Dell™ OpenManage™ IT Assistant Version 8.
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Contents 1 Introducing Dell OpenManage IT Assistant 17 Simplifying System Administration 17 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 . . . . . . . . . 18 . . . . . . . . . . 18 Identify the Systems for Remote Management Generate a Consolidated View of All Your Systems . . . . . . . . . Create Alert Filters and Actions Create Customized Discovery and Inventory Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Create Tasks That Enable Configuration Management From a Central Console .
Inventory Information Reporting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Task Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Software Updates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Power and Performance Monitoring . Application Launch . . . . . . . 26 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Troubleshooting Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 User Preferences .
Discover Dell|EMC Storage Arrays on Non-Default Ports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 . . . . . . . . . . 36 . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Enhanced Software Update MD Array Discovery . . . . . . . . Support for VMware® ESX 4.0 . . . . . . . . 36 . . . . . . . . . . . 38 IT Assistant Virtualization Support . Dynamic VMware Host Group VMware ESX Server Integration . . . . . . . . . . Display of VFlash Media, iDRAC6 Express and iDRAC6 Enterprise information . . . . 40 . . . . . . . . . 40 .
Storage Integration . Printer Integration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 FRU Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 DMI Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Tape Integration Power Control Tasks 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Planning Your Dell OpenManage IT Assistant Installation Decisions That You Make Before Installation Primary Planning Questions . 47 . . . . . 47 . . . . . . .
5 Installing, Uninstalling, and Upgrading Dell OpenManage IT Assistant Installation Requirements . 63 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . TCP/IP Protocol Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Setting Up or Enabling Protocols for Agent Communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 63 . . . 64 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 Installing SNMP on the IT Assistant System . Enabling CIM 63 Setting Up RBAC User Information . . . . . . . . . . . 66 Prerequisite Checker . . . . . . . . .
6 Configuring Dell OpenManage IT Assistant to Monitor Your Systems 81 IT Assistant in Real-World User Scenarios . . . . . . . Running Applications That Require Different Versions of the JRE On Your System . . . . . . . . 82 . . . . . 82 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 Ensure That Agents and Instrumentation Are Installed and Running . . . . . . . . . . . . . Start IT Assistant . . . . . 84 . . . . . 85 . . . . . . . . 85 . . . . . . . . . . .
Decisions to be Made Prior to Configuring IT Assistant Discovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 . . . . . 93 . . . . . . . . 94 Systems Management Protocols Needed for Jane’s Network . . . . . . . . . . . . Initial Tasks for Finding Systems on Jane’s Network . . . . . . . . . . . Using IT Assistant to Find and Manage Jane’s Networked Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 Configuring Discovery Settings . . . . . . . . . . 95 Configuring Inventory Settings . . . . . . . . . . .
Tom’s Administrators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Creating an Alert Action Filter . . . . . . . . . . . Notification Alert Actions in the Enterprise Environment . . . . Creating an Alert Action 122 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122 . . . . . . . . . . . . . Classification and Display of Non-Dell Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124 125 Launch Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 IPMISH Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Synchronizing IT Assistant With the Dell Website . . . . . . . . . . . . Comparing the Update Packages in the Repositories With Those On the Dell Website . Importing Packages From the Online Repository . . . . . . . . 145 . . . . . . . . . . . 147 Viewing Compliance Report for Downloaded Update Packages/Bundles Using the Server Updates Media Software Update Using Unified Server Configurator (USC) DUPs . . . . . . . Managing Tasks . . . . . 147 . . . . . . . . 149 . . . . . . . . . 149 . . . .
Exporting and Importing Tasks Exporting Tasks 10 Reporting . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ready-made Reports Custom Reporting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168 Creating a New Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Compliance Tool Report 171 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172 Editing, Deleting, or Running Reports . . . . . . . . . .
Security and the SNMP Protocol 206 . . . . . . . . . Ensuring Database Security When Using IT Assistant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207 Running IT Assistant Behind a Firewall . . . . . . . . 208 . . . . . . . . . . 209 Setting Up Additional Security for IT Assistant Access . . . . . . . . . . Securing Ports for IT Assistant and Other Supported Dell OpenManage Applications Single Sign-On . . . 210 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215 . . . . . . 216 . . . . . . . . . . . .
IPMI Discovery Support Miscellaneous . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241 A Configuring Protocols to Send Information to Dell OpenManage IT Assistant Configuring the SNMP Service 245 . . . . . . . . . . . . . SNMP Community Names in IT Assistant and Server Administrator . . . . . . . . . . . . . Configuring SNMP Service on a System Running Supported Windows Operating System Configuring the SNMP Service on an IT Assistant Management Station . .
Setting Up CIM 259 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262 Setting Up CIM on Your Managed Systems Configuring the IPMI Configuring BMC From the Server Administrator . . . . . . . . . . . Configuring BMC From the BIOS POST 265 . . . . 267 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267 Using Multiple Templates Saving Templates 265 . . . . . . . . . . Sample Import Node List Utility Commands Creating Templates . 263 . . . . . .
Task Scheduling Indicators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279 Execution Logs Indicators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280 Task Execution Log Indicators . . . . . . . . . . . Performance and Power Monitoring Log Indicators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281 Application Log Indicators Update Log Indicators Discovery Ranges Indicators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Include Ranges Indicators . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Introducing Dell OpenManage IT Assistant 1 Dell™ OpenManage™ IT Assistant provides a central point of access to monitor and manage systems on a local area network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN). By allowing an administrator a comprehensive view across the enterprise, IT Assistant can increase system uptime, automate repetitive tasks, and prevent interruption in critical business operations.
Generate a Consolidated View of All Your Systems IT Assistant allows system administrators to take actions on managed systems from the management console. Using IT Assistant, you can create tasks that apply to a single system or each system in a group, create dynamic groups of systems to facilitate management, and conduct inventory on any system.
Create Tasks That Enable Configuration Management From a Central Console IT Assistant enables you to drive common configuration management tasks across the entire enterprise from a single console. By setting up simple tasks using IT Assistant’s wizard-based user interface (UI), you can perform device control tasks (shut down/wake up), software updates, deploy agents, export and import tasks, or run command line tasks on systems in your managed group.
Measure the Performance of Systems IT Assistant helps you to monitor the performance of a device or a group of devices with supported operating systems over a specified period of time. Performance is monitored with the help of a set of performance counters that you can configure to send alerts when the thresholds are crossed.
Figure 1-1.
User Interface The IT Assistant UI provides a graphical user view of the information gathered by the IT Assistant Services Tier. This information depicts the overall health and configuration details of each system in the managed group. From the IT Assistant UI, you can perform a wide variety of configuration and management tasks, such as specifying systems to discover, creating alert filters and actions, and power-cycling systems. The IT Assistant UI is based on Sun™ Microsystems™, Java technology.
IT Assistant simplifies system administration of many managed systems by allowing an administrator to monitor them from one management console. For more information on agents, see "Agents on the Systems That You Want to Monitor". In this guide, the terms IT Assistant system or network management station are used to identify the system on which the IT Assistant software is installed.
option is enabled, then Single Sign-On is executed; otherwise, the normal login page is displayed. For more information on how to set these options, see "Single Sign-On". User Authentication Starting with version 7.0, IT Assistant uses operating system or domain-based authentication. The IT Assistant 6.x read/write password is no longer used.
The report interface wizard is designed to allow you to select actual fields in the IT Assistant database. You can create a report containing information such as: • Details of the hardware devices being managed by IT Assistant, including systems, switches, and storage devices • BIOS, firmware, and driver versions • Field Replaceable Units (FRU) data • Other asset or Cost Of Ownership details You can also specify the output format, such as HTML, XML, or comma-separated values (CSV).
You can also customize the view of the package information by operating system, component name, system type, and software type. You can also update only part of the system sets by using the custom bundle feature. To use the software update feature, select Manage Software Updates. For more information, see the Software Update topic in the IT Assistant Online Help.
User Preferences User Preferences are independent of user privileges. For example, you can use this feature to customize your view of the device groups or to select a default filter when you visit the alert logs view. You can access this feature from ToolsUser Preferences. For more information on how to use this feature, see "User Preferences — Customizing the IT Assistant User Interface" in the Online Help.
Other Information You May Need This User’s Guide is intended to present a high-level view of IT Assistant. Not all features and capabilities are shown in this document. However, each feature is fully explained in the Online Help available from the IT Assistant UI. In addtition to this guide, you can find the following guides on the Dell Support website at support.dell.com/manuals. To access these documents, go to support.dell.
You can also find the following guides on the Dell Support website at support.dell.com/manuals and on the Dell Systems Management Tools and Documentation DVD: • The Dell OpenManage Server Administrator Installation Guide contains instructions to help you install Dell OpenManage Server Administrator.
Introducing Dell OpenManage IT Assistant
Getting Started With Dell OpenManage IT Assistant 2 You can use Dell™ OpenManage™ IT Assistant to monitor and manage systems on a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN), as well as identify the groups of systems that you want to manage remotely and consolidate your view of all systems, giving you a central launch point for managing these systems. Management station is the system where IT Assistant is installed.
• • 32 "Configure IT Assistant to monitor your systems" — IT Assistant can perform a variety of tasks for each system in your network. To be able to perform these tasks, configure IT Assistant to: • Discover systems, printers, switches, and storage devices. For more information, see "Configuring Discovery Settings." • Collect inventory information about memory, processor, power supply, embedded devices, and software and firmware versions. For more information, see "Configuring Inventory Settings.
3 What’s New for Dell OpenManage IT Assistant Version 8.6? Dell™ OpenManage™ IT Assistant versions do not support new devices such as Fiber Channel Switches. You can use Dell Managament Console to manage and monitor these devices. The Dell Management Console User’s Guide has information about installing, configuring, and using Dell Management Console. Dell Management Console is a Web-based systems management software that enables you to discover and inventory devices on your network.
Integrated Secure Digital (SD) Card Traps The new generation Dell PowerEdge™ systems (xx1x) use internal SD cards for embedded hypervisor and VFlash media. IT Assistant can discover and monitor the health and redundancy status of SD cards. Similar to other SNMP traps, you can associate alerts actions such as, e-mail notification or launch an application for the SD card related traps.
Features From Previous Releases The following features were introduced in previous versions of IT Assistant: Enhanced Software Deployment Using IT Assistant NOTE: This document contains information on installing and using the Remote Enablement feature of Dell OpenManage Server Administrator. It also contains information on using the Dell OpenManage Server Administrator Web Server to manage remote nodes.
Enhanced Software Update MD Array Discovery Starting with IT Assistant 8.5, you no longer need to upgrade IT Assistant to support new MD arrays. Support for VMware® ESX 4.0 Starting with IT Assistant 8.5, you can also manage VMware ESX 4.0 hosts. However, on an unconfigured operating system installation, IT Assistant categorizes the ESX 4.0 hosts under the Unknown group. To enable categorization of ESX 4.
Table 3-1. IT Assistant Support for Virtualization Virtualization Environment IT Assistant Features Supported IT Assistant Features Not Supported VMware Grouping of host and guests on Performance monitoring ESX Server 3.5 and the Devices tree and display of later host-guest association information, power monitoring, alerting, application launch, tasks, software updates (BIOS, firmware, and driver), and inventory. VMware ESXi 3.5 VMware ESXi 3.5 Update 4 traps Update 4 and later are displayed.
Table 3-1. IT Assistant Support for Virtualization (continued) Virtualization Environment IT Assistant Features Supported IT Assistant Features Not Supported Citrix XenServer Performance and power monitoring, alerting, application launch, tasks, software updates, and inventory Grouping of host and guests on the Devices tree and display of host-guest association information. IT Assistant does not use VMware APIs for host or guest discovery or correlation.
VMware ESX Server Integration You can use IT Assistant to discover and monitor VMware ESX Server version 3.x, as well as to retrieve information about the associated virtual machines through Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP). See "Setting Up SNMP on VMware ESX 3.5 server to Send Traps to IT Assistant" for more information. You can discover multiple virtual machines in your network environment using IT Assistant, and view them in the Device tree with the other devices in your network.
Starting with IT Assistant 8.1, you can generate reports of virtual machines using the pre-defined virtual machine report. For more information, see "Custom Reporting". Display of VFlash Media, iDRAC6 Express and iDRAC6 Enterprise information The VFlash Media, iDRAC6 Express and iDRAC6 Enterprise enables On-board Server Diagnostics and the Unified Server Configurator for firmware update, hardware configuration including RAID creation and OS deployment, available from the BIOS during system boot.
