Manage MX Chassis Infrastructure in OpenManage Integration for VMware vCenter (OMIVV) with a Unified Management IP This technical white paper describes the procedure for monitoring PowerEdge MX7000 chassis inventory, health information, firmware update, and event monitoring from the VMware vCenter Web Client by using OMIVV.
Revisions Date Description April 2019 Initial release Acknowledgements This technical white paper is authored by the following members of the Dell EMC Server Solutions Engineering team: Authors— Vijay Bhatt and Atanu Sikder Support— Swapna M (InfoDev) The information in this publication is provided “as is.” Dell Inc.
Contents Executive summary............................................................................................................................................................. 5 1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................................... 6 2 Prerequisites for managing MX7000 using OMIVV...............................................................................................
Acronyms Acronym OMIVV CSIOR DRS FQDN MCM iDRAC SNMP PHA 4 Expansion OpenManage Integration for VMware vCenter Collect System Inventory On Reboot Distributed Resource Scheduling Fully Qualified Domain Name Multi Chassis Management Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller Simple Network Management Protocol Proactive HA Manage MX Chassis Infrastructure in OpenManage Integration for VMware vCenter (OMIVV) with a Unified Management IP
Executive summary PowerEdge MX connects traditional and software-defined data centers with unequal flexibility and agility. Basically, the PowerEdge MX7000 chassis hosts disaggregated blocks of server and storage to create consumable resources on demand. Shared power, cooling, networking, I/O, and in-chassis management provides outstanding efficiencies.
1 Introduction Dell EMC has introduced new modular chassis called MX7000 having 7U modular enclosure with eight slots that can hold 2S single or four 4S double-width compute sleds, which support 12Gbs single-width storage sleds. For more information about PowerEdge MX7000 chassis, go to https://www.dell.com/enus/work/shop/povw/poweredge-mx7000. This technical white paper provides information about viewing the overall MX chassis inventory, the individual components health, and firmware update in OMIVV 4.
2 Prerequisites for managing MX7000 using OMIVV The OpenManage Integration for VMware vCenter 4.3 release is designed to display the MX chassis information within the VMware vSphere Web Client. Chassis information is available only on the current iDRAC9 supported servers that are exclusively designed for PowerEdge MX chassis. For more information about installing OMIVV 4.3, see the OMIVV 4.3 Installation Guide available at dell.com/support.
3 Onboard a PowerEdge MX chassis by using OMIVV Associate a host having valid IPv4 iDRAC IP to the connection profile. During the host inventory, the associated MX chassis is automatically discovered and displayed on the Dell EMC Chassis page. If an iDRAC IPv4 is disabled for a host, the host inventory operation fails, and chassis is not discovered. To manage chassis and associated hosts in such cases, manually add an MX chassis, and then associate it to a chassis profile. 1.
3. In the Navigator pane, click Dell EMC Chassis. Figure 2 The Dell EMC Chassis tab is displayed from Global Inventory Lists of vCenter web client 4. On the Dell EMC Chassis page, click Add MX Chassis. 5. In the Add MX Chassis dialog box, enter the IP address or FQDN value of the lead or standalone chassis, and then click OK. Figure 3 Add MX Chassis to be discovered by OMIVV The chassis is displayed in the Objects tab.
Figure 4 The Dell EMC Chassis objects are created 3.1 Manage chassis profile in OMIVV 3.2 Create chassis profile by using OMIVV A chassis profile is used to associate one or more chassis with credentials that are used to access the chassis to obtain inventory and health information. 1. On the VMware vSphere Web Client page, click OpenManage Integration.
2. On the OMIVV home page, click Manage Profiles Chassis Profiles. Figure 6 View chassis profiles 3. Click (add). The Chassis Profile Wizard is displayed. 4. Enter chassis profile name and description. 5. Enter the chassis credentials and click Next. The Select Chassis page is displayed. Note—OMIVV requires chassis user credentials with administrator role.
6. Select the chassis that you want to associate with the chassis profile and click OK. The selected chassis is displayed on the Associated Chassis page. Figure 8 Select Chassis page of the chassis profile wizard. 7. To remove the associated chassis, click (add).
Test connection operation runs automatically for the selected chassis. Note—If there are no ESXi hosts present in the registered vCenters that are associated to the added MX chassis then the respective chassis test connection operation fails. For a PowerEdge MX chassis configured with an MCM group, Dell EMC recommends managing all the lead and member chassis using the lead chassis. The member chassis test connection operation fails, and the test result is indicated as Fail.
Figure 11 List of chassis whose test connection status is indicated as Fail 8. Click Finish. A chassis profile is created and displayed in the list of profiles. Note—To complete the tasks on this wizard, ensure you have at least one successfully validated chassis.
3.3 Edit, delete, and test chassis profile in OMIVV To edit a chassis profile, select a chassis profile, and then click edit ( ). To delete a chassis profile, select a chassis profile, and then click delete ( ). To test a chassis profile. Select a chassis profile, and then click test connection ( ). The icons for the action items are greyed out if a chassis profile is not selected.
4 Monitor inventory and health of chassis and its hosts in OMIVV Chassis inventory is the process of using the credentials in the chassis profile to obtain and store more information about the chassis into the OMIVV database. This inventory information is then available for use and is displayed on the various pages provided by the integration. If required, the chassis health information is retrieved and displayed on the Summary page. The inventory page is not refreshed automatically.
