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Baseline development and management
7 Dell EMC PowerEdge Updates Best Practices Guide (BPG)
1.1 Baseline development and management
It is a best practice to establish a common set of device levels (both drivers and firmware) for the systems in
your data center; this is referred to as a baseline configuration.
The Dell EMC Advantage: Dell EMC Repository Manager (DRM) is designed to assist in the creation and
maintenance of a baseline configuration of BIOS, Firmware and Driver levels. DRM assists in identifying the
updates that are relevant to the systems in your environment, by using DRM in combination with
OpenManage Enterprise a baseline configuration capturing current versions of firmware and drivers can be
created. This process will also identify updates that are newer than those which are currently installed.
DRM integrates with other Dell OpenManage tools such as OpenManage Integration for VMware vCenter and
Dell Chassis Management Controller.
You can use Repository Manager to publish a baseline software catalog and the update files on your internal
network, thus providing a secure, internal location for your systems’ updates.
Once an initial baseline is set, it can be applied to all the systems in your data center to ensure that all your
systems are at the same level. When new systems are brought into your data center, this baseline should be
deployed to them so that all systems are at the same version.
By doing this, it will be simpler to develop and apply future updates since your systems will be the same.
Best Practice: When a new update is identified, it can be deployed to the systems in your data center and
also placed in the Baseline created using Dell EMC Repository Manager. This keeps your baseline up to date
with the file versions that are deployed on the servers in your data center.
The advantages of using baselines and applying the baseline to all systems in your data center is that you
know what levels the systems in your data center are at. When a new update is identified, only that new
update needs to be deployed to the systems in your data center.
1.2 Update notification
As part of a Baseline strategy for maintaining your systems, it is important to know when a new update is
available.
The Dell EMC Advantage: Using Dell EMC Repository Manager’s Scheduled Search for New updates
feature will assist in identifying new updates as they become available.
It is a straightforward process to add new updates to an existing baseline created with Repository Manager.
1.3 Deployment
Deploying the updates to the physical systems in your Data Center is the most critical part of an update. It is
important to determine the best time for updates in order to minimize the impact of server downtime.
Maintenance Window: System downtime is a major concern for any organization. Operating system
providers offer maintenance releases to their Operating Systems. When the OS is being updated is often a
good time to also perform updates to your devices. However, each company needs to determine what is
best for them.