Dell Lifecycle Controller Remote Services v2.40.40.
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Contents 1 Introduction.....................................................................................................................5 Why use Lifecycle Controller?............................................................................................................................................5 Benefits of using iDRAC with Lifecycle Controller.............................................................................................................. 5 Key features.........................
Server license — import............................................................................................................................................. 18 Provisioning Server..................................................................................................................................................... 19 Retire or repurpose the server....................................................................................................................................
1 Introduction Dell Lifecycle Controller provides advanced embedded systems management to perform systems management tasks such as deploy, configure, update, maintain, and diagnose. It is delivered as part of integrated Dell Remote Access Controller (iDRAC) outof-band solution and embedded Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) applications in the latest Dell servers.
For more information about iDRAC, see the Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller User’s Guide available at dell.com/ esmmanuals.
• Added support for x520 10Gbe dual port SFP+Mezz for PowerEdge C6320. • Added support for Dual HBA330 on R730xd • Added support for Emulex and Qlogic FC cards on PowerEdge R830 Platform. • Added support for SATADOM flash memory module.
Where can the Lifecycle Controller API be used from? Lifecycle Controller-Remote Services is a standards-based interface that enables consoles to integrate, for example, bare-metal provisioning and one-to-many operating system deployments for remotely located servers. Dell’s Lifecycle Controller takes advantage of the capabilities of both Lifecycle Controller GUI and Lifecycle Controller-Remote Services to deliver significant improvement and simplification of server deployment.
How is one-to-many management achieved? A management station sends WS-MAN and Redfish commands over a network and these commands pass securely through the network from outside the firewall and maintain security. Other information that you may need In addition to this guide, you can refer the following guides available at dell.com/support/home or dell.com/idracmanuals: • The Lifecycle Controller Online Help provides information about the fields available on the GUI and the descriptions for the same.
• The Getting Started Guide provides an overview of system features, setting up the system, and technical specifications. • The Owner’s Manual provides information about system features and describes how to troubleshoot the system and install or replace system components. • Lifecycle Controller Web Services Interface Guide–Windows and Linux.
2 Remote Services Features Using Lifecycle Controller-Remote Services, you can perform the following operations: • Deploy and Configure • Monitor • Maintain • Create and schedule jobs Deployment and configuration Using various Lifecycle Controller-Remote Services' capabilities, you can perform different configurations on a system throughout its lifecycle. You can perform operations such as BIOS, iDRAC, RAID, FC-HBA, and NIC configurations, and operating system deployment on the system.
• Manage iDRAC user accounts RAID configuration The RAID configuration feature is used to manage the properties and capabilities of the RAID storage. The RAID storage is modeled using a collection of attributes, where there are collections for the enclosures, storage adapters, logical disks, physical disk drives, and PCIeSSD devices. Additionally, there is a configuration service that contains all the methods used to configure the RAID storage.
• Traditional NIC capabilities • Internet Small Computer System Interface over Ethernet (iSCSI) capabilities • Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) capabilities You can configure various device capabilities such as: • Personalities (FCoE, ISOE, Layer 2 NIC) • NIC partition bandwidth allocation • Boot versus Offload • I/O Identity Operating system deployment The operating system deployment feature is used to remotely deploy an operating system using WSMAN web services protocols that use CIFS and
Configuring advanced security using hash password You can set user passwords and BIOS passwords using a one-way hash format in iDRAC available on the 13th generation Dell PowerEdge servers. The user authentication mechanism is not affected (except for SNMPv3 and IPMI) and you can provide the password in plain text format. With the new password hash feature, you can: • Generate your own SHA256 hashes to set iDRAC user passwords and BIOS passwords.
Lifecycle Controller restores the previous configuration and firmware on the newly installed device based on the inventory collected during the previous system restart. The CSIOR setting is enabled by default and it can be disabled locally by using Lifecycle Controller or remotely with WS-MAN. You can change the settings to one of the following: • Enable — Hardware inventory and configuration information is collected on every system restart.
For more information about Event and Error Messages, see the Dell Event Message Reference Guide available at dell.com/ support/home. System event log The Lifecycle Log contains events related to system, storage devices, network devices, firmware updates, configuration changes, license messages, and so on. However, the system events are also available as a separate log called the System Event Log (SEL). When a system event occurs on a managed system, it is recorded in the SEL.
in the form of a platform CUPS Index. iDRAC monitors this CUPS index for overall system utilization and also the instant value of CPU, Memory, and I/O utilization index. NOTE: To use this feature, iDRAC enterprise license is required. For more information about monitoring the out-of-band performance, see the Dell Base Metrics Profile and Dell Sensors Profile document available at www.delltechcenter.com/systemsmanagement.
• Enabling PCI slots — PCI slots in the system that are disabled in the BIOS require two imports – one to enable the slot and another to configure the card in the slot. Example If the Slot1 BIOS attribute on the import system is disabled, the first import must contain the following: PAGE 19Provisioning Server The Provisioning Server feature in iDRAC allows newly installed servers to automatically discover the remote management console that hosts the Provisioning Server. The Provisioning Server provides custom administrative user credentials to iDRAC so that the management console can discover and manage the newly installed managed system.
