User's Manual

22 Dell OpenManage Plug- in Version 1.0 for Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c | A00
7 Frequently Asked Questions
Question: Can you please brief us on licensing of Dell OpenManage Plug- in for OEM?
Answer: You can install and use this plug- in for free. There is no cost associated with this plug- in or for
OpenManage Essentials, which is a mandatory software for this plug- in to work.
Question: What are the languages supported by the plug- in?
Answer: The plug- in is localized to French, German, Spanish, Japanese and Simplified Chinese languages.
Question: I do not want to install OpenManage Essentials. Can I still use this plug- in?
Answer: No, installing OpenManage Essentials on a physical server or virtual machine is mandatory for the
plug- in to work.
Question: What is the difference between in- band vs. out- of- band (OOB) method of monitoring Dell
servers?
Answer: There are two ways to monitor Dell servers, one is through in- band method using a software
called OpenManage Server Administrator (OMSA) installed on the server operating system and the other is
out- of- band method through integrated Dell Remote Access Controller (iDRAC). The iDRAC is a piece of
hardware attached on the server motherboard that allows systems administrators to monitor and manage
Dell servers regardless of whether the machine is powered on, or if an operating system is installed or
functional. The out- of- band technology works from any location and without the use of software agents
like OMSA. By contrast, for in- band management, OMSA must be installed on the server being managed
and only works after the machine is booted and the operating system is running and functional. The OMSA
software has its limitations, for example, it does not allow access to BIOS settings or the reinstallation of
the operating system and cannot be used to fix problems that prevent the system from booting.
Question: I have earlier generation of servers (9G to 11G) in my data center. Can I still monitor them using
the plug- in?
Answer: Yes, you can still monitor earlier generation of servers (9G to 11G) using the plug- in through
OpenManage Server Administrator (OMSA) installed on the server operating system. OMSA is not
supported on Oracle Linux operating system and hence you will not be able to monitor such servers. The
servers running Oracle Linux operating system can only be monitored through iDRAC7 supported only
with PowerEdge 12G servers. For details on operating system support for OMSA, see the
OpenManage
Server Administrator Support Matrix
at delltechcenter.com/omsa.
Question: Can I monitor Dell servers using the OMSA agent instead of out- of- band monitoring?
Answer: Yes, you can monitor Dell servers using the OMSA agent. For further details, see the previous
question.
Question: How is this plug- in different from the Dell Force10 plug- in?
Answer: The Dell OpenManage plug-in for OEM is used in a data center to perform end- to-end
monitoring of all Dell hardware – PowerEdge servers, M1000e/VRTX chassis,
EqualLogic/PowerVault/Compellent storage and Force10/PowerConnect network switches. By contrast,
the Dell Force10 plug- in is used to monitor the health of only Dell Force10 switches in the data center.
The Dell Force10 plug- in gathers performance and availability metrics from the Dell Force10 switches to
diagnose and troubleshoot the network issues alone.