Support for Server Administrator NIC Selection Dell OpenManage Server Administrator supports configuration of additional LAN on Motherboards (LOMs) for NIC selection (sideband interface). You can use IT Assistant to create a Remote Server Administrator CLI task for NIC selection. New Search Criterion for Dynamic Groups Created Using IT Assistant You can now use the System Revision Number criterion for searching devices in a new group.
Simplified Repository View The Software Update view in IT Assistant displays a simplified view of the repositories by default. In this view you will only see the update packages/bundles that correspond to at least one device on your network. To view all update packages/bundles available in the repositories (as seen in earlier IT Assistant versions), select the Classic View.
• DCM feature definition page, if the device is not managed by an instance of DCM Exporting and Importing Tasks The export/import feature allows you to export the task configuration information for the selected tasks in IT Assistant to an XML file. You can import this file to a new network environment where IT Assistant is installed, instead of recreating and reconfiguring the tasks. Storage Integration Starting with IT Assistant 8.
Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) Event Source Import Utility You can import multiple event sources, that are not natively supported in IT Assistant, into the IT Assistant database. For more information, see "Simple Network Management Protocol Event Source Import Utility". IPMI Discovery Support IT Assistant discovers systems equipped with baseboard management controllers (BMC) that support Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) versions 1.5 or later.
Server Update Utility CD. For the purposes of this guide, the Dell Server Updates DVD and the Dell PowerEdge Server Update Utility CD will be hereafter called the Server Updates media. Custom Bundles With IT Assistant, you can create a custom System Update Set or bundle. You can create custom bundles that contain only the packages you want.
Tape Integration IT Assistant version 8.0 and later support discovery of those Dell tape library devices that have an out-of-band management port. IT Assistant classifies them under the Tape Devices category under the Storage Devices tree. For more information, see the Dell OpenManage IT Assistant Online Help. FRU Support With IT Assistant version 8.0 and later, you can view the field replaceable units (FRU) information for a managed system.
Planning Your Dell OpenManage IT Assistant Installation 4 It is important to plan before installing Dell™ OpenManage™ IT Assistant.
• Systems management protocol(s) • Agents for your managed systems NOTE: This document assumes that your systems are connected through a TCP/IP network and makes no assumption regarding your network's complexity or whether you are already using any systems management applications. In addition, no assumption is made regarding the type of systems and devices that exist on your network.
Selecting the Operating System You can install IT Assistant on any system that is running an operating system listed in Table 4-1. Table 4-1.
Selecting a Hardware Configuration The hardware configuration you choose must meet or exceed the recommended configuration for IT Assistant. Depending on your specific IT Assistant deployment and your network environment, it may be advisable to exceed the recommended configurations for processor speed, amount of memory, and hard-drive space.
Selecting the SQL Server 2005 Express Edition SP2 Default Database or SQL 2005 Server SP2 In general, the number of systems you expect to manage and the number of alerts you expect from your managed systems determine the database to use with IT Assistant. If you will be managing fewer than 500 systems, the SQL Server-compliant default database that ships with IT Assistant, SQL Server 2005 Express Edition SP2, is most likely a suitable data repository.
Determining Systems Management Protocols One of the most important decisions you will make in planning your IT Assistant installation is determining the protocols to use with IT Assistant. In general, your choice of protocols is determined by the systems you want to monitor and the respective agent protocols they support.
IPMI Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) operates independently of the operating system and allows administrators to manage a system remotely even in the absence of the operating system or the systems management software, or even if the monitored system is not powered on. IPMI can also function when the operating system has started, and offers enhanced features when used with the systems management software.
you can choose, in most cases, to replace or upgrade these agents with those that support newer protocols. Table 4-3 lists a number of agents and instrumentation that may be installed on Dell clients and servers. As long as the corresponding protocol is enabled in IT Assistant, these systems can be discovered and managed on your network. Agent is a general term applied to the software components of systems management instrumentation.
Table 4-3. Agents Supported by IT Assistant (continued) Device Version(s) Supported Auto Discoverable Alerting ERA, ERA/O 1.0 and later Yes Yes iDRAC 1.0 and later Yes Yes CMC 1.
Table 4-3. Agents Supported by IT Assistant (continued) Device Version(s) Supported Auto Discoverable Alerting PowerVault 745 N/A Yes Yes PowerVault Adaptec CIO 4.02 No Yes Dell PowerConnect™ Agents and PowerConnect Firmware Versions Supported by IT Assistant PowerConnect 3024 5.2.5.x, 6.0.4.x, 6.1.2.x Yes Yes PowerConnect 3048 5.2.5.x, 6.0.4.x, 6.1.2.x Yes Yes PowerConnect 3248 1.0.1.x, 2.0.0.x, 2.1.0.x Yes Yes PowerConnect 3324 1.0.0.x, 1.1.0.x, 1.2.0.
Table 4-3. Agents Supported by IT Assistant (continued) Device Version(s) Supported Auto Discoverable Alerting PowerConnect 6248P 1.0 Yes Yes PowerConnect 6224P 1.0 Yes Yes PowerConnect M6220 1.0 Yes Yes Cisco WS-CBS3032-DEL 1.0 Yes Yes Cisco WS-CBS3130G-S 1.0 Yes Yes Cisco WS-CBS3130X-S 1.
Table 4-3.
Table 4-3. Agents Supported by IT Assistant (continued) Device Version(s) Supported Auto Discoverable Alerting 3000cn N/A Yes Yes 1710n N/A Yes Yes 1600n N/A Yes Yes 1320c N/A Yes Yes 3010cn N/A Yes Yes Dell 1720/1720dn N/A Yes No 1815n N/A Yes No PowerVault 132T N/A Yes Yes PowerVault 136T N/A Yes Yes TL2000 N/A Yes Yes TL4000 N/A Yes Yes ML6000 N/A Yes Yes Tape Automation NOTE: You can configure SNMP only through the panel on the device.
Summary of Pre-Installation Decisions This section lists the major factors you must consider before installing and using IT Assistant to manage systems on your network. Table 4-4 summarizes questions raised in the previous sections, the option(s) and action(s) available, and the section of this guide where you can find the corresponding procedure for performing that action. Table 4-4.
Table 4-4. Pre-Installation Questions, Options, and Actions (continued) Question Option/Action Option/Action Should I use the default installed database (SQL Server 2005 Express Edition SP2) or should I install the Microsoft SQL Server 2005 SP2 database? Generally, SQL Server 2005 Express Edition SP2 is adequate if you are managing fewer than 500 systems. However, heavy event traffic or the usage of the performance monitoring subsystem may lead you to select SQL Server 2005 SP2.
Table 4-4. Pre-Installation Questions, Options, and Actions (continued) Question Option/Action How should I organize my managed systems’ IP addresses if I am using more than one systems management protocol on a subnet? Where possible, group systems using the same systems management protocol into contiguous subnets. This strategy increases manageability during the creation of IT Assistant discovery ranges.
Installing, Uninstalling, and Upgrading Dell OpenManage IT Assistant 5 Installation Requirements When installing Dell™ OpenManage™ IT Assistant, it is important to see the latest readme.txt file on the Dell Support website at support.dell.com/manuals. This file defines the most current supported operating systems and hardware requirements for IT Assistant.
Installing SNMP on the IT Assistant System The SNMP service must be installed and running on the IT Assistant system. SNMP (or CIM) must also be installed on the systems that you want to discover and manage. NOTE: The following example uses Windows Server 2003 SP2 Enterprise Edition. To install SNMP Service on the management station, perform the following steps: 1 Click the Start button. Point to Settings Control Panel Add or Remove Programs Add/Remove Windows Components.
4 On the right-hand side, under Features Summary, click Add Features. The Select Features dialog-box appears. 5 Locate and select SNMP Services. 6 Click Install. SNMP is now installed on your system. Starting SNMP Services 1 Click the Start button and select Control Panel. 2 Double-click Administrative Tools. 3 Double-click Services. 4 Locate SNMP Services, right-click, and select Start. SNMP Services are now started.
Setting Up RBAC User Information IT Assistant supports role-based access control (RBAC) to define the specific operations each user can perform. However, the IT Assistant installation process does not require these user roles to be set up prior to installation. To set up RBAC users either before or after installing IT Assistant, see "Ensuring a Secure Dell OpenManage IT Assistant Installation".
You can download and install IT Assistant from the Dell Support website at support.dell.com. The Dell OpenManage Management Station installer program is used to install IT Assistant as well as other Dell OpenManage software. To install a product other than IT Assistant, see the installation instructions specific to that product. You can also download Web packages of versions 6.0.
You can change the installation directory path and port settings for IT Assistant or accept the defaults. 5 Click Next. 6 Ensure that IT Assistant is included in the installation summary window, then click Install to begin the installation. Launching IT Assistant After IT Assistant is installed, to launch IT Assistant, do one of the following: • Double-click the IT Assistant icon on your desktop.
From this folder, run the following command: ln -s /usr/java/jre1.6.0_11/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so. NOTE: To verify if the JRE plug-in was installed, type about:plugins in the browser's address bar, click Go, and check the information that is displayed. 4 Close the Web browser and run IT Assistant again.
Upgrading IT Assistant version 7.x to IT Assistant version 8.6 1 Navigate to the \SYSMGMT\ManagementStation\windows\ITAssistant directory on the IT Assistant installer folder and double-click setup.exe. If the installation program starts automatically, the Dell OpenManage Install screen is displayed. Select Dell OpenManage Management Station and click Install to install IT Assistant.
NOTE: Migrate IT Assistant Database Settings is not available if you are upgrading from IT Assistant version 7.x to version 8.6. 7 Click Next. 8 Ensure that IT Assistant is included in the installation summary window and click Install to begin the installation. NOTE: If you want to configure IT Assistant in a remote database environment, see "Remote Microsoft SQL Server and IT Assistant" for details. Upgrading IT Assistant version 8.x to IT Assistant version 8.
Upgrading IT Assistant After Migrating to Windows Server 2003 If a system with IT Assistant installed is migrated to Windows Server 2003 and then upgraded to a recent version of IT Assistant, systems configured with the CIM protocol may no longer be discovered. This may occur due to encryption differences between Windows Server 2003 and earlier versions of Windows. To solve this, reset the password for the CIM user.
Uninstalling IT Assistant To uninstall IT Assistant: 1 Click the Start button, point to Settings, and double-click Control Panel. 2 Double-click Add or Remove Programs. 3 Select Dell OpenManage Management Station from the list of currently installed programs and click the Change button. NOTE: To uninstall the entire Management Station suite of products (including IT Assistant), select Remove in the previous step.
To do this, ensure that: • The SQL Server service (MSSQLServer) is running through the service control panel on the management station as well as the remote database. You can start the SQL Server 2005 SP2 services either through the SQL Server Service Manager on the system tray or through the SQL Server Enterprise Manager’s SQL Server group. • The SQL Server-compliant database versions on management station and the remote database are the same.
To ensure that the database is detached, perform the following steps: 1 Start the ODBC Data Source Administrator by clicking the Start button. Select SettingsControl Panel Administrative Tools Data Sources (ODBC). 2 Select the System DSN tab. Ensure that there no system data source with the name ITAssist (local IT Assistant database). If such a system data source exists, click Remove to delete this data source.
system’s SQL Enterprise Manager does not have a complete list of all the SQL Server instances on the system, register these non-default instances so that they are displayed in the SQL Server group. Connecting IT Assistant to the Remote Database 1 On the management station, navigate to the IT Assistant installation directory and edit the configuration file, dconfig.ini, by replacing each (local) string with the name of the SQL Server that resides on the remote database system.
To set these privileges, perform the following steps: a Run secpol.msc in the Command Prompt dialog box. b Select Security Settings Local Policies User Rights Assignments. c Right-click the policy and select Properties (or Security, in case of Windows 2000). d Add the user name to this policy. e Restart the system to apply the settings. 5 This step is optional and is required only if you plan to stop the SQL Server service from running on the management station.
Check the dependencies of the IT Assistant Network Monitoring Service and the IT Assistant Connection Service on management station by right-clicking the individual services from the Service Control Manager and select Properties. Select the Dependencies tab. There should be no dependency on MSSQLServer Service. Restart the management station to let these changes take effect. 6 On the management station, start the IT Assistant Connection Service and IT Assistant Network Monitoring Service.
