System information

A Principled Technologies test report 5
Dell PowerEdge VRTX and M-series compute nodes configuration study
EASIER TO MANAGE
As Figure 4 shows, deploying the Dell PowerEdge VRTX used just a single
management tool, while the legacy hardware solution required six separate vendor-
specific management tools, Web-based GUIs, or direct physical connections.
Figure 4: Comparison of the Dell
PowerEdge VRTX management
vs. management with a legacy
hardware solution.
A piecemeal or separate component solution means dealing with multiple
management tools, each potentially from different vendors. Disparate tools mean
added complexity and administrative time when performing various configuration and
management tasks such as updating firmware, making configuration changes, or
troubleshooting issues.
Among the other management headaches you face with a piecemeal solution is
the fact that while each individual server or infrastructure device has either an out-of-
band (OOB) connection or a management connection that provides an interface for
performing certain configuration and management functions, there is no consistency in
layout and no single sign-on for management. This makes secure storage of credentials
very important. Administrators must log into each device separately, locate the specific
items they need to address, and execute those tasks manually. Different generations of
equipment mean that no single firmware set can address all of the nodes, so the
administrator must download the firmware for each platform separately. The absence
of a Web-enabled interface makes a physical connection a requirement, which limits
remote management.
To simplify system management, Dell provides the CMC as a single management
interface to perform storage, networking, and compute node configuration as well as
management tasks on the Dell PowerEdge VRTX. As an additional tool, the Dell
PowerEdge VRTX solution includes Dell OpenManage™ Essentials (OME). This