Users Guide
Table Of Contents
- Dell Lifecycle Controller Integration Version 3.3 for Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager User's Guide
- Contents
- Introduction to Dell Lifecycle Controller Integration (DLCI) for Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager
- Use case scenarios
- Common prerequisites
- Editing and exporting the BIOS configuration profile of a system
- Comparing and updating the firmware inventory
- Creating, editing, and saving a RAID profile of a system
- Deploying operating system on collection
- Exporting server profile to iDRAC vFlash card or network share
- Importing server profile from iDRAC vFlash card or network share
- Viewing and exporting Lifecycle Controller logs
- Working With NIC or CNA Profiles
- Working with Fibre Channel profiles
- Selecting Fibre Channel storage area network in boot sequence
- Using Dell Lifecycle Controller Integration
- Licensing for DLCI
- Dell Deployment ToolKit
- Dell Driver CAB files
- Configuring target systems
- Auto-discovery and handshake
- Applying Drivers from the task sequence
- Creating a task sequence
- Creating a Dell specific task sequence
- Creating a custom task sequence
- Editing a task sequence
- Configuring the task sequence steps to apply operating system image and driver package
- Applying the operating system image
- Adding Dell driver packages
- Deploying a task sequence
- Creating a task sequence media bootable ISO
- System Viewer utility
- Configuration utility
- Launching the integrated Dell Remote Access Controller console
- Task Viewer
- Additional tasks you can perform with Dell Lifecycle Controller Integration
- Configuring security
- Validating a Dell factory-issued Client Certificate on the Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller for auto-discovery
- Pre-authorizing systems for auto-discovery
- Changing the administrative credentials used by Dell Lifecycle Controller Integration for Configuration Manager
- Using the Graphical User Interface
- Using the Array Builder
- Defining rules with the Array Builder
- Creating a RAID Profile using Array Builder
- About creating Array Builder
- Controllers
- Adding a Controller
- Editing a Controller
- Deleting a Controller
- Variable conditions
- Adding a new variable condition
- Editing a variable condition
- Deleting a variable condition
- Arrays
- Adding a new array
- Editing an array
- Deleting an array
- Logical drives also known as virtual disks
- Adding a new logical drive
- Editing a logical drive
- Deleting a logical drive
- Disks (array disks)
- Adding a new disk
- Changing a disk
- Deleting a disk
- Importing a profile
- Using the Configuration Utility
- Creating a Lifecycle Controller boot media
- Configuring hardware and deploying the operating system
- Deploying operating systems
- Hardware configuration and OS deployment workflow
- Updating firmware during OS deployment
- Configuring hardware during OS deployment
- Configuring RAID
- Applying a NIC or CNA profile on a collection
- Applying FC HBA profiles and FC SAN boot attributes on a collection
- Applying an integrated Dell Remote Access Controller profile on a collection
- Exporting the system profiles before and after hardware configuration
- Comparing and updating firmware inventory for systems in a collection
- Viewing the hardware inventory
- Verifying Communication with Lifecycle Controller
- Viewing and exporting Lifecycle Controller logs for a collection
- Modifying credentials on Lifecycle Controllers
- Platform restore for a collection
- Comparing NIC or CNA profiles against systems in a collection
- Using the Import Server Utility
- Using the System Viewer Utility
- Viewing and editing BIOS configuration
- Viewing and configuring RAID
- Configuring iDRAC profiles for a system
- Configuring NICs and CNAs for a system
- Configuring FC HBA cards for a system
- Comparing and updating firmware inventory
- Comparing hardware configuration profile
- Viewing Lifecycle Controller logs
- Viewing the hardware inventory for the system
- Platform restore for a system
- Comparing FC HBA profile against a target system
- Troubleshooting
- Configuring Dell provisioning web services on IIS
- Dell auto-discovery network setup specification
- Troubleshooting the viewing and exporting of Lifecycle Controller logs
- Deploying the operating system on Dell’s 13th generation of PowerEdge servers using WinPE 3.0
- Issues and resolutions
- ESXi or RHEL deployment on Windows systems moves to ESXi or RHEL collection, but not removed from Windows Managed Collection
- Related documentation and resources
● iDRAC vFlash card:
○ Installed as a license, enabled, and initialized
NOTE: The iDRAC vFlash card is required only for Dell’s 11th generation of PowerEdge servers. For the 12th and 13th
generation of PowerEdge servers, you must have an Enterprise license.
○ With a minimum free space of 384 MB available.
● Network Share:
○ Permissions and firewall settings are provided for the iDRAC to communicate with the system that has the network
share.
○ With a minimum free space of 384 MB available
● Administrator privileges on the iDRAC of the target systems
Before you begin
Before you begin exporting the system profile for a single system or a collection:
● Make sure that operations such as firmware update, operating system deployment, and firmware configurations are not
running.
● After you deploy the operating system using Lifecycle controller, the Original Equipment Manufacturer Drive (OEMDRV) is
open for 18 hours as the Lifecycle Controller does not have the status of the operating system installation. If you need
to perform the operations such as update, configuration, or restore after you deploy the operating system, remove the
OEMDRV partition. To remove the partition, reset iDRAC or cancel System Services.
For more information on resetting iDRAC or cancelling system services, see the Dell Lifecycle Controller Remote Services
User’s Guide available at Dell.com/support/home.
● If you have scheduled the backup, then do not schedule any other remote services jobs such as BIOS updates or RAID
configuration on the target systems.
● Make sure that the backup image file is not tampered with, either during export or after export.
Workflow for exporting server profile
The following steps outline the workflow sequence:
1. To export the system profile of a single target system, launch the System Viewer utility. To export the system profiles
of a collection of systems, launch the Config Utility. For more information, see System Viewer utility on page 25 or
Configuration utility on page 26.
2. Select the Platform Restore on the System Viewer utility or the Config Utility.
3. For a single system, see Exporting the system profile on page 62.
4. For a collection, see Exporting the system profiles in a collection on page 46.
Importing server profile from iDRAC vFlash card or
network share
You can restore the backup of a system profile for a single system or a collection of systems from an iDRAC vFlash card or a
network share using DLCI for Configuration Manager.
Prerequisites
● Common prerequisites on page 12
● iDRAC vFlash card:
○ Is installed as a license, enabled and has the SRVCNF partition. In Lifecycle Controller, during backup, a partition with
a label name SRVCNF is automatically created on the vFlash SD card to store the backup image file. If a partition with
the label name SRVCNF already exists, it is overwritten. For more information, see Lifecycle Controller documentation at
Dell.com/support/manuals.
○ Has minimum free space of 384 MB available.
Use case scenarios
15