Dell OpenManage Essentials Version 1.0 User's Guide

banderaUG.book Page 1 Friday, May 11, 2012 2:40 PM

Dell OpenManage Essentials

Version 1.0

User’s Guide


Notes and Cautions

NOTE: A NOTE indicates important information that helps you make better use of your computer.

CAUTION: A CAUTION indicates potential damage to hardware or loss of data if instructions are not followed.

____________________

Information in this publication is subject to change without notice.

© 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.

Reproduction of these materials in any manner whatsoever without the written permission of Dell Inc. is strictly forbidden.

Trademarks used in this text: Dell™, the DELL logo, Dell Precision™, OptiPlex™, Latitude™,

PowerEdge™, PowerVault™, PowerConnect™, OpenManage™, EqualLogic™, KACE™,

FlexAddress™ and Vostro™ are trademarks of Dell Inc. Intel

Celeron

®

, Pentium

®

, Xeon

®

, Core™ and

® are registered trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. AMD ® is a registered trademark and AMD Opteron™, AMD Phenom™, and AMD Sempron™ are trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Microsoft ® , Windows ® , Windows Server ® , MS-DOS ® and

Windows Vista

®

are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United

States and/or other countries. Red Hat Enterprise Linux ® and Enterprise Linux ® are registered trademarks of Red Hat, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. Novell

®

is a registered trademark and SUSE ™ is a trademark of Novell Inc. in the United States and other countries. Oracle ® is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates. Citrix

XenMotion ® are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Citrix Systems, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. VMware

®

, Virtual SMP

®

, vMotion

®

®

, Xen

®

, XenServer

, vCenter

®

, and vSphere

® trademarks or trademarks of VMWare, Inc. in the United States or other countries.

®

and

are registered

Other trademarks and trade names may be used in this publication to refer to either the entities claiming the marks and names or their products. Dell Inc. disclaims any proprietary interest in trademarks and trade names other than its own.

2012 - 1


Contents

1 About OpenManage Essentials

. . . . . . . .

15

2 Installing OpenManage Essentials

. . . . .

17

Installation Prerequisites and Minimum

Requirements

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

17

Downloading OpenManage Essentials

. . . . . . . . .

18

Terms and Conditions for Using Relational Database

Management Systems

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

18

Installing OpenManage Essentials

. . . . . . . . . . .

19

Setting Up OpenManage Essentials Database on a

Remote SQL Server

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

22

Installing Repository Manager

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

22

Uninstalling OpenManage Essentials

. . . . . . . . . .

23

Migrating IT Assistant to OpenManage Essentials

. . .

23

Migration Use Cases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

24

List of Migrated and Non-Migrated

Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

26

3 Getting Started With OpenManage

Essentials

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

29

Logging On to OpenManage Essentials

. . . . . . . . .

29

Contents 3


Configuring OpenManage Essentials

. . . . . . . . . .

29

Using the OpenManage Essentials Home Portal

. . . .

30

Customizing the Home Portal

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

31

Displaying Additional Available Reports and

Graphs

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

31

Drilling-Down Charts and Reports for More

Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

32

Saving and Loading the Home Portal Layout

. . . . . .

32

Updating the Portal Data

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

32

Hiding Graphs and Reports (Components)

. . . . . . . .

32

Re-arranging or Re-sizing Graphs and

Reports (Components)

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

33

Filtering Data

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

33

4 OpenManage Essentials Home Portal -

Reference

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

35

OpenManage Essentials Heading Banner

. . . . . . . .

35

Home Portal Reports

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

35

Device by Status

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

36

Alerts by Severity

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

36

Discovered Versus Inventoried Devices

. . . . . . . . .

37

Task Status

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

37

4 Contents


5 Discovering and Inventorying Devices

. .

39

Supported Devices and Protocols

. . . . . . . . . . . .

39

Supported Operating Systems (Servers), Protocols, and Features Matrix

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

43

Supported Operating Systems (Storage), Protocols, and Features Matrix

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

44

Using the Discovery and Inventory Portal

. . . . . . . .

47

Configuring a Discovery and Inventory Task

. . . . . .

47

Excluding Ranges

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

49

Viewing Configured Discovery and Inventory

Ranges

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

50

Scheduling Discovery

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

50

Multithreading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

50

Scheduling Inventory

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

51

Configuring Status Polling Frequency

. . . . . . . . . .

52

6 Discovery And Inventory - Reference

. . .

53

Discovery and Inventory Portal Page Options

. . . . .

53

Discovery and Inventory Portal

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

53

Last Discovery and Inventory . . . . . . . . . . .

54

Discovered Versus Inventoried Devices . . . . . .

54

Task Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

55

Viewing Device Summary

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

55

Discovery Ranges

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

57

Contents 5


6

Discovery Range Summary

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

57

Add Discovery Range

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

58

IP Address, Range, or Host Name Configuration

. . . .

58

ICMP Configuration

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

60

SNMP Configuration

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

60

WMI Configuration

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

62

Storage Configuration

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

62

WS-Man Configuration

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

62

IPMI Configuration

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

63

Discovery Range Action

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

64

Summary

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

65

Add Exclude Range

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

65

Configuration

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

66

Discovery Schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

66

Inventory Schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

67

Status Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

68

7 Managing Devices

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

71

Viewing Devices

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

71

Nodes and Symbols Description . . . . . . . . . .

72

Device Details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

73

Viewing Device Inventory

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

74

Viewing Alerts Summary

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

74

Contents


Viewing System Event Logs

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

74

Searching for Devices

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

74

8 Devices - Reference

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

77

Viewing Inventory

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

78

Viewing Alerts

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

78

Viewing Hardware Logs

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

78

Alert Filters

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

79

Device Search

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

79

Query Results

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

80

Creating Device Group

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

80

Device Group Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . .

80

Device Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

81

Summary - Group Configuration . . . . . . . . . .

81

9 Viewing Inventory Reports

. . . . . . . . . . .

83

Choosing Predefined Reports

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

83

Filtering Report Data

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

85

Exporting Reports

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

85

10 Reports - Reference

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

87

Server Components and Versions

. . . . . . . . . . . .

87

Field Replaceable Unit (FRU) Information

. . . . . . . .

88

Contents 7


8

Memory

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

88

NIC Information

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

89

Hard Drives Inventory

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

89

PCI Device Information

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

90

Storage Controllers

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

90

ESX Information

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

90

HyperV Information

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

91

Warranty Information

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

91

Modular Enclosures

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

92

Server Overview

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

93

11 Viewing Warranty Reports

. . . . . . . . . . .

95

12 Managing Alerts

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

97

Viewing Alerts and Alert Categories

. . . . . . . . . .

97

Viewing Alert Logs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

97

Understanding the Alert Types . . . . . . . . . . .

97

Viewing Alert Categories . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

98

Viewing Alert Source Details . . . . . . . . . . . .

98

Viewing Previously Configured Alert Actions

. . . . . .

98

Handling Alerts

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

99

Flagging an Alert . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

99

Creating and Editing a New View . . . . . . . . .

100

Configuring Alert Actions

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

100

Contents


Setting Up E-mail Notification

. . . . . . . . . . .

100

Ignoring Alerts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

102

Running a Custom Script

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

102

Forwarding Alerts

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

103

Working With Sample Alert Action Use Cases

. . . . .

104

Use Cases in Alert Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . .

104

Configuring Alert Log Settings

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

105

Renaming Alert Categories and Alert Sources

. . . . .

106

13 Alerts - Reference

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

107

Alert Logs

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

107

Alert Logs Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

108

Alert Details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

109

Alert Log Settings

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

110

Alert View Filters

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

110

Alert Filter Name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

110

Severity

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

111

Acknowledgement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

111

Summary - Alert View Filter . . . . . . . . . . . .

111

Alert Actions

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

112

Name and Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

113

Severity Association . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

113

Application Launch Configuration . . . . . . . . .

113

E-Mail Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

115

Trap Forwarding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

115

Category and Sources Association . . . . . . . .

116

Device Association . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

116

Date and Time Range . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

118

Contents 9


10

Alert Action - Duplicate Alert Correlation

. . . .

118

Summary- Alert Action Details . . . . . . . . . .

118

Alert Categories

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

120

Alert Source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

121

14 Updating Server BIOS, Firmware,

Drivers, and Applications

. . . . . . . . . . .

123

Understanding Server BIOS Firmware and

Drivers Sources

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

124

Choosing the Right Source for Updates

. . . . . . . .

124

Selecting an Update Catalog Source

. . . . . . . . .

125

Viewing Comparison Results

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

125

Applying System Updates

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

125

Selecting Non-Compliant Systems

. . . . . . . .

126

Scheduling Updates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

126

Viewing Updated Status

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

127

Viewing Active Catalog

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

127

15 System Update - Reference

. . . . . . . . . .

129

Filter Options

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

129

System Update

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

130

Compliance Report

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

130

Compliant Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

131

Non-Compliant Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . .

132

Non-Inventoried Systems

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

133

Inventory Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

133

All System Update Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . .

133

Contents


Task Execution History

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

133

Select a Catalog Source

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

134

View Active Catalog

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

135

Create an Update Task

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

135

16 Managing Remote Tasks

. . . . . . . . . . . .

137

About Remote Tasks

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

137

Managing Command Line Task

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

137

Managing RACADM Command Line Tasks . . . . .

138

Managing Server Power Options

. . . . . . . . . . . .

139

Deploying Server Administrator

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

140

Working With Sample Remote Tasks Use Cases

. . . .

140

Use Cases in Remote Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . .

141

17 Remote Tasks - Reference

. . . . . . . . . .

143

Remote Tasks Home

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

143

Remote Tasks

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

143

All Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

144

Task Execution History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

144

Server Power Options

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

145

Deploy Server Administrator Task

. . . . . . . . . . . .

147

Command Line Task

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

149

Remote Server Administrator Command . . . . . .

149

Generic Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

152

Contents 11


12

IPMI Command

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

154

RACADM Command Line . . . . . . . . . . . . .

156

18 Managing Security Settings

. . . . . . . . .

159

Using Security Roles and Permissions

. . . . . . . .

159

Microsoft Windows Authentication

. . . . . . . . . .

159

Assigning User Privileges

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

160

Using Custom SSL Certificates (Optional)

. . . . . . .

160

Supported Protocols and Ports in OpenManage

Essentials

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

161

19 Troubleshooting

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

165

OpenManage Essentials Troubleshooting Tool

. . . .

165

Troubleshooting Procedures

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

166

Troubleshooting Inventory . . . . . . . . . . . .

166

Troubleshooting Device Discovery

. . . . . . . .

167

Troubleshooting Receiving SNMP Traps . . . . .

168

Troubleshooting Discovery of Windows Server

2008-Based Servers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

169

Troubleshooting SNMP Traps for ESX or ESXi

Versions 3.5, 4.x, or 5.0

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

169

20 Frequently Asked Questions

. . . . . . . . .

173

Installation

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

173

Tasks

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

173

E-mail Alert Action

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

178

Contents


Discovery

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

178

Inventory

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

180

System Update

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

180

21 Preferences - Reference

. . . . . . . . . . . .

183

22 Tools- Reference

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

185

User Interface Logs

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

185

Application Logs

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

186

23 Tutorials

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

187

24 Appendix—Right-Click Actions

. . . . . . .

189

Devices

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

189

Device Search

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

190


. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

190

Managing Include Ranges . . . . . . . . . . . . .

190

Managing Exclude Ranges . . . . . . . . . . . . .

190

View Filters

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

191

Alerts

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

191

Remote Tasks

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

191

Contents 13


14 Contents


About OpenManage Essentials

OpenManage Essentials is a hardware management application that provides a comprehensive view of Dell systems, devices, and components in the enterprise’s network. With OpenManage Essentials, a web-based and one-to-many systems management application for Dell systems and other devices, you can:

• Discover and inventory the systems.

• Monitor systems’ health.

• View and manage system alerts.

• Perform system updates.

• View hardware inventory and compliance reports.

1

About OpenManage Essentials 5


6 About OpenManage Essentials



2

Installation Prerequisites and Minimum

Requirements

For a list of supported platforms, operating systems, and browsers, see the

Dell OpenManage Essentials Support Matrix at support.dell.com/manuals.

To install OpenManage Essentials, you require local system administrator privileges and the system you are using must meet the criteria mentioned in

Table 1 and Table 2.

NOTE: It is recommended that you do not install OpenManage Essentials on a domain controller system. The installer does not allow you to proceed with the installation and displays an operating system not supported error message.

Table 1. Minimum Recommended Hardware

Minimum

Recommended

Hardware

Large

Deployments

Medium Deployments Small Deployments

Number of

Devices

RAM

Processors

Database

2000

Type of System Physical

Machines /

Virtual

Machines

500

Physical

Machines /

Virtual

Machines

300

Physical

Machines /

Virtual

Machines

100

Physical

Machines /

Virtual

Machines

100

Physical

Machines /

Virtual

Machines

8 GB 6 GB 6 GB 6 GB 4 GB

8 cores total 4 cores total 4 cores total 2 cores total 2 cores total

SQL

Standard

Remote

SQL Express SQL Express SQL

Express

Local Local Local

SQL

Express

Local Database

Location

Hard Drive 10 GB 6 GB 6 GB 6 GB 6 GB



Table 2. Minimum Requirements

Particulars

Operating Systems

Network

Web Browser

User Interface

.NET

Minimum Requirement

• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Standard Edition

(x86 and x64)

• Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Edition

(x86 and x64)

• Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard Edition

• Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise Edition

100 Mbps or higher

• Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 or later

• Mozilla Firefox

Microsoft Silverlight version 4.0 or version 5.0

4.0

Downloading OpenManage Essentials

You can download OpenManage Essentials from support.dell.com or the Dell

TechCenter website.

Terms and Conditions for Using Relational

Database Management Systems

The relational database management system (RDBMS) used for installing

OpenManage Essentials is an SQL server. The SQL server has configuration settings separate from the OpenManage Essentials database. The server has logins (SQL or Windows) that may or may not have access to the OpenManage

Essentials database.

NOTE: You require a sysadmin role to perform the SQL server tasks.

When OpenManage Essentials is installed, Internet security is modified by adding registry entries to the ZoneMaps for HKLM and HKCU. This ensures that Internet Explorer identifies the fully qualified domain name as an intranet site.



A self-signed certificate is created and this certificate is installed in the root

Certificate Authorities (CA) and My certificates. However, it is recommended to use a custom certificate.

To prevent certificate errors, remote clients must install OpenManage Essentials certificate in both CA and Root Certificate Stores to remove the certificate errors.

For a Typical install of OpenManage Essentials:

• Use the local version of SQL Server that has all supported components.

• The RDBMS is altered to support both SQL and Windows authentication.

• An SQL login is generated for OpenManage Essentials’ services and this login is added as a RDBMS SQL login with sysadmin privileges.

NOTE: The password for the SQL login is controlled by the application and is different on every system.

It is recommended that a custom install is selected when you want to use a domain service account for added security and SQL Server Management

Studio (SSMS) selection.

For a Custom install of OpenManage Essentials, provide the Windows or

SQL login.

At runtime, when the OpenManage Essentials website determines that it has an invalid certificate or certificate binding; the self-signed certificate is regenerated.


1 Double-click the OpenManage Essentials executable file.

The Dell OpenManage Install screen is displayed. The following options are available:

• Dell OpenManage Essentials—Select this option to install Dell

OpenManage Essentials and the Troubleshooting Tool.

• Dell Repository Manager—Select this option to install Dell Repository

Manager. Using Repository Manager, you can create customized bundles and repositories of Dell Update Packages, software utilities such as update drivers, firmware, BIOS, and other applications.

• Dell License Manager—Select this option to install the Dell license manager. Dell License Manager is a one-to-many license deployment and reporting tool for managing the Dell iDRAC 7 licenses.

Installing OpenManage Essentials 9


10

• Documentation—Click this link to view the online help.

• View Readme—Click this link to view the readme file. To view the latest readme, go to support.dell.com/manuals.

2 In Dell OpenManage Install, select Dell OpenManage Essentials and click Install.

The Dell OpenManage Essentials Prerequisites window, displays the following requirement types:

• Critical—This error condition prevents the installation of a feature.

• Warning —This warning condition may disable the Typical installation but not an Upgrade of the feature later during installation.

Also, later during installation, use the Custom installation setup type to select the feature.

• Information—This informational condition does not affect the

Typical selection of a feature.

There are two options for resolving critical dependencies:

• Click Install All Critical Prerequisites to immediately begin installing all critical prerequisites without further interaction. Install All

Critical Prerequisites may require a reboot depending on the configuration and the Prerequisites installation will resume automatically after restart.

• Install each prerequisite individually by clicking the associated link with the required software.

NOTE: To configure remote database, you do not require an SQL Express

installation on the local system. See Setting Up OpenManage Essentials

Database on a Remote SQL Server

. If you are not configuring remote database, you can install SQL Express by clicking the warning prerequisite link.

Selecting Install All Critical Prerequisites does not install SQL Express.

3 Click Install Essentials.

4 In the install wizard for OpenManage Essentials, click Next.

5 In the License Agreement page, read the license agreement, select I accept

the terms in the license agreement, and then click Next.

6 In Setup type select either Typical or Custom installation.

If you selected Typical, click Next. Verify the installation settings in the

Ready to Install the Program page and the click Install.

Installing OpenManage Essentials


If you selected Custom, in Custom Setup, click Next and do the following: a b c

In Custom Setup, click Change to change the installation location, and then click Next.

In custom settings for port numbers, if required, change default values for Network Monitoring Service port number, Task Manager Service

port number, and Console Launch port and then click Next.

In Database Server, do any of the following and then click Next:

• Local database—If you have many SQL server versions available on the management system and you want to select an SQL server on which you want to set up the OpenManage Essentials database, then select the SQL server from the Database Server list, the type of authentication, and provide the authentication details.

• Remote database— Complete the prerequisites. For more information, see

Setting Up OpenManage Essentials Database on a Remote SQL Server . After the prerequisites are complete, click

Browse and select the remote system and then provide the authentication details. You can also set up the OpenManage

Essentials database on a remote system by providing the IP address or host name and the database instance name of the remote system in Database Server.

NOTE: If you have multiple database instances running on a selected database server, you can specify the required database instance name to configure the

Essentials database with it. For example, using (local)\MyInstance, you are configuring Essentials database on a local server and MyInstance named database instance.

d Verify the installation settings in the Ready to Install the Program page and the click Install.

7 After the installation is complete, click Finish.



12

Setting Up OpenManage Essentials Database on a Remote SQL Server

You can configure OpenManage Essentials to use an SQL server present on a remote system. Before setting up the OpenManage Essentials database on the remote system, check for the following prerequisites:

• Network communication between the OpenManage Essentials system and the remote system is functioning.

• SQL connection works between the OpenManage Essentials system and the remote system for the specific database instance. You can use the

Windows ODBC Data Source Administrator tool to verify the connection. On the remote database server, enable TCP/IP protocol and if you are using SQL Authentication, enable mixed mode on the remote

SQL server.

You can retarget your database if:

• Your SQL credentials to the SQL server fails.

• Your Windows credentials to the SQL server fails

• Database is moved.

Installing Repository Manager

1 In Dell OpenManageInstall, select Dell Repository Manager, and then click Install.

2 In Dell Repository Manager - InstallShield Wizard, click Next.

3 In License Agreement, select I accept the terms in the license agreement, and click Next.

4 In Customer Information, do the following and then click Next.

a Provide user name and organization information.

b Select either Anyone who uses this computer (all users) to make this application available to everyone or Only for me (Windows User) to retain access.

5 In Destination Folder, use the default location or click Change to specify another location, and then click Next.

6 In Setup Type, do any of the following and then click Next.

Installing OpenManage Essentials


• Select Complete to install all the Repository Manager features.

• Select Custom to choose program features you want to install.

7 In Ready to Install the Program, click Install.


Uninstalling OpenManage Essentials

CAUTION: Uninstalling OpenManage Essentials deletes your database. While installing upgrades, it is recommended to install the upgrades on top of the existing version of OpenManage Essentials to preserve the database.

1 Click StartControl PanelPrograms and Features.

2 In Uninstall or change a program, select Dell OpenManage Essentials and click Uninstall.

3 In the message Are you sure you want to uninstall OpenManage

Essentials?, click Yes.

Migrating IT Assistant to OpenManage Essentials

To replace IT Assistant with OpenManage Essentials while preserving the existing IT Assistant database:

1 Double-click the OpenManage Essentials executable file.

2 In Dell OpenManage Install, select Dell OpenManage Essentials and click Install.

The check dependencies page is displayed. This page lists the following requirement types:

• Critical—This error condition will prevent the installation of a feature.

