Users Guide

Hardware Management

Prerequisites:

To successfully perform hardware provisioning and deployment, the physical servers must appear in the Deployment

Wizard. All physical servers must meet the following prerequisites:

• See the

OpenManage Integration for VMware vCenter Release Notes

for specific hardware support information.

• The server must have the minimum supported versions of iDRAC firmware, Lifecycle controller and BIOS. See the

OpenManage Integration for VMware vCenter Release Notes

for specific hardware support information.

NOTE: If the firmware versions are outdated, a two step upgrade process could be required. See the firmware

documentation for detailed upgrade instructions.

• The OpenManage Integration for VMware vCenter supports deployment using only embedded/integrated LOMs. You

can configure NICs in PCI slots manually after the deployment. If using add-on NICs, the system must have the host

LOMs enabled.

• The OpenManage Integration for VMware vCenter allows deployment onto Internal Dual SD Module (hypervisor

only) or local hard drives. Before you install hypervisor to an Internal Dual SD Module, it must have a maximum of 1

or 2 GB of storage. The Internal Dual SD Module must be enabled from BIOS before you deploy the hypervisor with

the OpenManage Integration for VMware vCenter. You can change the management NIC manually, and add the

system to vCenter.

• If the iDRAC is in dedicated mode, its NIC must be enabled to communicate with the OpenManage Integration for

VMware vCenter.

• CSIOR must be enabled. Additionally, before initiating Auto Discovery, to make sure that retrieved data is current,

the system must be completely powered off and then back on (hard reboot).

• Dell servers can be ordered with Auto Discovery and handshake options pre-configured by the factory. If a server is

not pre-configured with these options, you must manually enter the OpenManage Integration for VMware vCenter IP

address or configure your local network to provide this information.

• If the OpenManage Integration for VMware vCenter is not used for hardware configuration, then make sure the

following conditions are met prior to initiating hypervisor deployment:

– Enable the VT (Virtualization Technology) flag in the BIOS.

– Set the system's boot order to either a bootable Virtual Disk or an Internal Dual SD Module for operating system

installation.

• If the OpenManage Integration for VMware vCenter is used for hardware configuration, the BIOS setting for VT is

automatically enabled, even if BIOS configuration is not part of the hardware profile. Express/Clone RAID

configuration is required if a virtual disk is not already present on the target system.

• If your servers are from versions prior to Dell PowerEdge 12th generation servers, then the deployment process

installs the OpenManage Server Administrator package on the target system, and automatically configures the

SNMP trap destination to point to the OpenManage Integration for VMware vCenter.

• Custom ESXi images that contain

all

the Dell drivers are required for deployment. You can find the correct images by

going to the Dell Drivers & Downloads page and saving the custom images to a location you can access during the

deployment process. For the most up-to date list of supported ESXi versions for this release, see the Release Notes.

Provisioning Overview

Once a physical inventory of the datacenter is complete, all auto-discovered bare-metal systems are available to the

OpenManage Integration for VMware vCenter for zero touch hardware provisioning and hypervisor deployment. To

prepare for provisioning and deployment, you must: