Overview

Dell System Update is an application designed to facilitate the application of updates on Dell EMC PowerEdge systems. DSU is a lightweight utility that provides an enhanced scripted update process for Dell EMC’s Linux customers. DSU includes an Inventory Collector that will inventory the target system, compare the results against a Repository or Catalog and only deploy the updates that are required. DSU also provides advanced scripting capabilities to customize the updates that are deployed. DSU can be pointed at the Dell Linux Repository for gathering the updates to deploy or at a custom catalog built with Dell Repository Manager for those customers that want to have a tightly controlled baseline of Firmware levels for their systems.

DSU introduced the ability to build a Bootable DSU that provides the advantages of the advanced scripting capability along with an innovative approach to gathering the updates for deployment. Bootable DSU can be built as a self-contained Bootable ISO that includes a Linux Kernel, DSU, Inventory Collector and the physical update files. But an innovative approach is also available that allows the creation of a Bootable DSU that points to a remote location for the update files. The advantage of this unique approach is that the Bootable DSU portion only needs to be built once, and when you want to change the updates to apply you just change the contents of the remote location.

The following are key advantages for Dell System Update:

• Provide the ability to deploy/apply updates
• Provide Consistent interface across operating systems, repositories and systems
• Provide the ability to detect the applicable updates and ability to choose the updates for deployment

Supported Operating Systems

Linux (RHEL and SUSE)

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.8
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.2
• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP4
• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP1

Microsoft Windows

• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2
• Microsoft Windows Server 2012
• Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2
• Microsoft Windows Server 2016

Support for Ubuntu operating systems

Starting with DSU 1.4, support for Ubuntu operating systems is pre-enabled and the support is limited. All the DSU commands may function as usual without any issues. For more information on the catalog that has the updates for Ubuntu operating system, refer Ubuntu Catalog

NOTE:

1. "rebuilt" versions of the above such as CentOS or ScientificLinux and community distros like Fedora and OpenSUSE are not tested with this repository.
2. Support for Ubuntu is pre-enabled only on 12th and 13th generation of PowerEdge systems.

Documentation

• DELL EMC System Update Version 1.4.0 User’s Guide - PDF (208 KB)

More info can also be found at: https://linux.dell.com/repo/hardware/dsu/ 

Download

• DELL EMC System Update - v.1.4.0

What is Catalog?

DELL EMC PowerEdge Server Catalogs

DELL EMC PowerEdge Server Catalogs are an aggregation of all Bundles and Dell Update Packages’ metadata carried for Dell EMC PowerEdge 11G, 12G and 13G servers, as well as select Dell PowerVault and Dell EqualLogic Servers

DELL EMC PowerEdge Server Catalogs are refreshed every month on the 2nd and 4th Friday.

DELL EMC Online Catalog:  General catalog that is used by many DELL EMC tools such as DELL EMC Repository Manager, OpenManage Essentials, ASM and other tools.

DELL EMC LC Catalog:  Same content as the DELL EMC Online Catalog, but saved in .gz format for use with DELL EMC Lifecycle Controller

DELL EMC SDP Catalog:  Same content as the DELL EMC Online Catalog, but saved in the format required my Microsoft SCUP.

**Note:  Dell PowerEdge 9G and 10G servers have reached end of support life, new catalogs do not carry content for these platforms.

What's New + Downloads

Online Catalog

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.

The latest release is OME 2.2 and it launched on July 5, 2016.  It brings a lot of great new features to the product.

Dell OpenManage Essentials (OME) version 2.2 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.   

Key NEW  features  available with OpenManage Essentials v2.2:

• 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.
• Scalability increase from 4000 to 5500 devices
• Geographic View support for FX2  in addition to VRTX
• Support for Hard Disk updates (Out-Of-Band)
• Allow Custom SQL DB name during and after OME installation
• Addition of few new reports like “All Identity Attributes” and “Agent Health Status”
• Integrated MIBImport Utility functionality within OpenManage Essentials console
• Additional support for the following devices:
  
  • Dell Storage NX3230 and NX3330
  • Dell Networking W-7205 and C9010
  • Dell Networking X-Series Switches (X1008, X1008P, X1018, X1018P, X1026, X1026P, X1052, X1052P, X4012)
  • Dell PowerEdge R830

• Enhancements:
  • Link & Launch of IOA web-console.
  • Display of an appropriate health status icon when a device is unreachable.
  • Display of iDRAC name for devices in the RAC device group.
  • System Update task enhancements:
    • Display of timestamp and download status in the task details pane.
    • Support for the base location attribute of a Dell Repository Manager (DRM) catalog.
    • Option to reset the iDRAC before performing an out-of-band system update.
    • Option to select the method of restarting the server, after applying an out-of-band system update.

Existing OpenManage Essentials features also available now in OME v2.2:

• 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

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 
• Full lifecycle management (discovery/inventory, monitoring, update and server configuration management) is now enabled for the followingDell PowerEdge C-series servers:    
  • PowerEdge C4130
  • PowerEdge C6320
• 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 SupportAssistforproactive 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 AppAssurethrough a context sensitive link and launch of the respective element management interface
• Geographic View at-a-glance visibility of VRTX systems’ physical locations geographically mapped
• Agent-free OOB inventory and update of Dell 11G and 12G PowerEdge servers
• Agent-free monitoring of Dell PowerEdge 12G servers
• Traditional agent-based systems management functionality in all supported 9-12G servers
• Management of Dell PowerEdge C platforms with IPMI
• 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 Dell 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 2.2
  • Previous versions available in the Archive section below

• Download OpenManage Essentials 2.2.0.1 patch | Release Notes
• Dell Troubleshooting Tool for OME v2.2
• Dell MIB Import Tool for OME v2.1
  • Note: From OpenManage Essentials version 2.2 onwards, the MIB Import functionality is integrated within the OpenManage Essentials user interface. Refer OME User Guide for more details. 
• 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 12G & 13G PowerEdge servers.  License SKUS for OpenManage Essentials “Server Configuration Management” are as follows:   

• POS:     634-BBWU  
• APOS:   634-BBWT

For additional information, please contact a Dell Sales Representative. 

Discuss

• OpenManage Essentials Discussion Forum 

• OpenManage Essentials Blog Posts 

Learn

• OpenManage Essentials 2.2 Documentation - (Release Notes, Manuals, Support Matrix, User's Guide, Whitepapers) 
• OpenManage Essentials 2.1 Documentation - (Release Notes, Manuals, Support Matrix, User's Guide, Whitepapers) 
• OpenManage Essentials 2.0.1 Documentation - (Release Notes, Manuals, Support Matrix, User's Guide, Whitepapers)
• OpenManage Essentials 2.0 Documentation - (Release Notes, Manuals, Support Matrix, User's Guide, Whitepapers)
• 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

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

General Overview

iDRAC 7 & 8 Feature and Licensing Information Sheet (New for 13G)

Introducing iDRAC8 with Lifecycle Controller for Dell 13th Generation PowerEdge Servers (new for 13G)

OpenManage Systems Management with iDRAC, iSM, & OMSA: selecting the right components for specific server management requirements(NEW - Jan 2016)

Overview of Dell Systems Management using IPMI (updated for 13G)
PowerEdge Software Licensing (new for 13G)

Principled Technologies' Review of 13G PowerEdge OpenManage(New for 13G)

Understanding Physical Computer System View Profile Implementation (New for 13G)

Configuring Low-Latency Environments in PowerEdge Servers

Dell iDRAC7 Licensing Whitepaper - Differences between iDRAC6 and iDRAC7

iDRAC7 with Lifecycle Controller - Feature Guide

Lifecycle Controller Workflow Optimization

New Feature Overview: December 2013 Releases of iDRAC7 and Lifecycle Controller 2

New Features and Usability Enhancements to RACADM Commands in iDRAC7

PowerEdge C6320 Power Capping (New for 13G)

Networking and I/O configuration

Disabling a Third-Party PCIe Card Cooling Response with Dell PowerEdge Servers (new for 13G)

Dell Network Adapters with iDRAC (Updated April 2016)

IPv6 Best Practices using iDRAC (new for 13G)

Managing IO Identity and Server State Information (New for 13G)

Optimizing I/O Identity and Applying Persistence Policy on Network and Fibre Channel Adapters (new for 13G)

Retrieving Server OS Networking Information through iDRAC (New for 13G)

Understanding PreBoot Networking on Dell PowerEdge Servers (new for 13G)

Auto Dedicated NIC Feature in iDRAC7

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

iDRAC7 Network and Virtual Media Performance

iDRAC7 Networking and Improved Remote Access Performance

Network IO Identity

Reinitiate Auto-Discovery

Remote NIC Configuration Management  

Scripting and Server Configuration Profiles

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)

RESTful Server Configuration with iDRAC REST API(NOV 2016) 

Dell PowerEdge Redfish API Overview

AutoConfig - Enabling rapid configuration of Dell servers using DHCP (12G and 13G)

Creating Applications using the WSMAN API (New for 13G)

Methods to Save and Restore PowerEdge Server Configuration Settings and Firmware Images (New for 13G)

Using Filter Dialects with the WSMAN API (New for 13G)

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

Lifecycle Controller Backup and Restore in Dell PowerEdge 12th Generation Servers

Programmatic Scripting with WSMAN

Scripting WSMAN to Deploy OS Drivers

Scripting WSMAN to Deploy OS using Remote ISO Image to Stage and Boot

Scripting WSMAN to Deploy OS using vFlash to Stage and Boot to ISO

Server Cloning with Server Configuration Profiles

Server Configuration Profile - XML File Structure (files )

Understanding the iDRAC Power State Management in Base Server Profile

Understanding the iDRAC Power State Management Profile

Using Microsoft Windows PowerShell CIM Cmdlets with Dell iDRAC

BIOS and UEFI

Enabling iSCSI Boot Under UEFI Boot Mode on 13th Generation PowerEdge Servers

BIOS POST Troubleshooting Guide for 13th Generation PowerEdge Servers(new for 13G)

BIOS Setup User Guide for 13th Generation PowerEdge Servers(new for 13G)

Defining a Secure Boot Policy (new for 13G)

Updating BIOS on Dell 12G PowerEdge Servers (iDRAC7 - 12G only) 

Updating BIOS on Dell 13G PowerEdge Servers (iDRAC8 - 13G only) (New for 13G)

Using Lifecycle Controller to Configure UEFI Secure Boot and OS Deployment(new for 13G)

