White Paper iDRAC Service Module – OS based capabilities for Out-of-band management with iDRAC9 This technical white paper lists the latest enhancements that iDRAC Service Module (iSM) provides to out-of-band management with iDRAC9 to the customers in the Dell EMC 14th generation PowerEdge servers.
Revisions Revisions Date Description May 2021 Initial release Acknowledgments Authors: Aparna Giri, Ramesha HE The information in this publication is provided “as is.” Dell Inc. makes no representations or warranties of any kind with respect to the information in this publication, and specifically disclaims implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. Use, copying, and distribution of any software described in this publication requires an applicable software license.
Acknowledgments Table of Contents 1 Introduction ...................................................................................................................................................................5 2 iDRAC9 - The server industry’s leading Embedded Management solution .................................................................6 2.1 3 iDRAC Service Module (iSM) ..........................................................................................................................
Executive summary Executive summary The traditional approach to server systems management has been an agent-based approach to manage the server. These legacy ‘in-band’ agents required greater CPU and memory cycles and were heavy weight. Dell EMC first introduced full agent free architecture in 2012 with iDRAC (integrated Dell Remote Access Controller). The iDRAC9 has greatly reduced the need for in-band agents and has led to the modern way of server systems management via out-of-band management.
Technical support and resources 1 Introduction Dell OpenManage products help IT administrators deploy, update, monitor, and manage IT assets and Serviceability. The portfolio helps customers manage Dell EMC PowerEdge servers in physical, virtual, local, and remote environments by using in-band and out-of-band technologies. While in-band method was adopted greatly by customers for many years, with evolving technology organizations are gradually adopting to an out-of-band approach to systems management.
Technical support and resources 2 iDRAC9 - The server industry’s 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 all the common management tasks.
Technical support and resources Management (WS-Man) API. A single release of iSM also supports multiple generations of PowerEdge servers. Besides a smaller memory footprint when compared to OMSA, iSM is also supported on more operating systems. There are also features offered by iSM that OMSA does not provide. One such iDRAC9 feature is the option to completely drain the power from the server remotely.
Technical support and resources 3 iSM Key Capabilities with 14G/15G systems iDRAC Service Module continues to evolve to add and expand the features and functionality complimenting iDRAC and SupportAssist Capabilities. The below section provides greater details on the same. 3.
Technical support and resources 3.2.1 Co-relation of software failures in S2D environment with hardware alerts in iDRAC and LC Often customers in S2D environments face an issue in understanding co-relation between software failures with corresponding hardware issues if any. iSM being at an OS level can provide the ideal correlation for this deeper insight and easier resolution. Starting iSM version 3.
Technical support and resources executable links and loads. This ensures only an authentic iSM executable can get installed, adding to security. 3.3.3 10 TLS layer encryption between iSM and iDRAC To further enhance the security, the data communication between iSM and iDRAC happens through TLS protected USBNIC INET sockets. This ensures protection of all the data that transports from iDRAC to iSM over USBNIC. iSM and iDRAC use self-signed certificates to control authentication.
Technical support and resources 4 Conclusion As seen from the above capabilities, the functionality of iSM continues to evolve and complement iDRAC9 features. With iSM installed, the need for OMSA significantly decreases. iDRAC with iSM together provide nearly the full range of monitoring and management functionality. Dell EMC OpenManage continues to deliver more features to the out-of-band iDRAC and iSM solution based on customer feedback.
Technical support and resources A Technical support and resources The iSM and iDRAC support home page provide access to product documents, technical white papers, howto videos, and more. www.dell.com/support/idrac https://www.dell.com/support/article/en-us/sln310557/ Dell Technical Support www.Dell.com/support .