Viewing the managed computer system using the Physical Computer System View Physical Computer System View (PCSV) provides the view of a managed system such as current state and configuration. You can directly access PCSV using PowerShell commands. Using PCSV you can: • Receive information about the managed elements. • Directly enumerate the CIM_PhysicalComputerSystem from the console without any prior knowledge of a particular class. • Use a registered profile to enumerate the implemented features.
System-created jobs • User-created jobs vFlash (Create Partition using Image) System status This feature is used to remotely obtain the overall Remote Services API status that includes real-time CEM status, the host system status, and the remote service status. The overall status is displayed in the Status output parameter. After the job is complete in Automated Task Application (previously SSM), the job status is immediately updated in the job store.
3 Getting started with API collateral and links Getting started with any feature of Lifecycle Controller begins at the Dell TechCenter Lifecycle Controller home page — delltechcenter.com/LC. The home page contains various sections that reference URLs, and these referenced URLs are direct links to the corresponding sections. You can follow these steps to get started using the Lifecycle Controller API: 1. Identify the feature or the required management operation. 2.
Profile Name Description Event Filter The Dell Event Filter Profile provides the management capabilities to view the event filters and set actions and notifications for the events. Fan The DCIM Fan Profile describes the properties and interfaces for running system management tasks related to the management of fans within a system.
Profile Name Description Persistent Storage The Persistent Storage Profile extends the management capabilities of referencing profiles by adding the capability to represent and manage the partitions on the Virtual flash media on Dell platforms. Physical Computer System View This profile includes a specification of the physical computer system view, extrinsic methods for management operations, and its associated relationships.
Profile Name Description Software Inventory The Dell Software Inventory Profile extends the management capabilities of referencing profiles by adding the capability to represent the software inventory of system. Software Update The Software Update Profile extends the management capabilities of referencing profiles by adding the capability to update platform firmware or software.
NOTE: To access the XSD, use the link en.community.dell.com/dell-groups/dtcmedia/m/mediagallery/20074445.aspx Web services interface guide The web Services Interface Guide (WSIG) serves as a guideline for utilizing the functionality available from embedded Lifecycle Controller Remote Services web Services interfaces. It provides information and examples for utilizing the web services for WSMAN protocol using Windows WinRM and open source WSMANCLI command-line utilities. • Windows Version — http://en.
XML schemas The Lifecycle Controller XML Schema Guide provides interpretation of XML used by the Lifecycle Controller to describe various Lifecycle Controller output XML content such as: • Logs • Configuration results • Hardware Inventory • Attributes • Server Configuration Profiles NOTE: To access the Lifecycle Controller XML Schema Guide, use the link http://en.community.dell.
Feature Base Management with IPMI iDRAC Express iDRAC Express for Blades iDRAC Enterprise Remote Services (through WSMAN) Yes Yes Yes Yes * indicates that the feature is supported only on Dell 13th generation PowerEdge servers. White papers White papers help you to know in-depth information about a business-critical process that you can complete by using firmware products such as Lifecycle Controller, iDRAC and so on.
4 Integrating the Lifecycle Controller API This section outlines the resources required to integrate the Lifecycle Controller API into an application: • API Clients– Lists the API clients that are available to support WinRM or WSMAN. The API clients enable a you to create an application in a variety of programming languages. • Best Practices Guide— Provides information about the common work flows, where in ready-to-use Python scripts are provided for all the common work flows.
• Dell Lifecycle Controller Integration v2.0 for System Center Configuration Manager — dell.com/support/drivers/us/en/555/ DriverDetails/DriverFileFormats?DriverId=Y6J43 • OpenManage Essentials - Systems Management — en.community.dell.com/techcenter/systems-management/w/wiki/ 1989.openmanage-essentials.aspx • Chassis Management Controller (CMC) — en.community.dell.com/techcenter/systems-management/w/wiki/1987.dellchassis-management-controller.
5 Social media reference To obtain the most up-to-date information, go to the Dell TechCenter and search for the required information. Table 4. Product Information Product Name and topic Link on Dell TechCenter Lifecycle Controller en.community.dell.com/techcenter/systems-management/w/wiki/1979.lifecyclecontroller.aspx integrated Dell Remote Access Controller (iDRAC) en.community.dell.com/techcenter/systems-management/w/wiki/3204.dell-remoteaccess-controller-drac-idrac.
6 Terms and definitions The following table lists the terms used in this document and their definitions. Table 5. Terms and definitions Term Definition LC Lifecycle Controller Enumerate Refers to WS-MAN ENUMERATE operation as described in Section 8.2 of DSP0226_V1.1 and Section 9.1 of DSP0227_V1.0 Get Refers to WS-MAN GET operation as defined in Section 7.3 of DSP00226_V1.1 and Section 7.1 of DSP0227_V1.