Dell Management Plug-in for VMware vCenter: Enabling a Dell Server for Server Management in a vCenter This Dell Technical White Paper describes necessary steps to enable Dell Servers ready for server management in vSphere client using Dell Management Plug-in for VMware vCenter Kaushal Gala Irfan Azam Muhammad Rahman
Dell Management Plug-in for VMware vCenter: Enabling a Dell Server for Server Management in vCenter This document is for informational purposes only and may contain typographical errors and technical inaccuracies. The content is provided as is, without express or implied warranties of any kind. © 2013 Dell Inc. All rights reserved. Dell and its affiliates cannot be responsible for errors or omissions in typography or photography. Dell, the Dell logo, and PowerEdge are trademarks of Dell Inc.
Dell Management Plug-in for VMware vCenter: Enabling a Dell Server for Server Management in vCenter June June 2013| Rev 1.1 Contents Introduction ........................................................................................................... 8 Audience and scope ................................................................................................. 8 Prerequisites .........................................................................................................
Dell Management Plug-in for VMware vCenter: Enabling a Dell Server for Server Management in vCenter Pre-Dell 12th Generation PowerEdge Servers ................................................................. 13 Dell 12th Generation PowerEdge Servers ...................................................................... 13 Hardware inventory on Dell servers .............................................................................. 14 Scheduling an inventory job ..........................................
Dell Management Plug-in for VMware vCenter: Enabling a Dell Server for Server Management in vCenter References ............................................................................................................ 24 Figures Figure 1. Connection Profiles configuration wizard ............................................................ 9 Figure 2. Connection Profiles ..................................................................................... 10 Figure 3.
Dell Management Plug-in for VMware vCenter: Enabling a Dell Server for Server Management in vCenter Figure 11. Example of test connection ........................................................................... 14 Figure 12. Schedule Inventory - Configuration Wizard ......................................................... 15 Figure 13. Settings - Inventory Schedule ......................................................................... 16 Figure 14. Schedule Inventory via Settings.....................
Dell Management Plug-in for VMware vCenter: Enabling a Dell Server for Server Management in vCenter Figure 24 Host Compliance Wizard - OMSA......................................................................... 23 Figure 25 Host Compliance Wizard - Reboot Hosts ...............................................................
Dell Management Plug-in for VMware vCenter: Enabling a Dell Server for Server Management in vCenter Introduction The Dell Management plugPlug-in for VMware vCenter is a virtual appliance which that can be used to reduce tools and tasks associated with management and deployment of Dell servers in your virtual environment. It The plug-in reduces complexity by natively integrating the key management capabilities into the vCenter console, and.
Dell Management Plug-in for VMware vCenter: Enabling a Dell Server for Server Management in vCenter Connection Profiles A Connection profile Profile associates a set of Dell hosts with necessary credentials needed for to communicateion with ESX/ESXiTM and the Dell Remote Access Controller (iDRAC). Creating Connection Profiles 1. Open Dell Management Plug-in using vSphere Client. 2.
Dell Management Plug-in for VMware vCenter: Enabling a Dell Server for Server Management in vCenter If you have used the Dell Management Plug-in at least once, you will not see the Configuration Wizard automatically. Click on “Connection Profiles” from in the left navigation area. Figure 2. Figure 2 Connection Profiles Figure 2 Connection Profiles 3. Click on “Create New” to open a popup for creating a new cthe New Connection Profile screenonnection profile. 1.
Dell Management Plug-in for VMware vCenter: Enabling a Dell Server for Server Management in vCenter 4. Figure 4 Connection Profiles -– Name and Description 5. Place a checkmark in the boxes beside the hosts in the vCenter tree that you want to be part of the Connection Profile, and then click Next. Figure 4 Connection Profiles - Name Select the hosts that appear in vCenter tree via the checkboxes to make it part of the connection profile and then click “Next”.