Configuring BIOS and NIC Using RACADM through Dell iDRAC

OS deployment

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

Operating System Deployment in PowerEdge Servers

Operating Systems Deployment using iSCSI or FCOE LUN

Updates

Automatic Updates in Dell PowerEdge 12G servers  

Creating and updating iDRAC repository with Repository Manager

Lifecycle Controller Platform Update in Dell PowerEdge 12th Generation Servers

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

Updating Firmware on PowerEdge Servers Using the iDRAC7 Web Interface

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

Storage & PERC

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

Dell iDRAC Best Practices regarding Transport Layer Security (TLS) Protocols (September 2016)

Dell response to 2016 Leap Second Issue (November 2016)

Dell PowerEdge 13G server security white paper (Nov. 2016) 

Dell's response to CVE-2016-5685(November 2016) 

Dell Response to CVE-2016-2108 (OpenSSL) (18 May 2016)

Dell OpenManage Response to CVE-2015-7547, glibc overflow(March 2016)

Dell OpenManage Response to CVE-2016-0800, CVE-2016-0703 and CVE-2016-0704(March 2016)

Dell iDRAC Response to recent CVE notices(Dec 2015)

Security with iDRAC8 (and 7)(updated April 2016)

Managing Web Server Certificates on iDRAC (New for 13G)

System Erase in Dell 13th Generation PowerEdge Servers (New for 13G)
New Security Features in Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller 7

Active Directory Integration & Certificates

Active Directory using Lifecycle Controller 

Integrate iDRAC8 with Active Directory (New for 13G)
Integrating iDRAC7 with Microsoft Active Directory

iDRAC Web Server Certificate Management

Monitoring and Alerting

13G iDRAC8 Dell Test Event Notification Message Reference

Dell PowerEdge C6320 platform options and systems management (Oct 2015)

iDRAC QuickSync Technical Guide (Nov 2014)

Managing Backplane Split Mode (new for 13G)

Web Services Eventing Support for Hardware Inventory and Monitoring (new for 13G)

Pre-failure alerts provided by Dell server systems management (UPDATED!)

PSU Mismatch System Behavior for Dell PowerEdge Servers (For 12G & 13G)

Using VNC with iDRAC (New for 13G)

Enhanced Out of Band Performance Monitoring (New for 13G)

FAQ: iDRAC Quick Sync & OpenManage Mobile - October 2014 (New for 13G)

Agent-free Inventory and Monitoring for Storage and Network Devices

Discovering Features in the iDRAC Remote Services API

Gathering information from iDRAC7 using SNMPv3

OMSA / OMSS to iDRAC SNMP-Gets Migration Guide (updated Aug '16)

Using OpenManage Essentials to configure iDRAC7 Action Alerts

Using the iDRAC7 Video Capture Feature

Web Service Eventing for iDRAC7 1.30.30 or later versions

Support Assist & Part Replacement

Generating Tech Support Report on 13th Generation Dell PowerEdge Servers (New for 13G)
Motherboard Replacement

Lifecycle Controller Part Replacement

Part Replacement

Restoring iDRAC7 License after System Board Replacement

Introduction to the Lifecycle Controller

PowerEdge servers use an embedded iDRAC with Lifecycle Controller provides advanced embedded systems management, enabling key server management tasks including deploy, configure, update, maintain, diagnose, repurpose and retire. Lifecycle Controller supports these functions in the customer’s preferred mode – at the server, pre-boot with an UEFI graphical interface, at remote consoles using standards-based APIs and via scripting.

Prior to the development of Lifecycle Controller, an administrator used tools such as Dell OpenManage Server Administrator (OMSA), Dell Systems Build Update Utility (SBUU), and Dell Deployment Toolkit (DTK) shipped on multiple CDs or DVD in order to perform Dell EMC PowerEdge server provisioning and update. Maintaining and using multiple DVDs/images for these operations was a time-consuming and error-prone effort.

To simplify these operations, Lifecycle Controller allows IT administrators to do away with media altogether, enabling operating system deployment with locally embedded driver repositories, firmware updates from local and network sources, hardware configuration, and platform-specific diagnostic routines. Because Lifecycle Controller is available even when the operating system is not functional or not installed, it provides added flexibility in provisioning and customizing the server to suit changing requirements.

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

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Lifecycle Controller Features

• Interfaces— pre-boot graphical interface accessible from BIOS for at-the-server operations; standards-based APIs including WS-Man and Redfish, supporting complete server lifecycle for remote consoles and scripts
• Core standards— IPMI, WS-Man, Redfish, HTTP/S, NFS, and SMB/CIFS
• Deploying— configure system and storage devices; view and export hardware and firmware inventory; wizard-guided operating system installation with OS Driver Packs. Unattended installation for Microsoft Windows and Red Hat Enterprise Linux
• Zero-touch auto configuration— enabling complete server configuration without human touch
• Updating— agent-free firmware maintenance with reduced maintenance downtime. Firmware updates from your compliant repositories built with Dell Repository Manager or access updates from downloads.dell.com. Recovery of prior versions with firmware rollback
• Servicing— continuous availability of logs and diagnostics without depending on server storage. Easy Restore automatically flashes firmware and restores saved state when replacing server components or mother board
• System erase— supports repurposing and retirement of severs by deleting data on selected server components. Enables removal of information from BIOS, Lifecycle Controller, internal configuration databases, rollback firmware versions, and iDRAC settings
• Backing up and restoring the server — back up the server configuration; restore the server to a previously saved state; import server licenses.
• Server inventory—current and factory system hardware inventory; current firmware inventory

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API Integration Guides

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API Reference Specs

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Attribute Registries

These registries list all of the attributes and properties for server components in XML format, covering BIOS, iDRAC with Lifecycle Controller, PERC RAID, NICs, FC HBAs, and PCIe SSDs. Following are the registries by release.

iDRAC8 with Lifecycle Controller Attribute Registries

2.00.00.00

2.10.10.10

2.20.20.20

2.30.30.30

Welcome to Dell Repository Manager

Dell Repository Manager (DRM) is an application that allows IT Administrators to easily manage system updates. Dell Repository Manager provides a searchable interface used to create custom software collections known as bundles and repositories of Dell Update Packages (DUPs).

These bundles and repositories allow for the deployment of multiple firmware updates at once. 

A Dell Update Package (DUP) is a self-contained executable in a standard package format that updates a software element on a Dell server such as the BIOS, a device driver, firmware, and other similar software updates.

Additionally, Dell Repository Manager makes it easier to locate specific updates for a particular platform, which saves time.

See a screenshot of the Data Center Version GUI

 How does Dell Repository Manager Work?

DRM connects to Dell's online catalog of updates that contains information on the available Dell Update Packages (DUPs). Once you have selected your updates, Dell Repository Manager downloads the specific file(s) you have requested.

Repository Manager can also compare differences between two repositories at both the bundle and component level. It allows you to create deployment tools using your custom repository. Repository Manager is available for Dell Data Center (Server, Storage, Networking) and Dell Enterprise client products. The Data Center version can create and manage repositories for Dell PowerEdge servers, select EquaLogic, PowerVault & Compellent storage as well as select PowerConnect and Force10 networking switches.  The Dell Client version manages updates for Dell Latitude, Precision Workstation and OptiPlex client systems.

Dell Repository Manager integrates with Dell systems management products such as Dell OpenManage Essentials console and the Dell Management Plug-in for VMware vCenter. Dell Repository Manager automates creation of custom repositories by reading inventory information from these consoles and creating of a set of updates that is newer than what is currently installed.  

What's New + Downloads

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What is DELL EMC System Update (DSU)

DELL EMC System Update (DSU) is a CLI optimized tool that ensures that the Dell PowerEdge systems are up-to-date with the latest BIOS, firmware, and software. DSU contains

• BIOS and firmware updates for server platforms

Getting DSU

DSU is available as a Dell Update Package (DUP). DSU DUP

• Windows DUP supports Windows OS's listed below
• Linux DUP supports RHEL/SLES/Ubuntu OS's listed below

DSU RPM for RHEL/SLES is also available.  DSU RPM

Documentation:

DSU User Guide (HTML Format)

DSU User Guide (PDF Format)

Supported Operating Systems

Linux (RHEL and SUSE)

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.9 (x86_64)
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.3 (x86_64)
• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11SP4 (x86_64)
• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12SP2 (x86_64)

Microsoft Windows

• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 (x86_64)
• Microsoft Windows Server 2012(x86_64)
• Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 (x86_64)
• Microsoft Windows Server 2016 (x86_64)

Support for Ubuntu operating systems

Starting with DSU 1.4, support for Ubuntu operating systems is pre-enabled  and the support is limited. All the DSU commands may function as usual without any issues. For more information
on the catalog that has the updates for Ubuntu operating system, refer Ubuntu Catalog

• Ubuntu LTS 14.04
• Ubuntu LTS 16.04
  

Note:  Support for Ubuntu is pre-enabled only on 12th and 13th generation of PowerEdge systems.

Dell EMC License Manager is a one-to-many license deployment and reporting tool for integrated Dell Remote Access Controller (iDRAC) and Chassis Management Controller (CMC) licenses. Dell License Manager can download, bind, deploy and backup:

• iDRAC licenses for 12th, 13th and 14th Generation PowerEdge Servers.
• CMC licenses on PowerEdge VRTX and PowerEdge FX or FX2s chassis.
• OpenManage Essentials perpetual licenses.
• PowerEdge storage sled licenses.

Dell License Manager can also inventory licensable systems to report on the licensing status and currently enabled iDRAC feature level.

Use Dell iDRAC licenses to enable server management capabilities such as the virtual media and remote console support currently available in the Enterprise iDRAC feature set.

You can download licenses from the Dell Online Licensing Portal. You can purchase licenses when you purchase a server.

What is New in Dell EMC License Manager 1.4 Release:

• Managing licenses for volume binding and distribution by connecting to Dell Online.
• Support for 14th generation of PowerEdge servers
• Normalizing password of the root user for 14th Generation PowerEdge Servers.

Dell OpenManage License Manager Download:

• DLM 1.4 Download (Windows Only)
• DLM 1.3 Download (Windows Only)
• DLM 1.2 Download (Windows Only)
• DLM 1.0 Download (Windows Only)

Documentation on Dell OpenManage License Manager is available at:

• DLM Documentation

Technical Resources:

For support forum requests use the OME forum

• OME Support Forum

Dell iDRAC7 Licensing Whitepaper

Dell License Management Portal 

• dell.com/support/retail/lkm

Dell iDRAC content on DellTechCenter.com

• www.delltechcenter.com/iDRAC
• www.delltechcenter.com/LC

Why do I want to use this tool?

