White Paper In-band or out-of-band: Advantages of iDRAC and iSM compared to OMSA This paper showcases the advantages and features that out-of-band tools provide and compares them to the use of in-band agents for Dell EMC PowerEdge Systems Management.
Revisions Revisions Date Description June 2017 Initial release May 2020 Updated content Acknowledgments Authors: Aparna Giri, Doug Iler, Jeff Krebs Contributors: John Abrams, Rama Bisa, Prakash Pawar, Manjunath M V, Sheshadri PR Rao The information in this publication is provided “as is.” Dell Inc.
Table of contents Table of contents Revisions.............................................................................................................................................................................2 Acknowledgments ...............................................................................................................................................................2 Table of contents ................................................................................................
Executive summary Executive summary The traditional approach to server systems management has been to install an agent in the server operating system and proceed from there. These “in-band” agents were required to connect to various platform components to be able to discover, configure, update, and monitor the device. In band agents were the de facto method for server management. However, Dell EMC changed this paradigm in 2012 with the introduction of the first agent free architecture.
Introduction 1 Introduction The Dell EMC OpenManage portfolio is a suite of tools to help IT admins manage PowerEdge servers. OpenManage tools help IT administrators deploy, update, monitor, and manage IT assets and allows them to quickly respond to issues. As a result, admins can manage Dell EMC PowerEdge servers efficiently in physical, virtual, local, and remote environments by using in-band and out-of-band technologies.
iDRAC9 — Server industry leading Embedded Management solution 2 iDRAC9 — Server industry leading Embedded Management solution The integrated Dell Remote Access Controller 9 (iDRAC9) delivers advanced, agent-free, local and remote server administration. Embedded in every PowerEdge server, iDRAC9 provides a secure means to automate a multitude of common management tasks. Because iDRAC is embedded in every PowerEdge server, there is no additional software to install.
iDRAC9 — Server industry leading Embedded Management solution 2.2 OpenManage Server Administrator (OMSA) OpenManage Server Administrator provides a comprehensive one-one systems management solution for both local and remote servers, their storage controllers, and Direct Attached Storage (DAS). OMSA can provide this support by being installed in the operating system or hypervisor on a PowerEdge server. While OMSA provides many of the same functions as iDRAC, it does have some limited functionality.
iDRAC9 — Server industry leading Embedded Management solution 2.5 iDRAC Agent free management Dell EMC provides the option to for complete real-time agent free management of server. This means that no agents must be installed in the operating system or hypervisor for complete monitoring and management of the components.
iDRAC9 enhancements — Deep dive into storage and networking 3 iDRAC9 enhancements — Deep dive into storage and networking The Dell EMC engineers continue to add and expand the various features and functionality for iDRAC9. Two key areas of focus are storage and network management. The end goal is full functionality without the use of an agent in the operating system or hypervisor. This section explores in detail these two topics. 3.
iDRAC9 enhancements — Deep dive into storage and networking 3.2 Enhancements for real-time network management Along with new storage features, iDRAC also expanded and enhanced its network management. A new feature that is found in iDRAC9 is “Connection View.” This feature provides details of the physical mapping of switch ports to server ports and iDRAC dedicated port connections.
Comparison Matrix – iDRAC, iDRAC with iSM, and OMSA 4 Comparison Matrix – iDRAC, iDRAC with iSM, and OMSA The following matrix helps break down and identity features that these different OpenManage components support. As seen below, iDRAC9 provides an extensive number of features without the need for agents. However, added functionality can be gained by adding either iSM or using the in band agent OMSA.
Comparison Matrix – iDRAC, iDRAC with iSM, and OMSA Category Feature Create Virtual Disk Delete Virtual Disk Reset Controller Configuration Clear Foreign Configuration Import Foreign Configuration Initialize Virtual Disk (Fast and Full) Consistency Check for Virtual Disk Start/Stop Patrol Read Assign/Unassign Global and Dedicate Hot spares Blink/Unblink Physical Disk/Virtual Disk Local Key Management (Create/Change/Delete Security Key) Controller Attributes Virtual Disk Attributes Convert drive to RAID Co
Comparison Matrix – iDRAC, iDRAC with iSM, and OMSA Category Feature iDRAC settings Import/export system configuration Power Cap Power State Control Configuration LCD and Settings Remote full power cycle Launch iDRAC GUI from Host Operating System iDRAC9 iDRAC9 with iSM Single Sign-On (SSO) with operating system Credentials into console Remote iDRAC reset Operating system Information (operating system name, version) Inventory and Monitoring Updates Serviceability 13 iDRA
Conclusion 5 Conclusion As seen in the above chart, the functionality of iDRAC continues to increase, especially regarding agent-free storage management. Add on the additional benefits from having iSM installed, and the need for OMSA significantly decreases. iDRAC with iSM provides nearly the full range of monitoring and management functionality. However, there are a few corner case scenarios which would require the use of the in-band OMSA agent.
Conclusion A Technical support and resources The iDRAC support home page provides access to product documents, technical white papers, how-to videos, and more. www.dell.com/support/idrac iDRAC User Guides and other manuals www.dell.com/idracmanuals Dell Technical Support www.Dell.com/support .