• Warning—This warning condition disables the Typical installation but not an Upgrade of the feature later during installation. Also, later during installation, use the Custom installation setup type to select the feature

• Information—This informational condition will not affect the Typical selection of a feature.



There are two options for resolving critical dependencies:

• Click Install All Critical Prerequisites at the bottom of the page to immediately begin installing all necessary prerequisites without further interaction.

• Install each prerequisite individually by clicking the associated link with the required software.

3 Click Install Essentials.

4 In the install wizard for OpenManage Essentials, click Next.

5 In the License Agreement page, read the license agreement, select I accept

the terms in the license agreement and then click Next.

6 In Setup type, select Custom.

7 In Custom Setup, click Next.

8 In Custom Settings, verify or change the default port numbers and click Next.

9 In Database Server, enter the required parameters to connect to the IT

Assistant database and click Next.

NOTE: During the replacement process, a copy of the IT Assistant database is created and utilized by OpenManage Essentials.

10 In Ready to Install the Program, review your settings and click Install.


Migration Use Cases

If you migrate from IT Assistant to OpenManage Essentials, IT Assistant is uninstalled and replaced by OpenManage Essentials. However, the IT

Assistant database (ITAssist) remains and you can retrieve it from the SQL

server. Table 3 provides information about different migration use cases.



Table 3. Migration Use Cases

Number Use Case Conditions

1 • IT Assistant is installed on the local system.

• The IT Assistant database is located on the local system.

• OpenManage Essentials is installed on the local system.

• The OpenManage Essentials database is installed on the local system.

2

3

• IT Assistant is installed on the local system.

• The IT Assistant database is located on the local system.


• The OpenManage Essentials database is installed on a remote system.

• IT Assistant is installed on the local system.

• The IT Assistant database is located on a remote system.


• The OpenManage Essentials database is installed on the local system.




• The OpenManage Essentials database is installed on a different remote system.

Outcome

Data from the IT Assistant database is copied to the

OpenManage Essentials database.

Data from the IT Assistant database is not copied to the OpenManage








Table 3. Migration Use Cases

Number Use Case Conditions




• The OpenManage Essentials database is installed on a the same remote system as the

IT Assistant database.

Outcome

Data from the IT Assistant database is copied to the

OpenManage Essentials database.

List of Migrated and Non-Migrated Components

Table 4. List of Components

Components That are Migrated

Discovered and inventoried devices

Components That are not Migrated

OpenManage Server Administrator push packages

Server Administrator push tasks Discovery/inventory include and exclude ranges

Health status of the devices

Discovery, inventory, and statusing schedule/settings

Alerts received in IT Assistant

Custom alert view filters

Ignore alert actions

Alert log settings and application logs

Received alerts

All remote tasks except IPMI and OMSA deploy tasks.

Software update tasks

Software updates (imported Dell update packages)

Application launch, e-mail, and trap forward alert actions

IT Assistant reports

Device health search query data

Server and client software updates

IPMI command line tasks

Power control device tasks



Table 4. List of Components

Components That are Migrated

Polling schedule configuration

On-demand statusing

Components That are not Migrated

Import Dell catalog task and data

Server Administrator deployment for

Windows and Linux





Getting Started With OpenManage

Essentials

3

Logging On to OpenManage Essentials

To log on to OpenManage Essentials:

• From the management station desktop, click the Essentials icon.

• From the management station desktop, click Start All Programs Dell

OpenManage Applications Essentials Essentials.

• From a remote system, launch a supported browser. In the address field, type https://<IP address, host name, or Fully Qualified Domain Name

(FQDN) >:<Port Number>/web/default.aspx.

NOTE: FQDN is required to show a valid certificate. The certificate shows an error if an IP address or local host is used.

The console launch port number (default port number 2607) is required to launch OpenManage Essentials from a browser on a remote system. While installing OpenManage Essentials, if you changed the port using the

Custom Install option, use the selected console launch port in the preceding URL.

The First Time Setup page is displayed.

Configuring OpenManage Essentials

If you are logging on to OpenManage Essentials for the first time, the First

Time Setup tutorial is displayed. The tutorial provides step-by-step instructions for setting up an environment of servers and devices to communicate with

OpenManage Essentials. The steps include:

• Configuring the SNMP protocol on each target server.

• Installing Dell OpenManage Server Administrator on each target server.

Getting Started With OpenManage Essentials 19


• Enabling network discovery (For Windows Server 2008-based servers) on each target server.

• Discovering devices on your network.

After you have completed the First Time Setup wizard, the Discovery Range

Configuration is displayed, for more information, see Configuring a Discovery and Inventory Task .

Using the OpenManage Essentials Home Portal

OpenManage Essentials user interface contains these components:

1 Logo and banner

3 Console area

2

4

Menu items

Add a report to the home portal

5 Save the current home portal layout 6 Load the last saved home portal layout

7 Load the default home portal layout 8 Refresh the home portal page

9 Launch the online help

20 Getting Started With OpenManage Essentials


Customizing the Home Portal

You can change the layout of the portal page to accomplish the following:

• Display additional available reports.

• Hide graphs and reports.

• Rearrange or resize graphs and reports by dragging and dropping.

If a pop up window on any screen is bigger than the screen and if scrolling is not possible, set the browser’s zoom value to 75% or less to make it visible.

From the various reports that are available, you can select specific reports and set them to display on the Dashboard. You can click on these reports to further drill-down and get more details; for the list of available reports see

Home Portal Reports

.

For more information on Home portal, see

OpenManage Essentials Home

Portal - Reference .

Displaying Additional Available Reports and

Graphs

Charts have drill-down feature.

To view additional reports and graphs, click the icon on the top right corner to see and display the list of available reports and graphs.

• Alerts by Severity

• Devices by Status

• Discovered versus Inventoried Devices

• Alerts

• Field Replaceable Unit (FRU) Information

• Hard Drives Inventory

• HyperV Information

• Memory

• Modular Enclosures

• NIC Information

• PCI Device Information



22

• Server Components and Versions

• Server Overview

• Storage Controllers

• Task Status

• ESX Information

After selecting the desired report, dock the control using the the desired location.

control to

Drilling-Down Charts and Reports for More Information

To drill-down for further details, do the following:

• In report charts, click the charts and further details are displayed.

• In report tables, use the drag and drop option or funnel options to filter for the required data and use right-click options to perform various tasks.

Saving and Loading the Home Portal Layout

To save and load the Home portal layout, click the to the portal page layout.

icon to save changes

All the current layout settings and visible reports on the portal are saved on the portal page.

To load the previous portal layout, click the icon.

Updating the Portal Data

To refresh the portal page manually, click the icon.

To load the default portal layout, click the icon.

Hiding Graphs and Reports (Components)

To hide graphs and reports (components): Click the icon on the report or graph and select the Hide option to remove the component from the portal page or select the Auto Hide option to move the component to the side bar.

Getting Started With OpenManage Essentials


To remove a component from the portal page, click the X icon in the report or graph.

To move the report to the side bar, click the icon.

Re-arranging or Re-sizing Graphs and

Reports (Components)

Click the icon and select from the following options:

• Floating—To move the component freely in the portal page.

• Dockable—To dock the component in the portal page. If the component is floating, right-click the title to dock or tab the component.

• Tabbed Document—To move the component into a tab in the portal page.

Select the control to dock a floating component. You can create a tabbed view by docking a pane within other panes or dock a pane at the top, bottom, left, or right side of the main window.

You can resize panes and all panes will fill the selected area when docked.

To move the component to the side bar, click the select the component and click the icon.

icon and to restore it,

To create filters in a report grid, click the icon. This is not specific to the portal page layout and the settings related to these associations are not saved.

Filtering Data

You can filter the results by dragging and dropping column headers to the top of reports. You can choose one or more attributes when revising the view to meet your specific needs.

For example, in Devices by Status pie chart, click a status such as Critical. In the Device Summary page, drag the Device Type and Service Tag to the top of the report. The view immediately changes to a nested information based on your preference. In this example, the information is grouped first by

Device Type, and second by Service Tag. Drill-down through these filtered groups to see the remaining information for the devices.

For more information, see Viewing Device Summary .



24 Getting Started With OpenManage Essentials


4

OpenManage Essentials Home

Portal - Reference

This dashboard page provides a snapshot of the managed devices that include servers, storage, switches, and so on.

OpenManage Essentials Heading Banner

The banner displays the Critical and Warning icons including the number of devices. You can view the devices in either state by clicking the icon or the number. The banner also contains links to the following:

• Dell TechCenter—Click to open Dell’s web page that contains information on various technologies and a web page where there is sharing of knowledge, best practices, and information about Dell products and your installations.

• Support —Click to open support.dell.com.

• Help—Click to open the online help.

• About—Click to view general OpenManage Essentials product information.

• Current User (For example, Administrator) —Specifies the current user.

The tool tip displays the user’s OpenManage Essentials roles.

NOTE: The banner is available in all the pages.

Home Portal Reports

From the Home Portal Dashboard page, you can monitor the following:

• Alerts by Severity

• Devices by Status

• Discovered versus Inventoried Devices

• Alerts

• Field Replaceable Unit (FRU) Information

OpenManage Essentials Home Portal - Reference 25


26



• Memory


• NIC Information


• Server Components and Versions

• Server Overview


• Task Status

• ESX Information

Device by Status

Device by status provides device status information in a pie chart format.

Click a segment of the pie chart to view the device summary.

Unknown

Normal

Warning

Critical

Health status of these devices are not known.

These devices are working as expected.

These devices display behaviors that are not normal and further investigation is required.

These devices display behaviors that suggest an occurrence of a failure of a very important aspect.

Alerts by Severity

Alerts by severity provides alert information of devices in a pie chart format.

Click a segment of the pie chart to view the devices.

Normal

Critical

Alert from these devices confirm to the expected behavior for the devices.

Alerts from these devices suggest that a failure of a very important aspect has occurred.

OpenManage Essentials Home Portal - Reference


Unknown

Warning

Health status of these devices are not known.

These devices display behaviors that are not normal and further investigation is required.


See Discovered Versus Inventoried Devices .

Task Status

See Task Status .

OpenManage Essentials Home Portal - Reference 27


28 OpenManage Essentials Home Portal - Reference


Discovering and Inventorying

Devices

Perform Discovery and Inventory in order to manage your network devices.

5

Supported Devices and Protocols

Following are the supported devices and associated protocols.

Protocol / Mechanism Simple Network

Management

Protocol (SNMP)

Windows

Management

Instrumentation

(WMI)

Web Services-

Management

(WSMAN)

Dell servers with

OpenManage

Server

Administrator installed

Windows /

Hyper-V

• Discovery

• Correlation

• Classification

• Hardware inventory

• Software inventory monitoring

• Traps/alerts application launch:

• OpenManage

Server

Administrator console

• Remote desktop

• Warranty

• Discovery

• Correlation

• Classification


• Software inventory monitoring

• Application launch

• OpenManage

Server


• Remote desktop

• Warranty

NS

Discovering and Inventorying Devices 29



Management

Protocol (SNMP)

Windows

Management

Instrumentation

(WMI)

Web Services-

Management

(WSMAN)

NS Linux/

VMware ESX

• Discovery

• Correlation

• Classification


• Software inventory

• Monitoring

• Traps/alerts

• Application launch:

• OpenManage

Server


• Warranty

NS




Management

Protocol (SNMP)

Windows

Management

Instrumentation

(WMI)

Web Services-

Management

(WSMAN)

VMware ESXi Traps/Alerts NS • Discovery

• Correlation

• Classification


• Software inventory

• Virtual machine information

• Virtual host product information

• Monitoring

(OpenManage

Server

Administrator health only)

• Application launch: warranty

Dell servers without

OpenManage

Server


Windows/Hyper

-V

Discovery

(Unknown)

Linux/VMware

ESX

Discovery

(Unknown)

• Discovery

• Correlation

• Classification



• Remote desktop

• Warranty

NS

NS

NS



Protocol / Mechanism iDRAC / DRAC / BMC

Simple Network

Management

Protocol (SNMP)

Windows

Management

Instrumentation

(WMI)

Web Services-

Management

(WSMAN)

VMware ESXi NS NS • Discovery

• Correlation

• Classification

• Hardware inventory (no storage inventory)

NS

Modular enclosure (M1000e)

• Discovery

• Correlation

• Classification

• Monitoring

• Traps/Platform

Event Traps

(PET)


• RAC

• Console

• Warranty

• Discovery

• Correlation

• Classification

• Enclosure health

• Traps


• CMC

• Console

• Warranty

NS

NS NS



Supported Operating Systems (Servers),

Protocols, and Features Matrix

Protocol / Mechanism

Dell servers with

OpenManage Server


Windows

/Hyper-V

Linux/

VMware ESX

Dell servers without

OpenManage Server


VMware ESXi

Windows/Hyper-V

Linux/VMware ESX

VMware ESXi

Intelligent Platform

Management

Interface (IPMI)

NS

Command Line

Interface (CLI) a

NS

NS

NS

• OpenManage Server

Administrator CLI

• Deploy

OpenManage Server

Administrator

• Server Updates

• BIOS

• Firmware

• Driver

• OpenManage Server

Administrator CLI

• Deploy

OpenManage Server

Administrator

• Server updates:

• BIOS

• Firmware

• Driver

NS

Deploy OpenManage

Server Administrator

NS

NS

Deploy OpenManage


NS



Protocol / Mechanism Intelligent Platform

Management

Interface (IPMI)

Command Line

Interface (CLI) a iDRAC / DRAC / BMC • Discovery

• Classification

• Correlation

• iDRAC health


• RAC console

• Warranty b

• RACADM CLI

• IPMI CLI

Modular Enclosure (M1000e) NS • RACADM CLI

• IPMI CLI a. You cannot perform this task if the device is not discovered, inventoried, or both.

b. Requires internet connection (support.dell.com) to view warranty information.

Supported Operating Systems (Storage),

Protocols, and Features Matrix


Storage Devices EqualLogic

Simple Network

Management

Protocol

(SNMP)

• Discovery

• Correlation

• Classification


• Monitoring

• Traps/alerts


• EqualLogic console

Symbol

NS

EMC

NaviSphere CLI

NS




Dell|EMC

NOTE: Both

SNMP and

Navisphere are required for complete management of

Dell|EMC devices.

Simple Network

Management

Protocol

(SNMP)

• Discovery

• Correlation

• Classification

• Traps/Alerts

Symbol

NS

EMC

NaviSphere CLI


• Monitoring


• EMC

Navisphere

Manager

NS PowerVault Traps/Alerts • Discovery

• Correlation

• Classification


• Monitoring


– Modular

Disk

Storage

Manager a

Tape • Discovery

• Correlation

• Classification


• Monitoring

• Traps/alerts

NS NS


• Tape console

• Warranty b a. Requires Modular Disk Storage Manager Controller software installed on the OpenManage

Essentials system.

b. Requires internet connection (support.dell.com) to view warranty information.



Legend and Definitions

• NS: Not Supported

• Discovery: Capability to discover the device on the network.

• Correlation: Capability to correlate:

– Discovered server and DRAC, iDRAC, or BMC devices.

– Discovered modular systems or switches.

– ESX, ESXi, or Hyper-V host and guest virtual machines.

• Classification: Capability to classify the devices by type. For example, servers, network switches, storage, and so on.

• Hardware Inventory: Capability to obtain detailed hardware inventory of the device.

• Monitoring or Health: Capability to obtain health status and connection status of the device.

• Traps, alerts, or PETs: Capability to receive SNMP traps from the device.

• Application Launch: Provides a right-click action menu item on the discovered device to launch 1x1 console or application.

• OpenManage Server Administrator CLI: Capability to run OpenManage

Server Administrator supported commands on the remote (discovered) servers.

• Deploy OpenManage Server Administrator: Capability to deploy

OpenManage Server Administrator to the remote (discovered) servers.

• Server Updates: Capability to deploy BIOS, firmware, and driver updates to the remote (discovered) servers.

• RACADM CLI: Capability to run RACADM tool supported commands on the remote (discovered) devices.

• IPMI CLI: Capability to run IPMITool supported commands on the remote (discovered) devices.

• Warranty: Requires internet connection (support.dell.com) to view warranty information.



Using the Discovery and Inventory Portal

To access the discovery and inventory portal, click ManageDiscovery and

Inventory.

1 Details from the last discovery and inventory task run.

3 Details of tasks and their status.

2 Details of previously discovered and inventoried devices.

Configuring a Discovery and Inventory Task

1 From OpenManage Essentials, click ManageDiscovery and

InventoryDiscovery RangesAdd Discovery Range.

2 In Discovery Range Configuration: a Provide the IP address/range or host name and subnet mask. Click

Add.

b

NOTE: You can add multiple IP addresses, ranges, or host names. You can add multiple host names separated by a comma delimiter. For example, hostname1, hostname2, hostname3, and so on.

To import host names and IP addresses, click Import. You can import host names and IP addresses included as line items in a file that is in



CSV format. Using Microsoft Excel, you can create a .CSV file containing host names or IP addresses. c Click Next.

3 After you have provided at least one IP address, IP range, host name, or a combination thereof, continue to customize the discovery and inventory options or complete the configuration using the default options.

Clicking Finish without setting any further configurations immediately runs the discovery and inventory tasks using the default SNMP and ICMP protocols. It is recommended that you review and revise your protocol configurations prior to clicking Finish.

For more information about each protocol listed below, click - (Why do I need this?) help.

NOTE: When discovering ESXi-based servers, to see the guest virtual machines grouped with the host, enable and configure the WS-Man protocol.

NOTE: By default, SNMP is enabled and values are assigned ICMP parameters.

NOTE: After completing any of the following steps, click either Next to continue or click Finish to complete the Discovery Range Configuration.

• In ICMP Configuration, to detect devices on the network, edit the

ICMP parameters.

• In SNMP Configuration, to discover servers, provide the SNMP parameters. Ensure that the SNMP community string specified in Get

Community matches the SNMP community string of the device or devices you wish to discover.

• In WMI Configuration, to authenticate and connect to remote devices, provide the WMI parameters. The format for entering credentials for WMI must be domain\user name for domain-based networks or localhost\user name for non-domain based networks.

• In Storage Configuration, to discover PowerVault modular disk array or EMC devices, edit parameters.

• In WS-Man Credentials configuration, to enable discovery of ESXi installed servers, provide WS-Man parameters.



• In IPMI Configuration, to enable server discovery, provide the IPMI parameters. IPMI is typically used to discover BMC or iDRACs on

Dell servers. You can include the optional KG key when discovering

RAC devices.

• In Discovery Range Action, choose to discover, inventory, or perform both tasks. The default option is to perform both discovery and inventory.

Select Perform only discovery or Perform both discovery and

inventory to run the task immediately.

To schedule the task to run at a later time, select Do not perform

discovery or inventory, and refer to the Scheduling a New Discovery

Task or Scheduling a New Inventory Task sections.

• Review your selections in the Summary screen and click Finish. To change any of the parameters in previous configuration screens, click

Back. When complete, click Finish.

Excluding Ranges

Configure exclude ranges to prevent servers from being discovered/rediscovered or limit the number of devices displayed in the device tree. To exclude a range from discovery task:

1 From OpenManage Essentials, select ManageDiscovery and

InventoryDiscovery Ranges.

2 Right-click Exclude Ranges and then select Add Exclude Range.

3 In the Create screen, click Ok.

4 In Exclude Range Configuration, provide IP address/range or host name and click Add.

5 After the IP address or host name is listed, click Finish.



Viewing Configured Discovery and Inventory

Ranges

From OpenManage Essentials, click ManageDiscovery and Inventory

Discovery RangesDiscovery RangesInclude Ranges.

Scheduling Discovery

1 Click ManageDiscovery and InventoryConfigurationDiscovery

Schedule.

2 In Discovery Schedule Settings: a b

Select desired schedule parameters.

(Optional) You may adjust the task speed slider for faster task execution; however, more system resources are consumed.

c Discover all instrumented devices.

Discovery Speed slider bar - This control, also known as the discovery throttle, controls how fast discovery occurs and how much network and system resources are consumed for discovery by controlling the:

• Number of discovery threads that are allowed to run at any one time.

• Delay in between the communicating devices during a network ping sweep, in milliseconds.

NOTE: Each tick on the throttle control equals 10% and the range is from 10% to

100%. By default, in OpenManage Essentials, the discovery throttle is set at 60%;

Upon an upgrade from IT Assistant, the throttle control remains at its previously set value.

Multithreading

Dell OpenManage Essentials improves upon the optimized parallel threading implementation in the Network Monitoring Service introduced in IT Assistant.

As the discovery process is very I/O intensive, you can optimize the process by making it a parallel operation, where threads running in parallel (known as multi-threading) are sending requests and handling responses to several devices at once.