Dell Troubleshooting Tool enables you to gather information about problems that may occur while using OpenManage Essentials. This tool can be used to diagnose discovery-related problems that may occur while connecting to managed nodes using various protocols such as SNMP, WMI, SSH, WS-Man, PowerVault modular disk specific connection, and so on. This tool also helps you to verify the SMTP specific settings, SNMP trap listening, SNMP trap forwarding, and TCP/UDP port availability. You can also use the tool to diagnose issues that may occur while updating patches through in-band method and also verify connectivity issues that may occur during deployment using a network share. This tool also includes several other tests that enable you to verify issues that may occur while using OpenManage Essentials. For more information, see the tool’s Help and readme file.

Download the standalone Dell Troubleshooting Tool

• Version 3.4.6 (latest, June 28, 2017)
• Version 3.4.5
• Version 3.4.4
• Version 3.4.3
• Version 3.4.2
• Version 3.4.1
• Version 3.3
• Version 3.2
• Version 3.1

Examples:

The following are some example use cases:

• You are either unable to discover a supported device in OpenManage Essentials or the device is classified as an unknown device while using SNMP protocol. Run this tool and select the SNMP protocol, specify protocol specific settings, and provide remote system IP Address. For Dell PowerEdge servers, verify whether the tool provides Server Administrator version in the result area for a successful test (using the SNMP Protocol for an in-band server discovery).
• You can verify if you can ping a remote device (using Ping/ICMP protocol) and also check if you can resolve the host name of the device from the management station (using Name Resolution protocol).
• You can verify if the Dell OpenManage Server Administrator services are running on a remote device (using Services protocol).
• You can check warranty status of any Dell server (using Service Tag).
• You can execute a command on the remote system and verify its output.
• You can listen to incoming SNMP traps.
• You can use this tool to forward test SNMP traps.
• You can use this tool to verify the SMTP settings to ensure that OpenManage Essentials can successfully run the Alert Emails action.
• You can use this tool to verify the availability of the local or remote ports.
• You can identify the user groups of the active user.
• You can view or delete the pending system update jobs in an iDRAC.
• You can verify connectivity to the deployment file share.

About Dell Troubleshooting Tool:

Using this tool you can gather more information about failures and issues with the discovery of the network devices (for example, Dell servers, clients, or any other network resources) in Dell OpenManage Essentials.

Dell Troubleshooting Tool also has the ability to verify Emails, SMTP settings, check for the availability of ports, run a command on a remote device, send and listen for SNMP traps, check warranty status, verify connectivity issues to a network share and iDRAC while deploying files.

Dell Troubleshooting Tool has tests that you can use to debug issues during in-band system update, find detailed information about iDRAC jobs or delete iDRAC jobs, and verify the IP address formed during out-of-band system update.

This tool is optional and is only required if you want to debug issues. The tool is also available as part of the OpenManage Essentials installer media. The tool helps you identify the issue. However, you have to manually resolve the issue outside of the tool.

Installation Requirements:

Troubleshooting Tool is a 64-bit application that requires the following

• Supported Operating System

• • Windows Server 2016 Standard and Datacenter Edition
  • Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2
  • Microsoft Windows Server 2012
  • Microsoft Windows 2008 R2 SP1
  • Windows 8.1 (x64)
  • Windows 8 (x64)
  • Windows 7 (x64)

• Microsoft .NET framework 4.5 or later
• You should have write permission on the folder where you have installed this utility. This is required to execute the require tests and show the results successfully
• You require administrator permissions to run the tool executable

Please review the readme file after you install the utility. Feel free to post updates on the www.delltechcenter.com/ome forum if you are not able to make use of this utility in a given scenario or need further help related to either this tool or OpenManage Essentials. That will be helpful to the community. 

 For more information about OpenManage Essentials, go to www.DellTechCenter.com/OME

Troubleshooting tool Videos:

(Please visit the site to view this video)

OpenManage Mobile (OMM) Overview

Dell EMC OpenManage Mobile (OMM) version 2.0 is a mobile application for managing servers and related devices from Android and iOS mobile devices. OpenManage Mobile enables IT administrators to perform a subset of server configuration, monitoring, and remediation tasks.

Key Use Cases of OpenManage Mobile 2.0

• Quickly perform basic server setup (plug the power cable, connect mobile device to server, assign IP address, change credentials, and update key BIOS attributes)

• Find out about any server issues quickly by signing up for proactive notifications from OpenManage Essentials console

• View all of the server information conveniently on a large screen, effectively getting the equivalent of a large LCD display on your mobile device

• Reduce the need for cumbersome crash carts by using Android tablet or an iPad to access system console

• For ease-of-use and faster first-time login, simply scan the iDRAC credentials stored in QR code

How to access PowerEdge servers from OpenManage Mobile

There are 3 key ways OpenManage Mobile can access and manage Dell EMC PowerEdge servers:

• Access iDRAC “at-the-server”
  PowerEdge servers (14^th generation): OMM can access PowerEdge 14^th generation servers through Quick Sync 2 module. Once connected, IT administrators can configure IP addresses & BIOS settings, share Dell EMC SupportAssist reports, view server inventory, health status & logs, or power cycle a server.
  
  Quick Sync 2 module is currently supported on PowerEdge R940, R740, R740xd, and R640 servers.

  
  PowerEdge servers (13^th generation): OMM can access PowerEdge 13^th generation servers through the Quick Sync bezel. Once connected, IT administrators can configure IP addresses, view server inventory, health status & logs, or power cycle a server.
  
  Quick Sync bezel is supported on PowerEdge R730, R730xd, and R630 servers.

• Access iDRAC remotely
  OMM can access PowerEdge servers (12^th, 13^th, and 14^th generation) remotely over a secure, internal network from anywhere. Once connected, IT administrators can configure IP addresses & BIOS settings, share Dell EMC SupportAssist reports, view server inventory, health status & logs, or power cycle a server.
  
  Note: Features vary by server model & generation.

• Access servers remotely through OpenManage Essentials (OME) console
  OMM can connect to PowerEdge servers through the OpenManage Essentials (OME) Console (v 2.1 and later). IT administrators can monitor all systems managed by OpenManage Essentials including Dell EMC servers, storage, networking, and firewall appliances, as well as other OME-supported third party hardware. OMM can also receive proactive notifications from OME console.
  
  OpenManage Essentials is available as a no-charge software download from www.Dell.com/OME

  For remote access to iDRAC or OpenManage Essentials, no additional hardware is required other than Android or iOS devices. For at-the-server access, either Quick Sync 2 module or Quick Sync bezel is needed.

   

   

  Download OpenManage Mobile from App Stores

  OpenManage Mobile is available as a no-charge application download from Apple App Store and Google Play Store:

• Download link for OpenManage Mobile 2.0 (iOS): https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/openmanage-mobile/id949941153?mt=8

• Download link for OpenManage Mobile 2.0 (Android): https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dell.omm

Overview of OpenManage Mobile 2.0 features

• Access Methods

• Connect to multiple OpenManage Essentials consoles from a single mobile device

• Connect to multiple PowerEdge servers (12^th, 13^th, and 14^th generation) servers remotely

• Connect to PowerEdge servers (14^th generation) through Quick Sync 2 module (Android and iOS)

• Connect to PowerEdge servers (13^th generation) through Quick Sync bezel (Android only)

• Notifications (from OpenManage Essentials console)

• Receive critical alert notifications from OME on your mobile device

• Acknowledge, forward and delete alerts from your mobile device

• Monitor

• Browse server details, health status, firmware inventory, system event logs, and LC logs of individual servers. Share/Forward as needed.

• Access and share SupportAssist reports, or crash screens and videos

• Access server warranty information from the mobile device

• Basic server setup & configuration

• Configure one server manually, or multiple servers simultaneously. You can even update the Auto-Update flag in server from OMM.

• Run RACADM commands and get output directly on the mobile device

• Access system console to view server OS desktops (12^th, 13^th, and 14^th generation). Note: This needs a Third-Party app download from Apple App Store or Google Play Store.

• Perform server management functions such as Power On, Power cycle, Reboot, or Shutdown from the mobile application

• Demo Mode

  • Learn the features of OpenManage Mobile by accessing the “Demo Mode”. OpenManage Mobile users (customers, technicians, sales, etc.) can preview the capabilities of OpenManage Mobile using an offline, pre-populated “demo database” included in the app.

Key NEW features in OpenManage Mobile v2.0:

• Access the new Quick Sync 2 module for at-the-server systems management

  • Available for PowerEdge 14^th generation servers

  • Advanced functionality, including “touch & roam” capabilities for ease-of-use

  • Now supported on iOS too (in addition to Android mobile devices)

  • Leverages Bluetooth and Wi-Fi technology to connect OMM to iDRAC

  • Availability at both Point-of-Sale with servers as well as After-Point-of-Sale (Point-of-sale highly recommended).

  • Located internally within the server (not a bezel anymore)

• Perform manual and batch server configurations*
  Assign IP addresses, change iDRAC credentials and NIC configuration, change boot order, update location or key BIOS attributes.
  
  * Please note that the batch server configuration feature is primarily available for PowerEdge 14^th generation servers. Features vary by server generation and access method.

• Access SupportAssist reports for PowerEdge 14th generation servers
  Access and share SupportAssist reports, last boot capture or crash video; View and share last crash or the OS preview screen.

• Run RACADM commands to access and manage PowerEdge 13^th and 14^th generation servers
  Run any RACADM command and obtain the output directly on the mobile device. Five frequently used RACADM commands are pre-entered in the application and can be initiated with the touch of a finger on the mobile display.

• Access a Virtual Console (VNC over SSH) securely
  Access a console securely over SSH from both Android and iOS mobile devices

For additional details, please refer to the OpenManage Mobile 2.0 Customer Deck / Training Deck on SalesEdge: https://dell.gosavo.com/Document/Document.aspx?id=42618429&view

FAQ: iDRAC Quick Sync & OpenManage Mobile - October 2014

Minimum Requirements 

• Mobile device running Android OS v5.0 or later OR iOS 9.0 or later
• OME v2.1 or later management console (for data center monitoring features)
• PowerEdge 14th, 13th, or 12th generations servers (for 1:1 remote connection through IDRAC)
• PowerEdge 14th generation servers - R940, R740, R740xd, R640 - with Quick Sync 2 module (for at-the-server management)
• PowerEdge 13th generation servers - R730, R730xd, R630 with Quick Sync Bezel (for at-the-server management)

Videos

Value proposition video for iDRAC with Quick Sync enabled by OMM

(Please visit the site to view this video)

Video showing iDRAC Quick Sync features with OMM 

(Please visit the site to view this video)

Video explaining the value proposition of the application –

(Please visit the site to view this video)

A video explaining the 4 key steps involved in using the application -

(Please visit the site to view this video)

Download

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dell.omm

Documents   

OpenManage Mobile v1.5 User Guide (for Android) 

OpenManage Mobile v1.5 User Guide (for iOS)

OpenManage Mobile Best Practices White Paper

iDRAC QuickSync Technical Guide - Nov. 2014

Understanding OpenManage Mobile Security White Paper

OpenManage Mobile TIP of the day

12/02/2014 - iDRAC Quick Sync

Certain Android handsets do not autonegotiate well at all NFC speeds. This might be an Android OS bug or a bug in the chipset silicon of the handset. So far we have not managed to isolate any vendor or Android OS version that  has this problem. It happens to be random across manufacturers, but consistent to a handset model.

