Dell Precision Optimizer Owner's Manual
Notes NOTE: A NOTE indicates important information that helps you make better use of your computer. Copyright © 2014 Dell Inc. All rights reserved. This product is protected by U.S. and international copyright and intellectual property laws. Dell™ and the Dell logo are trademarks of Dell Inc. in the United States and/or other jurisdictions. All other marks and names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective companies. 2014 - 09 Rev.
Contents Dell Precision Optimizer (DPO).................................................................................................... 4 Profiles......................................................................................................................................................................5 Active Profiles.................................................................................................................................................... 6 Inactive Profiles...........
Dell Precision Optimizer (DPO) Dell Precision Optimizer contains a powerful engine that allows you to dynamically configure your system settings to optimize the performance of your system. It also keeps you informed of any available software updates and applies them when configured to do so. It contains a tracking subsystem that can gather extensive data about your system and help identify potential problems.
Table 1. Icons on the upper right corner of all windows Option Function Minimizes the application. Closes the application. Table 2. Icons on the menu bar Option Function Brings up this help document. Brings up a drop down menu with two options: About and a Feedback Form. Profiles The left side of the home page displays the currently active and inactive profiles for select applications.
Active Profiles This section lists the profiles that are currently active on your system. A profile is considered active if it is enabled and its policies are started every time the system starts. The user can click on any of these profiles to navigate to the Profiles and Policies page and see the details of the selected profile. Users with Local Administrator rights will also be able to disable an active profile or enable in inactive profile.
Option Function Takes you to the System Maintenance page. Resource Utilization The home page shown above displays the utilizations of the following resources: • Memory • CPU • Storage • Graphics The needle of the speedometers shows the current utilization of Memory, CPU and Storage. This data is refreshed every 2 seconds. If System Tracking is enabled on the system, you may also see a green portion in the speedometer arc.
on the horizontal bar.
Profiles and Policies This lists all the policies in a selected profile. The name of the selected profile appears in the blue bar on the screen. The names and descriptions of policies appear below the blue bar. Further, the left side of this page also contains the list of Active and Inactive Profiles and number of System Updates. Check New Profiles : When this button is clicked, the application checks if there are any new profiles that are available on the server.
System Maintenance System Information This page shows a summary of your system configuration. It also lists the available software updates for your system. The blue banner contains the System Make and Model along with the Dell Service Tag. The following option appears on this banner: Table 3.
• Device Category (Audio/Mouse and Keyboard/Storage/Chipset/Network and Bluetooth/Video/All others) This page contains three sets of check boxes – one set for each of the above – allowing you to select/deselect updates based on their Criticality, Type and Device Category. Selected updates have a check mark before their names. It is not possible to select or deselect individual updates by name. This page contains the following buttons: Table 4.
Option Function History Log Click this button to display the logs containing detailed information of previous Update History. Settings Click this button to schedule automatic updates and select options and filters that must be applied. After viewing the history logs, you may click the Update List button to go back to the previous page listing all the updates.
The list of available updates displays detailed information including the Version and Release Date information: • Check/Uncheck TYPE (Hardware Drivers, BIOS Updates, Application software, Firmware Updates) check boxes to select or de-select the corresponding updates from the selection. • Check/Uncheck criticality (Critical/Recommended/Optional) check boxes to select or de-select the corresponding updates from the selection. • Click on Apply Updatebutton to install the current selection of updates.
• Video • All others If the software is configured to CHECK or INSTALL UPDATE periodically, then the above filters is used to determine which updates is displayed to the user or which will be downloaded and installed on the system. If the user selects only Critical Updates, all 4 types and 7 categories, then if the Dell Server has one Recommended BIOS Update or one Optional Video Driver update for your system, then these two updates will not displayed or installed.
System Maintenance Settings Scheduled Updates This set of check boxes can be used to select manual updates or schedule automatic weekly or monthly updates. Table 5. Type of Updates Type Description Manual Select if you do not want the application to perform any update operation periodically in the background. You must use Check Updates button to look for available updates and then use Apply Updates to install these updates from the System Maintenance page.
Table 6. Check-Box options Option Description Notify when updates are available The application notifies the user if any updates (based on the filter selection) are found to be available. Updates is not downloaded to the local system, nor are they automatically installed. Download and install updates The application downloads and installs any available updates (based on the filter selection) before notifying the user.
Update History After viewing the history logs, click the Update List button to go back to the previous page that lists all the updates.
Track and Analyze Enable/Disable Smart Tracking When enabled, Smart Tracking collects system configuration information as well as sub-system usage data in the background. Smart Tracking reports contain data such as Fan speed, Thermal data, Battery usage, Processor Utilization etc. over a period of time. These reports can help you understand the behavior of your specific system under the operating environment that was present when the report was running.
Options Description Select System Data To Track This set of check boxes allows you to choose the sub-systems Smart Tracking collects data from. By default all sub-systems are selected. The following screen shot shows how the GUI will look once you have enabled Smart Tracking to generate one report after 4 hours. View Smart Tracking Reports This page also shows you if there are any previously generated reports available for you to view.
Smart Tracking Enable Smart Tracking This page allows you to enable/disable Dell Smart Tracking feature by clicking on the On/Off button. When enabled, Smart Tracking runs for the specified period and collects system configuration and sub-system usage data. This data is collected in the background and is compiled in the form of a Smart Tracking Report at the end of that period. Smart Tracking reports contain data such as Fan speed, Thermal data, Battery usage, Processor Utilization etc.
Select System Data To Track This set of check boxes allows you to choose the sub-systems Smart Tracking collects data from. By default all subsystems are selected. View Reports This page also shows you the number of previously completed Smart Tracking Reports ready for viewing. You can click on the “… Report(s) Pending” text to view these reports.
Smart Tracking Reports Select/View a Report If there is more than one report ready on your system, you can select the report to view by clicking on the ← and → arrows on the left side of the page. The right side of the page displays detailed information and graphs from the selected report. The bottom left side of this page displays a tree view of the report. Clicking on any of the nodes of the tree takes you directly to the corresponding section of the report.
You may click on the “Print” icon on this page to save the selected report in a PDF format. Delete a Report You may click on the “Delete” button to delete the currently selected report.
Troubleshooting Table 8. Profiles & Policies Issue Solution Why do I see Policy needs reboot message? Some of the Dell Precision Optimizer policies change system attributes that require a reboot before the changes can take effect. When this happens the user is informed and given an opportunity to reboot the system. You can decide to reboot later but the changes applied to your system will become effective only after you reboot.
Issue Solution retry the operation after closing other applications and associated update schedulers. Why do I see Update requires rebootmessage sometimes? Not all software updates require the system to be rebooted. If you get this message, it means that the software update that was just applied can only become effective once your system is rebooted. Please save all your data and close all running applications before rebooting your system. Table 10.
Contacting Dell 2 NOTE: If you do not have an active Internet connection, you can find contact information on your purchase invoice, packing slip, bill, or Dell product catalog. Dell provides several online and telephone-based support and service options. Availability varies by country and product, and some services may not be available in your area. To contact Dell for sales, technical support, or customer service issues: 1. Go to dell.com/support. 2. Select your support category. 3.