To an extent, the more threads that run in parallel, each communicating to a different device, the faster is the discovery; barring overall high network congestion or latency. The discovery process, by default, allows a maximum of

32 threads to run in parallel (or concurrently) at any one time for discovery.

To control the number of parallel threads executing, move the discovery throttle control either left or right. When set at the maximum, 32 parallel threads are actually allowed to run. If the throttle is at 50%, only 16 threads are allowed to run at any one time.

As the discovery service is optimized for parallel threading operations, the system can utilize more system resources even at the same throttle setting. It is recommended that you monitor the system resources so that a satisfactory trade-off is made between discovery speed versus system resources available for

OpenManage Essentials. Lowering or increasing the throttle depends on the system it is running on and the available resources. Note that the discovery service may take up to several minutes to adjust to a new throttle setting.

NOTE: For minimal discovery times on medium to large size networks (several hundred to several thousand devices), it is recommended that you install

OpenManage Essentials services on a multi-processor system.

Scheduling Inventory

1 Click ManageDiscovery and InventoryConfigurationInventory

Schedule.

2 In Inventory Schedule Settings, do the following: a Select desired schedule parameters.

b (Optional) You may adjust the task speed slider for faster task execution; however, more system resources are consumed.

Inventory Speed slider control—This control acts much like the discovery throttle, controlling the number of threads that are used during an inventory cycle. By default, there are a maximum number of

32 threads dedicated to performing the inventory process - the throttle controls the number of threads are actually used.

NOTE: Each tick on the throttle control equals 10% and the range is from 10% to 100%. The inventory throttle is set at 60% by default.



Configuring Status Polling Frequency

You can configure OpenManage Essentials to check the health status of all discovered devices that have a means of health instrumentation such as

OpenManage Server Administrator. The status can be scheduled at a given interval using Status Polling so that health status is always current. To configure status polling:

1 Click ManageDiscovery and InventoryConfigurationStatus

Configuration.

2 In Status Polling, select Enable Status Polling and provide the polling parameters including time and performance and then click Finish.

By default, the status polling frequency is enabled and set to one hour.

Polling Speed slider control - This control acts much like the discovery throttle, controlling the number of threads that are used during a status cycle. By default, there are a maximum number of 32 threads dedicated to performing the status process - the throttle controls the number of threads that are actually used.



6

Discovery And Inventory -

Reference

From the Discovery and Inventory Portal page, you can:

• View graphical reports on devices and Dell servers discovered and inventoried.

• Manage discovery ranges for devices and Dell servers.

• Configure discovery, inventory, and status polling for devices and Dell servers.

Discovery and Inventory Portal Page Options

• Discovery Portal

• Discovery Ranges

– Add Discovery Range


• Include Ranges

• Exclude Ranges

• Configuration

– Discovery Schedule

– Inventory Schedule

– Status Configuration

Discovery and Inventory Portal

The Discovery and Inventory Portal provides information about the:

• Last discovery and inventory details

• Discovered versus inventoried devices

• Task status

Discovery And Inventory - Reference 43


Last Discovery and Inventory

Last Discovery Details

Discovery Last Run at Displays the time and date information for the last run discovery.

Discovery Range

Devices Discovered

Displays the IP Address range or host name.

Displays information on number of devices discovered.

Last Inventory Details

Inventory Last Run at Displays the time and date information for the last run inventory.

Inventory Range

Devices Inventoried

Displays the IP Address range or host name.

Displays information on number of devices inventoried.


Provides a graphical report of number of devices and Dell servers discovered or inventoried. You can use this report to ascertain the discovered devices and

Dell servers that are unclassified. See

Viewing Device Summary

for more on summary information and filter options for the summary information.

Click any section of the graph to see the device summary for the selected region.

In the device summary, double-click a row to view the details (inventory view for that device). Alternatively, right-click and select details for the inventory view or right-click and select alerts for the alerts specific to that device.

Filter by Select to refine the search results.

• All

• Ranges-Select to filter based on the selected range.



Task Status

Provides a list of currently executing and previously run tasks and their status.

The task status grid on this page shows the status of just discovery, inventory, and tasks. However, the main portal shows all types of task statuses.

Task Name

Task State

%Completed

Start Time

End Time

Name of the task.

Status information:

Completed

Running

Stopped

Not Started

Task completion status in percentage.

Time and date information at start.

Time and date information at end.

Viewing Device Summary

1 In OpenManage Essentials, click ManageDiscovery and Inventory

Discovery PortalDiscovery Portal.

The Discovery and Inventory Portal page is displayed.

2 In Discovered vs Inventoried Devices, in the graphical report, click the discovered or inventoried device band to open the Device Summary page showing the selected graph details.

The Device Summary page, status on health and power, and information on device name, Service Tag, device type, and model are displayed.

3 (Optional) Click the funnel icon to filter the summary information.

The filter options are displayed.



Select All

Select options, devices, or Dell servers.

Filter options

Select to filter per line item.

Select to filter based on options, devices, or Dell servers.

Create filter with these options:

• Is equal to—Select to create the same as logic.

• Is not equal to —Select to create the different

from logic.

• Is Less than—Select to find a value that is less than the value you provide.

• Is less than or equal to—Select to find a value that is less than or equal the value you provide.

• Is greater than or equal to—Select to find a value that is greater than or equal to the value you provide.

• Is greater than—Select to find a value that is greater than the value you provide.

Health Status options:

• Unknown

• Normal

• Warning

• Critical

Connection Status options:

• On

• Off

4 Click Filter to view the filtered summary information.

5 Click Clear Filter to remove the filtered summary information.



6 Right-click device status and select from these options:

IP Address or iDRAC name Displays the IP address or the iDRAC name.

Details Select to view device details.

Alerts

Application Launch

Troubleshoot

Select to view the alerts generated for this device.

Select to launch an application.

If the Troubleshooting Tool is installed, then select this option to launch the Troubleshooting Tool. The

Troubleshooting Tool is disabled by default. To enable the

Troubleshooting Tool, see

Preferences - Reference .

Refresh Inventory

Refresh Status

Add to New Group

Exclude Range

Remove

Export

Select to run inventory on the device.

Select to run a status check on the device.

Select to add the device to a group.

Select to remove the device from the discovery and inventory range.

Select to remove the device information.

Select to export the device information.

Discovery Ranges

From Discovery Range page, you can:

• View Discovery Range Summary

• Add Discovery Range


This page provides the following information:


– Include Ranges

– Exclude Ranges

• Discovery Range Summary

For list of right-click actions in this page, see Appendix—Right-Click Actions

.



Add Discovery Range

1 Click ManageDiscovery and InventoryDiscovery Ranges

Discovery Range Summary. Then right-click Include Ranges and select

Add Discovery Range. For more information, see

Configuring a Discovery and Inventory Task

.

2 Provide information for protocols for discovery, inventory, or both:

• IP Address, Range, or Host name Configuration

• ICMP Configuration

• SNMP Configuration

• WMI Configuration

• Storage Configuration

• WS-Man Configuration

• IPMI Configuration

• Discovery Range Action

• Summary

IP Address, Range, or Host Name Configuration

A discovery range is a network segment registered in OpenManage Essentials for the purpose of discovering devices. OpenManage Essentials attempts to discover devices on all registered discovery ranges that are enabled. A discovery range includes subnet, a range of IP addresses on a subnet, an individual IP address, or an individual host name.

Specify the IP address, IP address range, or host name for the discovery process.



IP address / range

Host name

Subnet mask

Specifies the IP address or IP address range.

The following are examples of valid discovery range type address specifications (* is the wildcard character, meaning all possible addresses in the specified range):

193.109.112.*

193.104.20-40.*

192.168.*.*

192.168.2-51.3-91

193.109.112.45-99

System IP address—193.109.112.99

NOTE: Click Add to add multiple ranges of IP addresses.

IPV6 addresses are not supported.

Specifies the host name, for example:

mynode.mycompany.com.

Click Add to add multiple host names.

NOTE: You can add multiple host names by separating them using commas.

NOTE: Invalid characters in the host name are not checked. If the host name you provide contains invalid characters, the name is accepted. However, the device is not found during the discovery cycle.

Specifies the subnet mask for the IP address range. The subnet mask is used to determine the broadcast addresses for the subnet(s) part of the range. The

OpenManage Essentials Network Monitoring Service does not use the broadcast address when discovering devices in an IP address range. The following are examples of valid subnet mask specifications:

• 255.255.255.0 (The default subnet mask for a Class C network.)

• 255.255.0.0 (The default subnet mask for a Class B network.)

• 255.255.242.0 (A custom subnet mask specification.)

By default, the subnet mask is set to 255.255.255.0.



Import Select this option to import host names and IP addresses from a file that is in CSV format. However, you can import only 500 line items per task.

You can use an Active Directory export file in a.CSV format as input. You can also create a .CSV file in a spreadsheet editor using the header Name and filling in system IP addresses or host names in the rows below the header (one per cell). Save the file in a .CSV format and use it as the input with the import feature.

If there are any invalid entries in the file, a message is displayed when the data is imported by OpenManage

Essentials.

ICMP Configuration

Use ICMP during discovery to ping devices on the network. Select these options to configure the ICMP parameters.

For more information, click - (Why do I need this?) help.

Timeout

Retries

Set time in milliseconds.

Set number of attempts.

SNMP Configuration

SNMP provides an interface to manage devices on the network such as servers, storage, switches, and so on. The SNMP agent on the device allows

OpenManage Essentials to query the health and inventory data of the device.

Select these options to discover and inventory servers, storage devices, and other network devices.

For more information, click - (Why do I need this?) help.

Enable SNMP discovery Enables or disables the SNMP protocol for discovery range (subnet.)



Get community

Set community

Timeout (seconds)

Retries (attempts)

Specifies or edits the community name for SNMP

get calls from the OpenManage Essentials user interface. The Get Community is a read-only password that SNMP agents installed on managed devices use for authentication. The Get

Community allows OpenManage Essentials to browse and retrieve SNMP data. This field is casesensitive. OpenManage Essentials uses the first successful community name to communicate with the device. You can enter multiple SNMP community strings separated with commas.

Specifies or edits the community name for SNMP

set calls from the OpenManage Essentials UI. The

Set Community is a read-write password that

SNMP agents installed on managed devices use for authentication. The Set Community allows

OpenManage Essentials to perform tasks that require the SNMP protocol, such as shutting down a system. This field is case-sensitive. OpenManage

Essentials uses the first successful community name to communicate with the device. You can enter multiple SNMP community strings separated with commas.

NOTE: In addition to the Set Community name, an instrumentation password is required to perform an

SNMP task on a device.

Specifies or edits the amount of time that

OpenManage Essentials waits after issuing a get or

set call before it considers the call failed. A valid range is from 1 to 15 seconds. The default is 4 seconds.

Specifies or edits the number of times that

OpenManage Essentials reissues a get or set call after the first call times out. A valid range is from 1 to 10 retries. The default is 2.



52

WMI Configuration

Use the WMI protocol for gathering discovery, inventory, and health information about Window-based servers. This protocol provides less information about devices than SNMP but is useful if SNMP is disabled on the network. Select these options to configure WMI parameters for Windows servers only.

Enable WMI discovery Select to enable WMI discovery.

Domain \ User name Provide the domain and user name.

Password Provide password.

Storage Configuration

Enabling discovery of PowerVault MD or Dell|EMC arrays allows OpenManage

Essentials to gather inventory and health information about the arrays. Set these options to discover PowerVault MD arrays or Dell|EMC devices.

Enable PowerVault

MD array discovery

Enable Dell/EMC array discovery

Select to discover PowerVault MD array. This discovery configuration does not require credentials.

Select to discover Dell/EMC array.

Dell/EMC user name Provide user name.

Dell/EMC password Provide password.

Dell/EMC port Increment or decrement the port number. Enter a TCP/IP port number ranging 1 to 65535. Default value is 443.

WS-Man Configuration

Use the WS-Man protocol to discover ESXi-based servers and gather inventory and health status from those servers. Select these options to configure WS-Man parameters for discovering ESXi installed devices.

Enable WS-Man

Discovery

User ID

Select to discover ESXi installed devices.

Provide authenticated user ID.

Discovery And Inventory - Reference


Password

Timeout

Retries

Port

Secure Mode

Skip Common name check

Trusted Site

Certificate file

Provide password.

Provide the time after which the discovery attempts must stop.

Provide the number of attempts to discover the devices.

Provide the port information.

Select to securely discovery devices and components.

Select to skip common name check.

Select if the devices you are discovering is a trusted device.

Click Browse to traverse to the file location.

IPMI Configuration

Use the IPMI protocol for out of band discovery of RACs, DRACs, and iDRACs. This option is for Lifecycle controller enabled discovery and inventory. Ensure that the IP address of the DRAC and iDRAC is selected. To configure IPMI, see support.dell.com.

Select these options to configure the IPMI version 2.0 parameters. This configuration is required for discovery.

Enable IPMI Discovery

User name

Password

Enables or disables the IPMI protocol by discovery range.

Enter the Baseboard Management Controller (BMC) or DRAC user name.

NOTE: The default user name is root. It is recommended that you change it for security.

Enter the BMC or DRAC password.

NOTE: The default password is calvin. It is recommended that you change it for security.



KG Key

Timeout

Retries

Enter the KG key value. DRAC also supports IPMI

KG key value. Each BMC or DRAC is configured to require an access key in addition to user credentials.

NOTE: The KG key is a public key that is used to generate an encryption key for use between the firmware and the application. The KG key value is an even number of hexadecimal characters.

Specifies or edits the amount of time that

OpenManage Essentials waits after issuing a get or set call before it considers the call failed. A valid range is from 1 to 60 seconds. The default is 5 seconds.

Specifies or edits the number of times that

OpenManage Essentials reissues a get or set call after the first call times out. A valid range is from 0 to 10 retries. The default is 1.

NOTE: The retries and time-out parameters are used for both the Remote

Management Control Protocol (RMCP) ping and the IPMI connection.

Discovery Range Action

Select these options to discover or inventory devices, components, and servers.

Do not perform discovery or inventory

Perform only discovery

Perform both discovery and inventory

Select this option set up a schedule to perform discovery and inventory (at a later time) using the discovery configuration scheduling options in the

Discovery and Inventory Portal.

Select this option to perform discovery.

Select this option to perform both discovery and inventory.



Summary

View the configuration selections. To change configurations, click Back.

Add Exclude Range

From Discovery Range Summary, right-click Exclude Ranges and select Add

Exclude Range. Register new ranges to exclude from discovery or to remove a previously set exclude range.

IP Address/Range

Host name

Register a device to exclude from the discovery process by specifying the device's IP address or IP address range.

The following are examples of valid discovery range type address specifications (* is the wildcard character, meaning all possible addresses in the specified range):

• Exclude range — 193.109.112.*

• 193.104.20-40.*

• 192.168.*.*

• 192.168.2-51.3-91

• Exclude range — 193.109.112.45-99

• System IP address — 193.109.112.99

Register to exclude from the discovery process by specifying the device's host name, for example:

mynode.mycompany.com.

NOTE: OpenManage Essentials does not check for invalid characters in the host name. If the host name you specify contains invalid characters, the name is accepted. However, the device with that name is not found during the discovery cycle.



56

Configuration

The Configuration page contains the following information:

• Discovery Schedule

• Inventory Schedule

• Status Configuration

Discovery Schedule

You can configure OpenManage Essentials to discover devices and display them in the Device tree.

1 Enable device discovery.

2 Initiate device discovery.

3 Set the discovery speed.

4 Specify how devices are discovered.

5 For failed discovery attempts, use the Troubleshooting Tool.

To view discovery configuration, click ManageDiscovery and Inventory

ConfigurationDiscovery Schedule.

Configure OpenManage Essentials to discover new devices on a network. The settings apply to all discovery ranges. OpenManage Essentials records all agents, IP addresses, and the health of the devices.

Enable Discovery

Configure Global Device

Discovery interval

Discovery Speed

Select to schedule device discovery.

Set the frequency of discovery in weekly or daily intervals.

• Every Week On—Specify the day or days to schedule discovery and the time for the discovery to begin.

• Every <n> Days <n> Hours interval—Specify the intervals between discovery cycles. The maximum discovery interval is 365 days and 23 hours.

Specify the amount of resources (system and network) available for accelerating the discovery speed. The faster the speed, more resources are required to perform discovery, but less time is required.

Discovery And Inventory - Reference


Discover

Name Resolution

Specify how the devices are discovered.

• All Devices—Select to discover all devices that respond to an Internet Control Message Protocol

(ICMP) ping.

• Instrumented Devices—Select to discover only devices that have instrumentation (such as Dell

OpenManage Server Administrator, Dell

OpenManage Array Manager, and Dell

PowerConnect) for Simple Network Management

Protocol (SNMP), Windows management

Instrumentation WMI), Intelligent Platform

Management Interface (IPMI) management, or WS-

Management (WS-Man). See agents supported for more information about systems management instrumentation agents.

Specify how the device names are resolved. If you are managing a cluster, use the NetBIOS name resolution to discern each independent system. If you are not managing a cluster, a DNS name resolution is recommended.

• DNS—Select to resolve names using the Domain

Naming Service.

• NetBIOS—Select to resolve names using system names.

Inventory Schedule

Use Inventory Polling to specify the default inventory settings for

OpenManage Essentials. OpenManage Essentials collects inventory information such as software and firmware versions, as well as device-related information about memory, processor, power supply, Peripheral Component

Interconnect (PCI) cards, and embedded devices, and storage.



Enable Inventory

Configure Global

Inventory Polling

Interval

Select to schedule inventory.

Set the frequency of the inventory in weekly or daily intervals.

NOTE: OpenManage Essentials performs inventory only on devices that have already been discovered.

• Every Week On—Specify the day or days of the week that you want to schedule the inventory and the time that you want it to begin.

• Every <n> Days <n> Hours interval—Specify the intervals between inventory cycles. The maximum discovery interval is 365 days and 23 hours.

Inventory Polling Speed Set the amount of resources available for accelerating the inventory poll speed. The faster you set the inventory poll speed, the more resources are required, but less time is required to perform the inventory.

After changing the speed, OpenManage Essentials may take several minutes to adjust to the new speed.

Status Configuration

Use this window to specify the default status polling settings for

OpenManage Essentials. Status polling performs a health and power check for all discovered devices. For example, this poll determines if discovered devices are healthy or powered down.



Enable Status Polling Select to schedule device status polling.

Device Status Interval Set frequency of the device status poll in intervals of days, hours, and minutes. The status polling does not begin until the previous polling has completed.

Days—Specify the number of days between device status polling.

Hours—Specify the number of hours between device status polling cycles.

Minutes—Specify the number of minutes between device status polling cycles.

The maximum discovery interval is 365 days, 23 hours, and 59 minutes.

Status Polling Speed Set the amount of resources available for accelerating the device status polling speed. The faster you set the status speed, the more resources are required, but less time is required to perform the status polling.





7

Managing Devices

OpenManage Essentials lists devices based on their types. For example, Dell

PowerEdge servers are listed under the device type Servers. OpenManage

Essentials contains a defined list of device types. The devices you discover and inventory are included under these device types. Unclassified devices are listed under the device type Unknown. You can create device groups with combinations of the defined device types. However, you cannot create a new device types.

In the Devices page, you can:

• View devices types that are discovered on the network.

• View the inventory information for the devices.

• View all the alerts that were generated for a device.

• View the hardware logs for a device.

• Create device groups and include devices to that group based on your grouping preference. For example, you can create a group and include all devices present at a geographical location.

Viewing Devices

You can view a device that is discovered. For more information on discovering and inventorying a device, see

Discovering and Inventorying Devices .

To view devices, click Manage Devices.

In the device summary page, expand the device types to view devices. The following device types are displayed.

• High Availability (HA) clusters

• KVM

• Microsoft Virtualization

• Modular systems

• Network devices

– Switches

61 Managing Devices


• OOB unclassified devices

– IPMI unclassified devices

• Printers

• RAC

• Servers

• Storage Devices

– Dell|EMC Arrays

– EqualLogic arrays

– PowerVault MD Arrays

– Tape Devices

• Unknown

• VMware ESX servers

Use the refresh button to update the device tree with the current data. To update the device tree, right-click Devices and select Refresh.

NOTE: The device tree auto-updates when changes are made. Some changes to the tree may show after a brief delay depending on the managed servers’ performance because the information propogates from the SQL database to the user interface.

Nodes and Symbols Description

Node Symbol Description

Denotes that a device is critical and requires attention. This information is rolled up to the parent device type. For example if a server is in critical state and requires attention the same symbol is assigned to the parent device type. Among server states, critical state is given the highest priority; That is, in a group, if different devices are in different states, and if one device is in critical state, then the state of the parent device type is set to critical.