Of the supported 106, 212, and 424 kbps for Quick Sync, only 106 kbps works effectively.

If you have a a device that has the above-mentioned problem during Quick Sync, then you are advised to launch the “Add via Quick Sync” animation within the OMM app before you perform an Quick Sync Scan, in order to have a successful scan.

For the devices that  do not have this problem, you can be in any state of using the app (even minimized) and the app is launched when you attempt to do a Quick Sync read.

03/18/2014 - Push Notifications

Question – I am able to connect to my OME through 3G/4G connections and get notifications. When I am not connected to my OME server I still keep receiving notifications from the devices I am monitoring. Why is this happening? How can I stop this?

Answer – When a user adds an OME to the OMM app on the phone, he/she chooses a filter for “push notifications”. This is the second screen of the “Add OME” wizard. Whenever OME receives an alert that matches the filter chosen by the user it sends an alert update via the end users phone network to the mobile device. If “All Alerts” was chosen, the user will receive all alerts that are received by OME. Ideally an administrator should set the filter to only those alerts that are critical and are of interest to avoid alert overload.

The alerts will get pushed to your mobile phone even when you are no longer connected to the OME, and away from your company network. These messages are not warnings about lack of connection to OME. As an OME administrator, you would want to receive these alerts even when not connected to the OME (for example when you are offsite or it is after work hours), since they usually indicate problems in your data center. After receiving one or more alerts log onto OMM, connect to the OME, and then view more details on the alerts. After browsing through the alert details take action on the alert, without having to physically access the OME or the targets managed by OME. If you don’t log onto OMM, the alerts will accumulate as they are still marked “unread.”

If you don’t want to receive alerts when not connected to the OME this feature can be turned off. There are several ways to do this.

1)      Log onto OMM, edit the OME’s connection and change your filter settings to “None” or to the filter you are most interested in. You have to be connected to the OME to make this change. A user can always re-subscribe to the right filter as his roles and responsibilities changes over time.

2)      Log onto OME via a web browser, and in the “Preference” section you will see your phone listed in the “Mobile Settings” page. You can choose to delete or disable your device from that list. 

OpenManage Mobile Forum -

Have a question or feedback on OMM. Start a discussion here.

Others –

OpenManage open source license document

SystemsEdge was a blog that ran from October 2007 - September 2008. It is now known as the Dell TechCenter blog, which resides on the Dell Community site.

On the Power"Edge" of Systems Management

Blade Config Is Easy
11/3/2008 - Comments

I spent part of today getting a new Dell PowerEdge M1000e blade chassis up and running. We've been limping along on a beta chassis for a while and finally found some time to move to the new one.

Sometimes I forget how easy we make things. I used to work at IBM and did many things around that blade solution. When I brought a new IBM blade chassis up I had to run a crossover cable from my laptop to the management module of the blade, and it would boot up with a default IP address. So then I had to configure the laptop to be on the same subnet and then reconfigure the management module to be on the "real" network. Quite a pain.

On the Dell Blade chassis, I get access to the Chassis Management Controller (CMC) right through the KVM. When you hit PRNT SCRN to change blades the CMC shows up as an option. It's just like you were telnet'd or ssh'd into the CMC. I can configure the IP right from the keyboard. Soooo much easier.

Here's a picture of the CMC in the KVM interface and the single command I had to run to configure the CMC IP address.



Scott - Comments



SCVMM 2008 RTM
10/30/2008 - Comments

Microsoft's System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) 2008 was released to manufacturing last week. Todd downloaded it and will have some findings on the new version posted on his blog soon.

I've been working with one of our folks in PG to help put out some more demos on SCVMM 2008. They should be up and available in the next few weeks. We did some demos with the beta version that you can see here.

I was pleased with the ease of use in the beta version. I'm hoping to see much more stability in the RTM version. I'll let you know once I have the new blade chassis up and running with the new PowerEdge M905 blades, which will also be used for some Dell Management Console (DMC) testing as I've gotten my hands on the latest code drop for that beta.


Scott - Comments



OM 5.5
10/22/2008 - Comments

OpenManage 5.5 is available for download from the support site. Here's a link that will take you to the downloads for the Dell PowerEdge 2950. This page will help if you are new to OpenManage and need help in figuring out what to download.

If you need the full-blown Systems Management Tools and Documentation DVD, here’s a quick tip: you can use any Dell Service Tag for the download—it doesn't have to be a Server System. I use my laptop service tag. :-)


Scott - Comments



DMC Reporting
10/15/2008 - Comments

Still creating more content and demos over at the Dell Management Console (DMC) beta site. We’re trying out some of the reporting functionality. Here's a screenshot of one of the reports showing the Dell PowerEdge Server model types.

If you're interested in joining the beta site, let me know.



Scott - Comments



DMC Inventory Screenshots
10/10/2008 - Comments

The Dell Management Console (DMC) is actively collecting inventory information on our lab machines. Thought I'd take a minute to show you a screenshot of the Inventory Summary screen.

The icons are really nice looking.



Scott - Comments



Testing DMC Beta
10/3/2008 - Comments

Getting around to playing with the new Dell Management Console (DMC), which is still in beta—can't say too much about when it will release. We are just finishing up the beta site that will have some demos and docs—and then code later to download.

One thing that was cool to see is a link to the Dell TechCenter OpenManage homepage from within the product! Kudos to all our followers and members out there that are making this a great destination site. If you didn't make it and find it valuable, I don't think we would have made it into the product. Pretty neat. I'll try to sneak as many screenshots out as I can, until they find us and tell me to stop. Heck, I probably won't even stop then...sometimes you just want to buck the system. :-)



So if you happen to be one of the three people that read my blog, send me a note and I'll sneak you into the back door of the DMC beta site when it goes live.

Scott - Comments



My Thoughts on the vCloud
09/26/2008 - Comments

At the VMworld 2008 keynote there was an emphasis on vEverything, and in particular the vCloud. At the high level, the idea is a great one: be able to seamlessly move workloads in and out of the cloud, no matter where the resources exist in the cloud—my data center, your data center, their data center.

In my previous life I was lucky enough to work on the team at IBM that was engaged in the beginning of the TeraGrid project—a great project with a goal of uniting several academic HPC Cluster sites across the U.S., so they could share the computational resources.

We thought the biggest challenges would be of a technical nature, but it turned out the political and trust challenges far outweighed the technical challenges.

How can I trust my data is secure at your site? Who will have access to the data? I need admin rights on your site. How do we charge back for your hogging all the bandwidth with your project?

I would encourage Paul Maritz to meet with the leaders of TeraGrid and discuss those challenges and how they deal with those issues. It's the natural order of the world for us to learn from academia.

Scott - Comments



VMworld 2008 Highlights
09/24/2008 - Comments

I had a great time out at VMworld 2008. Met up with some old friends and met many new ones this year—thanks to all the twittering.

I just uploaded all the photos from my phone and added them to Todd's album that he created for VMworld. If you look closely, you'll see several screen shots of the new vCenter product and some interesting ones on the layout of ESXi on the flash storage device.

The demo of the vAppSpeed was one of the coolest things I saw at the show.

Todd and I will discuss this demo and more in next week's chat session.

Scott - Comments



VMworld Coverage
09/12/2008 - Comments

Todd and I will be covering the VMworld show next week. I've been spending much time over at our Virtual Exhibitor Booth on the VMworld.com site; that's why you haven't seen many updates from me over here lately. Funny how you talk about "spending time" at a virtual site, but that's really what it is when you get down to it -- where do you "hang out" on the web?

Same thing we've always done as human beings, just new media and different platform these days. They have even set up a virtual bar over at the VMworld.com Virtual Pavilion. Already had a few bar fights :-) ... and no I didn't start it!

So all next week, plan on following Todd and me on Twitter and at the virtual booth. That's where you'll find us hanging out -- well, maybe the Palms Hardwood Suite as well :-)

Roger will be pulling back some of the more interesting tweets and content. Ping us on Twitter, here, or email if you want some particular pics or information from the show.

Scott - Comments



DUPs Script for ESX
09/05/2008 - Comments

I wrote a script a few months back to automate the deployment of Dell Update Packages, DUPs on ESX servers.

Got a message today that it might be broken with the new version of SUU.
Testing now. Will update here if it can be fixed, or if it is beyond repair.

** Update ** - Is working on my test server with ESX 3.5 and SUU 5.4.1 , anyone else experiencing problems ?

Scott - Comments




ITA Mess
08/22/2008 - Comments

Shelley from the EBC, is always telling our customers, "It's great to have the tools, but if you don't have the people and processes in place, the tools will do you no good." .. very true

Being a lab, and one that reacts to test anything and everything from random tweets, I'd say our processes are pretty much shot, as evidenced from this ITA screen shot from my server :



Looks like I'll be taking some time to apply some patches and updates ! Can anyone top this ?

Scott - Comments



The Next Thing to Come in Dell Systems Management
08/04/2008 - Comments

I'm not so good at keeping secrets. Apparently neither are some others, or this guy either, or this one. As part of the activites around this new product, we need some volunteers to take a peek at the new product and provide some feedback. You might even be able to test it out on your own systems, depending on your enthusiasm and ability to PayPal me enough cash :-)

We're in the beginning stages of setting up a private site for the beta. Let me know if you'd like to join, and I'll forward details on getting you hooked in.

UPDATE - to request access for the beta - send a private message to this ID

Scott - Comments


SCVMM 08 Demo
07/28/2008 - Comments

Just finished a demo on using Microsoft's System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 to initiate a VMware VMotion on ESX hosts. If you were following us on Twitter, you would already know that :-)

Scott - Comments



We're Tweeting
07/22/2008 - Comments

In order to be as cool as you, we're now using Twitter at work. So if you want to know where we're headed for lunch, or what's going on in the lab, or what we're seeing at some of the geek conferences, come follow us !

