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Screenshot of the HIT/VE Plug-in for vCenter
Figure 4.
6.6 Hardware and Hypervisor Maintenance
Change Management can include updating the server hardware (BIOS and firmware), storage array, and
hypervisor. There are several ways to update server BIOS and firmware; one of the easiest ways is
through the Dell Management Plug-in for vCenter. Updates can be applied using just a single console
and with zero down time. The ESXi server is put in maintenance mode, which will migrate all the VMs
from that server, and the updates are then applied to the system.
Updates to the EqualLogic storage array can be applied from the Group Manager interface. For more
information, see this short video.
Updates to the hypervisor can also be applied from vCenter using VMware vCenter Update Manager.
vCenter Update Manager scans the state of the ESXi hosts, as well as select guest operating systems,
compares them with baselines set by the administrator, and then automatically applies updates and
patches. For more information, see VMware vCenter Update Manager Documentation.
6.7 Out-of-band management
Out-of-band management is available through the iDRAC7 in each server. iDRAC7 features include:
 Remote systems management and monitoring
 Console redirection for remote system KVM functionality
 Virtual media that enables servers to access local media drives on a management station
 Access to system logs
 Platform events and alerts that warn of potential problems by e-mail or simple network
management protocol (SNMP) trap
 Remote power management functionality