Denotes that a device of this type is not discovered on the network or classified in the device tree.

Denotes that there is a deviation from the expected behavior, but the device is still manageable.

62 Managing Devices


Node Symbol Description

Denotes that the device is working as expected.

Denotes either the device type is unknown and it is classified as an unknown device or that the health status cannot be determined, because the device does not have proper instrumentation or the proper protocol was not used to discover the device.

Device Details

The device details, depending on the device type, can contain the following information:

• Device Summary

• OS Information

• Software Agent Information

• NIC Information

• Virtual Machine Host Product Information

• RAC Device Information

• Processor Information

• Memory Device Information

• Firmware Information

• Power Supply Information

• Embedded Device Information

• Device Card Information

• Controller Information

• Controller Battery Information

• Enclosure Information

• Physical Disk Information

• Virtual Disk Information

• Contact Information

• Software Inventory Information

• Trusted Platform Module Information

Managing Devices 63


64

• FRU Information

• Acquisition Information

• Depreciation Information

• Extended Warranty Information

• Ownership Information

• Outsource Information

Viewing Device Inventory

To view inventory, click ManageDevices, expand the device type and click the device.

Viewing Alerts Summary

You can view all the alerts generated for a device. To view alert summary:

1 Click ManageDevices.

2 Expand the device type and click the device.

3 In the details page, select Alerts.

Viewing System Event Logs

1 Click ManageDevices.

2 Expand the device type and select Hardware Logs.

Searching for Devices

Right-click All Devices at the top of the device tree and click Search Devices.

You can also search for devices using logical arguments and save the queries for later.

For example, to create a query to search for a server in critical state with an IP address containing values 10.35, and the power status as Power Up:

1 Click ManageDevice Search, then select Create New Query, in the adjacent text field enter a query name.

2 From the first line after Where, select Device Type, Is, and then Server.

Managing Devices


3 In the next line select the check box, then select AND, Device Health, Is, and then select Critical.

4 In the next line select the check box, then select AND, IP Address,

Contains, and then in the adjacent field enter 10.35.

5 In the next line select the check box, then select AND, Power Status, Is, and then select Power Up.

6 Click Save Query.

NOTE: You can click Run Query to run the query immediately.

To run an existing query, select the query from the drop-down list and click

Run Query. You can filter the results and export it to an HTML, TXT, or

CSV file.

Managing Devices 65


66 Managing Devices


8

Devices - Reference


• List of devices based on the device type, for example, HA clusters, servers, and so on.

• Summary of devices and alerts.

• Alerts generated for a particular device.

• Health of devices based on the Normal, Critical, Unknown, and

Warning types.

NOTE: For Dell 12 Generation PowerEdge servers [denoted as yx 2 x , where y denotes alphabets, for example M (modular), R (rack), or T (tower) and health status is displayed (under Servers) even if OpenManage Server

Administrator is not installed on the server.

x denotes numbers] discovered using WMI and SNMP protocols, the DRAC

NOTE: Based on the severity of the agents of a discovered device, the overall health is the most critical of the severity. For example, in the device tree, for server types, if there are two servers with status Warning and Critical, then the parent Server’s status is set to Critical.

• Inventory information for devices.

• View hardware logs for servers.

• Filtering capabilities of the grid:

• The grouping bar

• Filter icon options

• Sorting by clicking on the column

• Re-ordering the columns

NOTE: None of these are saved if the console is closed and restarted.

Devices - Reference 67


Viewing Inventory

To view inventory, from All Devices, traverse to the device and click the device.

The device details and the alerts link are displayed.

Viewing Alerts

To view alerts, from the inventory details page, click Alerts.

Severity

Acknowledged

Time

Device

Details

Category

Source

Alert severity based on Normal, Critical, Warning, and Unknown.

Flagged status for an alert.

Time at which the alert was generated in date and time format.

IP address of the device.

Lists the alert information. For example, System is down: <IP

Address of the device>.

Lists the alert category type, for example System Events.

Lists the alert source name.

Viewing Hardware Logs

You can view hardware logs for servers. To view hardware logs, from the inventory details page, click Hardware Logs.

Severity

Local Time

UTC Time

Details

Alert severity based on Normal, Critical, Warning, and Unknown.

The system time at which this alert was generated in date and time format.

Coordinated Universal Time (abbreviated UTC) at which the log was generated.

Lists the details of the hardware log.

For example, power supply redundancy is lost.



Alert Filters

You can apply these filters to Alerts. Select Continuous Updates to enable the user interface to update automatically when new alerts are received.

Severity

Acknowledged

Time

Device

Details

Category

Source

Select from these alerts: All, Normal, Critical, Warning, and Unknown.

Flagged status for an alert.

Time at which this alert was generated in date and time format.

The IP address or host name of this device.

The alert information. For example, System is down: <IP

Address of the device>.

The alert category type, for example System Events.

The Alert Source.

Device Search

You can do the following devices search options:

• Run an existing query

• Create a new query

• Delete a query

Run Existing Query

Delete Query

Create New Query

Query logic

Select this option and then select a query from the dropdown list.

Select to delete a query after you complete the following action.

Select the Run Existing Query option, then from the drop down list select the query that you want to delete.

Select this option to create a query and then enter a name for the query in the adjoining field.

Select from the query logic options to create multiple query options. Select the check box to enable and include an argument.



Run Query

Save Query

Select to run the selected query.

Select to save a query.

Query Results

The device search lists these options:

Health Status

Connection Status

Name

OS Name

OS Revision

Service Tag

Asset Tag

Device Model

Device type

Displays the health status of the device. The status options are Normal, Warning, Critical, and Warning.

Displays the connection status of the device. The connection status are On or Off.

Displays the name of the device.

Displays the operating system installed on the device.

Displays the version of the operating system installed on the device.

Displays a unique identifier, that provides the service lifecycle information.

Displays the defined asset tag for the device.

Displays the system’s model name. For example,

PowerEdge R710.

Displays the type of device. For example, for the Device

Model PowerEdge R710, the Device Type value is Server.

Displays the revision history of the device.

System Revision

Number

Creating Device Group

Device Group Configuration

Name

Parent

Description

Provide name of the new group.

The device under which this group is created.

Provide description for the device group.



Device Selection

You can select predefined groups (device types), custom groups, specific devices, or a device query.

To use device query, select a query from the list.

Click New to create a new device query to search and assign the devices to the alert action.

Click Edit to change the query logic.

Select groups or devices from the tree, you can use the query option to create very specific criteria for the selection.

All Devices

HA Clusters

KVM

Microsoft

Virtualization Servers

Modular Systems

Network Devices

OOB Unclassified

Devices

Select to include all the Devices that are managed in

OpenManage Essentials.

Select to include High Availability server clusters.

Select to include keyboard video mouse devices.

Select to include Microsoft virtualization servers.

Select to include modular systems.

Select to include network devices.

Select to include out of band Unclassified Devices like

Lifecycle controller enabled devices.

Printers

RAC

Servers

Storage Devices

Select to include printers.

Select to include devices with remote access controllers.

Select to include Dell servers.

Select to include storage devices.

Unknown Select to include unknown devices.

VMware ESX Servers Select to include VMware ESX servers.

Summary - Group Configuration

View and edit selections.





Viewing Inventory Reports

OpenManage Essentials provides pre-defined reports for all discovered and inventoried devices. With these reports, you can:

• Consolidate information about devices in your environment.

• Filter report data per your needs.

• Export data for use in another application in the XML file format.

NOTE: You cannot create new reports.

9

Choosing Predefined Reports

To view predefined reports, click Reports.

The Managed Systems Reports displays the predefined reports. Select from the available reports to view particular information about the devices in your environment. See table for more information.

Report

Summary

Description

Identifies the OpenManage Server Administrator versions installed on devices in your environment and allows you to identify the devices generating the most alerts.

• The upper left web part identifies the OpenManage

Server Administrator versions in your environment.

• Clicking the OpenManage Server Administrator version in the OpenManage Server Administrator pie chart in the top right web part shows you the list of servers with that version installed.

• The lower left web part lists in descending order the devices generating the most alerts since initial discovery and inventory.

• The top five event generating devices are identified in the lower right web part. Click on a specific device to view the events associated with it.

Viewing Inventory Reports 73


Report

Server Components and

Versions

FRU Information

Memory

NIC Information


PCI Device Information Identifies model, manufacturer, and slot for PCI and

PCIe controllers in each server.

Storage Controllers Identifies the storage controllers on the server and provides the controller name, vendor, controller type, and controller state:

Ready: The storage controller is ready for use.

Degraded: There is a potential problem with the controller. Investigation is required.

ESX Information

Identifies the NIC model-IP address, MAC address, manufacturer and part and serial numbers for NICs.

Identifies serial number, revision, manufacturer, and bus type for hard drives.


Identifies ESX and ESXi virtual machine hosts and associated virtual machines.

Identifies the HyperV virtual machine hosts and associated virtual machines.


Description

Identifies BIOS, driver, and firmware versions on all discovered and inventoried servers

The Field Replaceable Unit (FRU) provides details on replaceable server components.

Provides details on DIMMs and identifies the slot a particular DIMM occupies within a server.


Server Overview

See Viewing Warranty Reports for details on how to run

the warranty report and the information it provides.

Provides information about the enclosure type, firmware version, enclosure Service Tag, and so on.

Provides information about the servers such as the system name, operating system installed on the server, processors, and memory.



Filtering Report Data

You can filter the results by dragging and dropping column headers to the top of reports. You can choose one or more attributes when revising the view to meet your specific needs.

For example, in the NIC Information report, drag the System Type and System

Name to the top of the report. The view immediately changes to a nesting of information based on your preference. In this example, you can view nested data for NICs; NIC IP Address, MAC Address, and NIC description.

Exporting Reports

Exporting a report enables you to manipulate and reformat the data.

In the Reports list, right-click on any report to display the Export option.

Scroll over the Export option to display supported formats. Choose your preferred format (CSV, HTML, or XML) and provide a file name for the exported report.

Viewing Inventory Reports 75




10

Reports - Reference

From Reports you can view the following:

• Summary

• Server components and versions

• FRU Information

• Memory

• NIC Information




• ESX Information


• Warranty Information


• Server Overview

The summary page lists the following:

• Systems using specific Server Administrator agent

• Summary of Server Administrator agents and systems

• Active systems based on event occurrence

• Top five systems with most event

Server Components and Versions

System Name

Service Tag

Model Type

Description

Host name of the system.

Unique identification number assigned to the system.

The system’s model name. For example PowerEdge R710.

The software information.



78

Software Type

Software Version

The type of software that is available on the system. For example, firmware.

The version number of the software that is available on the system.

Field Replaceable Unit (FRU) Information

System Name

Model Type

Service Tag

FRU Device Name

FRU Manufacturer

FRU Serial Number

FRU Part Number

The user provided name of the system.



The standard FRU name assigned to the device.

The name of the FRU manufacturer.

The manufacturer specified FRU’s identification number.

The industry specific number that differentiates the type of

FRU.

Memory

System Name

Service Tag

Provide a name for this server power options task.


System Type

Memory Device Size

(MB)


Memory Device Name The device’s named assigned by the manufacturer. For example, DIMMI_A.

The size of the memory device in GB.

The name of the device’s manufacturer.

Memory Device

Manufacturer

Memory Device Part

Number

The industry specific number assigned to the device.

Memory Device Serial

Number

The roll number assigned to the device by the manufacturer.

Reports - Reference


NIC Information

System Name

System Type

NIC IP Address

MAC Address

The name of the system.

The system’s model name. For example, PowerEdge R710.

The unique IP address assigned to the NIC device.

A unique Media Access Control address (MAC address) identifier assigned to network interfaces for communications on the physical network segment.

Information on the NIC device.

NIC Description


System Name

System Type

Service Tag

Channel

Enclosure ID

Target ID

LUN ID

Size (GB)

Bus Type

Serial Number

Revision

Vendor

The unique system’s name that identifies it on the network.

The system’s model information.

A Dell specific unique bar code label identifier on the system.

The number of channels

The enclosure ID is assigned to the enclosure by Storage

Management. Storage Management numbers the enclosures attached to the controller starting with zero.

The SCSI ID of the backplane (internal to the server) or the enclosure to which the controller connector is attached.

The value is usually 6.

In computer storage, a logical unit number or LUN number used to identify a logical unit, which is a device addressed by the SCSI protocol or similar protocols such as Fibre

Channel or iSCSI.

The size of the hard drive in gigabytes.

The type of bus connection used. Buses are information pathways between components of a system.

The roll number assigned to the device by the manufacturer.

The hard disk’s revision history.

The organization that supplies the hard drive.

Reports - Reference 79


PCI Device Information

System Name

Service Tag


A Dell specific unique bar code label identifier for a system.

System Type

Device Card

Description


The type of Peripheral Component Interconnect card used.

For example, 82546GB Gigabit Ethernet Controller.

The manufacturer’s information.

Device Card

Manufacturer

Device Card Slot Type The type of slot on the mother board into which the card is inserted.

Storage Controllers

System Name

System Type

Controller Name

Vendor

Controller Type

Controller State

ESX Information


The storage controller is present on this system.


The name of the storage controller. For example, SAS 6/iR

Integrated.

The supplier’s information. For example, SAS 6/iR

Integrated is supplied by Dell.

The type of controller. For example, SAS 6/iR Integrated is of type SAS.

The state of the controller. For example, ready to use.

Host Name

System Type

The unique system’s name that identifies it on the network and the system in which embedded bare metal product is installed.




VM Type

Version

Guest Name

Guest OS Type

The type of embedded bare-metal product installed on the system. For example, VMware ESX.

The version of the embedded bare-metal that is installed on the system.

The name of the guest virtual machine.

The operating system that is installed on the virtual machine.

The size of the virtual machine’s RAM.

Guest Memory Size

(MB)

Guest State The state of the virtual machine, if the machine is powered off or powered on.


Host Name

System Type

Guest Name

Guest Memory Size

(MB)

Guest State

The unique system’s name that identifies it on the network. and the system in which the HyperV is installed.


The name of the guest virtual machine.

The size of the virtual machine’s RAM.

The state of the virtual machine, if the machine is powered off or powered on.


System Name

Device Model Type

Device Type

Shipped Date

Service Tag


Enable the proxy setting for the warranty to Warranty data from support.dell.com.


The type of device, for example, server, Remote Access

Controller.

The date on which the device was sent from the factory.

A Dell specific unique bar code label identifier for a system.



Service Level Code

Service Provider

Displays the service level code such as parts only warranty

(POW), next business day onsite (NBD), and so on for a particular system.

The name of the organization that will provide the warranty service support for the device.

Start Date

End Date

The date from which the warranty is available.

The date on which the warranty will expire.

Days Remaining The number of days the warranty is available for the device.

Warranty Description The warranty details applicable for the device.


Enclosure Model Type The enclosure’s model name. For example, PowerEdge

M1000e.

Slot Number

Slot Name

The slot number on the enclosure.

The slot name of the enclosure.

Slot Availability Displays if the slot is available or occupied in the modular enclosure.

The firmware version installed on the enclosure.

Firmware Version

Enclosure Service Tag A Dell specific unique bar code label identifier for the enclosure.

Enclosure Name The unique enclosure name that identifies it on the network.

Blade Model Type

Blade Service Tag

The blade’s model information.

A Dell specific unique bar code label identifier for the blade.

Blade Host Name

Blade OS

The blade’s model name. For example, PowerEdge M710.

The operating system installed on the blade.



Server Overview

System Name

System Type

Operating System

Processor Count

Processor Family

Processor Cores

Processor Speed

Total Cores

Total Memory



The operating system installed on the system.

The number of processors installed on the system.

The type of processor installed on the system.

The number of processor cores.

The speed of the processor

The total number of cores present in the system.

The total memory installed on the system





11

Viewing Warranty Reports

Warranty information is available for devices with valid Service Tags, including servers, switches, storage, and so on. Warranty information is automatically retrieved at the time devices are discovered.

The Warranty Information report is unique among OpenManage Essentials reports as it requires internet access to pull warranty information from the

Dell warranty database. If you do not have internet access, no warranty information is populated. It is downloaded the next time you connect to the internet and open the Warranty Report.

To extend support for the devices, right-click a device and click View and

Renew Warranty. This option opens support.dell.com with the device selected. Alternately you can click the View and Renew Warranty button to open the warranty site. If you log in to the warranty site with the company account you will see all their devices with warranty information.

Viewing Warranty Reports 85


86 Viewing Warranty Reports


12

Managing Alerts

With OpenManage Essentials you can:

• View alerts and alert categories

• Manage alert actions

• Configure alert log settings

To view the alerts page, from OpenManage Essentials, click ManageAlerts.

Viewing Alerts and Alert Categories

Viewing Alert Logs

To view alert logs, click ManageAlertsAlert Logs.

Understanding the Alert Types

The following alert log types are displayed.

Icon Alert

Normal Alerts

Warning Alerts

Critical Alerts

Description

An event from a server or a device that describes the successful operation of a unit, such as a power supply turning on or a sensor reading returning to normal.

An event that is not necessarily significant, but may indicate a possible future problem, such as crossing a warning threshold.

A significant event that indicates actual or imminent loss of data or loss of function, such as crossing a failure threshold or a hardware failure.

Unknown Alerts An event has occurred but there is insufficient information to classify it.

Information Alerts Provides information only.

Managing Alerts 87


Viewing Alert Categories

To view alert categories, click ManageAlertsAlert Categories.

The predefined alert categories are listed in alphabetical order.

Viewing Alert Source Details

To view an alert category, in the alert categories list, expand an alert category, and then select an alert source.

NOTE: You cannot create a new event source.

For example, expand Environmental alert category and then select the

alertCoolingDeviceFailure alert source.

Table 1. Alert Source Values and Descriptions for alertCoolingDeviceFailure

Name

Name

Type

Catalog

Severity

Value Description alertCoolingDeviceFailure

SNMP An SNMP alert based source.

MIB - 10892

Critical If this alert is received then the system is in critical state and immediate action is required.

Format String

SNMP Enterprise OID

$3

.1.3.6.1.4.1.674.10892.1

SNMP Generic Trap OID 6

SNMP Specific Trap OID 1104

Viewing Previously Configured Alert Actions

To view the application launch alert action:

1 Select ManageAlertsAlert Actions.

2 In Alert Actions, select Application Launch.

88 Managing Alerts


To view the e-mail alert action:


2 In Alert Actions, select Email.

To view the alert ignore action:


2 In Alert Actions, select Ignore.

To view the alert trap forward action:


2 In Alert Actions, select Trap Forwarding.

Handling Alerts

Flagging an Alert

After you have completed action on an alert, flag the alert as acknowledged.

Acknowledging an alert indicates it is resolved or does not require further action as a reminder to yourself. To acknowledge alerts:

1 Select ManageAlertsAlert Logs.

2 Click the alert you want to acknowledge.

NOTE: You can acknowledge multiple alerts simultaneously. Use <Ctrl> or

<Shift> to select multiple alerts.

3 Right-click and click AcknowledgeSetSelected Alerts or Filtered Alerts.

If you choose Selected Alerts, the highlighted alerts are acknowledged.

If you choose Filtered Alerts, all alerts in the current filter/view are acknowledged.

To remove an acknowledged flag, right-click and select Acknowledge

ClearSelected Alerts or Filtered Alerts.



90

Creating and Editing a New View

To personalize the way you view alerts, create a new view or modify an existing view. To create a new view:

1 Select ManageAlertsAlert LogsAlert View Filters.

2 Right click and select New Alert View Filter.

3 In Name and Severity Association, enter a name for the new filter, and then check one or more severities. Click Next.

4 In Categories and Sources Association, assign the alert category or source to which you want to associate with this view filter and click Next.

5 In Device Association, create query for searching devices or assign the device or device groups, which you want to associate to this view filter and then click Next.

6 (Optional) By default the alert view filter is always active. To limit activity, in Date Time Association, enter a date range, time range, or days, and then click Next.

7 (Optional) In Acknowledged Association, set duration when this alert action is active, and then click Next. The default is always active.

8 In Summary, review inputs and click Finish.

Configuring Alert Actions

NOTE: Alert actions occur on all alerts received by the OpenManage Essentials console. The alert is received and processed by the OpenManage Essentials console whether or not OpenManage Essentials has discovered the device so long as OpenManage Essentials is listed in the device's SNMP trap forward destinations list. To prevent this, remove OpenManage Essentials from the SNMP trap forward destinations list on the device.

Setting Up E-mail Notification

You can create e-mail notifications when an alert is received. For example, an e-mail is sent if a critical temperature alert is received from a server.

