White Papers

Operational Template

Operational Templates (OT) contain complete configuration information about devices being managed and are used for

provisioning PowerEdge servers and PowerEdge MX7000 Modular Chassis while being monitored using the Microsoft

System Center suite. Operational Template contains configuration information about

• Firmware.

• Hardware Components (from Reference server).

• Operating System.

Firmware component in OT requires Update Source input. Update Source is the location of update repository and

catalog. Update Source options that OMIMSSC supports are

• Online Dell EMC Enterprise Catalog.

• Offline repositories created using Dell Repository Manager (DRM).

Hardware configurations include the components BIOS, IDRAC, NIC/CNA, RAID & FC for Server and Modular Chassis

component for MX7000.

Operating System component in OT requires Operating System to be deployed and other related inputs. OMIMSSC

supports provisioning with Windows, and Non-Windows (ESXi and RHEL) operating systems.

Reference server

A server configuration with a preferred boot sequence, BIOS, RAID settings, and other hardware configuration

parameters that is ideally suited for specific workloads is called reference server configuration.

Target server

Set of servers targeted to be provisioned by replicating hardware configurations of a Reference server.

NOTE: Target servers must be homogenous for a seamless apply.

Hardware apply is based on the component FQDD, e.g. NIC.Slot.1-2. Hence apply would be attempted only when

reference server and target server component slots, device types match.

Newer server generations would have newer supported attributes. Applying a reference server configuration of older

generation on to newer generations would not configure newer attributes, vice versa may fail since newer attributes

are not present in older generations. Another aspect to note is that different server models would have a different set

of attributes. Applying a reference server configuration of one model on to another model of target servers may also

fail.

System specific attributes

Operational Template captures the current configuration of a reference server. System specific attributes are the

attributes captured in OT that should have unique values for deploying on target servers, for example Static IPv4

address for iDRAC. These attributes are marked as Pool Value in OT. Values to these attributes can be provided

using the Export Pool Attribute option in Deploy Operational Template workflow which exports all selected system

specific attributes to a CSV file.

NOTE: Pool Value attribute and System Specific attribute may be interchangeably used in this paper.

Operational Template operations

Create and Edit

Creating an OT captures hardware configurations from Reference server and adds Firmware and OS component to

these hardware components to make it an “One Template” for end to end provisioning of servers. The attributes of these

components in the template can be modified before applying to target servers.

Assign and Run compliance

Created OT can be assigned to one or more servers in Server View to and run compliance of hardware configurations

against the assigned target servers. Assignment of OT on target servers would display overall compliance status of

the target server against the assigned OT. When non-compliant, users can furthermore drill down to find the

components and attributes that are non-compliant.