Configuring IT Assistant to Upgrade the Remote Database IT Assistant does not upgrade the database which is configured on a remote system. This section discusses the steps required to upgrade the IT Assistant (version 7.0 and later) database. Deploying IT Assistant Database to ITA_STATION 1 On the ITA_STATION, stop IT Assistant Connection Service and IT Assistant Network Monitoring Service from the Service Control Manager. This stops IT Assistant services from accessing the remote IT Assistant database.
NOTE: Ensure that there are no ITAssist_Data and ITAssist_Log files on the ITA_STATION system. First argument @dbname specifies the name of the database and must be kept as ITAssist. Second argument @physname specifies where the database file is located. You should customize it to reflect the correct location of ITAssist_Data.mdf. Ensure that there is no ITAssist_log.ldf file in the same path. If a file of the same name exists, delete it before executing this command.
6 Configuring Dell OpenManage IT Assistant to Monitor Your Systems Dell™ OpenManage™ IT Assistant can discover, inventory, and perform a variety of other tasks such as power and performance monitoring. for each system in your enterprise.
Running Applications That Require Different Versions of the JRE On Your System The IT Assistant user interface (UI) uses the Java™ Runtime Environment (JRE) version 6 update 11. If IT Assistant detects an older version of JRE on your system, it installs version 6 update 11 to run correctly.
If either of these agents is not installed, see the Dell OpenManage Server Administrator and Dell OpenManage Client Instrumentation documentation before continuing with IT Assistant configuration. If the appropriate agent is installed and running correctly, start IT Assistant and read on. NOTE: Starting with IT Assistant version 8.0, you can discover devices using the IPMI Discovery support feature. See "Configuring IPMI for System Manageability" for more information.
4 Enter your password. As IT Assistant starts up, an authentication certificate pop-up box will appear. You must click OK within 5 minutes to accept these certificates or IT Assistant will not load properly and certain critical features will not function. You may see several pop-ups during IT Assistant startup.
Both Jane and Tom must configure the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) systems management protocol to discover their systems and to receive traps (asynchronous, alert notifications) that report the status of their components. On managed systems, the Server Administrator agent generates SNMP traps in response to changes in the status of sensors and other monitored parameters on a managed system.
Information on the Managed System Needed for Optimal SNMP Configuration For every system (running the Windows operating system) to be discovered and managed using SNMP protocol, ensure that SNMP is installed and properly configured. The two community names that are to be set up are the Get (or read) community name and the Set (or write) community name.
In her small-to-medium size network, Jane must install, enable, and configure CIM to be able to manage client systems running the latest Client Instrumentation (OMCI 7.x). Although Tom’s group of managed systems are made up entirely of servers, he will also install and enable CIM. Generally, CIM should be enabled if your enterprise includes any managed system running a Microsoft Windows operating system. NOTE: Dell OpenManage Server Administrator only sends events to IT Assistant as SNMP traps.
Table 6-1.
Using the Microsoft IPMI Provider Microsoft Windows Server 2003 R2 and Microsoft Windows Server 2008 is equipped with an IPMI driver and an IPMI Common Information Model (CIM) Provider. The CIM Provider exposes system information that is exposed by the BMC/iDRAC through the IPMI interface. IT Assistant uses this feature to extract information. You can use IT Assistant to discover and classify the BMC/iDRAC through IPMI.
NOTE: For Dell x8xx systems, you should setup the DRAC 4 and the BMC if you want to use the functionality of both. However, for Dell x9xx and later systems, DRAC 5 takes over the full functionality of the BMC. Therefore, you need to setup only the DRAC 5. For Dell xx0x modular systems, you should setup iDRAC. • In the discovery ranges, provide the SNMP/CIM IP address and credentials (user name and password) for the device as well as the BMC/iDRAC IP address and credentials.
Prerequisites for Dell|EMC You should have the following software configured to enable the Storage Integration feature: • EMC® Navisphere® Secure CLI on the same system that is running IT Assistant • SNMP enabled on your Dell|EMC array • FLARE® operating environment version 19 or later on your Dell|EMC array Navisphere Secure CLI IT Assistant uses Navisphere Secure CLI for getting inventory information from the storage devices.
NOTE: The storage processors on the Dell|EMC CX3-20, CX3-40, CX3-80 products each have one management port and one service local area network (LAN) port. Do not connect the service ports to the network for general use. Connecting these ports to the network may result in unpredictable status and event reporting within IT Assistant.
Discovery in Jane’s Small-to-Medium Size Business Jane wants to discover all of the systems on her network. Discovery is a process whereby IT Assistant identifies each system and records identifying information for that system in the IT Assistant database.
• CIM for her systems running Windows, assuming that Jane has newer, CIM-compatible client instrumentation installed on her client systems For a review of protocol requirements, see "Configuring Protocols to Send Information to Dell OpenManage IT Assistant." Community Names and Trap Destinations Jane’s requirements for configuring Get and Set community names and trap destinations for SNMP on her managed systems are not affected by the size of her business.
Step 2—Inventory Configuration – controls how often IT Assistant retrieves a detailed inventory of all discovered systems Step 3—Status Polling – controls how often IT Assistant retrieves the health and network connectivity status of discovered systems Step 4—Ranges – identifies specific ranges for IT Assistant to either limit or expand its discovery, inventory, or polling tasks Clicking any of the steps will take her to the corresponding dialog box under the Discovery and Monitoring menu bar in IT Assistan
NOTE: The faster you set the discovery speed, the more network resources discovery will consume. Faster discovery speeds may impact network performance. 4 Under Discover, Jane can choose whether to discover All Devices or Only Instrumented Devices. She chooses Only Instrumented Devices since she wants IT Assistant to discover only devices that have SNMP or CIM instrumentation. If she wanted to discover any device that responded to a ping command, she would have chosen All Devices.
Jane selects all seven days of the week at 6:00:00 AM, a non-peak period for network traffic. 3 Under Inventory Speed, Jane uses the sliding bar to indicate how much network bandwidth and system resources she wants to allocate to inventory. NOTE: The faster you set the inventory speed, the more network resources discovery will consume. Faster inventory speeds may impact network performance. 4 Jane clicks OK. NOTE: IT Assistant versions 8.
Configuring Discovery Ranges IT Assistant maintains a register of network segments that it uses to discover devices. A discovery range can be a subnet, a range of IP addresses on a subnet, an individual IP address, or an individual host name. To identify her systems to IT Assistant, Jane must define a discovery range. To define an include range, Jane performs the following steps: 1 Jane selects Discovery and MonitoringRanges from the menu bar.
4 In step 2 of the wizard, Jane uses the default values for Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) time-out and retry for the range. She uses the Troubleshooting Tool to determine these values. NOTE: IT Assistant offers a troubleshooting tool that can be useful in gathering system information and subnet ranges. Access the tool by selecting ToolsTroubleshooting Tool from the menu bar. For more information, open the Troubleshooting Tool dialog box and click Help.
• Jane enters a case-sensitive value for the Set Community name. Jane’s considerations: The Set Community name is a read-write password that allows access to a managed system. SNMP agents running on the managed system use this password for authentication when actions are attempted on the system, only power cycle tasks use SNMP sets. NOTE: Although Dell server instrumentation has an authentication layer above the SNMP Set community name (which requires a host name and password), many SNMP agents do not.
7 In step 5 of the wizard, Jane does not select Enable Dell/EMC Array Discovery because she does not have Dell|EMC storage devices on her network. 8 In step 6 of the wizard, Jane does not configure the IPMI parameters because she does want to monitor her systems through IPMI. 9 In step 7 of the wizard, Jane chooses what action IT Assistant will take upon completion of the wizard. 10 In step 8 of the wizard, Jane reviews her selections and clicks Finish to complete the wizard.
• CMC Console — IT Assistant launches the Chassis Management Controller (CMC) console that it discovers the CMC out-of-band or in-band through the server agent. NOTE: The CMC Console option is available only on limited Dell systems. 102 • Web interface for PowerConnect Console — the Web browser is launched with the Web address corresponding to the PowerConnect Console for the selected device. This option is available only for PowerConnect network switches.
• Dell Client Manager (DCM) — If the desktops on Jane’s network have OMCI version 7.4 and later, the Application Launch menu displays this option. Jane can also choose the applications she wants to launch for multiple devices or a group of devices, such as for printers and switches, from the IT Assistant UI. For more information, see the Dell OpenManage Online Help.
3 Enter a descriptive name for the filter. For example, Jane’s Network Warning and Critical. 4 Under Severity, select the severity of the events for which you want to receive alerts and logs. Jane selects Warning and Critical. Click Next. 5 Under Alert Category Configuration, either select Select All, or select the categories of events to include in the alert filter. Jane selects Select All because she wants to be notified of any warning or critical event that affects her network switches or servers.
Creating an Alert Action Now, Jane wants to create an Alert Action that is triggered by the Alert Action Filter she just set up. To create an Alert Action: 1 Jane selects AlertsActions from the menu bar. 2 Jane right-clicks Alert Actions in the navigation tree and selects New Alert Action. The Add Alert Action Wizard appears. 3 Jane gives the action a logical name in the Name field. 4 From the Type pull-down menu, Jane chooses Email.
7 A summary dialog shows Jane’s selections. Jane verifies that the name of the Alert Action she assigned in step 3 appears in the Summary of Alert Actions window. Jane clicks Finish to accept the changes. As a result of how Jane has configured Alert Action Filters and Alert Actions in IT Assistant, here is what will happen: • IT Assistant will continuously monitor all servers and network switches on Jane’s network.
Configuring the Discovery Settings Since Tom is monitoring a network of servers and no clients, his primary choice for a systems management protocol is SNMP. However, since he also manages systems running Windows, he will also enable CIM (like Jane). To configure the discovery settings for his servers, he will need to perform the following tasks: • Determine subnet ranges, IP addresses, and/or host names for the servers that he wants to monitor.
Configuring SNMP on Each Managed System Before configuring discovery, Tom needs to determine the Get and Set community names he wants to use for his network, and install and configure the SNMP agent and operating system SNMP service of each server he wants to manage. Table 6-2 provides information about the remote systems that Tom is monitoring. Table 6-2.
Table 6-2. Example Subnet Ranges, IP Addresses, or Host Names and Corresponding Information for Data Center and Remote Servers (continued) System Include Subnet Group Name Range Exclude Hosts or Subnet Range Read-Only/ReadWrite Community Names Number of Devices on Subnet Longest Ping Response Time Observed on Subnet (milliseconds) Remote Servers 2 10.9.73.* dcp123/dcxprivre m 100 2400 Dell|EMC Storage Devices 192.166.162.1-10 dcp123/NA 5 32 Printers 192.166.163.
Configuring Discovery Settings for the First Time in the Enterprise Network Like Jane, if this is the first time IT Assistant has been launched since installation, Tom is presented with a welcome screen indicating that IT Assistant has not yet been configured.
3 Under Discovery Speed, Tom uses the sliding bar to indicate how much network bandwidth and system resources he wants to allocate to discovery. Tom sets the discovery speed to Fast (all the way to the right). Tom wants to discover all of the systems he is going to manage with IT Assistant rapidly and get them in the database.
Tom sets inventory for weekly on Saturday at 3:00 a.m. 3 Under Inventory Speed, Tom uses the sliding bar to indicate how much network bandwidth and system resources he wants to allocate to inventory. NOTE: The faster you set the inventory speed, the more network resources discovery will consume. Faster inventory speeds may impact network performance adversely. 4 Tom clicks OK. NOTE: IT Assistant versions 8.0 and later can display the inventory information for printers, tapes, and storage devices.
Configuring Discovery Ranges IT Assistant maintains information about network segments that it uses to discover devices. A discovery range can be a subnet, range of IP addresses on a subnet, individual IP address, or an individual host name. Tom’s enterprise network is organized into a number of subnets. There are 850 servers in the datacenter and 150 remote servers. Tom refers to the IP subnet ranges he wrote down for his servers (see Table 6-2).
NOTE: Ensure that you have a separate range for Dell|EMC devices. This is because apart from the SNMP credentials, Dell|EMC devices also require the Navisphere credentials. Tom clicks Next to go to the next step. NOTE: The Import Node List utility offers a convenient way to specify a list of host names, IP addresses, and subnet ranges for IT Assistant to discover. See the IT Assistant Online Help for instructions on how to run the utility from the command line. The importnodelist.