To configure an e-mail notification when an alert(s) is received:


2 In Alert Actions, right-click Email and select New Alert Email Action.

Managing Alerts


3 In Name and Description, provide e-mail alert action name and description and then click Next.

4 In E-mail Configuration, do the following and then click Next.

a Provide e-mail information for the To: and From: recipients and provide the substitution information.

Separate each recipient or distribution list with a semi-colon.

b Customize the e-mail message format with any of the following substitution parameters:

$n = Device

$ip = Device IP

$m = Message

$d = Date

$t = Time

$sev = Severity

$st = Service Tag

$e = Enterprise OID

$sp = Specific Trap OID

$g = Generic Trap OID

$cn = Alert Category Name

$sn = Alert Source Name

$pkn = Package Name

$at = Asset Tag c Click Email Settings and provide SMTP server name or IP Address, to test e-mail settings and click OK.

d Click Test Action to send test e-mail.

5 In Severity Association, assign the alert severity to which you want to associate this e-mail alert and then click Next.

6 In Categories and Sources Association, assign the alert categories or alert sources to which you want to associate this e-mail alert and then click Next.



92

7 In Device Association, assign the device or device groups to which you want to associate this e-mail alert and then click Next.

8 By default the Email Notification is always active. To limit activity, in

Date Time Association, enter a date range, time range, or days, and then click Next.

9 In Summary, review the inputs and click Finish.

Ignoring Alerts

Sometimes you will receive alerts you might want to ignore. For example, you may want to ignore multiple alerts generated when Send authentication trap is selected within the SNMP service on the managed node. To ignore an alert:

1 From OpenManage Essentials, select ManageAlertsAlert Actions.

2 In Alert Actions, right-click Ignore and select New Alert Ignore Action.

3 In Name and severity Association, provide a name, assign the alert severity to which you want to associate this ignore alert action, and then click Next.

4 In Categories and Sources Association, assign the alert categories source to which you want to associate this alert ignore action and then click Next.

5 In Device Association, assign the device or device groups to which you want to associate this alert ignore action and then click Next.

6 By default the Ignore Alert is always active. To limit activity, in Date Time

Association, enter a date range, time range, or days, and then click Next.

7 In Duplicate Alert Correlation, select yes to exclude duplicate alerts received within the set time limit, and then click Next.


Running a Custom Script

In response to a specific alert received, you can run custom scripts or launch a specific application. This file must be present on the OpenManage Essentials service tier system (where OpenManage Essentials is installed) and not on the client browser system. For example:

• If you received a temperature warning, you can use a custom script to create an incident ticket for your internal Help Desk.

• If you received an MD Array storage alert, you can launch the Modular

Disk Storage Manager (MDSM) application to view the status of the array.

Managing Alerts


To create a custom script:


2 In Alert Actions, right-click Application Launch and select New Alert

Application Launch Action.

3 In Name and Description, provide an application launch name and description and then click Next.

4 In Application Launch Configuration, provide an executable name

(provide an absolute file path, for example,

C:\ProgramFiles\Dell\Application.exe) and provide the substitution information, and then click Next.

If you are running a .bat file, provide > null in the parameters.

To test this script, click Test Action before you click Next.

5 In Severity Association, assign the alert severity to which you want to associate this alert application launch and then click Next.

6 In Categories and Sources Association, assign the alert categories or alert sources to which you want to associate this alert application launch and then click Next.

7 In Device Association, assign the device or device groups to which you want to associate this alert application launch and then click Next.

8 By default the Application Launch Action is always active. To limit activity, in Date Time Association, enter a date range, time range, or days, and then click Next.


Forwarding Alerts

You may want to consolidate alerts from multiple management stations to one management station. For example, you have management stations in multiple locations and you want to view status and take action from one central location. To create alert forwards:


2 In Alert Actions, select Trap Forwarding and right-click New Alert Trap

Forward Action.



3 In Name and Description, provide Trap Forward name and description and then click Next.

4 In Trap Forwarding Configuration, provide destination host name or IP address, provide community information, to send a test trap to the destination management station, click Test Action, and then click Next.

5 In Severity Association, assign the alert severity to which you want to associate this trap forwarding alert and then click Next.

6 In Categories and Sources Association, assign the alert categories source to which you want to associate this trap forwarding alert and then click Next.

7 In Device Association, assign the device or device groups to which you want to associate this trap forwarding alert and then click Next.

8 By default the Trap Forward Action is always active. To limit activity, in

Date Time Association, enter a date range, time range, or days, and then click Next.


The severity status for any trap is set to normal and for a successful alert action, combination of severity, category, and device has to confer with the selections in the preceding steps.

Working With Sample Alert Action Use Cases

Sample alert actions are available for Application Launch, E-mail, Ignore, and Trap Forwarding alert actions. Sample alert action use cases are disabled by default. Click the sample alert actions to enable the sample alert action.

To enable a sample use case, right-click the use case and select Enable.

Use Cases in Alert Actions


Sample - Run Script on Server Critical Alert—Enable this use case to run a custom script when a critical alert is received.

94 Managing Alerts


Email

• Sample - Email Alerts to Service Desk—Enable this use case to send an email to the service desk account from the OpenManage Essentials server when an alert criteria is matched.

• Sample - Email Critical Server Alerts to Admin—Enable this use case to send an e-mail to an administrator from the OpenManage Essentials server when an alert criteria is matched.

Ignore

• Sample - Ignore Alerts During Maintenance Window—Enable this use case to ignore alerts during a specified time interval.

• Sample - Ignore Duplicate Alerts with 15s—Enable this use case to ignore duplicate alerts from the same system.

• Sample - Ignore Non-Critical Alerts from Printers—Enable this use case to ignore non-critical alerts related to printers.

Trap Forwarding

Sample - Forward Critical Server Alerts to Other Monitoring Console -

Enable this use case to forward SNMP alerts another monitoring console.

Configuring Alert Log Settings

You can configure alert log settings to set the maximum size of alert logs; to generate a warning alert when the alert log reaches a set threshold, and to purge the alert logs. To modify the default settings:

1 Select ManageAlertsAlert Log Settings.

2 Enter a value or use the increment/decrement arrow buttons to increase or decrease the value.

NOTE: The default maximum size of alert logs is 20,000 alerts. Once that value is reached, the older alerts are purged.



Renaming Alert Categories and Alert Sources

1 Click ManageAlertsAlert Categories.

2 In Alert Categories, right-click any of the alert categories (under the Alert

Category heading in the left pane) and select Rename.

3 Provide a name for the alert category and click OK.

You can also rename an alert source.

96 Managing Alerts


13

Alerts - Reference


• Alert Logs

– Alert Log Settings

– Alert View Filters

• All Alerts

• Critical Alerts

• Normal Alerts

• Unknown Alerts

• Warning Alerts

• Alert Actions

– Application Launch

– E-mail

– Ignore

– Trap Forwarding

• Alert Categories

Alert Logs

You can view alerts from Alerts Logs. The Alert Logs allow you to view all alerts filtered by the active view filter.

The criteria for matching the alerts in the view filter includes:

• Alert severity. See

Severity .

• Alert category or source. See

Category and Sources Association .

• Alert device or device group source. See Device Association .

• Alert date, time, or day of week. See Date and Time Range

.

• Alert acknowledged flag. See

Acknowledgement .

Alerts - Reference 97


98

There are several ways to view alerts:

• Filter to very specific criteria—Use the predefined view filters or create

Alert View Filter tree under ManageAlerts. Then set this to the active view by clicking the view filter in the tree or selecting it from the drop down when on the home portal.

• Quick view for a specific device or device group—Navigate to the device or device group in the device tree. Then select the Alerts link in the right pane or right click the device and select 'Alerts' to see all the alerts specific to the device.

• Quick filter for severity—From the Alerts by Severity chart, click on a region of the chart for the alerts with that severity.

• Quick filter—Any view using grid filtering options.

The following table lists the predefined alert view filters.

All Alerts

Critical Alerts

Normal Alerts

Unknown Alerts

Warning Alerts

Select to view all the alerts.

Select to view all the systems that are critical.

Select to view normal alerts.

Select to view alerts that OpenManage Essentials cannot categorize.

Select to view all the warnings.

Select Continuous Updates to enable the user interface to update automatically when new alerts are received.

Alert Logs Fields

Severity

Acknowledged

Time

Device

Details

Category

Source

The alert severity

Whether the alert has been acknowledged or not by the user.

The date and time the alert was generated.

The device which generated the alert.

The message contained in the alert.

The categorization of the alert.

The name of the alert source definition.

Alerts - Reference


Group By Column

To group by in All Alerts, drag the All Alert column that you want to group by and drop it in Drag a column header and drop it here to group by that

column.

For example, In All Alerts, if you want to group by severity, select Severity and drag and drop it in the Drag a column header and drop it here to group by

that column bar.

The alerts are displayed by severity.

Alert Details

Severity

Acknowledged

Device

Time

Category

Source

The alert severity

Whether the alert has been acknowledged or not by the user

The device which generated the alert

The date and time the alert was generated

The categorization of the alert

The name of the alert source definition

Description

SNMP Generic

Trap OID

The message contained in the alert

SNMP Enterprise OID Provides the enterprise OID (SNMP OID prefix) of the management information base (MIB) file that defines the event source that you want to monitor.

Provides the generic trap ID of the SNMP trap that you want to monitor from the desired event source. See the Dell

OpenManage Server Administrator SNMP Reference Guide for more information on SNMP traps.

SNMP Specific

Trap OID

Provides the specific trap ID of the SNMP trap that you want to monitor from the desired event source. See the Dell




Alert Log Settings

Configure settings which control the size, messaging, and purge settings of the Alert Logs.

Maximum size of

Alert Logs

When the Alert Logs reach the Maximum size, purge

Determines the max number of alerts the alert logs can have before purging occurs.

Log a warning when the

Alert Log size reaches

A warning alert is sent to the application log when this size is reached.

Purges the specified number of alerts when the max size is reached.

Alert View Filters

Alert Filter Name

In OpenManage Essentials, you use alert filters that are associated with alert actions to implement alerting capabilities. For example:

• You can create alert action associations to trigger actions, such as sending e-mails, when an alert condition is met.

• You can create ignore, exclude, or both associations to ignore SNMP traps and CIM indications when they are received. You use these associations to suppress alert floods.

• You can create alert view filters to customize the Alert Logs view.

For more information about creating alert action associations, see

Managing

Alerts

.

Use this window to perform the following tasks:

• Create new alert action associations, ignore/exclude filters, and alert view associations.

• View summary information for alert action associations, ignore/exclude associations, and alert view filters.

• Edit, delete, rename, and copy alert action associations, ignore/exclude associations, and alert view filters.



Severity

This page provides a list of alert severity.

Name

Enabled

Severity

All

Unknown

Normal

Warning

Critical

Acknowledgement

Name of the item (applicable only for ignore action and view filter).

Select to enable the alert action (applicable only for ignore action).

The alert types available.

Select to include all types of alerts.

Select to include unknown alerts.

Select to include normal alerts.

Select to include warning alerts.

Select to include critical alerts.

Limit alerts based on the acknowledge flag.

Match only acknowledged alerts

Match only unacknowledged alerts

Associations alerts by whether they have been acknowledged or not. This option is disabled by default.

Select to track acknowledged alerts only.

Select to track unacknowledged alerts only.

Summary - Alert View Filter

The view filter summary screen is shown on the final page of the alert view filter wizard or when clicking on the view summary right-click option in the tree.

Name

Type

Description

Associated Severity

The name of the alert action.

The alert action type - App Launch, Email, Ignore, Trap, and Forward.

The description of the alert action.

The alert severity criteria used when matching alerts.



Associated Alert

Categories


Sources

The alert category criteria used when matching alerts.

The alert source criteria used when matching alerts.

Associated Device

Groups

The alert source device group criteria used when matching alerts.

Associated Devices The alert source device criteria used when matching alerts.

Associated Date Range The alert date range criteria used when matching alerts.

Associated Time Range The alert time range criteria used when matching alerts.

Associated Days The alert days criteria used when matching alerts.

Associate Acknowledge If enabled, uses the alert acknowledged flag when matching alerts.

Alert Actions

Alert actions are triggered when an incoming alert matches the specific criteria defined in the alert action.

The criteria for matching the alert includes:

• Alert severity. See Severity Association

.

• Alert category or source. See

Category and Sources Association .

• Alert device or device group source. See Device Association

.

• Alert date, time, or day of week. See Date and Time Range

.

There are four types of alert actions:

• Alert Application Launch Action—Launch a script or batch file when the alert action criteria is matched.

• Alert Email Action—Send an e-mail when the alert action criteria is matched.

• Alert Ignore Action—Ignore the alert when the alert action criteria is matched.

• Alert Trap Forward Action—Forward the SNMP Trap to another management console when the alert action criteria is matched.



By default, new alert actions are enabled. If you wish to turn off the alert action without deleting it, you can disable it either through the right-click menu or the edit wizard for the alert action.

Several common alert action use cases are pre-installed in the disabled state to illustrate common usage. When using these pre-installed actions, it is recommended to Clone the example to a new action specific to your needs.

Make sure to enable and test the new action during this process.

Name and Description

Name

Description

Enabled

Severity Association


The description of the e-mail action.

Select to activate the alert action.

Severity

All

Unknown

Normal

Warning

Critical

The alert types available.

Select to include all types of alerts.

Select to include unknown alerts.

Select to include normal alerts.

Select to include warning alerts.

Select to include critical alerts.

Application Launch Configuration

Use this window to configure the application that you want to launch and to test the launch.

NOTE: Alert actions are run when a matching alert is received so the alert application launch action is a script or batch file that does not require user interaction.

Executable Name Specifies the fully qualified path name and file name of the executable file that launches the application program.



Arguments


Specifies or edits any required or desired command line parameters to be used in launching the application program. You can use the following variable substitutions to specify information in the Arguments field:

$n = system name

$ip = IP address

$m = message

$d = date

$t = time

$sev = severity

$st = Service Tag

$e = enterprise OID

$sp = specific trap ID

$g = generic trap ID

$cn = alert category name

$sn = alert source name

$pkn = package name

$at = asset tag

If you have an executable or a batch file with the parameter /f in a file name, you might have an application launch that looks like the following:

Executable Name value is c:\temp\your_script.bat and Arguments is /f output.txt>null. When the alert action is triggered, it runs your_script.bat /f output.txt.

To use batch files in Application Launch for alert actions, in the Executable Name field, enter the path and name of batch file. In the Arguments field enter > null and ensure that you enter a space between > and null for the batch file to execute properly.

See the sample alert action under Application

Launch alert action for more information.


Test Action Allows you to test the application launch.

NOTE: Alert actions are run when a matching alert is received; so the alert application launch action is a script or batch file that does not require user interaction.

E-Mail Configuration

You can configure Essentials so that you receive e-mail each time the alert associations for your devices meet specific alert criteria. For example, you may want to receive an e-mail message for all warning and critical alerts.

Use this window to specify the parameters for configuring the e-mail alert action.

To

From

Subject

Message

Email Settings

Test Action

Specifies a valid e-mail address served by the company's

SMTP server of the person who is to receive the e-mail.

Specifies the originating e-mail address.

Specify the e-mail subject using text or the available alert tokens.

Specify the e-mail message using text or the available alert tokens.

Select to provide the SMTP server name or IP address.

Allows you to test the e-mail action.

NOTE: After sending the test e-mail, verify that the e-mail was received successfully and has the expected content.

NOTE: Alert tokens are substituted at the time the alert action occurs. They are not substituted for a test action.

NOTE: Certain paging vendors support alphanumeric paging through e-mail.

OpenManage Essentials supports paging through the e-mail option.

Trap Forwarding

Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) traps are generated in response to changes in the status of sensors and other monitored parameters on a managed device. In order to correctly forward these traps, you must configure an SNMP trap destination, defined either by IP address or host name.



For example, you may want to use trap forwarding if you are in a multi tiered enterprise environment using OpenManage Essentials to create associations and forward traps to the enterprise manager.

If the trap is being processed locally and then forwarded to the destination or it is just forwarded to the destination.

Use this window to specify the parameters for configuring trap forwarding.

Destination

Community

Test Action

Provide the IP address or host name for the system that is hosting the enterprise management application.

Provide the SNMP community to which the destination IP address or host name belongs.

Forwards a test trap to the specified destination using the specified community string.

Category and Sources Association

OpenManage Essentials has many alert categories and sources that are predefined and prepopulated for Dell management agents. Select any of the predefined alert categories or sources to associate it with the alert action or filter. For more information and the complete list of categories and alert

sources, see Alert Categories .

Device Association

You can select predefined groups (device types), custom groups, specific devices, or a device query. Device association currently only covers predefined groups.

For custom groups, create a custom group using the New Custom Group

Wizard. The custom group shows up in the tree.

To use device query, select a query from the list.

Click New to create a new device query to search and assign the devices to the alert action.

Click Edit to change the query logic.

Select groups or devices from the tree, you can use the query option to create a specific criteria for the selection.



Select a query

New

Edit

All Devices

HA Clusters

KVM

Microsoft

Virtualization Servers

Modular Systems

Network Devices

OOB Unclassified

Devices

Select a query from the drop-down list.

Add a new query.

Edit an existing query.

Select to include all the Devices that is managed in


Select to include High Availability server clusters.

Select to include keyboard video mouse devices.

Select to include Microsoft Virtualization Servers.

Select to include Modular Systems.

Select to include Network Devices.

Select to include out of band Unclassified Devices like

Lifecycle controller enabled devices.

Printers

RAC

Servers

Storage Devices

Select to include Printers.

Select to include devices with Remote Access controllers.

Select to include Dell servers.

Select to include storage devices.

Unknown Select to include unknown devices.

VMware ESX Servers Select to include VMware ESX servers.



108

Date and Time Range

Limit Date Range

Limit Time Range

Limit Days

Specifies a specific date range to match alerts.

Specifies a specific time range to match alerts.

Select to specify the days on which to enable the alert association. If you do not enable this option, the association is applied continuously within the time frame that you specify.

Each of these fields are exclusive of the other, so selecting date 8/1/11- 10/1/11, 1am to 4 AM, Friday, will match alerts on only Fridays from 1-4 AM only within that date range.

NOTE: It is possible to input a date range and days selection that will never produce a result. For example, 9/1/11 and

Monday - since 9/1/11 was a Thursday, it will never match.

If none of these are checked, it means the alert selection will have no date/time filter.

Alert Action - Duplicate Alert Correlation

Yes. Only duplicate alerts that match this filter will be executed.

Enabling this option deletes duplicate alerts (with the same

ID and from the same device) received within the specified interval. Use this option to prevent a device from sending an overabundance of alerts to the console.

Ignore duplicate alerts that are received during the interval (1-600 seconds)

Select to set time.

No Select this option if you do not want duplicate alerts to run at increased duration.

Summary- Alert Action Details

View and edit selections.

The alert action details screen is shown on the final page of the alert action wizards or when clicking on any alert action in the tree.

The alert action will have a subset of the following properties, depending on alert action type and filter criteria chosen (this probably should be a table):

Alerts - Reference


Name

Action Enabled

Type

Description

To

From

Subject

Message

Destination

Community

Executable Name


Specifies if the alert action is enabled or disabled.

The alert action type - App Launch, Email, Ignore, and

Trap Forward.

The description of the alert action.

The e-mail address(es) to whom the e-mail is sent.

The e-mail address from whom the e-mail originates.

The subject of the e-mail which may include alert tokens.

The message of the e-mail which may include alert tokens.

The destination name or IP address used for trap forwarding.

The community string used for trap forwarding.

The name of the executable, script, or batch file to be used by the alert action.

Arguments

Associated Severity


Categories

The command line arguments used when invoking the alert action.

The alert severity criteria used when matching alerts.

The alert category criteria used when matching alerts.


Sources

Associated Device

Groups

The alert source criteria used when matching alerts.

The alert source device group criteria used when matching alerts.

Associated Devices The alert source device criteria used when matching alerts.

Associated Date Range The alert date range criteria used when matching alerts.

Associated Time Range The alert time range criteria used when matching alerts.

Associated Days The alert days criteria used when matching alerts.

Minimum Repeat

Time

If enabled, specifies the minimum time in seconds between two of the same alerts from the same device.



110

Alert Categories

OpenManage Essentials has many alert categories and sources that are predefined and pre populated for Dell management agents.

Alert categories are organizational levels of the Alert Categories tree. Alert sources specify the low level details of each alert. To monitor the alert categories and sources, apply an alert action association to the alert source or to its parent category.

This page provides a list of categories and the alerts sources within that category. Use this page to configure alerts based on categories.