DellTechCenter Twitter

Scott - Comments



SCVMM 2008 and Hyper-V
07/18/2008 - Comments

We are gearing up for our Hyper-V management topic next week. Todd installed SCVMM 2008 on a system in the lab and handed my the keys. First thing I did was to add our VMware Virtual Center Server into SCVMM's console. That was very easy to do. I've posted some screenshots on this page.

Then I noticed when right clicking on a VM it had the "Migrate Virtual Machine" option ... you guessed it ! .. it performed a Vmotion through SCVMM. Pretty cool. But of course, there was no magic to Vmotion from the ESX host to the Hyper-V host :-(

I'm going to slap together a quick demo to show you what it looks like. Keep an eye out for it.

Scott - Comments



Blade FlexAddress Demo
07/17/2008 - Comments

If you just see a big blank section on the screen, you are behind the Dell firewall. Go watch it at home :-) .. or download it from here.



Scott - Comments



Blades and vfd
07/09/2008 - Comments

So yesterday I needed to update the bootcode on our Qlogic mezzanine cards on the blades in the lab. I downloaded the file, your standard zip file with some files and a readme. Instructions seem simple enough, "boot to DOS, Run update.bat" .....I don't know about you, but then I see something that simple, my mind starts racing. Where am I going to find a floppy ? .... where's my DOS boot disk ? ... will these files even fit on the floppy after I make it bootable ?

So no I can't find a floppy, I don't have a DOS boot disk, and of course these files are too big to fit ! ... I'm not even in the lab, I was working from my desk. I don't want to drive over there, I'm trying to save the environment ... well actually I'm just really lazy most days :-)

There's a handy little tool in my toolbox called "virtual floppy drive" .. aka vfd. I wasn't sure if the virtual media of the Blade iDRAC would see it, but it was worth a try. Loaded it up, formatted with the "Create MS-DOS startup disk", then attached to the Blade via virtual media, and it booted ! Then I simply changed virtual disks in vfd to an image with the Qlogic bootcode and ran update.bat. Worked like a charm.



Scott - Comments



Follow the Yellow Brick Road ...
07/01/2008 - Comments

Our manager (somebody bug her about a profile pic !) was traveling the world couple weeks back and evangalising the TechCenter. She was explaining how she was "showing" the site to people, and I thought, "quick 10 minute demo of the site would be right".

It's easy enough for us to say, "we got that on the TechCenter", but the response is usually, "Where ?" Search is good, we're tagging with keywords, but people want to know where stuff is "happening" on the site. So I did a quick demo that is posted on the home page at the bottom right. It's YouTube - so if you're inside Dell - tuff luck -- until the Windows Media file gets linked in a few days. If you are new to our site, check it out, should help you follow our thought process as we put new content on the site.

And no, it's not a how-to-use-the-web demo, although my mom still needs help with that ! -- How frustrating is it to watch her single click when she should double-click and vice-versa? You know what I'm talking about :-)

Scott - Comments



New Blade Demos
06/18/2008 - Comments

I wish we could send out a new Dell PowerEdge M1000E Blade chassis to everyone ! ... but I guess the next best thing are demos of the Chassis Management Controller and iDRAC in action. I know .. the YouTube versions embedded in the page are grainy, that's why there is a link to download the WMV file, which is better..

I've received requests to see more features. I'll keep plugging away and you tell me what else you'd like to see.

Scott - Comments



TechCenter Shirt ? Anyone ?
06/10/2008 - Comments

tvieson is looking for some help. First person to provide a WORKING solution, gets a TechCenter shirt. You can see it proudly modeled here by myself and Roger ( I don't think Todd is wearing any clothes under that Wookiee costume ! ).

If you're a writer on the community, simply add your code to the page. If your a regular member, you can simply respond to the thread. You will then have proven yourself worthy and be elevated to writer status ! A shirt and more power, can't ask for much more.

Scott - Comments



Blade Systems Management
06/06/2008 - Comments

Beginning next week our focus area for the TechCenter is around Blade Systems Management. I'll keep that link updated with the information that is most relevant to architecting and using a systems managment strategy in a Dell PowerEdge Blade environment. We've got several guest speakers in the wings ready to talk about some exciting new enhancements to the Dell PowerEdge M1000e Blade chassis that are quickly nearing release.

Join us in the weekly chats and if you can't make the chats, be sure to review the transcripts. If you have anything you want queued up for discussion, drop me a comment.

Scott - Comments



The community works !
06/03/2008 - Comments

I tested my script for installing OMSA on VMware ESX several times on multiple machines, so when I see a thread titled - "I don't think this script is going to work very well" - I tend to say, "Arrrggghhh, what did I copy and paste wrong ?!"

Happily, stoggy, had pointed out a better way to perform the snmpd.conf changes that was much more elegant than my hack. My linux skills are slowly fading, and I hate to RTFM .... I like it better when the community works and we all gain in the knowledge.

Thanks !

Scott - Comments



Ooooooooommmm ....
05/28/2008 - Comments

No this is not your relaxation chant for Friday afternoon, but I want to clue you in on what seems to be a little secret when you install the OMSA agent on a server. There was a thread on the TechCenter this week about thermal monitoring. Of course, I read too much into the question like I always do, and answered the wrong question at first , won't be the first or last time I do that :-)

The question boiled down to, "How can I read the temp probes of my server and write them to a file for trend analysis ?"

When you install OMSA it also installs a command line utility called "omreport". Open a CMD window and type "omreport -?" , from there you can walk the tree, or get this ... there is documentation ! I'm leaving the script writing part as an exercise for the reader. If you're in linux, it's easy enough to grep out what you need, slap to the end of a file and repeat. In the Windows world, it takes a bit more work. If one of you comes up with an elegant solution, post it on the OpenManage Scripts and Tools section, and I'll send you kudos, a badge, and a shirt !

And here's another little secret I'll let you in on, I didn't find out about the omreport CLI until I had worked with OMSA for three months !

Scott - Comments



OpenManage Suggestions for Improvements
05/28/2008 - Comments

Thanks for all the cards and letters coming in on suggested improvements for OpenManage !

You haven't seen any responses on the threads yet, but that doesn't mean their isn't a flurry of activity going on behind the scenes. You can also "Vote" for any of the suggestions by clicking the yes/no boxes on the "Do you find this valuable ?" option. I'll keep poking people on this side, and you keep the suggestions coming.

Thanks !

Scott - Comments



OMSA on ESX can be Scriptalicious
05/19/2008 - Comments

We've already got some great documentation from the Dell Virtualization Engineering team on how to install Dell OpenManage on VMware ESX. Definitely the first place to start.

Shelley, who talks to customers in the Executive Briefing Center daily, came by and mentioned that it would be great if we could package up the steps in the documentation. Write a script so customers could reuse it easily in their deployment processes and eliminate typo problems. DING DING DING, Thud (that's the sound of my head banging against the wall), of course that's what we should do !

For your viewing pleasure, I give you the Scriptalicious method for deploying OMSA on VMware ESX. Look through the code, about mid-way through you'll see me begging for help :-) ... of course I know all you admins just want to use what works and to heck with writing elegant code :-)

Scott - Comments



Can I interest you in a tooth pulling ?
05/13/2008 - Comments

Quick raise your hand if you love to patch your servers ! .... anyone, anyone, Bueller, Bueller ? ... yeah, I didn't think so. It's something we have to do as admins. If you come from the HP or IBM management domain, I'm sure you've developed a methodology using their tools to bring some fun to this chore.

I've created a page on Patching Dell Servers. It will help you with the Dell terminology and the tools that we've developed to assist you in patch management of servers. If you have some tips and tricks in this arena, please feel free to add to the conversation. We've also got a place where you can show off any scripts or tricks you've developed.

Scott - Comments



Starting Smart with Dell OpenManage
05/9/2008 - Comments

Yes, you should start smart with Dell OpenManage :-)

Scott - Comments



Icons in ITA
05/7/2008 - Comments

Back in January I blogged about trying to figure out what the icons in the ITA interface meant. A few others on the Dell Community Forums had the same thoughts. I had the grand idea that we would all update a page and contribute our meanings to the icons. That quickly fell to the bottom of my list of things to do.

As I was looking through the DCF OpenManage section, I happened across this entry. Awesome, now it's as simple as reading the docs to interpret the icons.

I will hence forth call this the OpenManage Icon Interpreter.

Thanks documentation team !

Scott - Comments



Dell OpenManage Suggestions for Improvements
05/6/2008 - Comments

Of course we want to hear from you ! We've already gotten some great email input and I should of thought of creating a page earlier, but that credit goes to Stuart that started a thread on the topic.

I created a page for Dell OpenManage Suggestions for Improvements. Now it is up to you to create the threads with the ideas. I'll point the Product Managers, Developers, and Development Managers in that direction. Many of them already lurk here, so don't be suprised if they respond directly to your thread.

Scott - Comments



The Effect of Removing Server Power Supplies
05/1/2008 - Comments

We had a great chat session a few weeks back that took us down a strange path. A customer on the chat informed us that they remove one of the redundant power supplies from their servers in order to reduce power consumption. His original question was how to remove the Red-X from the ITA console so they would stop getting error messages.

Then the discussion turned into a, "how much can you save by doing this ?" discussion. Since both Todd an I were in the lab at the time, and we had the server in question and power monitoring equipment, we decided to do a quick gut check of the difference in power consumption. This first very "unscientific" test consisted of Todd yelling out numbers from behind the rack and me typing stuff in the chat box.

The discussion came up again with Fred. Fred talks to customers at the Briefing Center on a daily basis. Fred told me that he's had other customers who are doing the same thing.

That discussion prompted me to spend some more time in the lab and do a more thorough investigation of the differences. The results are about what we expected. Older servers have more inefficient power supplies, so they see a greater difference than newer servers with more efficient supplies. Also, as the workload increases, the percentage difference decreases because the inefficiences represent a larger portion of the measurement at idle workloads.

Can someone tell me where this trend started ?

Scott - Comments



Monitoring HP Servers in Dell ITA
04/30/2008 - Comments

My thanks to Philip for kicking off the conversation and asking how we can use Dell IT Assistant to manage HP systems.

There are two Dell PowerSolutions articles that explain how this can be accomplished. I'm currently in the process of adding our HP DL385 system to my ITA Console. I'll be using these articles as reference and documenting the process along the way.

If you've done this before, please feel free to give me your two cents on the topic.