Figure 15 List of chassis monitored by OMIVV Note—When first discovered, the role of a chassis is indicated as NA. However, after running an inventory job on the chassis, the role status changes to either Standalone, Lead, or Member.
4.3 View the chassis summary page 1. To view the chassis summary page, double-click the chassis name. The chassis summary page is displayed for the selected chassis. A summary of the chassis data is displayed as shown in the sample screenshot.
Figure 17 Chassis sub-component health after successfully inventory 19 Manage MX Chassis Infrastructure in OpenManage Integration for VMware vCenter (OMIVV) with a Unified Management IP
4.4 Dell EMC chassis information page 1. To view the Dell EMC chassis information page, click Monitor. The Dell EMC Chassis Information page is displayed. The Dell EMC Chassis Information page displays granular data about the chassis. 2. In the left pane, click the respective chassis components to view the information about each chassis components. Figure 18 Granular data about MX chassis displayed by OMIVV Based on the chassis type, the fields and data displayed on the page vary.
Note—If fabrics are created using OpenManage Enterprise-Modular, the fabric information is displayed only for lead chassis in an MCM configuration.
Figure 22 Chassis Temperature Information Figure 23 Chassis IOM Information Figure 24 Chassis firmware Information 22 Manage MX Chassis Infrastructure in OpenManage Integration for VMware vCenter (OMIVV) with a Unified Management IP
4.5 View hosts associated with chassis in OMIVV The PowerEdge MX chassis can be deployed in a standalone mode or Multi-Chassis Management (MCM) mode by having one lead and multiple members. The Related Hosts section in the Manage tab for a Dell EMC chassis shows a list of Dell hosts that belongs to the chassis. For lead chassis, all the hosts present in lead and member chassis are displayed. However, for a member chassis, only the hosts associated with that chassis are displayed.
4.6 View associated chassis in Multi-Chassis Management The Related Chassis section of Manage tab for a PowerEdge MX chassis shows a list of other MX Chassis (either lead or member) present in that MCM setup. Figure 26 Associated chassis in MCM set-up 4.7 Host inventory information Host inventory gets triggered after the chassis inventory is completed. The host Summary page displays brief information about the ESXi host along with the individual component status of the host.
Figure 28 OMIVV host health status 25 Manage MX Chassis Infrastructure in OpenManage Integration for VMware vCenter (OMIVV) with a Unified Management IP
5 5.1 Manage firmware update in OMIVV By using OMIVV, you can update the firmware of hosts in the vSAN-enabled clusters (managed by using unified MX chassis IP address or FQDN name). Prerequisites for updating firmware version of vSAN clusters in OMIVV • • • • • • • 5.2 Host must have a valid iDRAC Express or Enterprise license. Host have compliant CSIOR status, hypervisor, and minimum firmware versions. The Collect System Inventory on Reboot (CSIOR) feature is enabled.
To continue creating a repository profile, you must complete this validation process. Results of the test connection are displayed. 6. On the Summary page, review the profile information, and then click Finish.
Figure 31 Create a driver repository profile in OMIVV Figure 32 Cluster Profile created using the repository profile. Note—For an MX host managed by using a chassis profile, only the firmware and driver compliance levels are calculated even if its cluster profile has a well-defined system repository profile, firmware repository profile, and driver repository profile.
5.3 Update vSAN cluster firmware in OMIVV OMIVV enables you to update the firmware and schedule such update jobs by using vSphere Web Client. 1. To access the firmware update wizard, on the Hosts and Clusters page, perform either of the following: • Right-click a cluster, select All OpenManage Integration Actions Firmware Update. • Select a cluster, click Monitor OMIVV Host Information Firmware Run Firmware Wizard. Figure 33 Run Firmware Wizard 2.
3. Select one or more hosts that are managed using chassis profile and click Next. Figure 34 Select Servers Page 4. On the Select Update Source page, select already created firmware or driver or both repository profiles. 5. Select appropriate bundles linked with the repository profiles and click Next.
6. On the Select Components page, select the firmware components for firmware upgrade. Figure 36 Components Page 8. On the Update Information page, read the instructions and click Next. 9. On the Schedule Firmware Update page, enter the job name and job description. 10. To cancel any jobs on the iDRAC, select the Delete Job Queue and Reset iDRAC check box. This will increase execution time and reset the iDRAC, but does not delete the jobs from iDRAC Job Queue.
6 Monitor events in OMIVV The goal of hardware management is to provide the system health status and up-to-date infrastructure information that an administrator requires to respond to critical hardware events without exiting from either the OMIVV appliance or vCenter. To receive events from hosts, OMIVV is configured as a trap destination for all monitored devices. OMIVV supports SNMP v1 and SNMP v2 alerts for 12G and later hosts.
You can edit events and alarms from the OMIVV on the Manage Settings tab. Also, select the event posting level, enable alarms for the Dell EMC hosts and chassis, or restore default alarms. Figure 39 Enable alarms and events for OMIVV.
7 Manage Proactive HA (PHA) in OMIVV Proactive HA is a vCenter (vCenter 6.5 and later) feature that works with OMIVV. When you enable Proactive HA, the feature safeguards your workloads by proactively taking measures based on degradation of redundancy health of supported components in a host. After assessing the redundancy health status of the supported host components, the OMIVV appliance updates the health status change to the vCenter server.
