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Managing Devices via IPMI in OpenManage Essentials

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Figure 1.

Using IPMI to manage an environment

 Health status of the server can be monitored using IPMI protocol

Whether the server has an operating system or not, or when the server is turned off and the RAC is

reachable, IPMI protocol can be used to monitor the server. When operating system is present SNMP

and WMI protocols will get preference in OME as they collect more inventory data.

 OpenManage Essentials 1.1 is capable of receiving IPMI traps called Platform Event Traps which are

generated from the iDRAC

The iDRAC can be configured to send IPMI traps, in case of any abrupt behavior is shown by the

server, to OpenManage Essentials 1.1. Using these traps, the server can be monitored if anything

goes wrong. More information about configuring iDRAC to send Platform Event traps can be found

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/software/smdrac3/idrac/idrac21modular/en/ug/html/cha

p05.htm

 OpenManage Essentials 1.1 is capable of running IPMI command line tasks on the target server even

if it does not have an operating system installed

There are built-in tasks, such as powering on the server, which use IPMI protocol to talk to the

server. There are other IPMI command line tasks, such as SEL, chassis status, etc., which can be

run on the server using remote tasks feature of OpenManage Essentials 1.1.

To create an IPMI Command Line task:

o Discover and inventory the device. Make sure the RAC device information table is

populated for the device in OME’s device tree and IPMI over LAN is enabled on the RAC.

(Navigate to Page 6 to see how to enable IPMI over LAN on a RAC)