Brocade-Switch

Dell Advanced

Infrastructure

Management

Environmental

Select this category to include alerts for Brocade-Switch.

Select this category to include alerts for Advanced

Infrastructure Management.

Select this category to include alerts for temperature, fan enclosure, fan speed, thermal, and cooling.

Select this category to include alerts for EqualLogic storage.

EqualLogic Storage

FC-Switch Select this category to include alerts for Fibre Channel switches.

General Redundancy Select this category to include alerts for General Redundancy.

HyperV Server Select this category to include alerts for HyperV Server.

iDRAC

Juniper-Switch

Select this category to include alerts for iDRAC.

Select this category to include alerts for Juniper switches.

Keyboard-Video-Mouse

(KVM)

Select this category to include alerts for KVMs.

Memory

Network

Other

PDU

Performance

Monitoring

Physical Disk

Select this category to include alerts for memory.

Select this category to include alerts related to network.

Select this category to include alerts for other devices.

Select this category to include alerts for PDUs.

Select this category to include alerts for Performance

Monitoring.

Select this category to include alerts for physical disks.

Alerts - Reference


Power

Power Center

Power Management

Printers

Processor

Removable Flash

Media

Security

Storage Enclosure

Storage Peripheral

Storage Software

System Events

Tape

Test Events

Unknown

Select this category to include alerts for power.

Select this category to include alerts for power center.

Select this category to include alerts for power management.

Select this category to include alerts for printers.

Select this category to include alerts for processor.

Select this category to include alerts for removable flash media.

Select this category to include alerts for security.

Select this category to include alerts for storage enclosures.

Select this category to include alerts for storage peripherals.

Select this category to include alerts for storage software.

Select this category to include alerts for system events.

Select this category to include alerts for tape drives.

Select this category to include alerts for test events.

Select this category to include unknown alerts related statuses.

UPS

Virtual Disk

Select this category to include alerts for UPS.

Select this category to include alerts for virtual disks.

VMware ESX Server Select this category to include alerts for VMware ESX servers.

Alert Source

Each Alert Category contains alert sources. Click an alert category to view alert sources. Expand a category to view the list of alert sources, and select an alert source.

Name

Type

Catalog

Severity

The name of the new alert source, for example, myFanAlert.

The protocol information.

Provides the catalog information.

Specifies the severity assigned to the alert that is triggered if the alert source generates the specified SNMP trap.



Format string Provides the message string that appears in the Alert Logs if the alert source generates an alert of sufficient severity to trigger the alert. You can use formatting commands to specify parts of the message string. For SNMP, the valid formatting commands are:

$n = system name

$d = date

$t = time

$s = severity

$e = enterprise object identifier (OID)

$sp = specific trap OID

$g = generic trap OID

$1 - $# = varbind values

SNMP Enterprise OID Provides the enterprise OID (SNMP OID prefix) of the management information base (MIB) file that defines the event source that you want to monitor.

SNMP Generic Trap

OID

Provides the generic trap ID of the SNMP trap that you want to monitor from the desired event source. See the Dell

OpenManage Server Administrator SNMP Reference Guide at support.dell.com/manuals for more information on

SNMP traps.

SNMP Specific Trap

OID

Provides the specific trap ID of the SNMP trap that you want to monitor from the desired event source. See the Dell




14

Updating Server BIOS, Firmware,

Drivers, and Applications

With the System Update feature in OpenManage Essentials, you can:

• Upgrade and downgrade firmware, drivers, BIOS, application, and

OpenManage Server Administrator.

• Compare the drivers and firmware on the inventoried servers and modular blade enclosures with a source catalog and update them if needed.

NOTE: Inventory automatically starts after the updates are applied to a target server.

NOTE: OpenManage Essentials does not support system updates through

Lifecycle Controller.

Check for these prerequisites before you update systems:

• Internet is accessible and you can access dell.com and ftp.dell.com if you are using online catalog source.

• DNS is resolved.

To view the System Update page, click ManageSystem Update.

Updating Server BIOS, Firmware, Drivers, and Applications


1

Compliance report. See Compliance

Report .

2 Tabbed systems information. See

Compliant Systems

,

Non-Compliant

Systems

, and

Non-Inventoried

Systems

.

3

System update tasks. See All System

Update Tasks .

Understanding Server BIOS Firmware and

Drivers Sources

There are multiple sources for obtaining firmware and drivers for the servers.

• Online source—Default option which obtains latest driver and firmware versions from ftp.dell.com.

NOTE: OpenManage Essentials automatically checks for updates and displays a message if a newer version is available.

• File system source—Drivers and firmware from the Dell OpenManage

Server Update Utility (SUU) media.

• Repository Manager file—Customized selection of specific drivers and firmware generated from the Dell Repository Manager tool.

Choosing the Right Source for Updates

• Recommended Option—Use the online source to ensure that you consistently have the latest drivers and firmware available from Dell or use the Dell Server Update Utility (SUU) option for a qualified set of drivers and firmware.

• Create Custom Catalog—Using this option gives you maximum control over driver and firmware revisions in your environment because you select them individually from either the SUU media or online source using the

Dell Repository Manager. You can install Repository Manager, a separate tool, from the OpenManage Essentials installation package.

114 Updating Server BIOS, Firmware, Drivers, and Applications


Selecting an Update Catalog Source

1 From OpenManage Essentials, click ManageSystem UpdateSelect a

Catalog Source.

2 In Select a Catalog Source, select an option, and click Import now.

The catalog is downloaded and a set of reports are generated.

Viewing Comparison Results

To view compliant servers:

1 Click ManageSystem Update.

2 In System Update, select the Compliant Systems tab.

The servers with drivers and firmware at the same version as the catalog are displayed.

To view non-compliant servers:


2 In System Update, select the Non-Compliant Systems tab.

The servers with drivers and firmware versions that are different from the catalog are displayed.

To view non-inventoried servers:


2 In System Update, select the Non-Inventoried Systems tab.

The servers that are not inventoried are displayed.

NOTE: CMC firmware updates (CMC active controller only) are also displayed in these results.

Applying System Updates

To apply system updates, first select the non-compliant systems and then schedule the update.

Updating Server BIOS, Firmware, Drivers, and Applications 115


Selecting Non-Compliant Systems


2 In System Update, select the Non-Compliant Systems tab.

3 In Non-Compliant systems, select the systems you want to update.

NOTE: You can update multiple systems at the same time.

4 Click Apply Selected Updates.

A window is displayed to schedule the updates.

NOTE: Chassis and blades are not associated for updates. They are treated as individual components and you must manually select them.

NOTE: Chassis, blade server BIOS, and iDRAC version interdependency management is not available.

Scheduling Updates

You can set a schedule to update servers. For example, you might want to make updates during a specific maintenance time frame. To schedule updates:

1 Click Manager System Update Update Section Create an

Update Task.

2 Provide a task name.

3 Review the selected updates.

4 Set the task schedule to Run Now or set a specific date and time.

5 If you do not want to apply the changes immediately, clear After update, if

required, reboot the device. Changes are not activated until the next time you reboot.

6 Enter the operating system administrative credentials for the managed server.

Examples:

In a Windows domain environment, enter

<Domain\Administrator> and the password.

In a Windows workgroup environment, enter

<LocalHost\Administrator> and the password.

In a Linux environment, enter root and Password.



7 Click Finish.

NOTE: You cannot schedule Windows and Linux updates to occur using the same task. Create a separate task for each.

8 Click View All Software Update Tasks for a list of all scheduled updates.

Viewing Updated Status

To view and confirm that updates were applied successfully, click Manage

System UpdateSummary.The Task Execution History pane displays if the updates were applied successfully.

Viewing Active Catalog

1 From OpenManage Essentials, click ManageSystem UpdateView

Active Catalog.

2 In Active Catalog, if new version is available and the source is the Dell

FTP site, click Update.

Updating Server BIOS, Firmware, Drivers, and Applications 117




15

System Update - Reference

You can access the following:

• System Update page

– Summary

• Compliance Report

• System Update Tasks

• Tasks Execution History

• Compliant Systems

• Non Compliant Systems

• Non-Inventoried Systems

• All System Update Tasks

• Catalog Section

– Select a Catalog Source

– View Active Catalog

• Update Section

– Create an Update Task

Filter Options

1 Click the funnel icon to filter search.

2 After selecting a filter option from the drop-down list, and providing the alphanumeric characters in the field, click the aA button to make the filter search case independent.

3 After you set the filter logic, click Filter to run the filter logic.

Click Clear Filter to clear a search.

Is equal to

Is not equal to

Select to create the same as logic.

Select to create the different from logic.



120

Starts with

Ends with

Contains

Does not contain

Is contained in

Is not contained in

Select to filter search based on a text chunk’s initial alphanumeric character(s). Provide the starting alphanumeric character(s) in the field.

Select to filter search based on a text chunk’s final alphanumeric character(s). Provide the ending alphanumeric character(s) in the field.

Select to filter search based on alphanumeric characters present in a text chunk. Provide the alphanumeric character(s) in the field.

Select to include the not present logic in search based on alphanumeric characters present in a text chunk.

Select to include the is present logic in an alphanumeric character string.

Select to include the not present logic in an alphanumeric character string.

System Update


• Summary


• Non Compliant Systems

• Non-Inventoried System

• All System Update Tasks

Compliance Report

The compliance report provides a pie chart distribution of software update tasks. Click a pie chart portion to view more information on the systems.

Compliance Report lists this information:

Source

Get the latest

Report source

This option is disabled if the catalog version is the latest.

Else, it is active. Click this option to get the latest catalog version.

System Update - Reference


Advanced Settings

Systems information - pie chart format

Compliant Systems

Non-Compliant

Systems

Non-Inventoried

Systems

Using these options you can set preferences for upgrading and downgrade firmware and BIOS versions:

• Enable Downgrades—Select this option to install versions of firmware and BIOS that are earlier than the versions installed on the systems.

• Disable Downgrades—This option is set by default, selecting this option enables you to install versions of firmware and BIOS that are later than the versions installed on the systems.

The pie chart lists the systems status compared with the existing catalog file. The systems listed are as follows:


• Non-Compliant Systems

• Non-Inventoried Systems

Systems with software that is up to date when compared with versions available in the software updates active catalog. Click compliant systems portion to view more information in the Compliant Systems tab.

Systems with software that requires updates when compared with versions available in the software updates active catalog. Click the non-compliant systems portion to view more information in the Non-Compliant Systems tab.

Discovered systems pending inventory when compared with available software in the active catalog. Click noninventoried portion to view more information in the Non-

Inventoried Systems tab.

Compliant Systems

The Compliant Systems tab provides this information:

System Name

Model Type


Service Tag

System’s domain name.

Devices model information

The operating system that is running on the server.

A unique identifier, that provides the service lifecycle.

System Update - Reference 121


Discovered Time

Inventory Time

Time and date of discovery.

Time and date of inventory.

Server Subnet Location IP address range information.

Non-Compliant Systems

The Non-Compliant Systems tab provides this information:

System Name

Model Type


Service Tag

Discovered Time

Inventory Time


The systems model name. For example, Dell PowerEdge.

The operating system that is installed on the system.

A unique identifier, that provides the service lifecycle information.



Select non-compliant systems to select updates to apply and click Apply

Selected Updates.

System Name

Importance

Component

Type


The requirement of this software update for the system.


The type of software update.

Installed Version The installed version number.

Upgrade/Downgrade A green arrow indicates and upgrade.

Available Version

Package Name

The available version number.

The name of the software update.



Non-Inventoried Systems

The Non-Inventoried Systems tab provides a list of systems that require inventory, select the systems you want to inventory and click Inventory.

System Name

Discovered Time



Inventory Time Time and date of inventory.

Server Subnet Location IP address range information.

Inventory Systems

To inventory systems, select Systems To Inventory and click Run Inventory.

All System Update Tasks

This page provides more information on the software update tasks.

Task Name

Task Label

Start Time

The name of the task.

Provides information on what the task does.


Task Execution History

Lists the details of the system update tasks.

Status

Task Name

Start Time

% Completed

Information on the task if enabled or disabled.

The name of the task.

Time and date at which the system update task started.

The task’s progress information.

Task State Provides these task states:

Running

Stopped

Completed

Success / Total Targets The number of target systems on which the task is successfully executed.



End Time

Executed by User

Time and date at which the system update task ends.

The user information.

Select a Catalog Source

For updating software, select from these options to use a default catalog file present on the Dell FTP site or provide an alternate software update package file.

Use file system source

(SUU)

Select to update software using Server Update Utility. Click

Browse to traverse to the file location. The catalog.cab file is located in the repository folder.

Use repository manager file

Select to update software using repository manager file.

Click Browse to traverse to file location. The catalog.cab file is located in the repository folder.

Use an online source Select to update software using the software update package present on the Dell FTP site.

A Dell Update Package (DUP) is a self-contained executable in a standard package format that updates a single software element on the system. DUPs are software utilities provided by Dell to update specific software components on Dell PowerEdge systems, Dell desktops, and Dell laptops. The customized bundles and repositories are made up of DUPs based on operating systems supported, update types, form factor, and line of business.

Dell OpenManage Server Update Utility (SUU) is a DVD-based application for identifying and applying updates to your system. SUU displays a comparison report of the versions and provides various options for updating the components.

Repository Manager is an application that allows you to create repositories of customized bundles and updates, and groups of related updates for systems running supported Microsoft Windows or Linux operating systems. This facilitates generating comparison reports and establishing update baselines of repositories. By using Repository Manager, you can ensure that your Dell

PowerEdge system, Dell desktop or Dell laptop is equipped with the latest

BIOS, driver, firmware, and software updates.



View Active Catalog

Select to view the catalog file that is currently in use for doing software updates.

Source

Source Type

Displays the source. The source is either System Update

Utility, FTP, or Repository Manager.

The type for source from which the catalog file is taken. For example Dell ftp site.

Release ID The unique identification number assigned to the released catalog file.

Release Date The date on which the catalog file was released.

Newer version available Displays if a newer version is available.

Create an Update Task

Select to create a software update task and set a task schedule to run the task.

Task Name

Select System to

Update

System Name

Importance

Component

Type

Provide a name for the software update task.

Select the system that you want to update.


The requirement of this software update for the system.


The type of software update.

Installed Version The installed version number.

Upgrade/Downgrade A green arrow indicates an upgrade.

Available Version

Package Name

The available version number.

The name of the software update.

Set the Task Schedule

Run Now Select this option if you want to run the task when you click

Finish.



After update if required, reboot the device.

Set Schedule

Select to reboot after the software update task is complete.

Select to schedule a task at a required date and time. Click the icon to set date and time.

Enter Credentials for the task execution

SSH Port Number Provide the SSH port number

User name

Password

Provide the user name for the selected target.

Provide password for the selected target.



16

Managing Remote Tasks

About Remote Tasks

With the Remote Tasks feature in OpenManage Essentials, you can:

• Run commands on local and remote systems, run batch files and executable files on the local systems, and schedule local and remote tasks.

NOTE: The files must be located on the system with OpenManage Essentials installed and not on the remote system.

• Change power status for a system.

• Deploy OpenManage Server Administrator on systems.

• View the remote tasks.

• Make changes to any task by right-clicking it.

Managing Command Line Task

You can create custom command line tasks to run CLI commands on local and remote systems, and run batch files and executables on local systems.

For example, you can create a custom command line task to run a security audit and gather information on the systems’ security status.

To create command line tasks:

1 From OpenManage Essentials, click ManageRemote TasksCreate

Remote Tasks. Right-click Command Line and click Create Command

Line Task.

2 On General, provide a task name.

3 Select one of the following options:

• Remote Server Administrator Command—Select to run the server administrator command on remote servers.

• Generic Command—Select to run the command, executable file, or batch file.

Managing Remote Tasks 127


128

• IPMI Command—Select to run the IPMI commands on the remote system.

• RACADM Command Line—Select to run the RACADM commands on the remote system.

4 Based on your selection in the preceding step, provide the following:

• If you selected Remote Server Administrator Command, then provide command, SSH port number, and select Generate Trusted Key for

Linux if you want to generate a trusted key.

• If you selected Generic Command, RACADM Command Line, or

IPMI Command then provide command and append output information. Providing the append output information is optional.

5 On Task Target, do one of the following:

• Select a query from the drop-down list or create a new query by clicking the New button.

• Select server targets for running the commands.

6 On Schedule and Credentials, provide user credentials, and set schedule for the tasks from available options, and then click Finish:

For more information, see Command Line Task

.

Managing RACADM Command Line Tasks

RACADM command line tasks are used to run commands on remote DRACs and iDRACs. For example, run a RACADM task to configure iDRAC through out of band (OOB) channel. To manage RACADM Command line tasks:

1 From OpenManage Essentials, click ManageRemote TasksCreate

Remote Tasks. Right-click Command Line and click Create Command

Line Task.

2 On General, choose RACADM Command Line and enter a name for the task.

3 Enter the RACADM sub-command (for example, getsysinfo.) For a list of

RACADM commands, go to support.dell.com.

4 (Optional) Choose Output to file to capture task output from multiple targets. Enter path and file name.

a To log the information from all selected targets, select Append

Managing Remote Tasks

banderaUG.book Page 129 Friday, May 11, 2012 2:40 PM b To write all the detected errors to the log file, select Include errors.



• Choose target servers or DRACs/iDRACs.

6 On Schedule and Credentials, set the schedule parameters, provide target credentials and then click Finish.

Make changes to any task by right-clicking the task.

Managing Server Power Options

You can create tasks to manage power on servers. To create a remote task:

1 From OpenManage Essentials, select ManageRemote TasksCreate

Remote Tasks. Right-click Server Power Options and selectCreate Power

Task.

2 In Create a Power Task, on General, do the following:

• Provide task name.

• Select power options. If required, select Shutdown OS first to shut the operating system down before starting the power tasks.



• Select server targets for running the commands.

4 On Schedule and Credentials, set the schedule parameters, provide target credentials, and then click Finish.

For more information, see Server Power Options

.



130

Deploying Server Administrator

You can create tasks to deploy OpenManage Server Administrator on servers installed with Windows or Linux operating systems. You can also plan a date and time to schedule the OpenManage Server Administrator deploy task.

To create an OpenManage Server Administrator deployment task:

1 Select ManageRemote TasksCreate Remote TasksRight-click

Deploy Server Administrator and click Create Deployment Task.

2 On General, provide task name. If you want to deploy OpenManage Server

Administrator on Windows-based servers, then select Windows, provide installer path and, if required, provide arguments. If you want to deploy

OpenManage Server Administrator on Linux-based servers, select Linux and provide the installer path and, if required, provide arguments. Select

Generate Trusted Key and select Allow reboot.

NOTE: Install Server Administrator prerequisites before deploying Server

Administrator on Linux.



• Select servers on which you want to run this task and click Next.

4 On Schedule and Credentials, set the schedule parameters, provide user credentials; to enable the task, and then click Finish.

For more information, see Deploy Server Administrator Task .

Working With Sample Remote Tasks Use Cases

Sample remote tasks are available for Server Power Options, Deploy Server

Administrator, and Command Line. Sample remote tasks use cases are disabled by default. To enable a sample use case:

1 Right-click the use case and select Clone.

2 Enter the Cloned Task Name and click Ok.

3 Right-click the cloned task and select Edit.

4 Enter the required information and assign targets to the tasks. For information about the options, see

Remote Tasks - Reference

.

Managing Remote Tasks


Use Cases in Remote Tasks


Sample-Power On Device—Enable this use case to turn on the server. The system must have RAC/DRAC configured.

Deploy Server Administrator

Sample-OMSA Upgrade Windows—Enable this use case to upgrade

OpenManage Server Administrator on a Windows-based system.

Command Line

• Sample-Generic Command Remote—Enable this use case to use tokens to receive the IP address or name of inventories systems.

NOTE: To use this command, you must enter the local system credentials.

• Sample-Generic Command Local—Enable this use case to run a command or script on system with OpenManage Essentials.

NOTE: To use this command, you must enter the local system credentials.

• Sample-IPMI Command—Enable this use case to receive information about the power status of a server.

• Sample-Remote Command—Enable this use case to view the system summary through Server Administrator.

• Sample RACADM-Clear SEL Log—Enable this use case to clear the SEL log of RAC.

• Sample-RACADM-Reset—Enable this use case to reset the RAC.



132 Managing Remote Tasks


17

Remote Tasks - Reference

From Remote Tasks you can:

• Run commands on local and remote systems, batch files and executable files on the local systems, and schedule local and remote tasks.

• Change power status for a system.

• Deploy OpenManage Server Administrator on systems.

• View the remote tasks.

