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Dell PowerEdge System Management Manual

Vmware esxi software on servers
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VMware
ESXi Software on
Dell™ PowerEdge™ Servers
Systems Management Guide

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Summary of Contents for Dell PowerEdge

  • Page 1 ® VMware ESXi Software on Dell™ PowerEdge™ Servers Systems Management Guide...
  • Page 2 Other trademarks and trade names may be used in this document to refer to either the entities claiming the marks and names or their products. Dell Inc. disclaims any proprietary interest in trademarks and trade names other than its own.

  • Page 3: Table Of Contents

    Contents Introduction ....... Overview ....... . Common Information Model .
  • Page 4 Contents...

  • Page 5: Introduction

    For more information on setting up ESXi with your Dell PowerEdge server, refer to the VMware ESXi Dell Solutions Guide at support.dell.com. For...

  • Page 6: Simple Network Management Protocol

    Dell OpenManage IT Assistant may be used to monitor the PowerEdge servers running ESXi through SNMP . VMware has developed remote command line (RCLI) tool to configure the SNMP agent in ESXi.
  • Page 7 (SBUU) to install ESXi. Note that the SBUU does not create or install Virtual Machine (VM) images. The Dell Deployment Toolkit (DTK) and SBUU may be used to configure the BIOS, storage, and DRAC prior to booting into ESXi. The server can also be configured at boot time by pressing <F2>...

  • Page 8: Install And Configure Systems Management Components

    First Boot Setup and Configuration VMware ESXi comes pre-installed on supported Dell PowerEdge servers. For steps to setup and configure ESXi on PowerEdge server, refer to VMware ESXi Dell Solutions Guide at support.dell.com. Make sure that the DRAC is configured as per the steps in the document.

  • Page 9: Management Station Setup

    IT Assistant and VirtualCenter Server on separate systems. Figure 1-2 shows the various components required to manage ESXi on PowerEdge Servers. Figure 1-2. Systems Management Components in VMware ESXi...

  • Page 10: Esxi Software Configuration

    • Baseboard Management Utilities User's Guide: support.dell.com/support/edocs/software/smbmcmu • VMware Infrastructure Remote Command Line Interface (RCLI): www.vmware.com/download/vi/drivers_tools.html • VMware Infrastructure Client: www.vmware.com/support/pubs • VMware VirtualCenter Server: www.vmware.com/support/pubs ESXi Software Configuration ESXi must be configured to enable monitoring of the server using SNMP . To configure SNMP in ESXi: 1 Configure the SNMP settings in ESX Server by using VMware RCLI.

  • Page 11: Systems Management Use Cases

    --password <password> -T Systems Management Use Cases The following section describes how various system management tasks and operations can be done in a VMware ESXi environment on PowerEdge servers. Discovery and Health Monitoring Using VI Client VMware Infrastructure Client has been enhanced to provide hardware health monitoring functionality with ESXi release.

  • Page 12: Alert Monitoring

    Ambient temperature of the server with status • Software – Versions for software components including Dell storage controller driver firmware, VMware ESXi hypervisor, and Dell BIOS for the PowerEdge server • Health status of cable and interconnects • Chassis intrusion status •...

  • Page 13: Change Management

    Dell System Build and Update Utility (SBUU) provides a utility to perform BIOS and firmware updates on the server. SBUU is a bootable CD that ships with every PowerEdge server. The latest ISO image can be downloaded from support.dell.com. The PE server can be booted with SBUU, which has options to update the BIOS and firmware.

  • Page 14: Troubleshooting, Logging, And Diagnostics

    The system log, management log, and storage controller log can be viewed from the terminal. In addition to viewing, log files can also be retrieved and provided to Dell or VMware support using the VI Client. Using DRAC or IT Assistant, the...
  • Page 15 Front Panel LCD Settings Using the IPMItool utility on the OpenManage CD, invoke the ipmitool command to get and set front panel LCD information. For the various options available, use: ipmitool -I lan -H <DRAC_IP_Address> -U <username> -P <password> delloem lcd help To identify a particular server in a rack of servers, use the following command: ipmitool -I lan -H <DRAC_IP_Address>...

