Concept Guide

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Systems Management Product Overview
This section provides an overview for the Dell Systems Management suite of products.
Dell Hardware Management Tools
The following table lists the hardware management tools and the supported operating systems:
Table 1. Dell Hardware Management Tools
Product Windows Linux ESXi
Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller with
Lifecycle Controller
Yes Yes Yes
Dell Chassis Management Controller for Servers Yes Yes Yes
Dell OpenManage Server Administrator Yes Yes Yes
iDRAC Service Module Yes Yes Yes
Baseboard Management Controller Management
Utilities
Yes Yes No
Dell OpenManage Client Instrumentation Yes Yes No
Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller With Lifecycle Controller
The Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller (iDRAC) is designed to enhance the productivity of server
administrators and improve the overall availability of Dell servers. iDRAC achieves this by alerting
administrators about the server problems, enabling remote server management, and reducing the need
for an administrator to physically visit the server.
iDRAC with Lifecycle Controller allows administrators to deploy, update, monitor and manage Dell
servers from any location without the use of agents in a one-to-one or one-to-many method. This out-
of-band management allows the updates to be sent from Dell or appropriate third-party consoles directly
to iDRAC with Lifecycle Controller on a Dell PowerEdge server, regardless of the operating system that
may or may not be running.
• The Lifecycle Controller console provides local one-to-one deployment for operating system
installation, updates, configuration, and for performing diagnostics on single local servers. This
eliminates the need for multiple option ROMs for hardware configuration.
• The Lifecycle Controller Remote Services further enables remote systems management in a one-to-
many method. Remote Services are accessible over the network using the secure Web services
interface and can be programmatically utilized by applications and scripts. Remote services enable
management consoles to perform one-to-many bare-metal server provisioning. The combination of
the Auto-discovery feature to identify and authenticate the attached Dell system to the network and
integration with one‑to-many management consoles reduces the manual steps required for server
setup and management. The interface is aimed at simplifying many tasks, some of which include
remotely deploying an operating system, remote update and inventory, and remotely automating the
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