White Papers

4
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Every modern component of a computer or electronic equipment, commonly referred to as a Field Replaceable Unit or FRU, contains a
memory block that stores the inventory information of that component. This includes the manufacturer’s name, product name,
manufacture date, serial numbers and other details that help identify the component.
The Intel FRU Information Storage for IPMI specification defines the standard format that devices are expected to conform to within
their FRU areas. Dell EMC PowerEdge servers leverage this format across the board, from PCIe controllers to power supplies to the
chassis itself. Each component vendor populates the FRU area during their manufacturing process and all FRU areas are easily
accessible via IPMI.
Dell EMC servers are often used as components to build appliances by customers who then sell their solution to their end customers. In
such a use case, the appliance builder (or OEM customer for the rest of this white paper) can greatly benefit from the OEM FRU
capability which provides a dedicated FRU information storage area that they can populate with their own company-specific serial
information for inventory and tracking purposes.
AUDIENCE
The OEM FRU feature is primarily targeted at OEM customers who use Dell EMC servers as components within their solution that then
gets sold to their end customers.
This white paper is relevant to those interested in how this feature works and can be leveraged. It is also addressed at a technical
audience who would need to actually build and deploy the OEM FRU information on a server during factory deployment.
Lastly, it will also be relevant to product developers who could use the FRU area for purposes beyond tracking, as well as service and
support professionals who would use this information in troubleshooting situations.
INTRODUCTION
Dell EMC PowerEdge servers are built using a multitude of components sourced from various Dell EMC teams and vendors. Each
component uses the common FRU format maintained by Intel to track various pieces of information such as manufacturer name, date,
serial numbers, MAC addresses and other details that do not change once shipped from the factory. This helps the consumer of the
component to identify who the manufacturer is, and allows the vendor of a component to track the exact history of a component if
failures are reported.
The server itself, which is a conglomeration of such individual components, has its own FRU area which identifies the manufacturer and
other details such as service tag and manufacture date. This helps Dell EMC as a manufacturer to track the server as a whole, beyond
the individual components.
The OEM FRU storage feature of Dell EMC PowerEdge servers is an additional FRU area that allows OEM customers, who use Dell
EMC servers as a component of their solution, to include their own tracking information in the FRU storage area. This can be loaded
into the server during factory deployment and can be accessed when the information is required during troubleshooting or support.
This allows the OEM customers to store their own part numbers and track information within the server, which enables them to track
their solutions in their internal management systems. This is similar to the way Dell EMC servers use the standard FRU areas to store
Dell specific information such as service tags and manufacture date and use that information when having to identify and support those
systems once in the field.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this white paper is to:
 Introduce the OEM FRU area to customers
 Provide recommendations on the structure and contents of this area