Technical Whitepaper Dell EMC Repository Manager Integration with Dell EMC OpenManage Enterprise Firmware-update lifecycle and baseline management with custom repositories created using Dell EMC Repository Manager integration with Dell EMC OpenManage Enterprise Abstract This technical whitepaper provides information about assessing and achieving firmware compliance by using custom repositories.
Revisions Revisions Date Description March 2019 Initial release Acknowledgements This paper was produced by the following: Author: Anil Kumar V K R, Hemant Gaikwad Support: Other: The information in this publication is provided “as is.” Dell Inc. makes no representations or warranties of any kind with respect to the information in this publication, and specifically disclaims implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
Table of contents Table of contents Revisions.............................................................................................................................................................................2 Acknowledgements .............................................................................................................................................................2 Table of contents .................................................................................................
Executive summary Executive summary Firmware update is one of the critical activities in device monitoring and management that helps you keep the environment up-to-date and compliant. It also protects the devices against vulnerabilities and fixes bugs. Dell EMC OpenManage Enterprise enables you to regularly check the compliance of devices and upgrade or roll back, as necessary.
1 Introduction Dell EMC Repository Manager (DRM) is an application that allows you to create customized bundles and repositories on systems running the Microsoft Windows operating system and the Linux Operating system. The customized bundles and repositories are made up of Dell Update Packages (DUPs) based on certain specified criteria. DUPs are software utilities provided by Dell to update specific software components on Dell devices.
2 Purpose and Scope This technical whitepaper provides information about assessing and achieving firmware compliance using custom repositories. The custom repositories are created using a seamless integration between Dell EMC Repository Manager and Dell EMC OpenManage Enterprise.
3 Terminology The following terms will be used throughout this document Table 1 Dell EMC Repository Manager Terminology Dell Update Catalog A metadata file to define all elements of a Dell update repository. The catalog file is in XML format or a .cab file containing a catalog XML file. For Dell EMC server platforms, the Dell online catalog file is Catalog.cab while for Dell business client systems, it is CatalogPC.cab. DRM can save a catalog in XML or CAB formats.
4 Configuring Dell EMC OpenManage Enterprise repository using Dell EMC Repository Manager Here we discuss about the detailed procedure of configuring the Dell EMC OpenManage repository using DRM. Assuming that you already have Dell EMC OpenManage Enterprise application installed and your Dell devices discovered and managed through the application, the procedure would walk you through installation, configuration and then integration of DRM. 4.
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4.3.1 Integration of OpenManage Enterprise with DRM when DRM version is less than 3.2 ▪ On the Home page, click Add New Repository. Add Repository window is displayed.
▪ On the Integration tab, enter the Repository Name and Description. Figure 2: Entering repository details ▪ ▪ 11 From the DUP Format check-boxes, select the formats that you want to include in the repository. From the Integration Type drop-down menu, select the product option, Dell Console Integration, with which you want to integrate.
Fig 3: Integration Type ▪ 12 Based on the “Dell Console Integration” product selection the following options are displayed.
Fig 4: Console Integration details ▪ ▪ ▪ 13 In the URL specify the integration URL o https:///api/DRMInventoryService o where IP Address is the IP Address of the OpenManage Enterprise application Specify the OpenManage Enterprise username and password along with proxy settings if required. After selecting the required option click Connect.
Fig 5: Repository creation by selecting specific group ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ 14 DRM would connect to the OpenManage Enterprise application and collect information about all the devices currently managed by that instance of OpenManage Enterprise. After DRM has gathered the device information, in the Integration Type section it would list all the group that are currently configured in OpenManage Enterprise.
Fig 6: Repository creation in progress for devices from selected group ▪ The repository would be populated for the devices part of the selected group/s and once complete this repository would be displayed in the repository dashboard available on the home page.
4.3.2 Integration of OpenManage Enterprise with DRM when DRM version is 3.2 or Higher ▪ On the Home page, click Add New Repository. Add Repository window is displayed.
▪ On the Integration tab, enter the Repository Name and Description. Figure 9: Entering repository details ▪ 17 From the DUP Format check-boxes, select the formats that you want to include in the repository.
▪ From the Integration Type drop-down menu, select the product option, Dell OpenManage Enterprise, with which you want to integrate.
▪ Based on the “Dell OpenManage Enterprise” product selection the following options are displayed.
▪ After selecting the required option click Connect. Fig 12: Repository creation by selecting specific group ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ 20 DRM would connect to the OpenManage Enterprise application and collect information about all the devices currently managed by that instance of OpenManage Enterprise.
Fig 13: Repository creation in progress for devices from selected group ▪ The repository would be populated for the devices part of the selected group/s and once complete this repository would be displayed in the repository dashboard available on the home page. Fig 14: Repository created for every device component 4.4 Export Repository This section describes the process to export the custom repository that you created using the steps mentioned in the above sections.
Fig 15: Export Repository ▪ ▪ The repositories that you select is displayed in the Selected Repositories section. Select option Share as the required Deployment Tool Type and click Create. Click Browse to select the location to download the DUPs and catalogs. Fig 16: Catalog share location ▪ ▪ ▪ 22 Optional: Select the Export only catalog checkbox if you would like to export only the catalog Click Export. An Export job is created in DRM for this operation.
▪ To check the status of the Export job, navigate to the Jobs page. Fig 17: Navigation to Jobs page ▪ To check the job details, click on Show log for that specific Export job. Fig 18: Export job status ▪ 23 A job success message would be displayed in the job log once the Export job is completed successfully and all the files are uploaded to the selected share location.
Fig 19: Export job completion 24 Dell EMC Repository Manager Integration with Dell EMC OpenManage Enterprise | Technical white paper
5 Conclusion It is easy to configure the integration between Dell EMC Repository Manager and Dell EMC OpenManage Enterprise and create custom repositories for specific devices that are managed through your OpenManage Enterprise application.
6 Additional resources This section describes the process of launching the DRM page on support site for additional documentation. To view the DRM manuals: ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ 26 Browse to Dell.com/support Click View Products to view the Dell EMC portfolio. Click Software. Click Enterprise Systems Management. Click Repository Manager. Select the relevant release and click Manuals & documents.
