Users Guide

Table Of Contents
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About Dell Lifecycle Controller
Integration for Microsoft System Center
2012 Virtual Machine Manager
Dell Lifecycle Controller Integration (DLCI) for Microsoft System Center 2012 Virtual Machine Manager
(SC2012 VMM) enables hardware configuration, provides a solution to simplify and improve the process
of firmware updates, and hypervisor deployment on Dell servers. This plug-in uses the remote
deployment feature of the Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller (iDRAC) with Lifecycle Controller
(LC), providing a seamless user experience. You can leverage Dell’s value additions through Microsoft
System Center Consoles to manage virtualized environments.
For information about Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager, see Microsoft documentation.
What’s new in this release
The features for this release are as follows:
Update sources — support for Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) type of update source.
Test connection — validating the location of update source and the credentials before creating the
update source.
Update groups — group the servers for creating, managing, and performing firmware updates on
custom update groups.
Polling and notifications — configure notifications to receive alerts when new catalogs are available in
update source.
Protection vaults — location to save system configuration profiles.
Export server profiles — including firmware images on components such as Basic Input Output
System (BIOS), Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID), Network Interface Controller (NIC),
integrated Dell Remote Access Controller (iDRAC), LC, and so on, to an internal or external location.
Import server profiles — either retaining or excluding the current RAID settings for the same server or
server groups when the existing server profile is corrupt.
Filters — are used to display information based on the criteria selected in the Maintenance Center.
Allow Downgrade — if enabled, allows you to downgrade the firmware version to an earlier version.
Cluster-Aware Updating (CAU) — automates the software updating process by using the features of
Microsoft on cluster update groups while maintaining the server’s availability.
Integration with Dell Repository Manager (DRM) — providing the server inventory information of the
existing servers from the appliance to DRM.
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