NOTE: Community names entered in the SNMP Get and Set community name fields for the managed system’s operating system must match the Get Community and Set Community names assigned in IT Assistant. • Tom enters a case-sensitive value for the Set Community name. Tom’s considerations: The Set Community name is a read-write password that allows access to a managed system.
• In Domain\User Name, Tom enters the same name that he used to configure CIM on the managed system. Also, ensure that CIM is selected. • Tom enters the same Password that he used for the CIM password on the managed system. NOTE: For inband IPMI support enable CIM Discovery option from the wizard. However, this is supported only on Dell PowerEdge xx8x and later systems running Windows Server 2003 R2 or Windows Server 2008. For out-of-band IPMI support on xx8x servers, enable IPMI from the wizard.
10 In step 8 of the wizard, Tom reviews his selections and clicks Finish to complete the wizard. NOTE: IT Assistant versions 8.0 and later can discover printers, tapes, and storage devices. For more information, see the Dell OpenManage IT Assistant Online Help. NOTE: In a network consisting of systems that have both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses, post SNMP discovery, only IPv4 addresses are displayed by IT Assistant.
Creating Alert Action Filters and Alert Actions for Tom’s Large Enterprise IT Assistant offers Tom the ability to set up Alert Action Filters that specify a set of system conditions. When these conditions are met, Tom can also create an Alert Action in IT Assistant that is triggered by the Alert Action Filter. The Alert Action takes whatever action Tom has defined. NOTE: Dell OpenManage Server Administrator only sends events to IT Assistant as SNMP traps.
Tom’s Administrators Tom has three administrators; all are responsible for keeping the datacenter servers operational, and they work the following hours: • Bob works onsite for the first shift Monday through Friday (7 A.M. to 7 P.M.) • John works onsite second shift Monday through Friday (7 P.M. to 7 A.M.) • Jill is on call weekends from 7 P.M. Friday to 7 A.M.
Creating an Alert Action Filter Now, Tom will create an Alert Action Filter that includes each of the four administrators who work for him. In the following procedure, you can see how creating custom groups for the two types of servers make it easier to create the filters. To create an alert action filter, Tom performs the following steps: 1 Tom selects AlertsFilters from the menu bar. The Alert Filters window appears.
Tom selects different time and day values for each of the three filters. Tom does not select date filters, but could use this value if he wanted to create a filter and action for a vacation, an outside service vendor, or another special situation. For the DC 1st Shift filter, Tom enables the time range 7:00:00 A.M. to 7:00:00 P.M. and enables the days Monday through Friday. For the DC 2nd Shift filter, Tom enables the time range 7:00:00 P.M. to 7:00:00 A.M. and enables the days Monday through Friday.
Notification Alert Actions in the Enterprise Environment Tom’s alert action filters and groups are now configured so that he can set up e-mail alert actions to automatically notify himself and his three administrators.
5 In the E-mail Configuration dialog, Tom specifies a valid e-mail address (within your enterprise’s SMTP server group) to receive the automatic notification. NOTE: Tom can test the e-mail configuration he specified by using the Test Action button. A success/failure message will be issued. Tom can specify multiple e-mail addresses, separated by a comma or semi-colon. 6 In Alert Filter Associations, Tom identifies the Action Alert filter that will trigger this e-mail.
Using IPMI Discovery in Tom’s Enterprise-Size Business Let us say that Tom has purchased 100 Dell PowerEdge x9xx systems for his enterprise. These systems are equipped with the BMC/iDRAC that support IPMI versions 1.5 or later. These new systems are uninstrumented, that is, they do not have any Dell agent installed on them. IT Assistant versions 8.
Hardware Logs Devices under the IPMI Discovered Devices group have a tab for viewing the hardware logs. Each time the view is refreshed, a connection will be made by the IT Assistant management system to the target system to retrieve the up-to-date logs. The connection will be closed after all the records are retrieved to free up resources and minimize connection usage, since the BMC/iDRAC has a limit on open connections. The Hardware Logs tab is used for log retrieval through all supported protocols.
The device summary tab contains information retrieved through the standard operating system instrumentation. This data includes NIC, operating system, BIOS, contact, memory, and processor information. The device will be listed under the Unknown category, as there is no device type information available through the standard operating system instrumentation. Summary This chapter has covered IT Assistant configuration in both the small-to-medium business and large enterprise network environments.
7 Performance and Power Monitoring Use Dell™ OpenManage™ IT Assistant to monitor the performance and power consumption of a single system or a group of systems on your network. Performance Monitoring Performance Monitoring helps you monitor the performance of a group of devices with supported Microsoft® Windows® or Linux operating systems over a specified period of time. Performance is monitored with the help of a set of performance counters available for each component.
Power Monitoring The power monitoring feature helps you to collect, store, and display the instantaneous values of power (watts) consumed, amperes drawn by each power supply, and the total energy consumed by a device. NOTE: The power monitoring feature requires that the Dell OpenManage Server Administrator version 5.3 or later be installed on the managed systems.
To be able to answer these questions, Tom would need to perform the following: • Create a performance and power monitoring task • Monitor the systems over a period of time • View the data on the IT Assistant console • Export the data into comma-separated values and save it for later use Creating a Performance and Power Monitoring Task To create a performance and power monitoring task, Tom performs the following steps: 1 Tom selects ManagePerformance and Power Monitoring from the menu bar.
5 Under Select Attributes, Tom selects the performance, as well as the power monitoring counters: CPU and Memory attributes (for performance), Power Consumption, Energy Consumption, and Peak Amperage (for power management). He sets their warning and critical threshold values and specifies the number of samples for which the threshold values should be crossed.
8 Tom reviews his selection in the Summary screen and clicks Finish. The All x9xx systems task appears on the tree under the Performance and Power Monitoring Tasks parent node. NOTE: Performance monitoring tasks are not supported on VMware ESX and VMware ESX 3i hosts. Power monitoring tasks are supported on all virtualization hosts except VMware ESX 3i.
See Table 7-1 for a sample of how systems on Tom’s network may be utilized. Table 7-1. Sample of Tom’s network utilization CPU Utilization Memory Utilization Network Usage System 1 High Low Medium System 2 Low High Medium If %CPU Utilization Time is red for most of the samples collected (highly used), it could mean that some application is over-utilizing the CPU. Tom could consider moving this application to a system for which the %CPU Utilization Time is green for most samples.
Figure 7-1.
4 In the Execution Results tab, Tom can right-click a counter and do one of the following: – Select Export. This will export the details into a comma-separated values (CSV) file. Tom can then use other tools like Microsoft Excel® to generate better reports. – Click View Chart to view the graphical representation of the performance, aggregate power consumed, and the aggregate energy consumed information of the device. Tom can give a time range and view the system usage graphically.
Suggested Threshold Configuration for Performance and Power Monitoring Table 7-2 shows the sample threshold settings for each performance and power counter. Table 7-2. Sample Threshold Settings for Performance and Power Counters Resource Performance Counter Attribute Suggested Threshold Comments CPU %Processor Utilization Time Less than 85% Total processor usage should remain under 85%, infrequent spikes exceeding 85% for brief periods is acceptable.
Table 7-2. Sample Threshold Settings for Performance and Power Counters (continued) (continued) (continued) Resource Performance Counter Attribute Suggested Threshold Comments Network BytesReceived/Second PacketsReceived/Second BytesSent/Second PacketsSent/Second Sharp deviation from average values for an extended period of time. Depends on the type of network A sharp increase or decrease above normal levels is a strong indicator of network issues.
Resource Usage by SQL Server and IT Assistant Table 7-3 shows the recommended hardware configuration required for performance and power monitoring. Table 7-3. Recommended Hardware Configuration for IT Assistant for Performance and Power Monitoring Minimum Minimum Database Number of Memory CPUs Required Maximum Number of user sessions per user Maximum Number of Performance Counters Minimum Supported Sampling Frequency Maximum Number of Devices Single CPU 2.
Performance and Power Monitoring
8 Software Updates IT Assistant provides a centralized software update capability. You can load Dell Update Packages and System Update Sets (system bundles) into the IT Assistant repository, either from the Dell™ Server Updates media or from the Dell FTP site at ftp.dell.com, then run a compliance check of all the systems in your enterprise against the Update Packages. NOTE: Dell OpenManage™ Content Manager creates multi-level directories in the output when ftp.dell.
Jane and Tom can upgrade their BIOS, firmware, or drivers for the servers and storage devices on their network using IT Assistant. Depending on the differences in the size/nature of organization, and their usage model, they can use one of the following sources to obtain the latest updates: • Dell Support website: Configure IT Assistant to synchronize with the Dell FTP site at ftp.dell.com to automatically download update packages. For more information, see "Using Software Web Updates.
If you select automatic download of updates from ftp.dell.com to the Online Repository, you could use the repository as a cache to review the contents of the Online Repository before importing them to the IT Assistant Repository. Alternatively, you may choose to automatically download and import any new updates to the IT Assistant repository during each synchronization. To see the latest updates available at ftp.dell.com, configure the Online Synchronization task and run it.
Synchronizing IT Assistant With the Dell Website NOTE: This feature requires at least one of the communication protocols—HTTP or FTP—to be supported in your network. To synchronize IT Assistant with Dell website, Tom performs the following steps: 1 Right-clicks Online Repository and selects Configure Online Synchronization. 2 In the Connection Settings screen, Tom selects ftp.dell.com as the Download Site and provides the ftp protocol as the connection parameter.
NOTE: Tom must select at least one component from All Components, All Operating Systems, and All Systems on his network. If he does not do this, no package or bundle will be considered for auto-download during online synchronization. However, he may still import them later from the IT Assistant user interface. Tom selects: • All Components • All Operating Systems • Dell PowerEdge x7xx, x8xx, and x9xx systems on his network After choosing one of the above selections, Tom clicks Update Catalog Now....
b Tom can select Download automatically when updates are available. This will cause automatic download of new packages to a cache maintained by IT Assistant. NOTE: After the synchronization, Tom can identify the packages and bundles that were downloaded and those that were not downloaded, by their different icons under the Online Repository.
When Tom clicks Finish, IT Assistant does the following: • Synchronizes with ftp.dell.com as per the schedule he set in step 4. IT Assistant maintains the current (n) and the immediate predecessor (n1) versions of the catalog in the repository. IT Assistant downloads the catalog and compares the last-known catalog (n-1) present in the IT Assistant Repository. Tom can view the comparison between the two versions in the Online Repository Comparison tab in the user interface.
Comparing Contents of Two Catalogs Tom can compare the result of two online synchronizations. He performs the following steps: 1 From the Software Update Repositories tree, Tom selects Online Repository. 2 In the right-hand side pane, he selects the Online Repository Comparison tab. NOTE: To be able to view contents in this tab, Tom should have performed online synchronization. IT Assistant compares the catalogs and provides status and version information.
Importing Packages From the Online Repository To apply update packages to his systems, Tom should first import the update packages in the IT Assistant Repository. Tom can import packages/bundles in the following ways. • Auto-import during online synchronization • Manual import from the Repository Comparison or Online Repository Comparison tabs • From the Online Repository To import packages/bundles from the Online Repository, Tom performs the following steps: – He expands the Online Repository.
Starting with IT Assistant 8.2 and later, Tom can retrieve a compliance report by selecting Tools Compliance Tool. Tom can click Open or Save from the File Download dialog box to either save the file to a location of his choice or to view the report as a Microsoft® Excel® file. For more information on selecting the devices, see the Dell OpenManage IT Assistant Online Help. Clicking Compare performs the comparison and generates the compliance report.
Using Software Updates in IT Assistant Let us look at how Jane might use this feature in her enterprise. Jane has a small-to-medium size business (50 servers, plus over 200 client systems). She does not have network bandwidth for large downloads. Instead, she chooses to get the update packages periodically using the Server Updates media.
3 Clicks the Update Package name in the left-hand pane to view a summary of its contents in the right hand pane. 4 Clicks the Compliance tab, then selects a specific group of devices (or a query) against which she wants to check the package. NOTE: Starting with IT Assistant 8.2, Jane can retrieve a compliance report by selecting Tools Compliance Tool.
Software Update Using Unified Server Configurator (USC) DUPs The Dell Unified Server Configurator (USC) is a preinstalled configuration utility that enables systems and storage management tasks from an embedded environment throughout the server’s lifecycle. Residing on the embedded flash storage space, the USC is similar to a BIOS utility in that it can be started during the boot sequence and can function independently of the operating system.
