Dell OpenManage Essentials v1.1 – Supporting Dell Client Devices This Dell technical white paper provides the required information about Dell client devices (OptiPlex, Precision, Latitude) support in OpenManage Essentials.
Dell OpenManage Essentials v1.1 – Supporting Dell Client Devices This document is for informational purposes only and may contain typographical errors and technical inaccuracies. The content is provided as is, without express or implied warranties of any kind. © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved. Dell and its affiliates cannot be responsible for errors or omissions in typography or photography. Dell, the Dell logo, and PowerEdge are trademarks of Dell Inc.
Dell OpenManage Essentials v1.1 – Supporting Dell Client Devices Contents Executive Summary................................................................................................... 5 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 5 Scope ................................................................................................................... 5 Assumption ............................................................
Dell OpenManage Essentials v1.1 – Supporting Dell Client Devices Figure 5. Hardware logs (Initials) ................................................................................ 10 Figure 6. Hardware Logs - Loaded ............................................................................... 11 Figure 7. Configuration proxy server. ........................................................................... 12 Figure 8. Warranty Information .........................................................
Dell OpenManage Essentials v1.1 – Supporting Dell Client Devices Executive Summary Dell OpenManage Essentials (OME) is a lightweight, Web-based, one-to many systems management solution that provides a comprehensive view of Dell systems, devices, and components in an enterprise network. OME v1.1 lets you discover Dell business client devices (OptiPlex, Precision, and Latitude), and perform some management operations on these devices.
Dell OpenManage Essentials v1.1 – Supporting Dell Client Devices Dell OpenManage Client Instrumentation Dell OpenManage Client Instrumentation (OMCI) is available on Dell OptiPlex, Dell Precision Workstation, and Dell Latitude client systems. Using OMCI, system administrators can remotely manage assets, monitor system health, and inventory deployed systems in the enterprise. To learn more and to download OMCI, go to: http://en.community.dell.com/techcenter/systems-management/w/wiki/1773.
Dell OpenManage Essentials v1.1 – Supporting Dell Client Devices Discovery and Inventory Use the following steps for the discovering of client devices using OME: 1. Launch OpenManage Essentials. 2. Navigate to Manage -> Discovery and Inventory. 3. In the left tree, click Add Discovery Range. 4. Enter the IP address of the specific client device or the IP-Range having all the client devices with the subnet mask details. Figure 1. Specifying IP address, host name, and subnet mask. 5. Click Next. 6.
Dell OpenManage Essentials v1.1 – Supporting Dell Client Devices Figure 2. Discovery Range Configuration – clear the Enable SNMP discovery check box. 8. Click Next. 9. In the WMI Configuration page, select Enable WMI discovery. Figure 3. Discovery Configuration – Enable WMI discovery. 10. Provide the WMI credentials for the remote devices.
Dell OpenManage Essentials v1.1 – Supporting Dell Client Devices 11. Click Finish. Once the discovery task finishes, OpenManage Essentials classifies the client devices under the Clients device group. Figure 4. Clients discovered and classified in the device tree Inventoried Information with and without OMCI Table 2 shows information about discovery and inventory with or without OMCI. Table 2.
Dell OpenManage Essentials v1.1 – Supporting Dell Client Devices Hardware Logs OME helps you see the hardware logs of a remote client device on which Dell OpenManage Client Instrumentation is installed. These logs are not stored in the OME database. The latest logs are fetched from the device when you request them by clicking on the Retrieve button. Connection to the device is made with discovery credentials. Make sure OME has connectivity for the device to fetch the logs. Figure 5.
Dell OpenManage Essentials v1.1 – Supporting Dell Client Devices Figure 6. Hardware Logs - Loaded Warranty information OpenManage Essentials has a built-in warranty report that shows warranty information for discovered client devices. Warranty information for the client devices is available as part of this report. OME retrieves this information from the Dell Web site for the given device service-tags.
Dell OpenManage Essentials v1.1 – Supporting Dell Client Devices Figure 7. Configuration proxy server. Warranty report The Warranty report shows all the warranty information related to the service tag of the client hardware. To view the warranty report navigate to Reports > Warranty Information. Figure 8. Warranty Information Viewing information and renewing warranty 1.
Dell OpenManage Essentials v1.1 – Supporting Dell Client Devices Figure 9. Application Launch warranty. This takes you to www.dell.com and displays the warranty information page for this specific device. You can renew the warranty from this location.