Dell Management Plug-in for VMware vCenter: Enabling a Dell Server for Server Management in vCenter Figure 1.Figure 3. Connection Profiles - Associated Hosts 6. Read the information on “Credentials” pageCredentials screen, and then and click “Next”. 7. Enter the required iDRAC credentials, and then and click “Next”. If you want to provide Active Directory credentials for the iDRAC, select the Use Active Directory check box before entering the Active directory credentials. 5.Figure 4.
Dell Management Plug-in for VMware vCenter: Enabling a Dell Server for Server Management in vCenter Figure 6 Connection Profiles - iDRAC Credentials 8. Enter Host Credentials (OS Admin login details), then and click “Next”.
Dell Management Plug-in for VMware vCenter: Enabling a Dell Server for Server Management in vCenter Figure 5. Figure 7 Connection Profiles - Host Credentials At any time, the user can cancel profile creation action using the via “Cancel” button. User can, or move go back and forth via between the wizard screens using the “Back” and “Next” buttons. 9. Test the credentials on “Click Test Connection Profile” to test the new profile credentials.
Dell Management Plug-in for VMware vCenter: Enabling a Dell Server for Server Management in vCenter Figure 6.
Dell Management Plug-in for VMware vCenter: Enabling a Dell Server for Server Management in vCenter 1.Figure 7. Figure 9 Select a Connection Profile Figure 9 Select a Connection Profile ii.2. Click “ Test Connection” right above above the attached hosts to open a popup screen.
Dell Management Plug-in for VMware vCenter: Enabling a Dell Server for Server Management in vCenter Figure 8. Figure 10 Test Connection Profile 3. Place a checkmark in the box beside the hosts you want to select, and click Test Selected. Test Connection Failures Figure 10 Test Connection Profile iii. Check/select hosts and click “Test Selected”. The following cases below explain situations that can cause Test Connection Failures.
Dell Management Plug-in for VMware vCenter: Enabling a Dell Server for Server Management in vCenter 2. Host is not reachable from appliance; if hosts are added with the DNS names or FQDN in the vCenter server, then make sure that appliance can access those hosts via the DNS configuration present in the appliance. 3. Any other networking and/or routing problems; check the network and DNS configuration in the appliance.
Dell Management Plug-in for VMware vCenter: Enabling a Dell Server for Server Management in vCenter Figure 11 Example of Test Connection 19
Dell Management Plug-in for VMware vCenter: Enabling a Dell Server for Server Management in vCenter Hardware Inventory inventory on Dell Serversservers A successfully completed inventory is required to gather the necessary hardware information for the ‘Dell Server Management software to function’. Also, periodic inventories ensure information is always up-to-date. Scheduling an inventory job Hardware inventory can be scheduled in any of the three ways below: a.1.Using the Configuration Wizard i.a.
Dell Management Plug-in for VMware vCenter: Enabling a Dell Server for Server Management in vCenter 1.Figure 11. `Figure 13 Settings - Inventory Schedule `Figure 13 Settings - Inventory Schedule iii.c. Click on “Edit” on upper-right. iv.d. Select the days to run the inventory and set the time. Click “Save”. c.Figure 12.
Dell Management Plug-in for VMware vCenter: Enabling a Dell Server for Server Management in vCenter d.3. Using the Job Queue i.a. Click “Job Queue” from in the left navigation area. ii.b. Click “Inventory History” to see details on Inventory Jobs. e.Figure 13. Figure 15 Job Queue - Inventory History Figure 15 Job Queue - Inventory History i.c. Click “Change Schedule” to open a popup for changing inventory schedule. d. Click “ Edit”, , Sselect the days to run the inventory, and set the time. ii.e.
Dell Management Plug-in for VMware vCenter: Enabling a Dell Server for Server Management in vCenter f.Figure 14. Figure 16 Change Inventory Schedule Figure 16 Change Inventory Schedule Running an inventory job An inventory job can either run on scheduled days/time as explained in the section Scheduling an inventory job, or on demand when user clicks “Run Noww” button as shown in Figure 13 Figure 16 Job Queue - Inventory History.Figure 16.