Software Updates
9 Managing Tasks IT Assistant allows you to remotely run certain tasks on managed systems across the enterprise. These tasks include: • Generic command line execution (the ability to invoke the Dell™ OpenManage™ Server Administrator command line interface remotely is also supported, if Dell OpenManage 4.
NOTE: If you are running the software deploy task across a wide area network (WAN), the task could fail if the network does not have sufficient bandwidth. However, if you want to perform this task across WAN locations, it is recommended that you install IT Assistant locally on a system at the remote location, have the update package/installers available locally on the IT Assistant system and access the IT Assistant through Remote Desktop to that system.
7 If you are rebooting an SNMP-enabled system, enter the instrumentation user name and password in the Enter Credentials window. If your system is CIM-enabled, enter the fully-qualified domain user name and password. 8 Confirm your selections in the Summary window, or choose Back to make changes. Tasks Available in Command Line Generic Command Line Choosing Generic Command Line from the pull-down menu allows you to execute commands from within your network.
Creating a Device Control Task A device control task helps you to power control a system through IT Assistant. To perform these tasks in IT Assistant, perform the following steps: 1 Select ManageTasks and right-click Device Control in the left navigation pane. 2 Select New Task. The Task Creation wizard appears. 3 Enter a Task Name, then choose, for example, Shutdown Device from the Task Type pull-down menu and click Next.
8 Confirm your selections in the Summary window, or choose Back to make changes. Tasks Available in Device Control Task Shutdown Device (via in-band) Choosing Shutdown Device(via in-band) allows you to specify the shutdown operation that you want to perform. NOTE: This task requires CIM or SNMP discovery to be enabled, or Server Administrator to be installed on the managed node. NOTE: The shutdown task is not supported for devices discovered using IPMI only.
IT Assistant also uses the in-band Broadcom WMI provider to detect if a device is enabled for remote secure Remote Management Control Packets (RMCP) operations and whether the administrator roles have sufficient privileges to perform power control operations. NOTE: You can configure the power control operations through the Broadcom ASF Configuration Utility. NOTE: Verify that ASF Enabled, Remote Management, and Secure Management (ASF 2.0) options are enabled in the Broadcom ASF Configuration Utility.
Installation Scenarios Based on the option selected at installation time, you can either install Server Administrator Web Server, Server Instrumentation or both, on Windows and Linux. Table 9-1.
Table 9-2. Upgrade Scenarios (continued) Previous Installation No Parameters ADDLOCAL=IWS Passed (Windows Only) Server Administrator Web Server and Server Instrumentation Upgrades both Server Administrator Web Server and Server Instrumentation. Uninstalls Server Instrumentation and upgrades only Server Administrator Web Server. ADDLOCAL = Linux SSA (Windows Only) Uninstalls Server Administrator Web Server and upgrades only Server Instrumentation. Upgrades only previously installed components.
Setting the Java Runtime Parameter in Supported Linux Environment 1 Navigate to the Java home directory. The default path is /usr/java/jre1.6.0_11/bin/. 2 Run ./ControlPanel. 3 In the Java tab, click View in the Java Applet Runtime Settings section. 4 Set Java Runtime Parameters to -Xmx256M -Djava.net.
Creating a Software Deployment Task 1 Select ManageTasks from the menu bar. 2 Under the Task parent node, right-click Software Deployment and select New Task.... The New Task Wizard appears. 3 Under Task Creation, enter a descriptive name for the task and select the Server Administrator Deploy / Upgrade task for Windows or Linux. Click Next. 4 Under Task Installer Specification, specify the Installation File Path. NOTE: The .
It is recommended that you select Upgrade Installer Engine on target node (if required). This option ensures that the latest version of msiexec is installed on the managed systems. If you do not select this option, and the managed systems do not have the required version, and an error message is displayed. NOTE: This option fails if the required upgrade engine files (.exe and .bat) are not found in the same folder as the Systems Management installer (.msi). If you deleted these files, go to ftp.dell.
Using Software Updates You can use ManageTasksSoftware Updates to update systems or devices with latest update packages or bundles acquired from the Dell Server Updates DVD, or from the online synchronization with the Dell Support Website at support.dell.com. NOTE: Before creating the task, you must import update packages and bundles to the IT Assistant Repository. For more information, see "Importing Packages From the Online Repository.
7 Confirm your selections in the Summary window, or choose Back to make changes. The software update packages are applied to the selected devices at the scheduled time. Exporting and Importing Tasks The export/import feature allows you to export the task configuration information for the selected tasks in IT Assistant to an XML file. You can import this file to a new network environment where IT Assistant is installed, instead of recreating and reconfiguring the tasks.
Managing Tasks
10 Reporting Dell™ OpenManage™ IT Assistant provides the ability to: • Generate ready-made reports using the Reports Wizard. • Create customized reports for all systems in your enterprise. • Create software compliance reports. The basics of these capabilities are shown here using the same user scenarios presented in "Configuring Dell OpenManage IT Assistant to Monitor Your Systems." For more detailed information on these topics, see the Dell OpenManage IT Assistant Online Help.
Table 10-1. Ready-made Reports (continued) Type of Report Description PowerVault MD Array Report Returns Array information for PowerVault MD Storage Arrays. Printer Low Toner Report Returns all Printers with tomer levels at or below 20% of capacity. Software Inventory Report Returns Software Inventory data for servers. Tape Report Returns the Library and drive information for Tape Devices. Virtual Machine Report Returns Virtual Machine information.
Figure 10-1. Custom Reporting in IT Assistant 6 Device Server 1 PCI Cards NIC Device Cards 8 Contact Info Memory Devices ...
Creating a New Report To illustrate IT Assistant’s report capabilities, let us take another look at Jane’s enterprise. Among her group of managed systems, she has 50 Dell™ servers. However, she is not sure of the type of network interface card installed on her servers. She can answer that question quickly by using IT Assistant’s reporting tool: From IT Assistant, Jane will: 1 Select ViewsReports, then right-click All Reports in the left navigation pane. 2 Choose New Report. The Add Report wizard starts.
An HTML format-based report showing NIC device information for each of the 50 systems in her enterprise is displayed. Choosing a query-based report: Jane could also opt for a query-based report. Instead of choosing Select devices/groups from the tree below in the report wizard, she could choose Select a query. Then, she can either select a query that she created earlier, or create a new query by clicking the New button. She can specify the parameters for a query report as shown in Table 10-2: Table 10-2.
Table 10-2. Query Report Parameters (continued) Parameter Description Run Query Runs the query and displays the results. NOTE: You can click Run Query to test a query before saving it. Save Query Saves the query. Cancel Closes the Query Editor window without saving your input. NOTE: If you want to run reports on RAC devices, and choose RAC type as one of the attributes to include in the report, the generated report may list the values 2, 8, or 16 against the RAC type column.
IT Assistant Database Schema Information IT Assistant gathers data that is stored in associated tables and is linked by the DeviceID, an internal identifier. The associated data is stored in the following tables. NOTE: The primary keys for the tables are marked with an asterisk (*). Table 10-3. IT Assistant Database Schema Column Name Data Type Data Nulls Description Size Allowed Device Table DeviceId* int DeviceName 4 No Internal device identification used as a Foreign Key in all related tables.
Table 10-3. IT Assistant Database Schema (continued) Column Name 174 Data Type Data Nulls Description Size Allowed DeviceInventoryTime datetime 8 Yes The last time that IT Assistant collected inventory data from the device. DeviceStatusedTime datetime 8 Yes The last time that IT Assistant collected the global health data from the device. DeviceDiscoveredTime datetime 8 Yes The last time IT Assistant interrogated the system to determine what agents were present.
Table 10-3. IT Assistant Database Schema (continued) Column Name Data Type Data Nulls Description Size Allowed DeviceLocation nvarchar 256 Yes The device location as retrieved from the remote agent. DellSystem int Yes The Boolean flag indicating if the device has a Dell-enabled agent. SubnetLastDiscoveredOn nvarchar 256 Yes The last discovery range that was used to discover the device. DeviceId* int No The Foreign Key (FK) to the Device Table.
Table 10-3. IT Assistant Database Schema (continued) Column Name 176 Data Type Data Nulls Description Size Allowed AgentId int AgentURL AgentData Reporting 4 Yes Internal ID used to distinguish between agents.
Table 10-3. IT Assistant Database Schema (continued) Column Name Data Type Data Nulls Description Size Allowed Array Disk Table DeviceId* int ArrayDiskMediaType 4 No The Foreign Key to the Device Table. nvarchar 64 Yes The type of physical disk present on the system. The values are SSD for Solid State Drives, HDD for magnetic disk drives and N/A for information not available. ArrayDiskNumber* int No The instance number of this array disk entry.
Table 10-3. IT Assistant Database Schema (continued) Column Name Data Type Data Nulls Description Size Allowed ArrayDiskChannel int 4 Yes The bus to which this array disk is connected. ArrayDiskLength int 4 Yes The array disk's size in gigabytes. If the size is 0, it is smaller than a gigabyte. ArrayDiskBusType nvarchar 64 Yes The array disk's bus type. Possible values: SCSI, IDE, Fibre Channel, SSA, USB, and SATA.
Table 10-3. IT Assistant Database Schema (continued) Column Name Data Type Data Nulls Description Size Allowed ControllerState nvarchar 64 Yes The current condition of the controller's subsystem. ControllerStatus int Yes The controller's status ControllerFWVersion nvarchar 64 Yes The controller's current firmware version. ControllerCacheSize int 4 Yes The controller's current amount of cache memory.
Table 10-3. IT Assistant Database Schema (continued) Column Name Data Type Data Nulls Description Size Allowed ControllerDriverVersion nvarchar 64 Yes The currently installed driver version for this controller. ControllerSPAReadCacheSize int Yes The read cache size on controller A. ControllerSPAWriteCacheSize int Yes The write cache size on controller A. ControllerSPBReadCacheSize int Yes The read cache size on controller B.
Table 10-3. IT Assistant Database Schema (continued) Column Name Data Type Data Nulls Description Size Allowed DeviceCardManufacturer nvarchar 64 Yes This attribute defines the name of the manufacturer of the PCI device. DeviceCardDescription nvarchar 256 Yes This attribute defines the description of the PCI device. DeviceCardDataBuswidth nvarchar 64 Yes This attribute defines the width of the data bus of the PCI device.
Table 10-3. IT Assistant Database Schema (continued) Column Name 182 Data Type Data Nulls Description Size Allowed EnclosureVendor nvarchar 256 Yes The enclosure's reseller's name. EnclosureId int Yes The SCSI address of the processor. EnclosureLocationofManufacture nvarchar 256 Yes The enclosure’s manufacture location. EnclosureServiceTag nvarchar 64 Yes The enclosure identification used when consulting customer support.
Table 10-3. IT Assistant Database Schema (continued) Column Name Data Type Data Nulls Description Size Allowed Enclosure Management Module Table DeviceId* int 4 No The Foreign Key to the Device Table. EMMNumber* int 4 No The instance number of the enclosure management module. EMMName nvarchar 256 Yes The name of the enclosure. EMMVendor nvarchar 256 Yes The management module reseller's name. EMMPartNumber nvarchar 64 Yes The part number of the enclosure memory module.
Table 10-3. IT Assistant Database Schema (continued) Column Name Data Type Data Nulls Description Size Allowed VirtualDiskWritePolicy nvarchar 64 Yes Indicates whether the controller's write cache will be used when writing to a virtual disk. VirtualDiskReadPolicy nvarchar 64 Yes Indicates whether the controller's read cache will be used when reading from a virtual disk. VirtualDiskCachePolicy nvarchar 64 Yes The cache policy settings of the virtual disk.
Table 10-3. IT Assistant Database Schema (continued) Column Name Data Type Data Nulls Description Size Allowed DeviceId* int 4 No The Foreign Key to the Device Table. VolumeNumber* int 4 Yes Instance number of the volume entry. VolumeDriveLetter nvarchar 64 Yes The volume's path (or drive letter) according to the operating system. VolumeLabel nvarchar 256 Yes The user-definable label for this volume. VolumeSize int 4 Yes The size of the volume in megabytes.
