Dell Command | Monitor Version 9.
Notes, cautions, and warnings NOTE: A NOTE indicates important information that helps you make better use of your computer. CAUTION: A CAUTION indicates either potential damage to hardware or loss of data and tells you how to avoid the problem. WARNING: A WARNING indicates a potential for property damage, personal injury, or death. Copyright © 2008 - 2015 Dell Inc. All rights reserved. This product is protected by U.S. and international copyright and intellectual property laws.
Contents 1 Introduction........................................................................................................... 5 Dell Command | Monitor overview...................................................................................................... 5 Dell Command | Monitor architecture................................................................................................. 6 What's new in this release..................................................................................
BIOS management profile.............................................................................................................16 Boot control...................................................................................................................................16 Base desktop mobile..................................................................................................................... 16 Log record.................................................................................
Introduction 1 Client Instrumentation refers to software applications that enable remote management of a client system. The Dell Command | Monitor software application enables remote management using application programs to access the enterprise client system information, monitor the status, or change the state of the system such as remotely shutting down the system.
NOTE: Default installation does not enable SNMP support. For more information on enabling SNMP support, see Dell Command | Monitor Installation Guide at dell.com/ dellclientcommandsuitemanuals. Dell Command | Monitor architecture Dell Command | Monitor data provider collects client system information data and stores the information in the proprietary Extensible Markup Language (XML) format. The data manager is a service that loads these providers based on request.
• Support for new platforms. • Installer support for the additional languages. • Updated SCCM MOF as per supported Attributes.
• Remote modification of system settings • Monitoring of system health and reports status • RAID monitoring and alerting for Intel and LSI controllers. • SNMP monitoring and traps CIM 2.17 schema support Dell Command | Monitor conforms to the CIM 2.17 Schema, and includes two WMI providers: • WMI Indication Provider or Polling Agent • WMI Instance or Method Provider BIOS configuration Dell Command | Monitor provides the ability to configure a system BIOS, including management of its boot order.
Remote wake-up configuration Dell Command | Monitor supports configuration of remote wake-up settings. Remote wake-up is a function of the client system and Network Interface Card (NIC). Remote modification of system settings Dell Command | Monitor allows administrators to retrieve and set business client BIOS settings such as USB port configuration, boot order, and NIC settings.
Standards and protocols 2 Dell Command | Monitor uses Microsoft Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) and enables Web Services-Management (WSMAN) protocols. Dell Command | Monitor uses Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) to describe several variables of the system.
SNMP does not define what information (which variables) a managed system should offer. Rather, SNMP uses an extensible design, where the list of available information is defined by management information bases (MIBs). MIBs describe the structure of the management data of a device and its subsystems. MIBs use a hierarchical namespace containing object identifiers (OID). Each OID identifies a variable that can be read through SNMP.
WSMAN is a protocol that provides an abstraction layer to access the CIM information. The reason is that the console can use WSMAN to communicate with in-band or out-of-band systems to gather asset inventory and to set information or run methods. In in-band systems, the WSMAN layer also abstracts the operating system present underneath. However, Dell Command | Monitor does not require WSMAN and it does not directly enable WSMAN as it is only a protocol.
System requirements 3 This chapter provides information about the hardware and software requirements of Dell Command | Monitor. Hardware requirement Requirement Details System Enterprise client system with SMBIOS 2.3 or later. Software requirements Requirement Details Supported operating system • • • • • Microsoft Windows 10 Microsoft Windows 8.1 Microsoft Windows 8 Microsoft Windows 7 Microsoft Windows Vista Supported framework • Microsoft .NET 4.
User scenarios 4 This chapter describes the various user scenarios of Dell Command | Monitor. You can use Dell Command | Monitor for: • Asset management • Configuration management • Health monitoring • Profiles Scenario 1: Asset management A company that uses many Dell systems was not able to maintain accurate inventory information because of changes in the business and IT staff.
Scenario 2: Configuration management A company plans to standardize the client platform and manage each system through its lifecycle. As part of this effort, the company acquires a suite of tools, and plans to automate the deployment of a new client operating system using the Preboot Execution Environment (PXE). The challenge is to modify the boot order setting in the BIOS of each client computer without manually visiting the desktop.
Scenario 4: Profiles IT administrators are required to manage client systems in multi-vendor and distributed enterprise environments. They face challenges as they must master a diverse set of tools and applications while managing several desktop and mobile client systems in various networks.