Scott - Comments



Switching to Dell OpenManage
04/28/2008 - Comments

For the next three weeks, I'll be focusing on helping you switch from HP's systems management platform to the Dell OpenManage platform.

Now of course it would be mighty arrogant of me to think that we've replaced all your HP gear with Dell gear. So I'd like to hear from those of you that have a mixed environment. How are you handling management of the servers ? Have you setup separate management servers for each vendor type ? What resources have you found helpful in making the switch, or integrating the gear ?

I've create a landing page that you can bookmark to keep engaged in the conversation. Currently it has some resources to help point you in the right direction if you are new to Dell OpenManage.

Looking forward to your input.

Scott - Comments



Welcome Dell IT !
04/25/2008 - Comments

Seems that Dell IT has found us. Luckily instead of wanting to shut us down, they want to contribute :-)

I truly believe that one of the best things about our TechCenter community is that you have access to all kinds of resources "on the inside". Where else in such a big company are you able to talk to the people that write the code, author the documents, and design the solutions ?

So thank you Dell IT for coming to our community and sharing your best practices. Dennis has already authored a great article on doing mass bios updates with Microsoft's System Center Configuration Manager.

Greg is also lurking around here, he's a Microsoft MVP, and frequent contributor on myitforum.com

There's also Donnie, Angie and some others lurking around here. Keep an eye out for a new section on Microsoft System Center and I'm sure you'll find the rest of them hanging out.

Hey, can I get some more disk space for my Exchange mailbox now ? :-)

Scott - Comments



Applying updates to older PowerEdge Servers
04/21/2008 - Comments

I was checking out the Dell Community Forums this morning, and following up on one of the threads I answered. Towards the end of the thread, it was pointed out that some of the older Dell PowerEdge servers don't have DVD drives, and the SUU image is larger than can fit on a CD image.

Luckily we have many tools in the toolbox to work our way around problems. You can use Content Manager from the SUU image to create a custom repository. The custom repository will include the SUU GUI and CLI tools to apply the patches, and you'll only have those updates that you selected, not the entire repository.

If you haven't had a chance to use Content Manager, I've got a demo you can check out.

Scott - Comments



Script for applying Dell Server Updates in ESX 3.x
04/10/2008 - Comments

Doing the daily blog search and came across this entry on the Lone Sysadmin blog, talking about SUU 5.4 working with ESX 3.5. Turns out there's a little confusion as to what works from the SUU DVD on ESX. The DUPs (Dell Update Packages) install, but if you try to install them through the SUU CLI (./suu -u) it will error out.

The ./suu -c command however, does work. So doing a little scripting and with a little help on regular expressions from an old friend, I was able to write a script that will use SUU to do the comparison, and then apply the .BIN files.

Use at your own risk, and modify to your hearts content. If you have other scripts you've found useful in the OpenManage world, please feel free to contribute.

Scott - Comments



Secret Decoder Ring
04/03/2008 - Comments

You ever find yourself trying to explain something and no matter what you say, it's just not coming across ? When that happens to me I try to find a frame of reference that is familiar to that person. Take Systems Management, for example. You can define terms, show some examples, talk about OpenManage, ITA, SBUU, ContentManager, but it usually never clicks until they can relate it to something they are already familiar with.

In the systems management space, you are usually talking to a someone that is familiar with the HP or IBM offerings.

So now I give you, totally free of charge, the Systems Management Secret Decoder Ring.



Use it wisely and now you too can compress a 30 minute conversation to 2 minutes.

Scott - Comments


MD3000i - Blinky Blinky
03/28/2008 - Comments

One of our PowerVault MD3000i's in the lab has been blinking at me for the last few weeks. I could stand it no longer and it moved to the top of my list of things to do.

The MD Storage Array Manager is easy enough to use and told me, "some I/O was lost for extended period, we collected diagnostic data". It further explained that all I needed to do was reset the diagnostic data bit with a simple command and the light would go off, "reset storageArray diagnosticData;"

Hmmm easy enough, I connected my serial cable to the box and logged into the console of the storage controller and tried to execute the command. The serial shell promptly told me, "reset is overloaded ...... undefined symbol : storageArray". Maybe I had a typo ? ... tried again, no joy.

A note was sent to an engineering contact, with a quick reply of "right command, wrong environment. Run it using the SMCLI command." So, if I just would of RTFM'd a little closer, it clearly states to run the command from the CLI.

Ohhhh the little things in life that bring us pleasure. Now the light is again glowing a soothing shade of blue. I once heard from someone that studies were done around calming affects of different colors. The results of those studies resulted in the shade of blue light that you now find on servers, storage, stereo equipment, and many other things. Of course it could also be an urban legend.

Scott - Comments



Dell and Altiris
03/26/2008 - Comments

Todd and I had lunch with Jordan from Altiris last week. Discussed a few things in the pipe between our two companies. I haven't worked much with Altiris in the past, so I'm going to install the Altiris suite of products on my Dell PowerEdge 2970 that I'm using for my systems management server. I've got OM, the Microsoft Systems Center suite of products, VMware Virtual Center, and some other SNMP tools on that box. We'll see how nicely it all plays together on the same box. Definitely not recommended best practices, but I'm in a lab and that == freedom :-)

Working on that this week and will install the Altiris Management Suite for Dell Servers and see what that is all about.

And btw, if you've worked with Altiris much, I'm sure you're familiar with the Juice Community. Be sure to check out Dell's section on Juice.

Scott - Comments


OpenManage 5.4 Released for Download Yesterday
03/19/2008 - Comments

OM 5.4 is released and available on the support download site. Look for everything dated 3/18/2008 and that will help you narrow down the search. Also see my post below - "Download OpenManage - or - How to Navigate the Maze to OpenManage Downloads" - if you're new to OpenManage.

Here's the link to the Systems Management downloads for the Dell PowerEdge 2950 as an example. Again, look for everything dated 3/18/2008.

- Scott - Comments



ESX 3i on Dell PowerEdge 2950 III
03/13/2008 - Comments
I installed ESX 3i on one of our Dell PowerEdge 2950 III's in the lab to see what Virtual Center would show me from a management point of view. I pulled our latest image from our internal source, dd'd it to a USB flash drive. Then just slipped it into the internal USB port of the machine and changed the boot order and voila, ESX 3i was up and running.

Configured the IP address and that was it. I followed some simple instructions documented by our Dell Virtualization Engineering team (document link coming soon - once it's published) and the server showed up in my ITA console under "VMware ESX Servers".

One useful thing that ITA allows you to do is add a Favorite Application. You can define a .exe or a URL and then assign that to the ITA groups so it shows up when you right click. You can also pass parameters as arguments to give it more functionality. I added the Virtual Center Client, so I can right click on any of the VMware ESX hosts and launch the VC client. Here's what it looks like in the ITA console :



One thing I can't find is how to pass the userid and password as parameters. Searched a little on VMTN but couldn't find anything. If anybody knows, or has ideas, please let me know.

The Favorite Application feature is nice because you can launch any tool in your toolbox from a single pane of glass. I'm a fan of using the right tool for the right job, and this feature lets you launch the right tool. In the VC Client, there is some new information you can see from the Configuration tab. ESX 3i has the CIM layer built in so you can see some health status information from the server. Here's what we see with ESX 3i on the 2950 III :



So you can see Fan, Temp and Power Supply information. I'm getting my arms around when the status changes from Green to Yellow to Red, and where the alerts get generated. I'll followup with another blog entry on my findings.

We've also got another yet-to-be-named machine in the lab with ESX 3i, it apparently has more instrumentation, because here's the screen shot of what you see in its Health Status screen :



Scott - Comments




Job Opening - Chat - and some Vacation
03/03/08 - Comments

Just got back from some vacation in Sydney Australia, great time highly recommend a trip. Didn't get to see any of the outback, have to do that next time. Mainly spent time in the city and on the beaches. Also made it to the Hunter Valley wine region. The whole coastal area really reminded me of the California coast.

Logged on this morning and saw that we have a job posting ! .... geez guys it was only a vacation :-) Looks like Brian really wants the job.

The chat sessions have been picking up, we've got one tomorrow on OpenManage and VMware. We've been testing some things in the lab around 3i and will talk about our findings. As always, the discussion is also open to anything you want to bring up around that topic.

I'll have pictures up on my personal blog from the Australia trip soon. Looking forward to chatting with everyone tomorrow.

Scott - Comments



Download OpenManage - or - How to Navigate the Maze to OpenManage Downloads
02/08/2007 -- Comments

We use Google Analytics to monitor the traffic on our website. Great tool, I also use it on my personal blog. I was looking through the keyword searches that people use to get here and it looks like quite a few people are searching on "Download OpenManage" or "openmanage download". Actually, for Jan 8th -Feb 8th the top keyword for the entire site was "openmanage 5.3 download".

Since that is what is bringing you here, I thought I'd take a few moments to help you navigate the maze. Let's examine the multiple ways to get what you want.

First - the most obvious - go to http://support.dell.com and drill through your machine type. For example, if we choose the Dell PowerEdge 2950 and select "Systems Management" for the Category we get this list of files to download.

Now comes the fun part of deciphering these file names to what you may commonly know them as.

"OpenManage Server Administrator Managed Node" - This is more commonly know as OMSA. This is the agent that is installed on the server and can then be accesed via web over port 1311. You will see two different download packages, one with a .exe extension, and one with a .msp. The .exe is the full version, the .msp is a Microsoft Service Pack to upgrade an existing OMSA installation.

"Dell CD ISO - PowerEdge Updates" - This is the Server Update Utility aka SUU. Double check the dates, this one is usually the 5.2 older version.

"Dell DVD ISO - Dell Server Updates" - This is also SUU, but in DVD format because SUU is cumulative. This is a standalone bootable image that will apply Dell Update Packages (DUPs) to your server

"Dell OpenManage Management Station" - This is IT Assistant (ITA). This link also has two versions, the .exe is the full version, and the .msp is the upgrade from version 5.2.0 and above.

"Dell OpenManage Deployment Toolkit" - Commonly called DTK. Used to create scripts for mass deployment. See some of the functionality in my demo called "Scripting with Systems Build and Update Utility"

"Dell CD ISO - Dell Systems Build and Update Utility" - Ahhhh this one is easier to decipher. You see this commonly referred to as SBUU or SBU. I've got a couple of demos using this image.

"Dell DVD ISO - Dell Systems Management Tools and Documentation" - a 3GB bandwidth choking download of SBUU, OMSA, ITA, DUPs, Service/Diagnostic tools, and Systems Documentation. Everything you need. You sometimes see this called SMTD.