Table 10-3. IT Assistant Database Schema (continued) Column Name Data Type Data Nulls Description Size Allowed MemoryDeviceIndex* int MemoryDeviceName 4 No This attribute defines the index (one based) of the memory device. nvarchar 256 Yes This attribute defines the location of the memory device. MemoryDeviceBankName nvarchar 256 Yes This attribute defines the location of the bank for the memory device. MemoryDeviceType nvarchar 256 Yes This attribute defines the type of the memory device.
Table 10-3. IT Assistant Database Schema (continued) Column Name Data Type Data Nulls Description Size Allowed NICMACAddress nvarchar 24 Yes The MAC address of the NIC. NICManufacturer nvarchar 256 Yes The reseller of the NIC. NICPingable int 4 Yes A flag indicating that IT Assistant communicates with the device using this IP address. DeviceId* int 4 No The Foreign Key to the Device Table. OSId* int 4 No The instance ID for the operating system.
Table 10-3. IT Assistant Database Schema (continued) Column Name Data Type Data Nulls Description Size Allowed PowerSupply Table DeviceId* int 4 No The Foreign Key to the Device Table. PowerSupplyChassisIndex* int 4 No This attribute defines the index (one based) of the chassis. PowerSupplyIndex* int 4 No This attribute defines the index (one based) of the power supply. PowerSupplyType nvarchar 256 Yes This attribute defines the type of the power supply.
Table 10-3. IT Assistant Database Schema (continued) Column Name Data Type Data Nulls Description Size Allowed ProcessorFamily nvarchar 256 Yes This attribute defines the family of the processor device. ProcessorCurrentSpeed int 4 Yes This attribute defines the current speed of the processor device in MHz. Zero indicates that the current speed is unknown. ProcessorSlotNumber int 4 Yes This attribute defines the slot that the processor occupies.
Table 10-3. IT Assistant Database Schema (continued) Column Name 190 Data Type Data Nulls Description Size Allowed BuiltinPointingDevice nvarchar 64 Yes Defines whether the built-in pointing device (mouse) port is enabled or disabled. WakeupOnLAN nvarchar 64 Yes Defines whether WakeOn-LAN is disabled, enabled for on-board NIC only, or enabled for add-in NIC only. If Enabled with boot to NIC option is selected, the system boots from the NIC boot-ROM upon a remote wake up.
Table 10-3. IT Assistant Database Schema (continued) Column Name Data Type Data Nulls Description Size Allowed ChassisIntrusionStatus nvarchar 64 Yes Reports the status of the system with regard to Chassis Intrusion (Detected or Not Detected). A value of Unknown indicates either that chassis intrusion is not supported by this system, or that the chassis intrusion event reporting has been disabled by the user.
Table 10-3. IT Assistant Database Schema (continued) Column Name Data Type Data Nulls Description Size Allowed InstanceId* nvarchar 32 No The instance identifier for the hardware. HWDeviceId nvarchar 16 Yes The hardware device identifier of the PCI ID. HWVendorId nvarchar 16 Yes The hardware vendor identifier of the PCI ID. HWSubDeviceId nvarchar 16 Yes The hardware subdevice identifier of the PCI ID. HWSubVendorId nvarchar 16 Yes The hardware subvendor identifier of the PCI ID.
Table 10-3. IT Assistant Database Schema (continued) Column Name Data Type Data Nulls Description Size Allowed OSMajorVersion nvarchar 16 Yes The major version of the operating system. OSMinorVersion nvarchar 16 Yes The minor version of the operating system. OSSPMajorVersion nvarchar 16 Yes The Service Pack major version. OSSPMinorVersion nvarchar 16 Yes The Service Pack minor version. DeviceId* int 4 No The Foreign Key to the Device Table.
Table 10-3. IT Assistant Database Schema (continued) Column Name 194 Data Type Data Nulls Description Size Allowed PurchaseOrderNumber nvarchar 64 Yes The purchase order number. PurchaseDate nvarchar 64 Yes The date that the system was purchased. SigningAuthorityName nvarchar 64 Yes The signing authority reference. OriginalMachineConfiguration nvarchar 64 Expensed Yes The original system configuration that was expensed.
Table 10-3. IT Assistant Database Schema (continued) Column Name Data Type Data Nulls Description Size Allowed DeploymentDurationUnitType nvarchar 64 Yes The deployment duration unit type. TrainingName nvarchar 64 Yes The training name. OutsourcingProblemDescription nvarchar 64 Yes The outsourcing problem description. OutsourcingServiceFee nvarchar 64 Yes The outsourcing service fee. OutsourcingSigningAuthority nvarchar 64 Yes The outsourcing signing authority.
Table 10-3. IT Assistant Database Schema (continued) Column Name Data Type Data Nulls Description Size Allowed ContactInfo Table DeviceId* int ContactName* 4 No The Foreign Key to the Device Table. nvarchar 64 No The contact name. ContactInformation nvarchar 64 Yes The information for this contact. ContactDescription nvarchar 64 Yes The description for this contact. DeviceId* int 4 No The Foreign Key to the Device Table. ClusterIndex* int 4 No The cluster index.
Table 10-3. IT Assistant Database Schema (continued) Column Name Data Type Data Nulls Description Size Allowed FRURevision nvarchar 255 Yes The FRU revision number. FRUManufacturingDate date 8 Yes The FRU manufacturing date. DeviceId* int 4 No The Foreign Key to the Device Table. PrinterSupplyIndex* int 4 No The printer supply index. PrinterSupplyDescription nvarchar 64 Yes The printer supply description. PrinterSupplyLevel nvarchar 16 Yes The printer supply level.
Table 10-3. IT Assistant Database Schema (continued) Column Name Data Type Data Nulls Description Size Allowed PrinterInputMaxCapacity nvarchar 64 Yes The maximum capacity of the printer input module. PrinterInputCurrentCapacity nvarchar 64 Yes The current capacity of the printer input module. PrinterInputMediaType nvarchar 64 Yes The media type. DeviceId* int 4 No The Foreign Key to the Device Table. PrinterOutputIndex* int 4 No The printer output index.
Table 10-3. IT Assistant Database Schema (continued) Column Name Data Type Data Nulls Description Size Allowed Tape Drive Table DeviceId* int 4 No The Foreign Key to the Device Table. TapeDriveIndex* int 4 No The tape drive index. TapeDriveVendor nvarchar 64 Yes Name of the tape drive vendor. TapeDriveModel nvarchar 64 Yes Name of the tape drive model. TapeDriveType nvarchar 64 Yes The tape drive type. TapeDriveFirmwareVersion nvarchar 32 Yes Firmware version of the tape drive.
Table 10-3. IT Assistant Database Schema (continued) Column Name Data Type Data Nulls Description Size Allowed TapeLibrarySlotCount int TapeLibrarySerialNumber 4 Yes The number of slots. nvarchar 32 Yes Serial number of the tape library. DeviceId int No The Foreign Key reference to the device table. GuestGUID nvarchar 256 No The unique GUID of the guest/virtual machine. GuestHealthState nvarchar 512 Yes The health state of the guest/virtual system.
Table 10-3. IT Assistant Database Schema (continued) Column Name Data Type Data Nulls Description Size Allowed HyperVGuestMemoryInfo Table DeviceId int GuestGUID 4 No The Foreign Key reference to the deivice table. nvarchar 256 No The unique GUID of the guest/virtual machine. MemoryBlockSize int 4 Yes The block size of the memory in bytes.
Reporting
Ensuring a Secure Dell OpenManage IT Assistant Installation 11 This section discusses several specific topics useful in implementing a more secure Dell™ OpenManage™ IT Assistant installation. IT Assistant leverages HTTPS for secure communications, as well as the Microsoft® Active Directory® for role-based access. For detailed information on security across the Dell OpenManage platform, see the Dell OpenManage Installation and Security User’s Guide.
Securing Managed Desktops, Laptops, and Workstations Securing the Managed System’s Operating System The first step in promoting a secure network environment is to ensure that all managed system operating systems are running the most current service pack and/or any additional critical security hotfixes. To simplify this process, Microsoft has introduced Software Update Services. See the Microsoft website for more details. Perform similar updates for other managed systems’ operating systems as well.
In summary, to successfully and securely manage desktops, laptops, and workstations per the security measures introduced in the paragraphs above, system administrators should adhere to the following best practices: • Ensure that the operating system is up-to-date with the most recent operating system security patches. • For ASF-capable desktops, either disable ASF or implement SNMP community names that cannot be easily guessed.
NOTE: Even in environments that intend to use only CIM for monitoring, SNMP is typically enabled because Server Administrator only provides error notification using SNMP traps. Security and the SNMP Protocol There are several actions that can be taken to better secure environments using the SNMP protocol. Although the following samples refer to Microsoft Windows operating systems, similar steps can be performed for the Red Hat Enterprise Linux and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server operating systems.
See the Dell OpenManage Server Administrator Command Line Interface User’s Guide on the Dell Support website at support.dell.com/manuals for more information. In summary, to successfully and securely manage servers per the security measures introduced here, system administrators should adhere to the following best practices: • Ensure that the operating system is up-to-date with the most recent operating system security patches. • Implement SNMP community names that cannot be easily guessed.
Running IT Assistant Behind a Firewall Figure 11-1 illustrates a typical installation in which both IT Assistant and the systems being managed reside behind a firewall. The firewall denies passage to traffic on specified ports between the protected network and the rest of the world while still allowing an administrator to communicate freely with both IT Assistant and the managed system.
Setting Up Additional Security for IT Assistant Access So far in this section, security has been addressed with respect to the existing TCP/IP connection between IT Assistant and the managed system. In addition to these security precautions, Microsoft Terminal Services, which allows uncharted remote connection only by users with administrator accounts (administrative mode), can also be used to limit user interface connections to a system running IT Assistant user interface and Services.
The additional level of security is derived by setting up restrictions on all managed systems to only accept SNMP traffic from the IP address of the system running the IT Assistant user interface ([UI] the network management station). Terminal Services and Remote Desktop sessions emulate traffic coming directly from the network management station; therefore, access to IT Assistant is restricted only to Terminal Services clients or a local network management station user.
using SNMP, CIM, or IPMI, as configured. Configure the firewall to enable incoming, as well as outgoing ICMP packets along with the other ports, as required by the protocol used for discovery. Features such as software updates, power monitoring, and so on will work only when additional ports are opened. Table 11-1 lists the IT Assistant ports to be configured. Table 11-1.
Table 11-1. IT Assistant UDP/TCP Default Ports (continued) Port # Protocol Port Version Maximum Direction Usage Type Encryption Level Configurable 80 HTTP TCP 7.x None In/Out IT Assistant contextual application launch— PowerConnect™ console No 135 RPC TCP 7.x None In/Out No Event reception through CIM from Server Administrator— for systems supporting Windows® operating systems 135 RPC TCP 7.
Table 11-1. IT Assistant UDP/TCP Default Ports (continued) Port # Protocol Port Version Maximum Direction Usage Type Encryption Level Configurable 162 SNMP UDP 7.x None Out SNMP trap forwarding action from IT Assistant No 389 LDAP TCP 7.x 128-bit In/Out Domain No authentication for IT Assistant log on 1433 Proprietary TCP 7.x None In/Out Optional remote Yes SQL server access 2606 Proprietary TCP 7.x None In/Out Network Yes monitoring service communication port 2607 HTTPS TCP 7.
Table 11-1. IT Assistant UDP/TCP Default Ports (continued) Port # Protocol Port Version Maximum Direction Usage Type Encryption Level 6389 Proprietary TCP 8.0 214 None In/Out Configurable Enables No communication between a host system (through NaviCLI/NaviSec CLI or Navisphere Host Agent) and a Navisphere Array Agent on a Storage system.
Single Sign-On The Single Sign-On option on Windows systems enables all logged-in users to bypass the login page and access IT Assistant by clicking the IT Assistant icon on the desktop. The desktop icon queries the registry to see if the Automatic Logon with current username and password option is enabled in Internet Explorer. If this option is enabled, then Single Sign-On is executed; otherwise, the normal login page will be displayed.
Role-Based Access Security Management IT Assistant provides security through role-based access control (RBAC), authentication, and encryption. Role-Based Access Control RBAC manages security by determining the operations that can be executed 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.
Assigning User Privileges You do not have to assign user privileges to IT Assistant users before installing IT Assistant. The following procedures provide step-by-step instructions for creating IT Assistant users and assigning user privileges for Windows operating system: CAUTION: You should disable guest accounts for supported Microsoft Windows operating systems in order to protect access to your critical system components. See "Disabling Guest and Anonymous Accounts" for instructions.
