developing technology. Containers are viewed by IT decision makers as critical to both cloud and DevOps, and will help solve application portability challenges.  However, adoption of microservices is lagging compared with adoption of containers, and true application transformation is still in its infancy. But nonetheless, organizations do report that they are already realizing the benefits of containers, in areas that include speed of development and deployment, consistent deployment process, increased developer efficiency, and increased portability.

Download and read this paper to understand the details of the findings and the key recommendations that result.

Tech Dossier on How Containers and Microservices Are Reinventing Software Applications, including Relationship with OpenStack

Modular, building-block approaches to application development and deployment are gaining traction. In this Tech Dossier, we explain the functionality and the interrelationships of microservices, containers, and the complementary technology of virtual machines. We also describe some of the current challenges and describe the most common management and orchestration tools that address these challenges, including a summary of key OpenStack projects that support containers. 

In particular, we discuss several cloud and application environments that include container management and orchestration capabilities as part of their broader functionality, including Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform and Red Hat CloudForms, both of which are supported by the Dell EMC Ready Bundle for Red Hat OpenStack.  The dossier concludes with a brief assessment of the importance of containers and microservices for the future of IT.

OpenShift Commons Briefing on Unwrapping Cloud Native Services

On April 6, 2017, John Terpstra, Director of Cloud Architecture and Software Engineering at Dell EMC, gave an OpenShift Commons briefing entitled “Unwrapping Cloud Native Services.”

This presentation starts with a simple but important premise, which is about the necessity of getting the right message across to IT management and stakeholders regarding OpenShift, cloud native services, and open source initiatives whenever the opportunity arises.  But then it dives deeper into digital trends and forces of change, key software application engineering challenges, and compares different workload deployment methods and execution efficiencies across bare metal, virtual machines, containers on bare metal, and containers on virtual machines.

It ultimately explains that cloud native microservices enable more flexible, higher performing, agile code – which can come at the cost of increased complexity, but which can in turn be simplified by automation.  So therefore an intelligent transformation is necessary, and OpenShift allows us to create faster development to deployment cycles which can be used for competitive advantage

You can download a PDF of the presentation here or view the webinar session online at  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pV0je6b8_Ck

Dell Command | Monitor

Dell Command | Monitor is designed for Dell Enterprise Client systems, Dell IoT Gateway systems, as well as for Dell Embedded PCs.

With Dell Command | Monitor, system administrators can remotely manage assets, monitor system health, and inventory deployed systems in an enterprise.

NOTE: Dell Command | Monitor was formerly Dell OpenManage Client Instrumentation (OMCI). After the OMCI version 8.2.1, OMCI is rebranded as Dell Command | Monitor.

Dell Command | Monitor interfaces with leading enterprise management consoles that support industry standards. This approach helps to ensure that Dell systems can be managed by a broad array of existing enterprise management tools. It also interfaces with the Dell Integration Suite for System Center 2012, Dell KACE K1000 Management Appliance,  Dell OpenManage Essentials and our Client Management Pack for System Center Operations Manager (SCOM). Finally, tight integration with Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) allows customers to take advantage of the rich scripting capabilities for collecting information and customizing system settings. This product is provided at no additional charge to Dell customers.

The latest version of Dell Command | Monitor is v9.3v10.0.

 Downloads

• Dell Command | Monitor 9.310.0 for Windows  (Released - 08/03/201704/30/2018)
  
  • 32-bit
  • 64-bit
Dell Command Monitor 9.310.0 for Linux 
• Ubuntu Desktop 16.04 64-bit      (Released - 08/03/201704/30/2018)
• RHEL 7.0 64-bit                          (Released - 08/03/201704/30/2018)
• RHEL 6.0 64-bit                          (Released - 08/03/201704/30/2018)

• Dell Command | Monitor Documentation

[View:https://youtu.be/0CzPBTWKVkc:550:575]

[View:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94k6DxjX5Qo:550:0]

Dell Command | Monitor Quick Links

Enhancements included in the latest release

New Bios Settings introduced in DCIM_BIOSEnumeration Class:

MAC Address Pass Through
AMD Turbo Core Technology
AMD Simultaneous Multithreading Technology
AMD-V Technology
AMD-Vi Technology
Rear USB 3.0 Ports
AMD CPU Core Configuration
Front USB Port Collection
Early Beep
Early Display
Early Keyboard Backlight
Mini SAS 0
Mini SAS 1
Mini SAS 2
Mini SAS 3
VMD technology
Rugged Desk Dock NIC PXE
Computrace
Serial ATA Drive 8
PCIe LinkSpeed
Allow BIOS Downgrade
Limit system memory to less than 1 TB
Tablet Button Illumination
Trusted Platform Module Clear

Installing Dell Command | Monitor

Installing Dell Command | Monitor manually is pretty simple. Just download the latest version (links above) and install with administrative rights. 

To perform an unattended installation to be used with your favorite software distribution tool, perform the following steps:

1. Download the latest version of Dell Command | Monitor  (links above).
2. Launch the executable with the following parameters:

Systems-Management_Application_240JD_WN32_9.2.0.135_A00-00.EXE /s

Previous Releases

Download Dell Command | Monitor v9.1 for Windows 32-bit         (released 07/29/2015)

Download Dell Command | Monitor v9.1 for Windows 64-bit         (released 07/29/2015)

Dell Command | Monitor v9.1 Documentation

Sample Scripts

Check if a BIOS password is set

Latitude 3390 2 in 1 Windows 10 Driver Pack

Latitude 3490 Windows 10 Driver Pack

Latitude 3590 Windows 10 Driver Pack