Remote Tasks:

• Create Remote Tasks

– Server Power Options

– Deploy Server Administrator

– Command Line

Remote Tasks Home

To view Remote Tasks page, in OpenManage Essentials, click Manage

Remote Tasks.

Remote Tasks

Remote Tasks page lists this information:

• All Tasks

• Server Power Options

• Server Administrator Deployment

• Command Line

Remote Tasks - Reference 133


All Tasks

Scheduled State

Task Name

Task Label

Last Run

Created On

Updated On

Updated By

Task Execution History

Displays if the task is enabled.

Names of the task.

Type of task that is run, for example; for a command line task the options displayed are Remote Server Administrator

Command, Generic Command, IPMI Command, and

RACADM Command Line.

The last time and date information when the task was run.

The time and date on which the task was created.

The time and date information when the task was run.

The name of the user.

Status

Task Name

Start Time

% Completed

Task State

Successful/Total

Targets

End Time

Executed by User

Displays the status of the task.

Schedule information of the task.

The date and time on which the task was run.

Progress of the task.

Status information of the task.

Number of target servers accessed.

The date and time on which the task ends.

Name of the user who ran this task.




Select this option to change the power state or reboot systems.

General

Task Name

Select the type

Provide a name for this server power options task

Select from the following options:

• Reboot—Reboots the system without powering off.

• Power Cycle—Powers off and then reboots the system.

NOTE: Make sure that the shutdown option is configured for the operating system before you perform a graceful shutdown using this option. If you use this option without configuring it on the operating system, it reboots the managed system instead of performing a shutdown operation.

• Power Off—Powers off the system.

• Power On—Powers on the system. This option works only on target systems that contain RAC.

Shutdown OS first Select to shut down the operating system before executing the server power options task.

Task Target

Select a query

Select the server(s) for this task to target

Schedule and Credentials

Select a query from the drop-down list. To create a new query, click New.

Select the severs to which you want to assign this task.



Set Schedule Select from these options:

• Activate Schedule—Select this option to activate a schedule for the task.

• Run now—Select this option to run the task immediately.

• Set schedule—To set a date and time for the task to run.

• Run Once —Select this option to run the task on the planned schedule only once.

• Periodic —Select this option to run the task frequently at specified intervals.

– Hourly—Select this option to run the task once every hour.

– Daily—To run the task once every day.

– Weekly—To run the task once every week.

– Monthly—To run the task once every month.

Range of Recurrence:

– Start—To specify the date and time at which the task should begin.

– No End Date—To continuously run this task based on the selected frequency. For example, if you selected

Hourly, then this task continuously runs every hour from the start time.

– End By—To stop the task at the specified date and time.



Enter User Name and

Password

User Name —Provide credentials in the format domain\user name or local host\user name.

Password—Provide the password for the target server.

Power On works only on targets systems with iDRAC; use the IPMI credentials to perform Power On task.

If you selected Power On then provide KG Key.

KG Key - Enter the KG Key. DRAC also supports IPMI KG

Key. Each BMC is configured to require an access key in addition to user credentials. The KG key is prompted only for power-on task and not other power tasks because it is an

IPMI task.

NOTE: The KG key is a public key that is used to generate an encryption key for use between the firmware and the application; and is available only on Dell PowerEdge later systems. The KG key value is an even number of hexadecimal characters. In the format, alphanumeric characters and x denotes numbers.

y9xx and yxxx , y denotes

Deploy Server Administrator Task

Select this option to create tasks to deploy Server Administrator on selected servers.

General

Task Name

Select the type

Provide a name for the task.

Select from the following options:

• Windows

• Linux



Installer Path

Installer Arguments

The location where the Server Administrator installer is available.

For Windows, packages with .dup, .msi, and .msp. file extensions are available. Msi packages enable Server

Administrator installation and upgrades while dup and msp packages enable only Server Administrator upgrades.

For Linux, packages with the tar.gz file extensions are available.

For Linux, the.sign file is required for verification. The .sign file must reside in the same folder as the tar.gz file.

(Optional) Provide arguments.

For example, in Windows, the parameters are as follows:

• ADDLOCAL = IWS—Server Administrator web server only

• ADDLOCAL = SSA—Server instrumentation only

For example, in Linux, the parameters are as follows:

• -w - Server administrator web server only

• -d - Server instrumentation only

See the Dell OpenManage Installation and Security User's

Guide at support.dell.com/manuals for a complete list of arguments.

Generate Trusted Key This option is available if you selected Linux. Select this option to generate a trusted key.

Allow reboot (if required)

Select this option to reboot the server once you deploy

Server Administrator on the server.

Task Target

Select a query







Set schedule Select from these options:


• Run now—Select this option to run the task immediately.

• Set schedule—Select this option to set a date and time for the task to run.


Password

User Name—Provide in the format domain\user name or local host\user name.

Password—Provide the password.

Command Line Task

Select this option to create command line tasks.

General

Task Name

Remote Server

Administrator

Command

Generic Command

Provide name of the task.

Select this option to run Remote Server Administrator

Command on selected servers.

IPMI Command

RACADM Command

Line

Select this option to run executable and commands on the system with OpenManage Essentials.

Select this option to run IPMI commands on selected servers.

Select this option to run RACADM commands on selected servers.

Remote Server Administrator Command

Command

SSH Port number

Provide command, for example.

omereport system summary

Provide the Secure Shell (SSH) port number on the managed Linux system. The default value for the port number is 22.



Generate Trusted Key for Linux

Output to file

Append

Include errors

Select this option to generate a trusted device key for communicating with devices. This option is disabled by default.

NOTE: The first time that OpenManage Essentials communicates with a managed device with Linux operating system, a key is generated and stored on both the devices.

This key is generated per device and enables a trust relationship with the managed device.

Select to enable output to a log file. This option captures standard output and writes it to the log file. If you select this option, enter the path name and file name of the log file. This option is disabled by default.

Select to append output from the completed command to the specified file. If the file does not exist, it is created.

Select to write all OpenManage Essentials-detected errors to the log file. For example, if no response is received to a ping request before the execution of the command, an error is written to the log file.

Task Target

Select a query

Select the servers









• Set schedule—Select this option to set a date and time for the task to run.

• Run Once—Select this option to run the task on the planned schedule only once.

• Periodic—Select this option to run the task frequently at specified intervals.











Password

User Name—Provide in the format domain\user name or local host\user name.

Password—Provide the password.



Generic Command

Command

Arguments

Output to file

Append

Include errors

Provide the fully qualified path name and file name of the executable, command, or script file that launches the application program.

Provide the supporting arguments for the launching the application, script, or command. These arguments are case sensitive.

To view and select from the list of inventoried systems, In

Arguments, include $IP or $NAME.

The returned value includes information of the IP address and the system name.

Select to enable output to a log file. This option captures standard output from the running application and writes it to the log file. If you select this option, you must enter the pathname and file name of the log file. This option is disabled by default.






















Password

User Name—Provide OpenManage Essentials user credentials in the format domain\user name or local host\user name.




IPMI Command

Arguments

Output to file

Append

Include errors

Provide the supporting arguments. These arguments are case-sensitive.

Provide the corresponding IPMI commands to run the task on selected targets.

Select to enable output to a log file. This option captures standard output from the running application and writes it to the log file. If you select this option, you must enter the path name and file name of the log file. This option is disabled by default.



Task Target

Select a query











• Run Once —Select this option to run the task on the planned schedule only once.












Password for accessing remote system

User Name—Provide the IPMI (or DRAC/iDRAC) credentials.


KG Key—Enter the KG Key. DRAC also supports IPMI KG

Key. Each BMC is configured to require an access key in addition to user credentials.



RACADM Command Line

Command

Output to file

Append

Include errors

Provide the RACADM command you want to run on the servers.

Select to enable output to a log file. This option captures standard output from the running application and writes it to the log file. If you select this option, you must enter the path name and file name of the log file. This option is disabled by default.



Task Target

Select a query























Password

User Name—The RACADM task requires IPMI credentials.

Provide IPMI credentials to run the task.






Managing Security Settings

18

Using Security Roles and Permissions

OpenManage Essentials provides security through role-based access control

(RBAC), authentication, and encryption. RBAC manages security by determining the operations run by persons in particular roles. Each user is assigned one or more roles, and each role is assigned one or more user privileges that are permitted to users in that role. With RBAC, security administration corresponds closely to an organization's structure.

OpenManage Essentials roles and associated permissions are as follows:

• OpenManage Essentials Guests is a default role assigned to all users at initial log in. No permissions are associated with this role, and it is not displayed in the Windows user groups list. It enables administrators to monitor unauthorized users attempting to access the console.

• OpenManage Essentials Users have read only access and cannot perform other operations. They can log in to the console, run discovery and inventory tasks, view settings, and acknowledge events. The Windows

Users group is a member of this group.

• OpenManage Essentials Administrators have full access to all the operations within OpenManage Essentials. Windows Administrators group is member of this group.

Microsoft Windows Authentication

For supported Windows operating systems, OpenManage Essentials authentication is based on the operating system's user authentication system using Windows NT LAN Manager (NTLM) modules to authenticate. For the network, this underlying authentication system allows you to incorporate

OpenManage Essentials security in an overall security scheme.

Managing Security Settings 149


Assigning User Privileges

You do not have to assign user privileges to OpenManage Essentials users before installing OpenManage Essentials. The following procedures provide step-by-step instructions for creating OpenManage Essentials users and assigning user privileges for Windows operating system.

NOTE: Log in with administrator privileges to perform these procedures.

NOTE: For questions about creating users and assigning user group privileges or for more detailed instructions, see the operating system documentation.

1 From Windows desktop, click Start All Programs Administrative

ToolsComputer Management.

2 In the console tree, expand Local Users and Groups, and click Groups.

3 Double-click either the OmeAdministrators or OmeUsers group to add the new user.

4 Click Add and type the user name that you are adding. Click Check

Names to validate and then click OK.

New users can log on to OpenManage Essentials with the user privileges for their assigned group.

Using Custom SSL Certificates (Optional)

OpenManage Essentials default settings ensure that a secure communication is established within your environment. However, some users may prefer to utilize their own SSL certificate for encryption.

To create a new domain certificate:

1 Open Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager by clicking StartAll

ProgramsAdministrative ToolsInternet Information Services (IIS)

Manager.

2 Expand the

<server name>

and click Server CertificatesSites.

3 Click Create Domain Certificate and enter the required information.

To use a custom SSL certificate, you must configure IIS Services on the system where OpenManage Essentials is installed:



1 Open Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager by clicking StartAll

ProgramsAdministrative ToolsInternet Information Services (IIS)

Manager.

2 Expand the

<server name>

Sites.

3 Right-click on DellSystemEssentials and select Edit Bindings.

4 In Site Bindings, select the https binding and click Edit.

5 In Edit Site Binding, from the SSL certificate drop-down list select your custom SSL certificate and click OK.

Supported Protocols and Ports in OpenManage

Essentials

Management Stations

Table 1. Supported Protocols and Ports on Management Stations

Port

Number

25

162

1433

2607

Protocol Port Direction Usage

Encryption

Level

SMTP TCP None In/Out Optional action alert

Configurable

No

SNMP UDP None

Proprietary TCP None

In Event reception through

SNMP

No

In/Out Optional remote SQL server access

Yes

HTTPS TCP 128-bit

SSL

In/Out Web GUI Yes



152

Managed Nodes

Table 2. Supported Protocols and Ports on Managed Nodes

Port

Number

22

80

135

161

623

1433

443

3389


Encryption

Level

SSH TCP 128 bit

Configurable

In/Out Contextual application launch—SSH client

Remote software updates to Server

Administrator— for systems supporting

Linux operating systems

Performance monitoring in Linux systems

Yes

HTTP TCP None No

RPC

SNMP

TCP/

UDP

UDP

None

None

In/Out Contextual application launch— PowerConnect console

In/Out Remote software update transfer to Server

Administrator—for systems supporting

Windows operating systems

Remote Command

Line— for systems supporting Windows operating systems

In/Out SNMP query management

No

No

RMCP UDP

Proprietary TCP

None

None

Proprietary

/ WSMAN

RDP

TCP

TCP

None

128-bit

SSL

In/Out IPMI access through LAN No

In/Out Optional remote SQL server access

Yes

In/Out EMC storage discovery and inventory.

No

In/Out Contextual application launch—Remote desktop to Windows terminal services

Yes

Managing Security Settings


Table 2. Supported Protocols and Ports on Managed Nodes

Port

Number

6389


Encryption

Level

Proprietary TCP None In/out

Configurable

EMC storage discovery and inventory. Enables communication between a host system (through

NaviCLI/NaviSec CLI or

Navisphere host agent) and a Navisphere Array

Agent on a Storage system

No





19

Troubleshooting

OpenManage Essentials Troubleshooting Tool

The OpenManage Essentials troubleshooting tool is a standalone tool that installs along with OpenManage Essentials. You can use the troubleshooting tool for a wide array of protocol related problems that are often at the root of discovery and alert issues.

This tool provides the following protocol-specific diagnostics to identify the problem with the remote node:

• Database—Fetches all the user defined databases present on the remote box.

• Dell|EMC—Verifies the connection to the Dell|EMC storage devices.

• ICMP—Verifies whether you can ping the remote device from the local box.

• IPMI—Verifies the IPMI protocol to connect to BMC/iDRAC.

• Name Resolution—Verifies whether you can get the resolved name from the local box.

• OpenManage Server Administrator Remote Enablement—This test helps you to verify that Dell OpenManage Server Administrator's remote enablement feature is working on the managed node (Dell OpenManage

Server administrator installed with the remote enablement component).

This tool behaves like a Server Administrator Distributed Web server

(DWS) and connects to Server Administrator managed node instrumentation agent using the WSMAN protocol.

To connect successfully, the Managed Node must have OpenManage Server

Administrator installed with the Remote Enablement feature working.

• Port—Verifies whether managed node is listening to the specified port. You can specify 1-65,535 port numbers.

• PowerVault Modular Disk Arrays—Verifies that PowerVault modular disk storage array protocol is used to connect to PowerVault Storage devices.

• Services—Uses SNMP protocol to fetch the running services on the managed node.

155 Troubleshooting


• SNMP—Verifies SNMP connection to the remote node, using the required

SNMP community string, retries, and time out. First it tries to connect to

MIB-II agent and then various other agents to find out the type of device.

Troubleshooting Tool also gathers other agent specific information from that device.

• SSH—Verifies that the SSH protocol is used to connect to managed node.

• WMI—Verifies WMI/CIM connection to the remote node. Default retries and time out values are used internally.

• WSMAN—Attempts to connect to WSMAN client on the remote node.

Use this test to verify connectivity problems with iDRAC, ESX, and other devices, which support WSMAN specification. This test will connect to such devices and will also list the exposed WSMAN profiles enabled on the remote device.

Troubleshooting Procedures

Troubleshooting Inventory

Inventoried Linux servers are listed under Non-Inventoried systems, numerous retries does not resolve this.

To resolve this issue for the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.5, SUSE Linux

Enterprise Server version 10 and version 11 installed servers:

1 Mount the Dell Systems Management Tools and Documentation DVD

(version 6.5 or later) on the Linux server.

2 Install srvadmin-cm rpm.

3 Restart OpenManage Server Administrator 6.5.

4 Make sure the OpenManage Server Administrator inventory collector is working from the location /opt/dell/srvadmin/sbin/invcol, run ./invcol -

outc=/home/inv.xml.

5 Perform server inventory.

156 Troubleshooting


Troubleshooting Device Discovery

If a device discovery is not successful, perform the following steps to troubleshoot and fix the problem:

1 If the device assigned for discovery is a Dell PowerEdge system, ensure that

Dell OpenManage Server Administrator is installed on it.

2 To discover Windows devices successfully, configure the SNMP services appropriately. For detailed information on configuring SNMP services on

Windows, see

Configuring SNMP Services on Windows .

3 To discover Linux devices successfully, configure the SNMP services appropriately. For detailed information on configuring SNMP services on

Linux, see Configuring SNMP Services on Linux

.

4 After configuring the SNMP services, verify whether the SNMP services are responding correctly.

5 If the device assigned for discovery is Microsoft Windows and you want to use WMI, ensure that the user name and password used in the WMI credentials has the local administrator permissions on the machine that you want to discover. You can use the Microsoft wbemtest utility to ensure that WMI connectivity to the Windows Server is correct.

6 If the device assigned for discovery is a non-server network device, such as a printer, Dell PowerConnect switch, and so on, ensure that SNMP is enabled on the device. You can do this by accessing the Web interface for a device.

Configuring SNMP Services on Windows

1 Open a command run prompt and type services.msc to open the

Services MMC.

2 Right-click SNMP Service and select Properties. If you cannot locate

SNMP Service, you need to install it using Add/Remove Windows

Components.

3 Click Security and ensure that Accept SNMP packets from any host is selected.

4 Under Accepted Community Names, ensure that public (or a community string of your choice) is set. If not set by default, click Add, and type a community string in Community Name. Also select community rights as

READ ONLY or READ WRITE.

Troubleshooting 157


158

5 Click Traps and ensure that the community string field has a valid name.

6 In Trap destination, click Add and enter the Open Manage Essential

Console IP address.

7 Start the service.

Configuring SNMP Services on Linux

1 Run the command rpm -qa | grep snmp, and ensure that the net-snmp package is installed.

2 Run cd /etc/snmp to navigate to the snmp directory.

3 Open snmpd.conf in the VI editor (vi snmpd.conf.)

4 Search snmpd.conf for # group context sec.model sec.level prefix read

write notif and ensure that the values for fields read, write, and notif are set to all.

5 At the end of the snmpd.conf file, just before Further Information, enter the Open Manage Essentials Console IP address in the following format: trapsink <OPEN MANAGE ESSENTIALS CONSOLE IP>

<community string>

For example, trapsink 10.94.174.190 public

6 Start the SNMP services (service snmpd restart).

Troubleshooting Receiving SNMP Traps

If you encounter a problem receiving SNMP traps, perform the following steps to troubleshoot and fix the problem:

1 Check for network connectivity between the two systems. You can do this by pinging one system from another using the ping <IP address> command.

2 Check the SNMP configuration on the managed node. Ensure that you have specified the OpenManage Essential console IP address and the community string name in the SNMP services of the managed node.

For information on setting SNMP on a Windows system, see

Configuring

SNMP Services on Windows

.

For information on setting SNMP on a Linux system, see Configuring

SNMP Services on Linux .

Troubleshooting


3 Ensure that the SNMP Trap service services are running in the Open

Manage Essentials system.

4 Check firewall settings to allow UDP 161, 162 ports.

Troubleshooting Discovery of Windows Server 2008-Based Servers

You also have to allow the server discovery. By default, the option is disabled in Windows Server 2008.

1 Click StartControl PanelNetwork and InternetNetwork and

Sharing CenterAdvanced Sharing Setting.

2 Choose the drop-down arrow for the applicable network profile (Home or

Work / Public)Under Network Discovery section select the Turn on

network discovery.

Troubleshooting SNMP Traps for ESX or ESXi Versions 3.5, 4.x, or 5.0

Details

To generate virtual machine and environmental traps from ESX or ESXi 3.5 or 4.x hosts, configure and enable the embedded SNMP agent. You cannot use the Net-SNMP-based agent to generate these traps, although it can receive GET transactions and generate other types of traps.

This represents a change in behavior from ESX 3.0.x, in which the configuration file for the Net-SNMP-based agent controlled the generation of virtual machine traps.

Solution

Use the vicfg-snmp command from the Remote CLI or vSphere CLI to enable the SNMP agent and configure trap destinations. Each time you specify a target with the vicfg-snmp command, the settings you specify overwrite all previously specified settings. To specify multiple targets, specify them in a single command, separated by commas.



160

To enable and configure SNMP traps:

NOTE: Ensure that the SNMP protocol is open in the ESX firewall. For ESX 3.5, use the Remote CLI. For ESX 4.x, use the vSphere CLI. The commands for both are same.

1 Run the vicfg-snmp.pl command to see if SNMP is enabled: vicfg-snmp --show

NOTE: By default, vicfg-snmp.pl is located in the C:\Program

Files\VMware\VMware vSphere CLI\bin directory after the VMware vSphere

CLI installation. Run the vicfg-snmp --help command for a full list of options.

2 Specify the communities and trap targets using the following command: vicfg-snmp.pl --server <hostname> --username

<username> --password <password> -t <target hostname>@<port>/<community>

NOTE: In ESX 4.

x , you may need to use the -c <community> flag.

For example, to send SNMP traps from the host host.example.com, to port

162 on target.example.com, using the public community, use the following command: vicfg-snmp.pl --server host.example.com --username root --password password -t target.example.com@162/public

NOTE: To prevent clear text display of the user password, remove the -- password portion. You are then prompted to enter the password, and the entry is hidden.