9 Type the user name that you are adding and click Check Names to validate. 10 Click OK. New users can log in to IT Assistant with the user privileges for their assigned group. Adding Users to a Domain NOTE: For questions about creating users and assigning user group privileges or for more detailed instructions, see your operating system documentation. NOTE: You must have Active Directory installed on your system to perform the following procedures.
Disabling Guest and Anonymous Accounts NOTE: You must be logged in with Administrator privileges to perform this procedure. 1 If your system is running Windows Server 2003, click the Start button, right-click My Computer, and point to Manage. If your system is running Windows 2000, right-click My Computer and point to Manage. 2 In the console tree, expand Local Users and Groups and click Users. 3 Click the Guest or IUSR_system name user account. 4 Click Action and point to Properties.
Ensuring a Secure Dell OpenManage IT Assistant Installation
Frequently Asked Questions 12 Top IT Assistant Questions The following table lists frequently asked questions and answers. Question Answer What User Datagram See "IT Assistant UDP/TCP Default Ports" for more Protocol (UDP)/ information.
Question Answer Why can’t I see a status update for a device on the IT Assistant user interface (UI)? If IT Assistant detects that the global status of a device has NOT changed on a scheduled status poll, then it will not send a message to the UI. Also, IT Assistant will not send a message to the UI when it checks the status after an incoming event for that device. This behavior is to optimally use resources and to increase the processing speed of the other messages that are sent to the user.
Question Answer Why do I get a Java out of When managing an environment with more than 2000 memory exception? devices, increase the amount of memory allocated to the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) heap. NOTE: The memory should be increased on the system from where you access the IT Assistant Management Station. To do so, close the IT Assistant browser session and go to the Java Control Panel.
Question Answer How do I disable Java caching? To disable Java caching on a Windows system, go to the Windows Control Panel, click the Java icon to display the Java Control Panel, and ensure that the Enable Caching check box in the Java Applet Cache Viewer dialog box is not selected.
Question Answer Why does the MediaType IT Assistant is unable to retrieve MediaType information column display NA instead because of the following reasons: of SSD or HDD? • Managed node has only Dell OpenManage Storage Management Agent installed. • Error occurred during the retrieval of MediaType information through SNMP protocol. Check the SNMP service running on the managed node. Why does IT Assistant display incorrect alert ID for alerts sent from a Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.
Scope and Capabilities of IT Assistant These frequently asked questions cover the general capabilities of IT Assistant, optimizing the UI environment, and discovery configuration. Question Answer Why does IT Assistant show that my discovered system is down during a status poll when it is up? For networks where Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) is prevalent, IT Assistant may show a system as down when it is actually up due to another system obtaining its IP Address.
Question Answer Does IT Assistant manage only Dell systems? Yes. IT Assistant only manages Dell systems that have Dell instrumentation installed and running. However, starting with IT Assistant 8.0, devices that are configured with IPMI 1.5 or later can also be discovered with IT Assistant. Do I have to install IT Assistant on a Dell system? No.
IT Assistant User Interface Question Answer I know that the IT Assistant IT Assistant caches some data and validates the timeUI is set to automatically log out only when gathering new data is required. me out after 30 minutes of being idle. So, why am I able to continue to change menus and views after being logged into IT Assistant after 30 minutes? Why don’t I see all the alerts The IT Assistant UI displays alerts in the Alert Logs on the Alerts tab? view.
Question Answer I cannot log into IT Assistant. Even before logging in, I get the session expiry message. You will receive this message if you have enabled IP version 6 on your operating system. NOTE: By default, IP version 6 is enabled on Windows Vista® and Windows Server® 2008. To rectify this issue in Windows, perform the following steps: 1 Click the Start button. Point to SettingsControl Panel Java. 2 In the Java tab, click View in the Java Applet Runtime Settings section.
Question Answer What do I do if a system does not wake up? To wake up a device, IT Assistant uses the MAC addresses and subnet mask that were discovered for that device. If NIC teaming is configured on the device, only one MAC is advertised by the operating system. For Wake-on-LAN (WOL) to work, WOL must be enabled for all NICs in that team. For a WOL packet to reach its intended destination, directed broadcasting (also known as subnet broadcasting) must be enabled on the intermediate routers.
Question Answer When I export my report to CSV format, Excel doesn’t display the report in a correct view. How can I fix this problem? The reporting system generates all of its output in Unicode format (www.unicode.org). To open the CSV reports, start Microsoft Excel and run the File | Open command, which displays the Import Wizard. Select the comma delimited option to open the report with the data in the correct columns.
Alert Management Question Answer Why is the Alert Log for a managed system empty when I receive alerts and see them displayed in the Alert Logs view? When IT Assistant receives an event with an IP address stored in the event, IT Assistant resolves the event to a name accordingly by using its database of discovered systems (if instrumentation name resolution is preferred) or by using DNS (if DNS resolution is preferred). SNMP traps and CIM indications will always have an IP address to resolve from.
IT Assistant Services Question Answer How does IT Assistant resolve the names of discovered systems? See "Name Resolution" in the Dell OpenManage IT Assistant Online Help. Why am I experiencing a slow logon process after rebooting my system? Are IT Assistant Services causing these performance issues? Ensure that your system meets the minimum system requirements as described in the "Planning Your Dell OpenManage IT Assistant Installation.
IT Assistant Discovery Question Answer Why did the server status icon on IT Assistant not change when the hard disk was removed from a system being managed through Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI)? The Baseboard Management Controller (BMC) must be configured to send a particular hard disk related trap. Configure it manually, by using IPMI or any other related tool, to send the Platform Event Filter (PEF) trap.
Question Answer How do I qualify CIM user names? CIM is enabled/disabled only by discovery range and requires each CIM user to be qualified with a domain or local host if no trusted domain is configured. It is critical to provide this qualification when configuring CIM through a discovery range (for example: \ or localhost\) to authenticate and use the CIM protocol. To upgrade from IT Assistant version 6.x to version 7.
Question Answer If I have multiple protocols bound to one network card, IT Assistant displays multiple entries for that network card under Network Data on the Summary tab of the systems window. This leads me to believe that I have more network cards installed on the system than are actually there. Why does IT Assistant display these multiple entries? This situation is most likely to occur when using pure SNMP to communicate with the managed system.
Question Answer Why does discovery hang If IT Assistant has CIM enabled and is discovering on my CIM-enabled IT managed systems with Dell OpenManage Server Agent Assistant installation? version 4.4 or earlier that are configured for CIM, discovery may hang. You must upgrade the instrumentation for these systems. In the IT Assistant UI, go to Discovery and Monitoring Discovery Configuration to resolve this issue.
Question Answer I have discovered a device by specifying the IP address in the range. The system rebooted and received a new IP address. Though the IP address is in the range, why is the Status displaying the system as down? IT Assistant uses the IP address supplied only during discovery for all operations, such as, Status, Troubleshooting, Tasks, and so on.
Question Answer I stopped the Windows Management Interface (WMI) service. When I restart this service, why do I see the "Unable to connect to device using CIM/SSH" message? This is a normal situation. Data collection will start after fifteen to thirty minutes, as the connections are released once every fifteen minutes.
IPMI Discovery Support Question Answer I have given my system IP address and credentials for Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) discovery, but the discovery still fails. Provide the managed system’s BMC IP address and the BMC credentials (user name, password, and KG Key) NOTE: KG Key is available only on Dell™ x9xx and later systems. I have configured BMC on my managed systems. However, I am still unable to discover these systems. Ensure that you have a LAN connection to the BMC.
Miscellaneous Question Answer I want to run another application on the port on which the IT Assistant Netmon Service is installed. Do I have to uninstall and reinstall IT Assistant? The port number for the DSM IT Assistant Network Monitor service is defined using the Microsoft Windows registry key HKLM\Dell Computer Corporation\Dell OpenManage IT Assistant\Network Monitoring Service\PortNumber.
Question Answer I am not able to receive Array Manager and Storage Management Service events. Storage Management Services and Array Manager do not support CIM. Therefore, IT Assistant does not receive events from storage devices using CIM. To receive storage events, configure Array Manager and Storage Management Service to send SNMP-based events.
Question Answer I am unable to receive VMware® ESX Server® 3.x traps. /usr/lib/vmware/snmp/mibs/*.
Frequently Asked Questions
A Configuring Protocols to Send Information to Dell OpenManage IT Assistant Dell™ OpenManage™ IT Assistant uses three systems management protocols — Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), Common Information Model (CIM), and Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) over LAN. This appendix provides configuration information for these protocols. SNMP and CIM allow IT Assistant to get status for the Dell™ systems using server agents or Dell OpenManage Client Instrumentation (OMCI).
Table A-1. Supported Operating Systems and Systems Management Protocols on Managed Systems Operating System SNMP CIM Microsoft Windows operating system Available from the operating system installation media. Available from the operating system installation media Red Hat® Linux operating system You must install the SNMP package provided with the operating system. Unavailable SUSE® Linux Enterprise You must install the SNMP package Server operating system provided with the operating system.
SNMP Community Names in IT Assistant and Server Administrator For IT Assistant to successfully read information, modify information, and perform actions on a system running Dell OpenManage Server Administrator (the Dell recommended server agent) and/or other supported agents, the community names used by IT Assistant must match the corresponding community read-only (Get) and read/write (Set) community names on the managed system.
3 Click Services. The services list is displayed in the right pane. 4 Locate and double-click SNMP Service. The SNMP Service properties window is displayed. 5 Select the Security tab and click Add under Accepted community names. The SNMP Service Configuration window appears. 6 Select READ ONLY in the Community rights drop-down menu and type a case-sensitive string in the Community name field. 7 Click Add. 8 Select Accept SNMP packets from these hosts, and click Add again.
NOTE: For systems running Windows Server 2003 to be discovered, Microsoft’s standard SNMP configuration on Windows Server 2003 requires SNMP to be configured to accept packages from the IT Assistant host. Change the SNMP Community Name Configuring the SNMP community names determines which systems are able to manage your system through SNMP. 1 If your system is running Windows Server 2003 or later, click the Start button, right-click My Computer, and point to Manage.
Enabling SNMP Set Operations SNMP Set operations must be enabled on the managed system to change Server Administrator attributes using IT Assistant. 1 If your system is running Windows Server 2003 or later, click the Start button, right-click My Computer, and point to Manage. If your system is running Windows 2000, right-click My Computer, and point to Manage. The Computer Management window appears. 2 Expand the Computer Management icon in the window, if necessary.
4 Scroll down the list of services until you find SNMP Service, right-click SNMP Service, and click Properties. The SNMP Service Properties window appears. 5 Click the Traps tab to add a community for traps or to add a trap destination for a trap community. 6 To add a community for traps, type the community name in the Community Name box and click Add to list. 7 To add a trap destination for a trap community, select the community name from the Community Name drop-down menu and click Add.
Changing the SNMP Community Name Correctly configuring SNMP community names determines which IT Assistant services systems are able to communicate with managed systems in your network. The SNMP community name used by IT Assistant must match an SNMP community name configured on a managed system so that IT Assistant can successfully read from, write to, and perform actions on managed systems in your network. To change the SNMP community name, edit the SNMP agent configuration file, /etc/snmp/snmpd.
Enabling SNMP Set Operations SNMP Set operations must be enabled on the system running Server Administrator in order to change Server Administrator attributes using IT Assistant. To enable SNMP Set operations on the system running Server Administrator, edit the SNMP agent configuration file, /etc/snmp/snmpd.conf (/etc/snmpd.
3 Find the line that start with sysLocation. 4 Change the line to #sysLocation. Configuring Your Managed Systems to Send Traps to IT Assistant Managed system agents such as Server Administrator generate SNMP traps in response to changes in the status of sensors and other monitored parameters on a managed system. For IT Assistant to receive these traps, one or more trap destinations must be configured on the managed system.
Setting Up SNMP on VMware ESX 3.5 server to Send Traps to IT Assistant Follow the steps below to configure SNMP for the ESX server to send traps to IT Assistant: 1 Download VMware remote command line interface tool (RCLI) from the VMware website.
Setting Up SNMP on VMware ESX Server 4.0 and Later For Discovery 1 Download the VMware remote command line interface tool (RCLI) from the VMware website at www.vmware.com. You can download either a Virtual Appliance, RCLI tools for Linux, or RCLI tools for Windows operating system.
