Concept Guide

Dell Lifecycle Controller simplies server lifecycle management — from provisioning, deployment, patching and updating to servicing and
user customization — both locally and remotely. Lifecycle Controller includes managed and persistent storage that embeds systems
management features and Operating System device drivers directly on the server. This eliminates the media-based system management
tools and utilities traditionally needed for systems management.
Benets of using iDRAC with Lifecycle Controller
The benets include:
• Increased Uptime — Early notication of potential or actual failures that help prevent a server failure or reduce recovery time after a
failure.
• Improved Productivity and Lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) — Extending the reach of administrators to larger numbers of distant
servers can make IT sta more productive while driving down operational costs such as travel.
• Enhanced Security— By providing secure access to remote servers, administrators can perform critical management functions while
maintaining server and network security.
• Increased Eciency— With Lifecycle Controller Remote Services, you can automate the server conguration management using Dell
OpenManage Essentials and Dell partner consoles, which enables ecient administration as server deployments scale.
For more information about iDRAC, see the Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller User’s Guide available at dell.com/esmmanuals.
Key features
You can perform the following systems management tasks using Lifecycle Controller-Remote Services:
• Install operating systems and drivers
• Manage licensing
• Perform server rmware update including BIOS, iDRAC/LC, backplane and enclosure controllers, RAID, NIC/CNA, Fibre Channel host
bus adapters, PCIe SSDs, SAS HDDs and SSDs, and SATA HDD
• Part Replacement and automatic restore of server conguration
• Get hardware inventory information
• Get and set NIC/CNA, Fibre Channel host bus adapters (FC-HBA), PCIe SSDs, and RAID conguration
• Get and set BIOS conguration and BIOS passwords
• Full export of Lifecycle log and add work notes
• Export current- and factory-shipped hardware inventory log
• Manage, attach, and boot to vFlash SD card partitions
• Lock the controllers using the local key
• Export and import the server prole
• Import server license
• View rmware details during server update
• Export and import Server Conguration Proles
• Schedule and track the status of the update and conguration
• Import and export Server Conguration Proles le that contains information about a component conguration
• Out-of-band server performance monitoring
• Enhance security using hash password
• View logs, monitoring, and server information, and congure the network parameters of a server using a mobile device
• Delete server-related information
• View the managed system using Physical Computer System View
• Manage the web server certicate
• Congure the USB management port
• View SupportAssist Collection to resolve business-critical issues
6
Introduction