An Introduction to IBM Systems Director

Jason NikolaiDakota State University

Objectives

Recognize the value of IBM Systems Director1

Understand the architecture of IBM Systems Director2

Be familiar with Advanced Managers 3

Be able to perform basic IBM Systems Director tasks 4

After this presentation, students will…

IBM Systems Director Overview

IBM Systems Director is a tool that… provides administrators with a single-point-of-control to

reduce IT management complexity and cost supports cross platform management (for example: system

discovery, inventory, health, maintenance updates, configuration, automation, and remote control)

enables monitoring and event management across heterogeneous IT environments from a single browser-based user interface

reduces operational complexity and provides a view of the relationships and health status of IT systems

unifies the management of servers, storage and network devices with a consistent look and feel for common management tasks

helps automate data center operations uses industry standards to manage physical and virtual

systems running multiple operating systems

IBM Systems Director Value

Data centers are able to monitor and manage different systems from a single console

Day to day operations can be automated and system events can trigger an action For example, if a system is no longer available, IBM Systems

Director can send email to notify of the status change

Advanced data center functions are available using Advanced Manager plug-ins that can manage virtualization technology, manage power usage, update systems, etc.

IBM Systems Director Architecture

IBM Systems Director is composed of two primary components IBM Director Server Managed End Points

IBM Director Server IBM Systems Director Server is installed on the system that

is to become the management server

Managed End Points Managed end points are systems that are monitored and

managed by IBM Systems Director server The managed end points have different agents installed

IBM Systems Director Architecture

Managed End Points Agents Agentless-managed system

• Must at a minimum support either Secure Shell (SSH), Distributed Component Object Model (DCOM), or Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP)

• Function supported: – Discover systems– Collect limited operating-system inventory data– Remotely deploy and install Platform Agent– Remotely deploy and install Common Agent– Perform limited remote access– Perform limited restart capabilities

IBM Systems Director Architecture

Managed End Points Agents Platform Agent

• Platform Agent is installed on managed systems where the smallest agent footprint is critical and management requirements are fairly simple

• Function supported: – Discover systems– Collect limited platform inventory data– Monitor health and status– Manage alerts– Remotely deploy and install Common Agent– Perform limited remote access– Perform limited restart capabilities

IBM Systems Director Architecture

Managed End Points Agents Common Agent

• Common Agent is the full-function management agent designed to provide comprehensive systems management capabilities

• After Common Agent is installed on an endpoint, additional agent-side plug-ins can be installed to add advanced management functionality to the endpoint

• Common agent includes Platform agent

Component Depiction

Advanced Managers

Active Energy Manager an extension of IBM Director that manages the power and

thermal needs of IBM servers and BladeCenter systems

Network Control provides facilities to discover, inventory, and monitor network

devices, launch vendor applications for configuration of network devices, and see groups of network devices

Service and Support Manager automatically monitors and collects hardware problem

information and sends this information to IBM support.

Advanced Managers

VMControl manages workloads across multiple hardware platforms and

virtualization environments from one location Transition Manager for HP Systems Insight

Manager discovers systems that are being managed by HP Systems

Insight Manager and helps transition to managing the systems in IBM Systems Director

PowerVM Workload Partitions Manager for AIX a platform management solution that provides a centralized

point of control for managing workload partitions (WPARs) across a collection of managed systems running AIX.

Basic Functions

Discover Systems Discovery is the process by which IBM® Systems Director

Server identifies and establishes connections with network-level resources that IBM Systems Director can manage, such as computers, switches, or printers.

Collect Inventory Inventory collection is the process by which IBM Systems

Director Server establishes connections with network-level resources, such as computers, switches, or printers, that have already been discovered and collects data about the hardware and software that is currently installed on those resources.

Monitor System Status and Health IBM Systems Director automatically retrieves and displays

the status of systems that have been discovered.

Discover Systems

Collect Inventory

View Inventory

Monitor System Status and Health

Student Lab (option 1)1. Login to Lab Manager, like you have done for other labs.2. Click the New Configuration… button at the top.3. Select Windows Server 2008 as the Source4. Select Span_1 as the Network.5. Select DHCP at the IP Address Mode.6. Click Ok. A new virtual machine should be created.7. Click on the Configuration New for the new VM and select Deploy…8. Click OK.9. After the VM is deployed, open a console and login with Administrator and Password1! as the

password.10. Open Internet Explorer.11. Click Tools->Internet Options12. Click Security Tab->Local intranet and the Sites button13. Under Add this website to the zone, enter 172.*.*.* and click Add. Then Close and OK.14. Connect to IBM Systems Director Server with your VM using browser:

https://172.16.1.101:8422/ibm/console15. If you get a message box, check the box to not show again and Click ok16. Click Continue to this website (not recommend)17. Login using your last name (lowercase) with the password Password1!18. Discover system 172.16.1.110 (Note: it may have already been discovered, but run discovery

anyway). What operating system is running on that system?19. Collect inventory on system 172.16.1.110 using user id Administrator and password

Password1! How much system memory does that system have?20. Examine the health of discovered systems by looking at all operating systems. Are there any

problems detected?21. Click around and learn about IBM Systems Director. You have administrative rights, so please be

careful not to do destructive activities.

Student Lab (option 2)

1. Go to URL:http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/director/v6r2x/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.director.main.helps.doc/fqm0_main.html

2. Click the + in the left panel next to IBM Systems Director V6.2.x

3. Click the + in the left panel next to Learning and Tutorials

4. Choose two or more tutorials and watch them.

5. Which tutorials did you watch? What did you learn about IBM Systems Director?

Checkpoint

List three functions supported by IBM Systems Director

Identify the types of agents that are possible with IBM Director (excluding agentless).

List two Advanced Managers and give a brief description of the function provided.

Be able to discover systems, collect inventory, and monitor system status and health using IBM Systems Director.

Students should be able to…

Presentation Template source: www.designfreebies.org

Learn More About the Product

Download it here: http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/software/director/downloads/index.html

Wiki Page: http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/wikis/display/WikiPtype/IBM+Systems+Director

Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/IBM-Systems-Director/193362963483

Youtube Videoshttp://www.youtube.com/ibmgreg

References

Feisthammel, D., Bain, L., Engel, P., Nadgowda, S., Sahagun, J., & Watts, D. (2009). Implementing IBM Systems Director 6.1: IBM.

IBM Systems Director. (n.d.). Retrieved July 23, 2010, from http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/wikis/display/WikiPtype/IBM+Systems+Director

IBM Systems Director v6.2.0. (n.d.). Retrieved July 25, 2010, from http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/director/v6r2x/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.director.main.helps.doc/fqm0_main.html