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
Table 1. New features and functionalities (continued)
New feature Description
Support for Dell’s 13th generation of PowerEdge servers With this version, you can configure the 13th generations
of Dell PowerEdge servers through Integrated Dell Remote
Access Controller (iDRAC) with Lifecycle Controller (LC)
Existing features and functionalities
Table 2. Features and functionalities
Feature Functionality
Configuration Manager distributed environment Support for Configuration Manager, when the configuration
manager is set up in a distributed environment.
Configure and deploy operating system on Dell’s 11th
generation and 12th generation of PowerEdge servers.
You can configure Dell’s 11th generation or 12th generation of
PowerEdge servers using DLCI through Lifecycle Controller.
All the features of previous version of DLCI are supported for
12th generation or 11th generation PowerEdge servers.
A single installer to install and configure DLCI
You can use the single installer to install DLCI
3.3 in environments (Configuration Manager 2012 SP2,
Configuration Manager 2012 R2 SP1, Configuration 2012 R2,
Configuration Manager 2012 SP1, or Configuration Manager
2012) based on the version of Configuration Manager
present in the system. If a DLCI 3.2 is present, then the
installer initiates an upgrade. The installer deploys appropriate
components based on the Configuration Manager version.
Automatically configure Dell Provisioning Server You can automatically configure Dell Provisioning Server
for non-administrator users by selecting the Automatically
configure Dell Provisioning Server user permissions
option during installation.
Deploying customized images using Dell driver CAB files You can create and deploy customized images on Dell
Enterprise servers. For more information, see Adding Dell
driver packages on page 25.
Platform Restore You can restore a profile for a system or a collection that
includes:
● Scheduling a backup, and exporting system profiles to an
external share/vFlash.
● Importing the saved system profiles from an external
share/vFlash.
● Configuring Part Replacement properties for a system or a
collection.
For more information, see Platform restore for a system on
page 62 and Platform restore for a collection on page 46.
Viewing and exporting the Lifecycle Controller logs You can view the Lifecycle Controller logs of a system or
a collection in a readable format and save or export the
logs to a .CSV file. In addition, you can filter logs and view
the number of logs based on the search string. For more
information, see Viewing Lifecycle Controller logs on page
59 and Viewing and exporting Lifecycle Controller logs for
a collection on page 44.
Configure network interface cards (NICs) and converged
network adapters (CNAs)
You can configure different attributes of specific NICs or
CNAs in the system and save them to a profile.
The saved profiles can later be applied to a collection as
part of the hardware configuration or operating system
deployment, or both.
8 Introduction to Dell Lifecycle Controller Integration (DLCI) for Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager