Setting up HP Operations Manager for Agent-Free Monitoring of Dell PowerEdge 12th Generation Servers

This post offers guidance towards setting up HP Operations Manager (HPOM) for agent-free monitoring of 12^th Generation Dell PowerEdge Servers. Dell PowerEdge 12th Generation servers are equipped with integrated Dell Remote Access Controller, version 7 (iDRAC7) with Lifecycle Controller, an innovative agent-free systems management solution, which automates day-to-day IT management functions.  With iDRAC7, you can monitor, troubleshoot and remediate servers, receive server issue alerts with improved error messaging, and remove any dependency on operating systems or in-band management agents such as that provided by Dell’s legacy OpenManage Server Administrator (OMSA). The iDRAC7 with its built-in agent-free, embedded management makes OMSA unnecessary. 

Agent-Free monitoring provides these benefits:

• Monitoring servers even if an operating system is not installed.
• Monitoring servers even when the operating system is down.
• Monitoring servers without the need for OMSA or any other software agents.
• Viewing server health status using iDRAC7.
• Support for Dell PowerEdge 12th generation server traps through iDRAC7.
• iDRAC7 console launch support to launch the appropriate console to further troubleshoot a particular server.
• iDRAC7 console launch support to remotely install an operating system.

Agent-Free monitoring of Dell servers is a licensed feature in Dell Smart Plug-in (SPI) version 3.0 which offers out-of-band monitoring of 12th generation Dell PowerEdge servers via their embedded server management component, the integrated Dell Remote Access Controller (iDRAC), version 7 with Lifecycle Controller.

To set up an iDRAC7 as a managed node to monitor the corresponding Dell server in out-of-band mode from HP Operations Manager, you need to do the following steps:

• Enable SNMP and Configure SNMP by setting Trap destination to the Management Station Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN), or hostname to receive the traps.
• Set the SNMP community string.

Please refer to the Links section of this document for the iDRAC7 installation guide.

To install the Dell Smart Plug-in (SPI) version 3.0 on an HPOM management server: 

1. Download the Dell SPI installer from the Dell support website at support.dell.com @ http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/us/en/04/DriverDetails?driverId=8MKPP
2. Run the Dell Smart Plug-in v3.0_x64.msi after extracting Dell Smart Plug-in v3.0_A00.exe
3. After clicking “Next” in the welcome screen, accept the license agreement and then click Next again.
4. In the custom screen, select one or both of the below options:
   1. Monitor Dell Servers, DRACs, Chassis
   2. Monitor Dell Storage
      
      Note: For Agent Free monitoring of Dell PowerEdge 12^th Generation Server, the option  “Monitor Dell Servers, DRACs, Chassis“should be selected.
5. Click Next after selecting the options as mentioned above.  Then select “yes” to auto deploy the policy files during installation.
   
   Note: If “autodeploy” is selected, all the policies will be deployed by the installer and if the  option is not selected, policies will be installed in the Management Station, but will not be deployed and all the required policies needs to be manually deployed.
   

6. Click “Install” option and then click “Finish”.

The Dell SPI Licenses are different from iDRAC7 licenses. For purchasing these licenses, please contact your local Dell sales representative.

Licenses are required to use the Agent free monitoring feature of Dell SPI for HP OM; these licenses are different from iDRAC7 licenses.  They may be purchased from Dell Sales, and will be delivered to you via email, or you can download them from the Dell online portals.

 To use the licenses, you will need to install the Dell Connections License Manager.  This product is used for distributing licenses to all Dell Connections products deployed at a customer site.  If you already have a Dell Connections License Manager (DCLM), simply import the purchased Agent-Free monitoring HPOM SPI licenses into it.  If you do not have one, setup a new Dell Connections License Manager using the instruction manuals at support.dell.com. Refer the Links section. 

 Configuring the Dell Connections License Manager (DCLM) using Dell Smart Plug-in (SPI) Configuration Utility         

The Dell SPI Config Utility can be used to configure the DCLM configuration parameters such as    username, password and Web service URL.

1. Launch the command prompt on the management server.
2. Navigate to DellSPIConfigUtility.exe location.
   
   The default location is C:\Program Files\Dell\OpenManage Connection for HP.
   
   

   Now set the Dell connections license manager web services parameters.  For this, you need the following:

   1. HTTP server/port (http://10.94.149.110:8543/) where the license manager is installed and configured
   2. User credentials to access the licenses from the DCLM.  To do this, select a domain user (example: mycompany\dellspiuser) and add the user to one of the Dell Connections License groups in your active directory environment as per DCLM guidelines.
   3. Then, use the following SPI utility to configure the server details:

   DellSPIConfigUtility.exe -dclmwebserviceurl=http://10.94.149.110:8543/ -dclmusername= mycompany\dellspiuser
   
   

3. The utility prompts you to enter the Dell Connections License Manager password.

4. Enter the password.

5. You must enter the password second time to verify whether you have entered the password correctly.
   
   Note - When you want to modify the password, the utility prompts you to enter the old password and then the new password twice.

          For monitoring Dell servers through the iDRAC7 device, you need to configure the iDRAC7 IP address as either a Managed Node or an External Node with the required details via the Node Editor as per HP Operations Manager guidelines. Once the node details are updated, save and close the Node editor. Please confirm that the iDRAC7 node is successfully added in the HPOM console.

The HPOM framework provides scheduled task policies which allow you to schedule commands to run on the management station.

 The scheduled task policy “Policy management->Policy groups->SPI for Dell Devices ->Dell Hardware Autogroup Policy” is used to classify the Dell devices in the HPOM console. The default interval of this policy is once a week on Sundays at 04:00.

Once you acquire the license using the Dell Connections License Manager configuration, you can change the interval to any time as required and deploy the policy manually as per the HPOM guidelines to classify the iDRAC7 devices in the console. Please ensure the policy is updated to the latest version once the modification is done, and deploy the latest version of the policy to the HPOM Management Server. Once the policy is deployed successfully, the policy will be executed at the scheduled interval and the iDRAC7 device will be classified in the HPOM console.

The scheduled task policy“Policy management->Policy groups->SPI for Dell   Devices->Dell Server->Dell Server Scheduled Status Poll” is used for periodic monitoring of Dell Servers. The default interval of this policy is once per day.

Once the classification is done, you can change the interval to any time desired, and then deploy the policy manually per the HPOM guidelines. Please make sure the policy is updated to the latest version once the modification is done and then deploy the latest version of the policy to the HPOM Management Station. Once the policy is deployed successfully, the policy will be executed at the scheduled interval and the health status message will be generated and associated to the iDRAC7 Global System Service ID.

 Out of Band Server Traps SNMP Interceptor  Policy:

The SNMP Interceptor policy“Policy management->Policy groups->SPI for Dell   Devices->Dell Server->Dell OOB Server Traps (Manual Ack)” is used for supporting server traps. Server SNMP Traps are intercepted by this policy and the corresponding alert messages are generated in the HPOM console and will be associated to the corresponding Managed Node in the node hierarchy.

 Appendix:

Links

Refer to the following links:

• Dell OpenManage Connection for HP Operations Manager
• OpenManage Connections for 3rd Party Console Integration Forum