Users Guide

10 Introducing IT Assistant
Creating Alert Filters and Actions
You can use IT Assistant to create alert filters to isolate alerts that are of greatest interest to a system
administrator. System administrators can then create corresponding alert actions that are triggered when
the criteria used to define the alert filter is met. For example, IT Assistant can alert a system
administrator when a server fan is in warning or critical state. By creating a filter with a corresponding
e-mail action, the administrator is e-mailed if a fan reaches the defined status. The administrator can
then act on the notification by using IT Assistant to shut down the system, if necessary, or launch Server
Administrator to troubleshoot the problem.
Creating Customized Discovery and Inventory Reports
Using IT Assistant’s report wizard, you can create customized reports for any device or group across the
enterprise. These reports can contain device inventory information based on a broad selection of
attributes. For example, you can create a report that lists details for each device card in all servers in a
group, including bus speed and width, manufacturer, and slot length and/or number. IT Assistant also
provides a collection of pre-formatted reports that gather common information from the enterprise.
Creating Tasks That Enable Configuration Management From a Central Console
IT Assistant also enables you to drive common configuration management tasks across the entire
enterprise from a single console. By setting up simple tasks using IT Assistant’s wizard-based User Interface
(UI), you can perform device control tasks (shut down/wake up), software updates, or run command line
tasks on any systems in your managed group. IT Assistant allows you to load Dell Update Packages and
System Update Sets into a central repository, and then run a compliance check against servers in the
enterprise. The system administrator can then instruct IT Assistant to perform the updates immediately
or according to a defined schedule.
NOTE: To perform a software update, the appropriate agent software must be installed on the target device. For
more information on agents, see "Agents on the Systems That You Want to Monitor."
Understanding IT Assistant’s Components
To understand the other sections of this document, you must understand the following components of
IT Assistant:
• IT Assistant UI
• IT Assistant Services Tier (Network Monitoring Service, Connection Service, and database)
• Managed system
The IT Assistant UI provides a graphical user view of the information gathered by the IT Assistant
Services Tier. This information depicts the overall health and configuration details of each system in the
managed group. Systems in the managed group that are being monitored by IT Assistant are referred to
as managed systems; the system running the IT Assistant UI is generally called the network
management station.