Secondly - the more old school way - drop into the ftp site at http://ftp.us.dell.com/sysman/ , now if you hit that link through your browser, you will be lost. It's a little overwhelming to see about 1,000 filenames all in alphabetical order. The better way is through an ftp client so you can sort by date. I use FileZilla. Now when you sort by date and have the knowledge of the naming conventions that we just learned, you can easily interpret the screen shot below.



Hope that helps. Should be enough to get you started.

Scott -- Comments



Power Monitoring in ITA - ITA Icons
01/24/2008 -- Comments

Dave finished some testing on the 10G Blades, and I finally got some dedicated access to an M600 blade in our chassis. I've been wanting to look at some of the power monitoring capabilities. Here's a very preliminary look at some of the attributes you can measure. You need to have latest OMSA, I installed 5.3.1 on this blade.

I used a simple CPU load generator to ramp up the power. It's a single threaded app, so had to run a few instances of it. So weird to see 8 CPUs show up in Task Manager for a blade ! .... who remembers some of the big honking floor standing servers with 4 CPUs that took up the space of a small fridge ?

We are about to get our 2950 III. Todd has first dibs on it, but I'll get the OMSA agent installed and do some more power monitoring and report back those findings.

I also saw an interesting thread in the Dell Community Forums. A similar question I had when I started working with ITA, and actually a question I still have about some parts of it. What do all the icons mean ?? .... yes you can hover over some of them, and most of them make sense, but some are not so easy to interpret what they are trying to say to me. So I figured we could just do a wiki page on the ITA Icons and you could help me fill out the chart. I'll update this page with a link to it. I just got screen shots, now I need to pull out the icons and build the page.

Please help me with it. We can have the developers fix any of our misinterpretations.

Scott -- Comments

Using ITA to update OMSA agents
1/11/2008 -- Comments

Last week I got an email asking about updating OMSA agents through ITA. Since I had just done some testing with the firmware and BIOS updates, I simply shot back a quick, "Yeah just generate a compliance report in the Software Updates and go from there."

Then of course I went to the interface to double check myself and bzzzzzzzt, incorrect answer. Which was quickly confirmed when the customer replied to the email with the same conclusion. So this just proves that I'm learning as I go, just like some of you.

An email back from one of the developers confirmed that OMSA agents get filtered out of the Repository because of some issues.

The workaround is to create a Report that is filtered on Agent name and Version, like this ...



Then you can create a Software Deployment task for OMSA in ITA to perform the updates.

I guess I better get to work, look at the version on ora2650a ! -- 1.2.0

Scott -- Comments



Happy New Year !

1/4/2008 -- Comments

Welcome to 2008 ! Got a chance before the break to get the demos posted on our main site -- www.dell.com/techcenter - check them out in the right hand frame. Although they got magically squished to 16:9 format in the player. I've got an open ticket on that and should be fixed soon.

Also we are now linked off the main Dell OpenManage site. Look for the link in the right hand navigation.

How was ya'lls break ? I had a ton of projects to do around the house. Luckily, Todd let me borrow his compound mitre saw. I had "borrowed" it for about a month and he told me that his father-in-law bought him a new one. So he let me buy the old one so I could quit borrowing it ! Thanks Todd ! ... .I've already got a a new laser guide on it.

That saw allowed me to put my mathematics degree to use. Anyone ever try to put up crown moulding ? Thank goodness for Google and people that share their information and insights. Kind of like what we are doing around here :-)

Which leads us to say thanks for all your contributions and please feel free to let your colleagues know we are here.

Scott -- Comments



OpenManage 5.3 Demos are here !
12/11/2007 -- Comments

Got the demos up on the site. Check them out here.

But I'm sure what you are really interested in is the Vegas trip. You'll have to check out my profile on the wiki and find the link to my personal blog if you want that story !

I'm seeking input on other demos that would be of use. Just use the comments section and throw any ideas at me. I'm open and have some time the week before the Holidays to crank some more out.

Scott -- Comments





OpenManage 5.3 Demos coming next week
12/6/2007 -- Comments

Just finished getting my head around all the new features in OpenManage 5.3. Great to have a lab with plenty of machines to test. Didn't even get yelled at once for rebooting any of my teammate's servers !

I took some time with my testing to capture screenshows. They are almost ready to go, getting some feedback from the team and then have to get them posted on Dell.com. So as soon as they get posted, I'll update you here with the links.

The first demo shows Systems Build and Update utility laying down an OS image on a bare metal PowerEdge server. SBU has other great functionality for deploying multiple systems. In the coming weeks I'll have other demos around that capability.

The second demo shows how to use Content Manager to download server updates to a centralized location for use with the Server Update Utility (SUU) over a network drive to update PowerEdge systems.

The third demo shows IT Assistant and the new Online Repository feature to keep servers up to date with the latest firmware/bios/drivers from the Dell support site.

Now that I've got a dedicated ITA machine, I plan on getting all the lab machines into ITA. Of course the lab has grown from a few machines to several racks of equipment. We've got maybe 4 different active directory domains, at least 3 different network segments, various versions of all the OSes. So it will be a ton of fun trying to architect the solution around all this. Maybe similar to how your environment has grown over the years.

So if you have any ideas on how I can tackle this problem in an easy way, I'm all ears. Luckily we have a lab tech, so I can put a lot of things on his to-do list :-) .... let me know how you've tackled this problem, maybe we can come up with some ideas together. Looking forward to hearing from you.

Ohhhh, just don't expect to get a response tomorrow. I'm headed to Vegas for a long weekend !

Scott -- Comments



OpenManage 5.3 Released Today
11/20/2007 -- Comments

OpenManage 5.3 officially hit the streets today ! Download the bits from http://support.dell.com/ , just look for everything that has a release date of 11/20/07, under the "Systems Management" section.

I'm testing the new Systems Build and Update Utility that combines deployment, scripting, and updating all in one tool. I'll have a demo of the deployment portion of this on the wiki next week, with more demos soon after.

Let me know if you have any suggestions for demos you would like, or things we could test in the lab to aid in the understanding and use of the product. We've got a full complement of Dell hardware, storage, and software and are always looking to put it through the paces.


Scott -- Comments




Welcome to the Edge
10/30/2007 -- Comments

Welcome to the "edge" of systems management. A discussion and collaboration place to share your thoughts and ideas on systems management topics. We will bring you the latest happenings in Dell's OpenManage line, along with what is happening in our partner space, from Microsoft, Altiris, VMware, and others.

We've got an entire lab of the latest Dell hardware ready to test all the latest releases. We can also try out your scripts other ideas.

We welcome you to join the discussion and participate on our wiki.

Scott -- Comments



Welcome!
10/29/2007 -- Comments

Welcome to the Systems Edge blog !

Scott -- Comments

The integrated Dell Remote Access Controller (iDRAC) with Lifecycle Controller PowerShell library enables remote management of Dell PowerEdge servers with Microsoft PowerShell cmdlets.

The cmdlets utilize the remote management functionality provided by iDRAC with Lifecycle controller to perform a range of deployment, configuration, monitoring, and management tasks.

Features and Benefits

• Utilize the comprehensive remote management capabilities of the iDRAC with Lifecycle controller inside the PowerShell environment.

• Reduce dependence on installed tools such as RACADM and command line utilities such as winrm.

• Simplify management operations by replacing large, multi-step WS-MAN tasks with a single cmdlet.

• Perform iDRAC Discovery across the network with a single command.

• Configure Active Directory integration for iDRAC7 and iDRAC8.

• Perform deployment and configuration tasks with Server Configuration Profile (SCP) cmdlets; the SCP is a single XML-based file that can be used to configure PowerEdge server hardware.

• Gather various inventory and health information including LC log info, firmware versions, boot order, hardware configuration information, and iDRAC configuration information.

Requirements

• Management workstation with Microsoft PowerShell version 3 or later

• 12^th or 13^th Generation PowerEdge servers

• iDRAC7 (12^th Generation PE Servers) or iDRAC8 (13^th Generation PE Servers). The iDRAC must be configured for network access and must be accessible to the management workstation

What's new with version 0.51

1. Set-PEPowerState now supports the following power operations

• PowerOn
• PowerCycleOffSoft
• PowerOffSoft
• MasterBusReset
• DiagonisticInterruptNMI
• PowerOffSoftGraceful

2. Wait option: all cmdlets that support the –Wait option have been enhanced to both wait for the completion of the operation and to return a Job object

3. Import-PEServerConfiguration: corrected issue with -Passthru

4. Following cmdlets updated to fix issues with returning the Job object

• Backup_PEServerImage
• Export-PEServerConfiguration
• Import-PEServerConfiguration
• Export-PETechSupportReport

5. Following cmdlets updated to properly handle multi-iDRAC operations

• Get-PEBootOrder
• Update-PEOSAppHealthdata
• Get-PEConfigurationShare
• Get-PELCLog

Download

Download version 0.51 here

cmdlet to update iDRAC FW using network share

Notice: This module is provided “as-is” with no warranty or support provided. 

Installation Steps

1. Download the zip file.

2. Extract the zip file contents to a directory within the standard PSModulePath. For example, C:\Users\<User>\Documents\WindowsPowerShell\Modules

3. Verify that the module is available by executing the following command in a PowerShell window: ‘Get-Module –ListAvailable’.

4.  To get a list of all the cmdlets in DellPEPowerShellTools, execute:

‘Get-Command –Module DellPEPowerShellTools’

General Behavior Guidelines

Authentication to a PowerEdge Server

Most cmdlets require authentication to the iDRAC. This is accomplished with a session object.  The cmdlet “New-PEDRACSession” can be used to create and manage sessions to a remote server:

1. This creates a session and sets the $iDRACSession:                                                                         

   $iDRACSession = New-PEDRACSession -IPAddress 10.94.225.102 -Credential (Get-Credential)

2. This creates a session and adds it as a default parameter value for all other cmdlets:                   

   New-PEDRACSession -IPAddress 10.94.225.102 -Credential (Get-Credential) –SetDefaultParameterValue

3. This creates a set of sessions, any cmdlet using this will run on multiple IPs:

   ‘IP1’, ‘IP2’, ‘IP3’ | New-PEDRACSession -Credential (Get-Credential) –SetDefaultParameterValue

Job Management

Some server-side tasks include the creation of a job within the iDRAC with Lifecycle Controller. For cmdlets that involve jobs, two switches are provided; unless a switch is specified, the cmdlet will not show any status or output

–wait:  if –wait is specified, the cmdlet will display a progress bar, wait for the job to complete and return a Job object

–passthru: if -passthru is specified, the cmdlet will output the return Job object but will not wait for the job to complete. The job object must be captured into a variable in order to view the JOBID.