7 Restart mgmt-vmware. This takes a few minutes before the service is started. service mgmt-vmware restart 8 Restart the SNMP service. Service snmpd start 9 To sustain a system reboot, start the snmpd service.
Table A-2. Parameters for the Sample Script Parameter Description -c|--community Community name -p|--port Port Number -t|--target Target value for sending traps -f|--force Overwrite and already configured port -d|--Debug Debug mode -l|--LogFile Name of the log file with complete path information. The default log file is /tmp/ita_esx4_snmp_setup.log -v|--Verbose level (minimal=0 (errors only), default=1 (error and warning), maximum=2 (all types of errors)) -h|--help Displays the help.
Setting Up CIM CIM is available only on supported Microsoft Windows operating systems. NOTE: Dell OpenManage Server Administrator sends events to IT Assistant as SNMP traps. It does not send CIM indications for either instrumentation or storage events from a server. Setting Up CIM on Your Managed Systems This subsection provides steps for setting up CIM on managed systems running supported Windows operating systems. For more information, see "Configuring CIM for Manageability.
For Managed Systems Running Windows 2000 NOTE: The WMI core is installed with Windows 2000 by default. 1 Click StartSettingsControl PanelAdministrative Tools Computer Management. 2 In the Computer Management (Local) tree, expand the Local Users and Groups branch and click the Users folder. 3 On the menu bar, click Action and then click New User. a In the New User dialog box, fill in the required information fields with the user name and password – for example, CIMUser and DELL.
The following steps detail how to create a local user. Dell highly recommends that you create a domain user with administrative rights so that you do not have to manually add a user to every client. This will simplify the creation of discovery ranges in IT Assistant. 1 Click StartSettingsControl PanelAdministrative Tools Computer Management. 2 In the Computer Management (Local) tree, expand the Local Users and Groups branch and click the Users folder.
3 On the menu bar, click Action and then click New User. a In the New User dialog box, fill in the required information fields with the user name CIMUser and password DELL. b Ensure that you clear (deselect) the User must change password at next logon check box. c Click Create. 4 In the right pane of the Computer Management dialog box, double-click CIMUser. You may have to scroll through the list to locate CIMUser. 5 In the CIMUser Properties dialog box, click the Member Of tab. 6 Click Add.
4 Click the Remote Access object. The BMC information window is displayed. 5 Click the Configuration tab. Under the Configuration tab, select Enable NIC and Enable IPMI Over LAN, and provide the New Encryption Key. NOTE: The value of the New Encryption Key (or the KG key) is a hexadecimal value. However, KG Key is applicable only on DellPowerEdge x9xx and later systems, which support IPMI version 2.0. By default, KG Key is disabled on the BMC. 6 Click the Users tab.
3 Select LAN Parameters and press . • Provide a hexadecimal value for RMCP+ Encryption Key. • Enable LAN Alert. • Provide the Alert Destination. This is the IP address of the management station to which you want to send alerts. 4 Press to return to the Remote Access Configuration Utility. 5 Select LAN User Configuration and press . Set this value to On. 6 Specify the user name and password.
Utilities in Dell OpenManage IT Assistant B Dell™ OpenManage™ IT Assistant has three utilities: • Import Node List Utility • Database Management Utility • Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) Event Source Import Utility IT Assistant Import Node List Utility The Import Node List utility allows you to create a file that defines a discovery list comprised of managed devices, IP addresses, or IP address ranges.
2 Define a template that will be applied to one or more discovery ranges. You define the template by entering a discovery range with the host name of default_template. The import node list utility applies the protocol settings defined in this template to each discovery item in the file. 3 Run the utility from the command line. (The import node utility is located in the IT Assistant /bin directory.) Specify the filename for the file you created and, optionally, the template name.
The last line of the file must have a line feed in it. You can also use any combination of the subnet formats supported by the IT Assistant user interface. It is important to make sure that each entry is the correct format because the import node list utility does not check and validate the format for you. 2 Save the file and specify a filename, for example, nodelist.txt. Sample Import Node List Utility Commands Import the nodes from the file nodelist.txt: importnodelist nodelist.
Using Multiple Templates The import node list utility supports the use of multiple templates, where different entries in the file may each use different protocol settings and require different templates. The following import file provides an example for using multiple templates: #This is a comment (a "#" sign at the beginning of the line means to ignore #the line). 23.45.65.34,template1 23.45.65.35,template1 hostname1 hostname2,template2 23.34.55.*,template2 12.34.56.
Saving Templates If multiple templates are needed to correctly configure a file of node entries, it is possible to set up the templates in IT Assistant, then export the settings for backup or some other purpose. The database management utility, dcdbmng.exe, is located in IT Assistant's /bin directory. This utility allows you to import, export, and clear IT Assistant database tables. To export templates, perform the following steps: 1 Configure all required templates in IT Assistant.
Database Management Utility The Dell OpenManage IT Assistant Database Management Utility has two implementations: a graphical user interface (GUI) and a command line interface. Both versions of the utility allow users to perform operations on databases and tables that reside in the IT Assistant data repository. NOTE: The IT Assistant 6.x database schema is not directly compatible with the IT Assistant 7.x database schema. Only certain tables in the IT Assistant 6.
This command displays a dialog box that lists commands that you can use to do the following: • Install the appropriate database engine (Microsoft® Data Engine (MSDE) for IT Assistant version 7.x and earlier or SQL Server 2005 Express Edition SP2 for IT Assistant version 8.2 and later). • Start and stop the database engine. • Attach and detach database files to and from the database engine. • Import and export tables and databases.
Detach Database • Command: dcdbmng /R or dcdbmng /r • Description: Detaches the attached database file from the SQL Server 2005 Express Edition SP2 or the SQL 2005 Server SP2. NOTE: The detached database file remains in the location from where it was attached to the SQL Server 2005 Express Edition SP2 or the SQL Server 2005 SP2.
Install MSDE • Command: dcdbmng /N or dcdbmng /n • Description: Silently installs MSDE. NOTE: The MSDEx85.exe and iss files must be placed in the correct location. Start Server • Command: dcdbmng /T or dcdbmng /t • Description: Starts the MSSQLServer service. Stop Server • Command: dcdbmng /P or dcdbmng /p • Description: Stops the MSSQLServer service.
Ensure that the text file format complies with the following formatting rules: 1 The format for the usage of the utility must be: ImportEventSources.exe 2 All values of a particular Event Source must be bar-separated. 3 Each Event Source entry must be on a separate line.
--#SUMMARY "Generic Critical Fan Failure" --#ARGUMENTS {} --#SEVERITY CRITICAL ::= 262402 The conversion process is as follows: EventCategory : Environmental NOTE: IT Assistant has a set of pre-defined categories (Environmental, General Redundancy, Keyboard-Video-Mouse (KVM), Memory, Physical Disk, Power, Printers, Processor, Security, Storage Enclosure, Storage Peripheral, Storage Software, System Events, Tape, Virtual Disk, and Other). The event could fall under any of these categories.
Utilities in Dell OpenManage IT Assistant
C Status Indicators This appendix describes the indicators that display on the IT Assistant user interface (UI). Device Group Status and Health Indicators Table C-1. Device Group Status and Health Indicators Group is empty. Group contains only healthy systems. All systems are powered on. Group contains at least one system with a warning condition. All systems are powered on. Group contains at least one system with a critical condition. All systems are powered on.
System and Device Status and Health Indicators Table C-2. System and Device Status and Health Indicators System has an unknown health condition. System or device is healthy. System or device has a warning condition. System or device has a critical condition. System or device is a VMware® ESX Server® virtual machine. System or device is powered on. System is powered down, last detected condition was unknown. System is powered down, last detected condition was healthy.
Table C-3. Alert Severity Indicators (continued) Warning alert Critical alert Alert Acknowledgement Indicators Table C-4. Alert Ackowledgement Indicators Alert acknowledged Alert Action Indicators Table C-5. Alert Action Indicators Alert action is of type application launch. Alert action is of type e-mail. Alert action is of type trap forwarding. Task Scheduling Indicators Table C-6. Task Scheduling Indicators Schedule is enabled. Schedule not enabled.
Execution Logs Indicators Task Execution Log Indicators Table C-7. Task Execution Log Indicators Task is running. Task completed successfully. Task failed. (In Task Execution Summary) Task executed with no errors, but required user intervention, such as reboot, to complete the task. Task was stopped. Performance and Power Monitoring Log Indicators Table C-8. Performance and Power Monitoring Log Indicators Attribute value retrieved successfully. Unable to retrieve attribute value.
Application Log Indicators Table C-9. Application Logs Indicators Informational message Warning message. Critical message. Update Log Indicators Table C-10. Update Logs Indicators Online Synchronization is in progress. Online Synchronization completed successfully. Online Synchronization completed with errors. Discovery Ranges Indicators Include Ranges Indicators Table C-11. Include Ranges Indicators Scheduled discovery and inventory is enabled. Scheduled discovery and inventory is disabled.
Performance and Power Monitoring Indicators Table C-12. Performance and Power Monitoring Indicators Task is running. Task is yet to start or has paused. Task completed successfully. Attribute value has exceeded its warning threshold. Attribute value has exceeded its critical threshold. Failed to collect values for one or more attributes. Software Updates Indicators Table C-13. Software Update Indicators Repository Read-only repository Customization attribute for the view. Update Package in the repository.
Table C-13. Software Update Indicators (continued) Custom Bundle in IT Assistant repository. System bundle in Online Repository that has not been downloaded, but referenced in the last synchronized catalog. Repository Comparison Results Indicators Table C-14. Repository Comparison Results Indicators Source version of update package/ bundle is lower than target version. Source version of update package/ bundle is higher than target version. Exact match of the update package/bundle.
Table C-15. Import Dialog Indicators (continued) Import failed Favorite Application Indicators Table C-16. Favorite Application Indicators Executable favorite application launch. Web address (URL) favorite application launch. Troubleshooting Tool Indicators Table C-17. Troubleshooting Test Result Indicators Test successful Test failed Task Import Result Indicators Table C-18. Task Import Result Indicators Selected task has been imported successfully. Selected task already exists.
Device Compliance Result Indicators Table C-19. Device Compliance Result Indicators Device version is equal to the update package/bundle version in the repository. Device version is lower than the version of the update package/bundle in the repository. Device version is higher than the version of the update package/bundle in the repository. Device version does not meet the pre-requisite for the update package/bundle.
Status Indicators
Index A D adding users, 218 Database Management Utility, 270 agents on systems, 53 alert filters, 18 Alert Management FAQ, 232 ASF, 46, 157, 204 database schema information, 173 disabling users, 219 Discovery FAQ, 234 DMI support, 24 C CIM, 86, 245 Dynamic VMware Host Group, 35 Classic View, 42 Compliance Tool, 35 E configuring discovery cycle, 107 discovery ranges, 98, 113 discovery settings, 95, 110 inventory settings, 96, 111 SNMP, 108, 246 status polling settings, 97, 112 system to send SNMP t
H troubleshooting tool, 26 user authentication, 24 user preferences, 27 hardware configuration, 50 HTTP, 212 HTTPS, 213 I Import Node List utility, 265 installation prerequisites, 47 database, 51 operating system, 49 summary, 60 systems management protocols, 52 IT Assistant Services FAQ, 233 IT Assistant UI FAQ, 228 L LDAP, 213 M managing tasks, 173 Modular Disks, 52-53, 90 installing IT Assistant, 66 SNMP, 64 N IPMI command line, 155, 157 network management station, 23 IT Assistant components IT
R RBAC, 66, 83 RDP, 213 remote client instrumentation command line, 155 remote management identifying groups, 17 best practices, 85 optimal configuration, 86 software deployment, 158 software updates, 139, 164 using, 140, 149 SQL server, 51 SQL Server 2005 Express, 51 Remote Microsoft SQL Server and IT Assistant, 73 SSH, 211 reports creating, 171 customized reports, 18 editing, deleting, running, 172 pre-defined, 167 systems management protocol, 52 CIM, 52 SNMP, 52 RMC, 213 RMCP, 89, 158 RPC, 212 sta
user privileges, 216 users adding, 218 creating, 217 disabling, 219 using IT Assistant, 94 using software updates, 149 V views of systems, 18 W Web packs, 160 Windows authentication, 216 290 Index
