Users Guide
Table Of Contents
- OpenManage Network Integration for SmartFabric Services User Guide Release 2.1
- Contents
- About this guide
- Change history
- Overview of OMNI, SFS, VxRail, and PowerEdge MX
- OpenManage Network Integration
- OMNI vCenter integration
- Access the OMNI stand-alone portal
- Access the OMNI Fabric Management Portal
- OMNI Appliance Management user interface
- SmartFabric management with OMNI
- OMNI feature support matrix
- View SmartFabric instance overview
- View fabric topology
- Manage switches in a fabric
- SmartFabric bulk configuration
- Configure server interface profile
- Configure and manage uplinks
- Configure networks and routing configuration
- Configure global settings for SmartFabric
- View fabric events and compliance status
- OMNI automation support for PowerEdge MX SmartFabric
- OMNI automation support for NSX-T
- Lifecycle management
- Troubleshooting
- Troubleshooting tools
- Unable to add SmartFabric instance in OMNI
- Missing networks on server interfaces
- Unable to launch OMNI UI
- OMNI plug-in does not show service instance
- Unable to register the vCenter in OMNI
- OMNI is unable to communicate with other devices
- Timestamp not synchronized in OMNI
- Reset OMNI VM password
Key benefits
● Data center modernization
○ I/O aggregation.
○ Plug and play fabric deployment.
○ Single interface to manage all switches in the fabric.
● Lifecycle management
○ SmartFabric OS10 updates across the fabric.
○ Automated or manual rollback to last well-known state.
● Fabric automation
○ Physical topology compliance.
○ Server networking managed using templates.
○ Automated QoS assignment per VLAN.
○ Automated storage networking.
● Failure remediation
○ Dynamically adjusts bandwidth across all interswitch links when there is a link failure.
○ Automatically detects fabric misconfigurations or link level failure conditions.
○ Automatically heals the fabric on failure condition removal.
When PowerEdge MX switches are in SmartFabric Services mode, they operate entirely as a Layer 2 network fabric. Layer 3
protocols are not supported. For more information about MX switches, see MX documentation.
SFS and OMNI supported solutions
OMNI 2.0 and later version with the SmartFabric Services OS10 release supports the following qualified solutions. See the
Solutions Support Matrix for the latest supported versions for all the qualified solutions.
Table 5. Qualified solutions
Qualified Solutions Dynamic discovery Onboarding type vCenter/Day 2 automation
VxRail Yes Automatic Yes
PowerEdge MX NA NA Yes
PowerStore X (ESXi) Yes Import from Fabric or vCenter Yes
PowerStore T Yes Import from Fabric No
Isilon front-end/PowerScale No Manual No
Other devices running ESXi No Import from vCenter or Manual Yes
Other devices running
Windows or Linux-based
Operating Systems
No Import from Fabric Yes
NOTE: In PowerEdge MX, the servers are discovered and onboarded through OME-Modular.
NOTE: Other devices can be supported provided they meet the industry Ethernet standards and are compatible with
SmartFabric-enabled switches.
Dynamic Discovery - Devices that support dynamic discovery send a Dell-specific LLDP TLV. Supported devices are
automatically populated in the SFS UI and OMNI by MAC address, switch, and switch port number for onboarding to the
fabric. Devices that do not send the Dell-specific LLDP TLV must be manually added to the fabric.
Onboarding - Onboarding is the process of adding devices to the fabric through the creation of server interface profiles.
For VxRail, the SFS and VxRail Manager automates the onboarding process. PowerStore systems support dynamic discovery
and you can onboard the server using the Import from Fabric option in OMNI, see Import SmartFabric discovered server
interfaces. Hosts running ESXi may be onboarded using the Import from vCenter option in OMNI only if the hosts are already
connected to vCenter. For more information, see Import ESXi host profiles from vCenter. Other devices are manually onboarded
by specifying the switch and switch port number for each interface, see Create server interface profile.
vCenter/Day 2 Automation - Port groups that are created in vCenter are automatically applied to the applicable host-
connected ports on the switch. The host must be running ESXi, added to the vCenter, and have a server profile that is created
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Overview of OMNI, SFS, VxRail, and PowerEdge MX