Error Handling

Every cmdlet will ‘Throw’ on an error, which is catchable using ‘Catch’ in script

File Shares

Certain server-side tasks require the use of a file share to pass payloads such as Server Configuration Profiles. For such cmdlets, the –ShareObject parameter accepts a share object which the user may create by using the Get-PEConfigurationShare.

The Get-PEConfigurationShare cmdlet also has the option to validate whether or not the share is accessible to the iDRAC.  If a cmdlet is running on multiple iDRACs, the FileName/ImageName parameter is modified for each invocation to include IPAddress to make it unique. Appropriate warnings will be shown.

Executing Cmdlets on Multiple Servers

• For cmdlets which return HashMaps (Get-PEADGroupInfo, Get-PEiDRACUsers), if run on multiple iDRACs, the output will be a HashMap of HashMaps, having IPAddress as key.

• For cmdlets which return CimInstances (Get-PEBootOrder, etc), if run on multiple iDRACs, each instance contains the iDRAC IP as identifier.

List of Available Cmdlets

General Overview

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)

iDRAC 7 & 8 Feature and Licensing Information Sheet 

Introducing iDRAC8 with Lifecycle Controller for Dell 13th Generation PowerEdge Servers 

OpenManage Systems Management with iDRAC, iSM, & OMSA: selecting the right components for specific server management requirements(Jan 2016)

Overview of Dell Systems Management using IPMI 
PowerEdge Software Licensing 

Principled Technologies' Review of 13G PowerEdge OpenManage

Understanding Physical Computer System View Profile Implementation 

Configuring Low-Latency Environments in PowerEdge Servers

Dell iDRAC7 Licensing Whitepaper - Differences between iDRAC6 and iDRAC7

iDRAC7 with Lifecycle Controller - Feature Guide

Lifecycle Controller Workflow Optimization

New Feature Overview: December 2013 Releases of iDRAC7 and Lifecycle Controller 2

New Features and Usability Enhancements to RACADM Commands in iDRAC7

PowerEdge C6320 Power Capping 

Networking and I/O configuration

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

Dell Network Adapters with iDRAC (Updated April 2016)

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 Dedicated NIC Feature in iDRAC7

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

iDRAC7 Network and Virtual Media Performance

iDRAC7 Networking and Improved Remote Access Performance

Network IO Identity

Reinitiate Auto-Discovery

Remote NIC Configuration Management  

Scripting and Server Configuration Profiles

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

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)

RESTful Server Configuration with iDRAC REST API

Dell PowerEdge Redfish API Overview

AutoConfig - Enabling rapid configuration of Dell servers using DHCP 

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

Lifecycle Controller Backup and Restore in Dell PowerEdge 12th Generation Servers

Programmatic Scripting with WSMAN

Scripting WSMAN to Deploy OS Drivers

Scripting WSMAN to Deploy OS using Remote ISO Image to Stage and Boot

Scripting WSMAN to Deploy OS using vFlash to Stage and Boot to ISO

Server Cloning with Server Configuration Profiles

Server Configuration Profile - XML File Structure (files )

Understanding the iDRAC Power State Management in Base Server Profile

Understanding the iDRAC Power State Management Profile

Using Microsoft Windows PowerShell CIM Cmdlets with Dell iDRAC

BIOS and UEFI

Enabling iSCSI Boot Under UEFI Boot Mode on 13th Generation PowerEdge Servers

BIOS POST Troubleshooting Guide for 13th Generation PowerEdge Servers

BIOS Setup User Guide for 13th Generation PowerEdge Servers

Defining a Secure Boot Policy 

Updating BIOS on Dell 12G PowerEdge Servers (iDRAC7 - 12G only) 

Updating BIOS on Dell 13G PowerEdge Servers (iDRAC8 - 13G only)

Using Lifecycle Controller to Configure UEFI Secure Boot and OS Deployment

Configuring BIOS and NIC Using RACADM through Dell iDRAC

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

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

Automatic Updates in Dell PowerEdge 12G servers  

Creating and updating iDRAC repository with Repository Manager

Lifecycle Controller Platform Update in Dell PowerEdge 12th Generation Servers

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

Updating Firmware on PowerEdge Servers Using the iDRAC7 Web Interface

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

Storage & PERC

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

Dell update regarding CVE-2016-2183 - Birthday attacks on 64-bit block ciphers (aka Sweet32 attack)(May 2016)

Dell iDRAC Best Practices regarding Transport Layer Security (TLS) Protocols (September 2016)

Dell response to 2016 Leap Second Issue (November 2016)

Dell PowerEdge 13G server security white paper (Nov. 2016) 

Dell's response to CVE-2016-5685(November 2016) 

Dell Response to CVE-2016-2108 (OpenSSL) (18 May 2016)

Dell OpenManage Response to CVE-2015-7547, glibc overflow(March 2016)

Dell OpenManage Response to CVE-2016-0800, CVE-2016-0703 and CVE-2016-0704(March 2016)

Dell iDRAC Response to recent CVE notices(Dec 2015)

Security with iDRAC8 (and 7)(updated April 2016)

Managing Web Server Certificates on iDRAC (New for 13G)

System Erase in Dell 13th Generation PowerEdge Servers (New for 13G)
New Security Features in Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller 7

Active Directory Integration & Certificates

Active Directory using Lifecycle Controller 

Integrate iDRAC8 with Active Directory (New for 13G)
Integrating iDRAC7 with Microsoft Active Directory

iDRAC Web Server Certificate Management

Monitoring and Alerting

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)

13G iDRAC8 Dell Test Event Notification Message Reference

Dell PowerEdge C6320 platform options and systems management (Oct 2015)

iDRAC QuickSync Technical Guide (Nov 2014)

Managing Backplane Split Mode 

Web Services Eventing Support for Hardware Inventory and Monitoring 

Pre-failure alerts provided by Dell server systems management 

PSU Mismatch System Behavior for Dell PowerEdge Servers 

Using VNC with iDRAC 

Enhanced Out of Band Performance Monitoring 

FAQ: iDRAC Quick Sync & OpenManage Mobile - October 2014 

Agent-free Inventory and Monitoring for Storage and Network Devices

Discovering Features in the iDRAC Remote Services API

Gathering information from iDRAC7 using SNMPv3

OMSA / OMSS to iDRAC SNMP-Gets Migration Guide (updated Aug '16)

Using OpenManage Essentials to configure iDRAC7 Action Alerts

Using the iDRAC7 Video Capture Feature

Web Service Eventing for iDRAC7 1.30.30 or later versions

Support Assist & Part Replacement

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

Generating Tech Support Report on 13th Generation Dell PowerEdge Servers 
Motherboard Replacement

Lifecycle Controller Part Replacement

Part Replacement

Restoring iDRAC7 License after System Board Replacement

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.

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Quick Links:

DCIM Extensions Library MOF Collection

DCIM is a schema that describes Dell extensions to the DMTF Common Information Model (CIM). DCIM schema describes the classes that represent various Dell management domains such as monitoring, inventory, update and configuration. These classes are exposed through Dell platform management access points such as iDRAC and CMC.  

The DCIM schema classes are described in the below MOF (Managed Object Format) files. Console developers and script writers can take advantage of the MOF files to process the objects returned from Dell platform management access points. Since DCIM schema extends from DMTF CIM schema, DCIM MOF files must be used in conjunction with DTMF CIM MOF files. DCIM MOF files together with DMTF CIM MOF files yield the full description DCIM class attributes such as properties and methods.

You may freely download and use the MOFs on this page and referring pages as long as you do not change the notice included in the files. If not already included, this notice will apply.

Back to DCIM Library page.

Introduction to the Lifecycle Controller

PowerEdge servers use an embedded iDRAC with Lifecycle Controller provides advanced embedded systems management, enabling key server management tasks including deploy, configure, update, maintain, diagnose, repurpose and retire. Lifecycle Controller supports these functions in the customer’s preferred mode – at the server, pre-boot with an UEFI graphical interface, at remote consoles using standards-based APIs and via scripting.

Prior to the development of Lifecycle Controller, an administrator used tools such as Dell OpenManage Server Administrator (OMSA), Dell Systems Build Update Utility (SBUU), and Dell Deployment Toolkit (DTK) shipped on multiple CDs or DVD in order to perform Dell EMC PowerEdge server provisioning and update. Maintaining and using multiple DVDs/images for these operations was a time-consuming and error-prone effort.

To simplify these operations, Lifecycle Controller allows IT administrators to do away with media altogether, enabling operating system deployment with locally embedded driver repositories, firmware updates from local and network sources, hardware configuration, and platform-specific diagnostic routines. Because Lifecycle Controller is available even when the operating system is not functional or not installed, it provides added flexibility in provisioning and customizing the server to suit changing requirements.

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

Lifecycle Controller Features

• Interfaces— pre-boot graphical interface accessible from BIOS for at-the-server operations; standards-based APIs including WS-Man and Redfish, supporting complete server lifecycle for remote consoles and scripts
• Core standards— IPMI, WS-Man, Redfish, HTTP/S, NFS, and SMB/CIFS
• Deploying— configure system and storage devices; view and export hardware and firmware inventory; wizard-guided operating system installation with OS Driver Packs. Unattended installation for Microsoft Windows and Red Hat Enterprise Linux
• Zero-touch auto configuration— enabling complete server configuration without human touch
• Updating— agent-free firmware maintenance with reduced maintenance downtime. Firmware updates from your compliant repositories built with Dell Repository Manager or access updates from downloads.dell.com. Recovery of prior versions with firmware rollback
• Servicing— continuous availability of logs and diagnostics without depending on server storage. Easy Restore automatically flashes firmware and restores saved state when replacing server components or mother board
• System erase— supports repurposing and retirement of severs by deleting data on selected server components. Enables removal of information from BIOS, Lifecycle Controller, internal configuration databases, rollback firmware versions, and iDRAC settings
• Backing up and restoring the server — back up the server configuration; restore the server to a previously saved state; import server licenses.
• Server inventory—current and factory system hardware inventory; current firmware inventory

API Integration Guides

API Reference Specs

Attribute Registries

These registries list all of the attributes and properties for server components in XML format, covering BIOS, iDRAC with Lifecycle Controller, PERC RAID, NICs, FC HBAs, and PCIe SSDs. Following are the registries by release.

iDRAC8 with Lifecycle Controller Attribute Registries

2.00.00.00

2.10.10.10

2.20.20.20

2.30.30.30

2.40.40.40

3.00.00.00