3 To enable the SNMP service, run the following command: vicfg-snmp.pl --server <hostname> --username

<username> --password <password> --enable

To verify SNMP settings, run the following command: vicfg-snmp.pl --server <hostname> --username

<username> --password <password> --show

4 Optionally, send a test trap to verify that the agent is configured correctly using the following command: vicfg-snmp.pl --server <hostname> --username

<username> --password <password> --test

Troubleshooting


The test trap generated is a warmStart trap.

For additional information, see SNMP trap information incorrectly displays in third party monitoring software (1007483).

The VMware Infrastructure Remote CLI can be downloaded from the

VMware Download Center.



162 Troubleshooting


Frequently Asked Questions

20

Installation

Question: How do I install OpenManage Essentials using a remote SQL database named instance?

Answer: To connect remotely, the SQL Server with named instances requires a running SQL Server Browser service.

Question: Will OpenManage Essentials support SQL Server evaluation edition?

Answer: No, SQL Server evaluation edition is not supported.

Tasks

Question: What troubleshooting can I do if a software update task or remote task fails to create or run?

Answer: Ensure that the DSM Essentials Task Manager service is running in

Windows services.

Question: How do I use command line features while deploying OpenManage

Server Administrator?

Answer: Unattended installation provides the following features:

• A set of optional command line settings to customize an unattended installation.

• Customization parameters to designate specific software features for installation.

Optional Command Line Settings

Table 1 shows the optional settings available for the msiexec.exe MSI

installer. Type the optional settings on the command line after msiexec.exe with a space between each setting.

NOTE: See support.microsoft.com for full details about all the command line switches for the Windows Installer Tool.

Frequently Asked Questions 163


Table 1. Command Line Settings for MSI Installer

Setting

/i SysMgmt.msi

/qn

Result

/i This command installs or configures a product.

<Package|Product

/i SysMgmt.msi

– Installs the Server Administrator

Code> software.

This command carries out a fresh installation of version 6.1.

/x This command uninstalls a product.

<Package|Product

Code>

/x SysMgmt.msi – Uninstalls the Server Administrator software.

/q[n|b|r|f] This command sets the user interface (UI) level.

/q or /qn – no UI. This option is used for silent and unattended installation.

/qb – basic UI. This option is used for unattended but not silent installation.

/qr – reduced UI. This option is used for unattended installation while displaying a modal dialog box showing install progress.

/qf – full UI. This option is used for standard attended installation.



Table 1. Command Line Settings for MSI Installer (continued)

Setting

/f[p|o|e|d|c|a|u

|m|s|v]<Package|

ProductCode>

Result

This command repairs a product.

/fp – This option reinstalls a product only if a file is missing.

/fo – This option reinstalls a product if a file is missing or if an older version of a file is installed.

/fe – This option reinstalls a product if a file is missing or an equal or older version of a file is installed.

/fd – This option reinstalls a product if a file is missing or a different version of a file is installed.

/fc – This option reinstalls a product if a file is missing or the stored checksum value does not match the calculated value.

/fa – This option forces all files to reinstall.

/fu – This option rewrites all required user-specific registry entries.

/fm – This option rewrites all required system-specific registry entries.

/fs – This option overwrites all existing shortcuts.

/fv – This option runs from the source and re-caches the local package. Do not use the /fv reinstall option for the first installation of an application or feature.

INSTALLDIR=<path> This command installs a product to a specific location. If you specify an install directory with this switch, it must be created manually prior to executing the CLI install commands or they fail with no error or message.

/i SysMgmt.msi INSTALLDIR=c:\OpenManage

/qn – installs a product to a specific location using

c:\OpenManage as the install location.

For example, running msiexec.exe /i SysMgmt.msi /qn installs

Server Administrator features on each remote system based on the system's hardware configuration. This installation is done silently and unattended.



166

Customization Parameters

NOTE: Type the REINSTALL, and REMOVE CLI parameters in upper case, as they are case-sensitive.

REINSTALL and REMOVE customization CLI parameters provide a way to customize the exact software features to install, reinstall, or uninstall when running silently or unattended. With the customization parameters, you can selectively install, reinstall, or uninstall software features for different systems using the same unattended installation package. For example, you can choose to install Server Administrator, but not Remote Access Controller service on a specific group of servers, and choose to install Server Administrator, but not

Storage Management Service, on another group of servers. You can also choose to uninstall one or multiple features on a specific group of servers.

NOTE:

The software feature IDs mentioned in Table 2 are case-sensitive.

Table 2. Software Feature IDs

Feature ID

ALL

BRCM

INTEL

IWS

OMSM

RmtMgmt

RAC4

RAC5 iDRAC

SA

Description

All features

Broadcom NIC Agent

Intel NIC Agent

Dell OpenManage Server Administrator

Web Server

Server Administrator Storage

Management Service

Remote Enablement

Remote Access Controller (DRAC 4)

Remote Access Controller (DRAC 5)

Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller


NOTE: Only iDRAC6 is supported on xx 1 x systems.

You can include the REINSTALL customization parameter on the command line and assign the feature ID (or IDs) of the software feature that you would like to reinstall. An example is:

Frequently Asked Questions

banderaUG.book Page 167 Friday, May 11, 2012 2:40 PM msiexec.exe /i SysMgmt.msi REINSTALL=BRCM /qb.

This command runs the installation for Dell OpenManage Systems

Management and reinstall only the Broadcom agent, in an unattended but not silent mode.

You can include the REMOVE customization parameter on the command line and assign the feature ID (or IDs) of the software feature that you would like to uninstall. For example: msiexec.exe /i SysMgmt.msi REMOVE=BRCM /qb.

This command runs the installation for Dell OpenManage Systems

Management and uninstalls only the Broadcom agent, in an unattended but not silent mode.

You can also choose to install, reinstall, and uninstall features with one execution of the msiexec.exe program. For example: msiexec.exe /i SysMgmt.msi REMOVE=BRCM /qb

This command runs the installation for managed system software, and uninstalls the Broadcom agent. This execution is in an unattended but not silent mode.

NOTE: A Globally Unique Identifier (GUID) is 128 bits long, and the algorithm used to generate a GUID guarantees each GUID to be unique. The product GUID uniquely identifies the application. In this case, the product GUID for Server Administrator is

{54C04D53-C3C3-46EA-A75F-7AFF4BEB727C}.

MSI Return Code

An application event log entry is recorded in the SysMgmt.log file. Table 3

shows some of the error codes returned by the msiexec.exe Windows Installer

Engine.

Table 3. Windows Installer Return Codes

Error Code

ERROR_SUCCESS

ERROR_INVALID_PARAMETER

Value Description

0 The action is completed successfully.

87 One of the parameters was invalid.



Table 3. Windows Installer Return Codes (continued)

Error Code

ERROR_INSTALL_USEREXIT

ERROR_SUCCESS_REBOOT_REQUIRED

Value Description

1602 The user canceled the installation.

3010 A restart is required to complete the installation.

This message is indicative of a successful installation.

NOTE: See support.microsoft.com for full details on all the error codes returned by the msiexec.exe and InstMsi.exe Windows installer functions.

E-mail Alert Action

Question: Why am I not receiving e-mails after setting up e-mail alert action?

Answer: If you have an Antivirus Client installed on the system, then configure it to allow e-mails.

Discovery

Question: What troubleshooting can I do if a discovery task fails to create or run?

Answer: Ensure that the DSM Essentials Task Manager service is running in

Windows services.

Question: Why are my ESX virtual machines not correlated with their ESX host server?

Answer: You must discover the ESXi host server using SNMP and WSMan or the guest virtual machine will not correlate correctly when discovered using SNMP.

Question: Why are devices discovered with WMI getting classified as Unknown?

Answer: WMI discovery classifies a device as unknown when the credentials for a user account in the Administrators group (not Administrator) is supplied for the discovery range in some cases.



If you are seeing this issue, read the KB article at

support.microsoft.com/?scid=kb;en-us;951016 and apply the registry work as described. This resolution applies to managed nodes with Windows Server

2008 R2.

Question: What are SNMP authentication traps?

Answer: An authentication trap is sent when an SNMP agent is hit with an enquiry that contains a community name it does not recognize. The community names are case-sensitive.

The traps are useful to find if someone is probing a system, although its better nowadays to just sniff packets and find out the community name.

If you use multiple community names on the network, and some management might overlap, users may want to turn these off as they become false positives (annoyances).

For more information, see technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc959663.aspx.

When an SNMP agent receives a request that does not contain a valid community name or the host that is sending the message is not on the list of acceptable hosts, the agent can send an authentication trap message to one or more trap destinations (management systems). The trap message indicates that the SNMP request failed authentication. This is a default setting.

Question: Why does OpenManage Essentials not support entering host names with underscore in the discovery wizard?

Answer: Per RFC 952, underscores are not valid in DNS names. A name (net, host, gateway, or domain name) is a text string up to 24 characters drawn from the alphabet (A-Z), digits (0-9), minus sign (-), and period (.). Periods are only allowed when they serve to delimit components of domain style names.

For more information see, ietf.org/rfc/rfc952.txt and zytrax.com/books/dns/apa/names.html

Question: What is On-demand?

Answer: On-demand is an operation where a managed system is checked for status/health by OpenManage Essentials when an SNMP trap is received.

There are no settings to be changed to enable the on-demand feature.

However, the IP address of the management system must be available in the



170 trap destination of SNMP service. An SNMP trap is received from the managed system when there is an issue or failure of a server component.

These traps can be viewed under the alert logs.

Inventory

Question: What troubleshooting can I do if an inventory task fails to create or run?

Answer: Ensure that DSM Essentials Task Manager service is running in

Windows services.

System Update

Question: How do I load a Dell catalog for software update? or What do I do when I get errors when trying to run software update tasks?

Answer:

1 Download the catalog to the OpenManage Essentials system directly or use an System Update Utility DVD in the local system drive.

2 Browse for catalog.xml file on the local system or DVD (not on a file share, it is possible to use a file share, but for troubleshooting, do not use file share.)

Load catalog and verify that it shows as loaded in OpenManage Essentials.

You can also try using the FTP download to get the latest catalog for troubleshooting purposes if you cannot load other catalogs.

3 Now, create software update tasks. If tasks fail, more information is found in the task details.

4 Try setting all internet explorer security settings to LOW if tasks do not run.

Question: What order are packages installed on a system?

Answer: Packages are applied in the following order:

1 Driver

2 Firmware

3 Firmware ES

4 BIOS

Frequently Asked Questions


5 Application

Question: When performing a catalog import task, what do I do when I see this error - Attempted to perform an unauthorized operation?

Answer: Modify the permissions of the folder on the network share to allow the close user access.

Question: How do I configure Internet Explorer with Enhanced Security

Configuration to ensure that OpenManage Essentials can utilize all features that use resources from Dell online?

Answer: To ensure that these features work in the Dell Open Manage

Essentials console on an environment with Internet Explorer Enhanced

Security Configuration enabled. The user needs to add *.dell.com to the

Trusted sites zone.

Import Catalog and System Update require internet access when the user selects Dell Online as the source.

The warranty report also uses Dell online resources to retrieve information and also will not return data without it.

Question: What if IPMI is disabled after installing BMC Utility?

Answer: Try restarting DSM Essentials Network Monitor Service, DSM

Essentials Task Manager service and restart IIS.

Question: What is Omremote?

Answer: Omremote enables you to execute remote Server Administrator command line tasks (inband) and also helps you to deploy Server

Administrator on remote Dell servers. Omremote is an executable file that is located at C:\Program Files\Dell\SystMgt\Essentials\bin folder. It uses WMI connection for the Windows-based devices and SSH for the Linux-based devices. Ensure that the required ports are opened. Omremote commands require a Server Administrator supported operating system with Server administrator installed. To install/update Server administrator on the remote system, you must use an operating system preinstall package.





21

Preferences - Reference

In the Preferences page, you can configure the OpenManage Essentials console. Set the SMTP and proxy server information, adjust session timeout, database maintenance schedules, restart services, and enable or disable the

ActiveX features.

NOTE: After modifying the console settings, click Apply to save the changes.

Navigating to another portion of the console without clicking Apply resets the settings to the previously saved preferences.

SMTP Server Name or

IP Address

Console Session

Timeout

The SMTP server host name or IP address used for sending e-mail alerts.

Amount of user-inactive time that passes before the console automatically logs the user out.

Database Maintenance

Execution Schedule

The date and time when the database maintenance activity will begin. The console is less responsive during the maintenance.

Restart Network

Monitor and Task

Manager Services

Restarts the Windows Services associated with


Security Settings (ActiveX)

Allow Remote Desktop

Launch

Installs and runs an ActiveX component on the client machine to launch remote desktop sessions.

Allow Troubleshooting

Tool Launch

Allow OpenManage

Power Center

Installation

Verification

Installs and runs an ActiveX component on the client machine to launch the Dell Troubleshooting Tool.

Installs and runs an ActiveX component on the client machine to verify and launch OpenManage Power Center.

Proxy Settings (used for System Update and Warranty)

User Proxy Settings Enable the use of proxy settings for internet access for

System Update and Warranty.

Domain \ User name The domain and user name of the proxy user.



Password User's proxy password.

Proxy Server Address or

Name

The IP address or server name of the proxy server. Check the browser's proxy LAN settings or ask your network administrator if unsure.

Proxy Port Number

Test Connection

The port number to access the proxy server. Check the browser's proxy LAN settings or ask your network administrator if unsure.

Click to test connection to the internet with the proxy credentials.



22

Tools- Reference

From tools you can:

• View User Interface Logs

• View Application Logs

• Export Discovery Logs to File System—Export the logs that were generated while discovering devices.

•

•

Launch OpenManage Power Center—If installed, will launch the

OpenManage Power Center.

Launch Troubleshooting Tool—If installed, will launch the troubleshooting tool application which is used to run tests and configure devices.

User Interface Logs

Enabled

Log Asynchronous

Calls

Informational

Warning

Critical

Clear

Export

Severity

Enable or disable logging of User Interface. Disable to increase performance.

Enable or disable logging for threading and asynchronous update method calls. Turn on both Log Asynchronous Calls and Informational to view update calls.

Enable or disable logging of behaviors that are marked with a severity of General Information.

Enable or disable logging of behaviors that are marked with a severity of Warning.

Enable or disable logging of behaviors that are marked with a severity of Critical.

Clear the user interface log grid.

Export the user interface log to file (.CSV, .HTML, .TXT, and .XML supported).

The severity of the recorded deviation in user interface behavior.

175 Tools- Reference


Start Time

Source

Description

The time at which this behavior occurred.

The source of the behavior.

More information on the behavior.

Application Logs

Severity

Time

Message

The severity of the recorded deviation in application’s behavior.

The time at which this behavior occurred.

Information on the behavior.

176 Tools- Reference


23

Tutorials

You can refer the tutorials for the setup options you need to complete when configuring OpenManage Essentials for the first time.

In Tutorials click First Time Setup to view the configuration information for the following:

• SNMP Configuration

• SNMP - Open Services Console

• SNMP - Open SNMP Properties

• SNMP Security Settings

• SNMP Trap Settings

• Install OpenManage Server Administrator

• Windows Server 2008 Configuration

• Discover Devices

You can view tutorials for the following:

• Linux configuration for SNMP and OpenManage Server Administrator

• SNMP configuration using group policies

• Configuring ESX 4.x for discovery and inventory

• Configuring ESXi 4.x and 5.0 for discovery and inventory

Tutorials 177


178 Tutorials


Appendix—Right-Click Actions

A

The following tables lists all the right-click actions that are available in


NOTE: The right-click options displayed in OpenManage Essentials are dependent on your access privilege. You must have administrator access to see all the options.

Devices

IP Address or iDRAC name Right-click to view the iDRAC console.

Details Select to view device details.

Alerts


Troubleshoot

Select to view the alerts generated for this device.

Select to launch an application.

If the Troubleshooting Tool is installed, then select this option to launch the Troubleshooting Tool.

NOTE: The Troubleshooting Tool is disabled by default. To

enable the Troubleshooting Tool, see Preferences -

Reference .

Refresh Inventory

Refresh Status

Add to New Group

Exclude Range

Remove

Export

Select to run inventory on the device.

Select to run a status check on the device.

Select to add the device to a group.

Select to remove the device from the discovery and inventory range.

Select to remove the device information.


Appendix—Right-Click Actions 179


180

Device Search

Details

Alerts

Show Associated

IP/MAC

Show Associated

Agents

Export

Displays the device summary information. For example,

NIC Information.

Displays the alerts generated for this device.

Displays the IP address, MAC address, NIC, and manufacturer’s information for the selected device.

Displays the agents present on the selected device. The agent’s name, version, and manufacturer related information is listed.



Managing Include Ranges

Right-click the IP address to view the following options:

Edit

Rename

Delete

Enable

Perform Discovery Now

Perform Discovery and Inventory

Now

Perform Status Polling Now

Perform Inventory Now

Select to edit discovery range configuration.

Select to rename the range.

Select to disable a range.

Select to enable a disabled range. This options toggles.

Select to do the discovery.

Select to do the discovery and inventory.

Select to start the status polling task for the discovered server or device.

Select to perform the inventory.

Managing Exclude Ranges

Right-click Exclude Ranges and select Add Exclude Range to add a range that you want to exclude from discovery and inventory.

Appendix—Right-Click Actions


View Filters

Edit

View Summary

Rename

Clone

Delete

Alerts

Select to edit the alert action or alert filter.

Select to view all the systems that are critical.

Select to rename action or alert filter.

Select to create a copy of an action or alert filter.

Select the alert to delete the alerts.

Details

Acknowledge

Delete

Enable or Disable

Ignore

Export

Remote Tasks

Select to view the details of alerts.

Select to set or clear alerts.

Select to delete alerts.

Select to enable or disable an alert action.

Select to ignore alert filter action on the selected devices.

Select to export alert information in CSV or HTML formats.

Edit

Delete

Run

View

Select to edit the task.

Select to delete the task.

Select to run the task immediately.

Select to view the task.

Activate Task Schedule Select to activate the task schedule.

Clone Select to create a copy of a task.

Appendix—Right-Click Actions 181


182 Appendix—Right-Click Actions


Index

A

acknowledged flags, 111

Active catalog, 127

Alert

Actions, 112

Details, 109

Log settings, 110

Logs, 107

View filters, 110

application launch configuration, 113

B

BIOS

Updating, 123

C

Catalog Source

Update, 125

CLI, 176 command line, 176

Command line task, 137

Create, 137

Configure

ICMP, 60

IPMI, 63

SNMP, 60

Storage, 62

WMI, 62

WS-Man, 62

configuring e-mail event action, 115

Create

Alert action filters, 110

Ignore/exclude filters, 110

Update task, 135

Custom catalog, 124

custom subnet mask specification, 59

D

Default subnet mask

Class B network, 59

Class C network, 59

Dell TechCenter, 35

Device status interval, 69

Devices

Manging, 71

Searching, 74

Viewing, 71

Discovery and Inventory

Configuring task, 47

Portal, 47

Index 183


discovery range definition, 58

Discovery speed, 66

Drivers

Updating, 123

E

Enable device discovery, 66

Enable device status, 69

F

Firmware

Updating, 123

frequency of inventory, 68

G

Get community, 61

Globally Unique Identifier

(GUID), 177

H

host name, 59

I

Initiate device discovery, 66

instrumentation password, 61

inventory poll speed, 68

Inventory Reports

Exporting, 85

Filtering, 85

Predefined reports, 83

Viewing, 83

IP address, 59 range, 59

L

Logs

Application, 186

User interface, 185

O

OpenManage Essentials

About, 15

Installing, 17

P

Preferences, 183

R

Registered discovery ranges, 58

Reinstall, 176

Remote tasks, 137

Use cases, 140

Remove, 176

Right-click actions, 189

Index 184


Alerts, 191

Device search, 190

Devices, 189

Discovery range, 190

Remote tasks, 191

View filters, 191

S

Scheduling

Discovery, 50

Inventory, 51

Security, 159

Permissions, 159

Ports, 161

Protocols, 161

Roles, 159

Select catalog source, 134

Server power options, 139

Set community, 61

Name, 61

SNMP, 39

get calls, 61 set calls, 61

traps, 115

SSL certificate, 160

Status polling

Configuring, 52

status polling, 68

Status speed, 69

subnet, 58

Subnet mask, 59

SystemUpdate, 130

T

trap forwarding, 116

Tutorials, 187

V

View active catalog, 135

Viewing

Device inventory, 74

System event logs, 74

W

Warranty reports, 95

WMI, 39

WSMAN, 39

Index 185


186 Index

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