Dell OpenManage Essentials v1.1 – Supporting Dell Client Devices Figure 10. Warranty Information on the Dell Web site. Internal health alerts Currently, OpenManage Essentials (v1.1) does not have the WMI events listening functionality. Clients generating alerts are not shown in OME. OME generates internal health alerts whenever it detects a change in the health state of the device. Check Enable Internal Health Alerts on the Preferences > Alert Settings page.
Dell OpenManage Essentials v1.1 – Supporting Dell Client Devices Figure 11. Internal health alert preferences. If this feature is enabled, OME monitors the health status. The health depends upon the schedule status task. Change in the client device status generates internal traps, which you can view in the Event console and then you can configure the required alert actions for these traps.
Dell OpenManage Essentials v1.1 – Supporting Dell Client Devices Figure 12. Internal health alert warning. Figure 13. Internal health alert – Normal. Command line - Remote tasks OME supports execution of generic command-line tasks on the remote computers. This feature lets you run/schedule a task against a selected set of discovered devices. You can run any custom script against the client devices and perform operations on them.
Dell OpenManage Essentials v1.1 – Supporting Dell Client Devices Figure 14. Command line Task The benefits of using remote command-line tasks against your environment include: Leverages the scripting capabilities within the product. Targets one-to-many configurations. Targets only specific hosts or devices groups. Windows power shell commands/scripts OMCI scripts to get/set values (PowerShell/VB Script).
Dell OpenManage Essentials v1.1 – Supporting Dell Client Devices '*** Usage: cscript.exe //nologo serviceTag.vbs '*** This sample script is provided as an example only, and has not been '*** tested, nor is warranted in any way by Dell; Dell disclaims any '*** liability in connection therewith. Dell provides no technical '*** support with regard to such scripting. For more information on WMI '*** scripting, refer to applicable Microsoft documentation.
Dell OpenManage Essentials v1.1 – Supporting Dell Client Devices For each objInstance in ColSystem strMessage = strMessage & vbCRLF & "BIOS Version: " strMessage = strMessage & objInstance.Properties_.Item("Version").Value Next '*** Display the results WScript.Echo strMessage '*** Sub used to display the correct usage of the script Sub Usage() Dim strMessage strMessage = "incorrect syntax. You should run: " & vbCRLF & _ "cscript.exe //nologo serviceTag.vbs " WScript.
Dell OpenManage Essentials v1.1 – Supporting Dell Client Devices Figure 15. Configuring a generic command-line task. 9. Click Next. 10. Select the client devices for which you want to run this task. 11. Click Next. 12. Select Run Now or schedule the task as per your requirement. 13. Provide the OME Administrator credentials, which are applicable to this OME system (As this script runs on OME box). 14. Finish the task. 15.
Dell OpenManage Essentials v1.1 – Supporting Dell Client Devices Figure 16. Executed Command result window Recommendations The following recommendations are for performance reasons and to avoid confusion between clients and server classification. Use the WMI protocol for client devices. Enable Internal Health Alerts only if necessary. Some alert actions are associated with it and affect the performance for OpenManage Essentials. Known behavior for OME v1.
Dell OpenManage Essentials v1.1 – Supporting Dell Client Devices Not able to discover client device Make sure that the client device is reachable from the OME system and credentials are proper for a successful discovery. You can run the WMI protocol test using the troubleshooting tool to verify this. An error message like “Failed to connect to windows name space” means that OME could not connect to the client device. Figure 17. Troubleshooting tool – failure.
Dell OpenManage Essentials v1.1 – Supporting Dell Client Devices Once the above changes are complete, re-run the Dell Troubleshooting Tool against the same client device. The Dell Troubleshooting Tool should connect to the device, and show the available namespaces found on the remote device. Note: The Dell OpenManage Client Instrumentation (OMCI) agent Namespace presence depends on whether the OMCI is installed on the client device or not.
Dell OpenManage Essentials v1.1 – Supporting Dell Client Devices Figure 18. Troubleshooting Tool - success with OMCI Learn More To learn more, visit: www.delltechcenter.com/ome Conclusion Dell OpenManage Essentials v1.1 provides Dell business client support using the WMI protocol. Use OME to discover and properly classify business client devices. In addition, you can view a client device's health status and hardware logs if Dell OpenManage Client Instrumentation (OMCI) 8.
