Administrator Guide

Figure 1. Open Automation Framework

NOTE: The Open Automation framework is referred to as Open Automation in the rest of this

document.

Bare Metal Provisioning

Bare metal provisioning (BMP) provides the following features.

• Automatic network switch configuration and automated configuration updates

• Enforced standard configurations

• Reduced installation time

• Simplified operating system upgrades

Automated BMP reduces operational expenses, accelerates switch installation, simplifies upgrades, and

increases network availability by automatically configuring Dell Networking switches. BMP eliminates the

need for a network administrator to manually configure a switch, resulting in faster installation,

elimination of configuration errors, and enforcement of standard configurations.

With BMP, after you install your switch, the switch searches the network for a dynamic host configuration

protocol (DHCP) server. The DHCP server provides the switch with an IP address and the location of a file

server, such as TFTP. The file server maintains a configuration file and an approved version of the Dell

Networking OS. The switch automatically configures itself by loading and installing an embedded Dell

Networking OS image with the startup configuration file.

For more information about BMP, refer to the Dell Networking OS Configuration Guide for your platform

(S4810, S4820T, S5000, S6000, S6000-ON, Z9000 or Z9500 switches) or to the Dell Networking OS

Configuration Guide for the MXL 10/40GbE Switch IO Module for MXL switches.

Smart Scripting

Smart Scripting provides the following:

• Support for industry standard languages, such as Perl, Python, and Ruby, avoiding the need to learn a

new proprietary scripting language.

• The ability to customize device monitoring and management to suit your network needs, including

custom maintenance tasks, discovery programs, and event logging for faster problem resolution.

Smart scripting increases network availability and manageability by allowing network administrators to

deploy custom monitoring and management scripts on Dell Networking switches. Using custom scripts,

Open Automation Framework