• Reboot the system. Run the DCIM_ComputerSystem.RequestStateChange() method and set the RequestedState parameter value to 11. • Determine the power state of the system. • Determine the number of processors in the system by querying DCIM_Processor, instances which are associated with the Central Instance through the DCIM_SystemDevice association. • Get the system time. Run the DCIM_TimeService.ManageTime() method and set the GetRequest parameter to True.
Using Dell Command | Monitor 5 You can view the information provided by Dell Command | Monitor by accessing: • root\dcim\sysman (standard) Dell Command | Monitor provides the information through classes in these namespaces. For more information on the classes, see Dell Command | Monitor Reference Guide at dell.com/ dellclientcommandsuitemanuals.
Dell Command | Monitor from version 9.0 has been modified to use an OID that is specific to client OID (10909) for consoles to identify client systems. For more information on SNMP, see Dell Command | Monitor SNMP Reference Guide at dell.com/ dellclientcommandsuitemanuals. Detecting advance format drives Client systems are transitioning to Advanced Format (AF) drives for larger storage capacity and to address the limitations of 512-byte sector hard drives (HDDs).
DCIM_BootSourceSetting This class represents the boot devices or sources. The ElementName, BIOSBootString, and StructuredBootString properties contain a string that identifies the boot devices. For example, floppy, hard disk, CD/DVD, network, Personal Computer Memory Card International Association (PCMCIA), Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV), or USB. Based on the boot list type of the device, an instance of DCIM_BootSourceSetting is associated with one of the instances of DCIM_BootConfigSetting.
You can run these methods using winrm, VB script, PowerShell commands, wmic, wbemtest.exe, and WMI wbemtest. You can set BIOS attributes using the SetBIOSAttributes method. The procedure is explained below using a task of enabling the Trusted Platform Module (TPM) as an example. NOTE: Make sure the TPM option is cleared in the BIOS before following the procedure to enable the TPM. To enable TPM: 1.
Frequently asked questions 6 How to find the boot order (sequence) of the boot configuration using DCIM_OrderedComponent.AssignedSequence property? When a DCIM_BootConfigSetting instance (Legacy or UEFI) has multiple DCIM_BootSourceSetting instances (boot devices) associated with it through instances of the DCIM_OrderedComponent association, the value of the DCIM_OrderedComponent.
How do I run TechCenter scripts without any issues? The following are the prerequisites while executing the VBS scripts provided in Dell Command | Monitor Techcenter link: 1. Please configure winrm on the system using the command winrm quickconfig. 2. Check if the token support exists on the system by referring to: • The F2 Screen in BIOS Setup. • Using tool like wbemtest to check the key value define in the script to be existing on the system.
Can Dell Command | Monitor be integrated with other applications/consoles? Yes, Dell Command | Monitor interfaces with leading enterprise management consoles that support industry standards. It can be integrated with the following existing enterprise management tools: • Dell Client Integration Suite for System Center 2012 • Dell OpenManage Essentials • Dell Client Management Pack for System Center Operation Manager Can I import classes into SCCM for inventory? Yes, individual MOFs or OMCI_SMS_DEF.
Troubleshooting 7 Unable to remotely connect to Windows Management Instrumentation If Common Information Model (CIM) information for a remote client computer system is not available to the management application or if a remote BIOS update that uses Distributed Component Object Model (DCOM) fails, the following error messages are displayed: • Access Denied • Win32:RPC server is unavailable 1. Verify that the client system is connected to the network.
NOTE: Dell recommends using Dell OpenManage Essentials as replacement for IT Assistant. For more information on Dell OpenManage Essentials see, dell.com/ dellclientcommandsuitemanuals. 5. Perform the following steps to modify user privilege levels for connecting remotely to a system’s WMI: a. b. c. d. e. f. 6. Click Start → Run, type compmgmt.msc, and then click OK. Browse to WMI Control under Services and Applications. Right-click WMI Control, and then click Properties.
Contacting Dell 8 NOTE: If you do not have an active Internet connection, you can find contact information on your purchase invoice, packing slip, bill, or Dell product catalog. Dell provides several online and telephone-based support and service options. Availability varies by country and product, and some services may not be available in your area. To contact Dell for sales, technical support, or customer service issues: 1. Go to support.dell.com. 2. Select your support category. 3.
a. Go to dell.com/support/home. b. Under Select a product section, click Software & Security. c. In the Software & Security group box, click the required link from the following: – Enterprise Systems Management – Remote Enterprise Systems Management – Serviceability Tools – Dell Client Command Suite – Connections Client Systems Management d. • To view a document, click the required product version. Using search engines: – Type the name and version of the document in the search box.