  • Page 16: Troubleshooting And Known Issues

    ROUBLESHOOTING AND NOWN SSUES This section describes known issues and workarounds. IT Assistant Problem Description Resolution IT Assistant IT Assistant lists the ESXi This occurs when the categorizes the under ‘Unknown’ category in DRAC/BMC is not discovered server as the Devices hierarchy. and inventoried by IT Assistant.
  • Page 17 Storage Problem Description Resolution Health status of Health status of hardware MD1000/MD1120 is not components in components like fans, supported with ESXi. Health MD1000/MD1120 controller, and power supply of status of hardware components is not available in MD1000/MD1120 is not of MD1000/MD1120 is not VI Client available in VI Client.
  • Page 18 Storage Problem Description Resolution VI Client does not Memory health status is shown This is a known issue with this report memory as green even if System Event release of ESXi. Memory failure error conditions in Log (SEL) files show the error errors can be seen from the PE805 "Mem ECC Warning: Memory...

  • Page 19: Appendix

    PPENDIX Systems Management Features Comparison between ESX Software with OpenManage and ESXi Software This section compares the system management capabilities of ESX Server 3 with OpenManage and ESXi. Systems Management ESX Server 3 with ESXi Feature OpenManage Deployment Configuring the BIOS, Supported by boot time Supported by boot time storage, and DRAC...
  • Page 20 Systems Management ESXi Feature Health Monitoring (continued) Memory Individual memory status is Overall memory status is available through available in VI Client. OpenManage Server Individual memory status is Administrator. not available through VI Client. Network Connectivity Available through Available through VI OpenManage Server Client.
  • Page 21 Systems Management ESXi Feature Health Monitoring (continued) Firmware and driver Available through Driver version available in versions OpenManage Server VI Client. Only storage Administrator. controllers and physical disks firmware versions are available in VI Client. Other firmware versions are not available in VI Client, but are available during boot process.
  • Page 22 Systems Management ESXi Feature Inventory Processor Information Available through Processor brand, processor including brand, processor OpenManage Server version, current speed, core version, current speed, core Administrator. count, model, and count, model, stepping processor cache Processor brand, processor information, 64-bit information are available in version, current speed, core support, HyperThreading VI Client.
  • Page 23 Systems Management ESXi Feature Inventory (continued) Physical disk firmware Available through Available through VI version OpenManage Server Client. Administrator, IT Assistant, and DRAC. Backplane firmware Available through Not available through VI version OpenManage Server Client; available only Administrator, IT during boot process. Assistant, and DRAC.
  • Page 24 Systems Management ESXi Feature Inventory (continued) System Asset information Available through Not available. including Acquisition, OpenManage Server Depreciation, Extended Administrator and IT Warranty, Lease, Assistant. Maintenance, Outsource, Support, Service Contract, Warranty, System, and Owner Physical drive information Available through Vendor Name, Size, Bus including status, name, OpenManage Server type, State, Product ID,...
  • Page 25 Manufacturing Date Systems Management ESXi Feature Change Management BIOS and firmware updates Dell Update Packages Dell SBUU can be used to (DUPs) are used for online update the server. Requires update of the server. SBUU server reboot to start the can also be used to update update process.
  • Page 26 Not available for ESXi. The Tool (DSET) Server software. server can be rebooted to a supported Linux environment to use DSET. Dell Diagnostics Dell diagnostics tools are Dell diagnostics tools are supported offline. supported offline. Systems Management ESXi Feature Remote Management DRAC Fully supported.
  • Page 27 Systems Management ESXi Feature Hardware Configuration BIOS configuration Available through boot Available through boot option and OpenManage option. Server Administrator. DRAC setting Available through boot Available through boot configuration option, OpenManage option and DRAC. Server Administrator, and DRAC. Storage: Creating, and delete Available through Available through virtual disks...
  • Page 28 Systems Management ESXi Feature Hardware Configuration (continued) Configure physical disks Available through Available through to be online or offline OpenManage Server OptionROM (requires Administrator. reboot for the server). Setting patrol read mode Available through Not supported. OpenManage Server Administrator. Set rebuild rate Available through Not supported.

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