Dell Management Plug-in for VMware vCenter: Enabling a Dell Server for Server Management in vCenter 24
Dell Management Plug-in for VMware vCenter: Enabling a Dell Server for Server Management in vCenter Compliance issues The Dell hosts must meet certain minimum criteria in order to be managed by the Dell Management Plug-in. If the Dell hosts do not meet the minimum criteria, they are treated as non-compliant vSphere hosts. Viewing non-compliant hosts A compliance check runs as a part of an inventory job on hosts that are part of a connection profile.
Dell Management Plug-in for VMware vCenter: Enabling a Dell Server for Server Management in vCenter d.Figure 16. Figure 18 View non-compliant hosts from Compliance page Figure 18 View non-compliant hosts from Compliance page The hosts shown are non-compliant because of one or more of the reasons listed below: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Inventory Job has not run on the host. Inventory Job has not completed on the host. Connection Profile not configured.
Dell Management Plug-in for VMware vCenter: Enabling a Dell Server for Server Management in vCenter Figure 17. Figure 19 Example of Nnon-compliant hosts Figure 19 Example of Non-compliant hosts Due to security restrictions pertaining to Lockdown Mode, Dell Management Plug-in cannot communicate or run the full compliance check for hosts with Lockdown Mode set to Enabled state. Such hosts are not shown in the non-compliant and are marked with a message on top of the noncompliant hosts list.
Dell Management Plug-in for VMware vCenter: Enabling a Dell Server for Server Management in vCenter ii.Figure 18. Figure 21 Host Compliance Wizard - Select Hosts Figure 21 Host Compliance Wizard - Select Hosts iii.2. Select the hosts you want to fix on the “Select Hosts” page using the checkboxes on the left column., then and cClick “Next” button. If you select hosts that are not part of a connection profile, i.e.
Dell Management Plug-in for VMware vCenter: Enabling a Dell Server for Server Management in vCenter Click Fix Connection Profiles to proceed to the Connection Profiles screen. Figure 22 Host Compliance Wizard - Fix Connection Profile Warning You can proceed to Connection Profiles page using “Fix Connection Profiles” button. Clicking on “Continue Compliance Wizard” will allow you to continue with the wizard, but will not include hosts that were not part of any connection profile. iv.3.
Dell Management Plug-in for VMware vCenter: Enabling a Dell Server for Server Management in vCenter vii.Figure 21. Figure 24 Host Compliance Wizard - OMSA Figure 24 Host Compliance Wizard - OMSA viii.5. If you have selected hosts that may need reboot either while fixing OMSA or CSIOR, then “Reboot Hosts” page is shown screen displays with details on those hosts that need to be rebooted. You can check the checkbox on the bottom to opt-in for maintenance mode and reboot action.
Dell Management Plug-in for VMware vCenter: Enabling a Dell Server for Server Management in vCenter ix.Figure 22. Figure 25 Host Compliance Wizard - Reboot Hosts Figure 25 Host Compliance Wizard - Reboot Hosts 6. The “Summary” page shown in the end screen simply summarizes the actions that will be performed for to correctfixing the compliance. Click “Finish” button to initiate the fix process. You can go back and change your selections using the“ Back” button.
Dell Management Plug-in for VMware vCenter: Enabling a Dell Server for Server Management in vCenter x.Figure 23. Host Compliance Wizard - Summary Fixing OMSA issues When a host is selected for fixing an OMSA issue, a new OMSA package is installed or updated as needed. To fix OMSA configuration of OMSA, a file on the Host host operating system is configured to send SNMP traps. Dell Management Plugin-in uses vCenter for OMSA related issue on ESXi 4.x hosts but uses SSH on classic ESX 4.x and ESXi 5.0/5.
Dell Management Plug-in for VMware vCenter: Enabling a Dell Server for Server Management in vCenter this, simply select the check-box to reboot hosts in the “Reboot Hosts” screen page of the host compliance wizard. Common failures while fixing CSIOR 1-1.iDRAC not responding. Resetting iDRAC can resolve this problem. 2-2.Bad iDRAC credentials set in the connection Profile. 3-3.Old iDRAC Firmware firmware that does not support CSIOR Configuration.