Dell OpenManage Connection for HP Operations Manager v9.0 for Microsoft Windows

A Dell Technical White Paper

Dell

Thanga Prakash Somasundaram

Rakhee Joseph

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THIS WHITE PAPER 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.

© 2011 Dell Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction of this material in any manner whatsoever without

the express written permission of Dell Inc. is strictly forbidden. For more information, contact Dell.

Dell, the DELL logo, OpenManage, PowerEdge, and PowerVault are trademarks of Dell Inc. Microsoft,

Windows and Windows Server are registered trademarks of Microsoft in the United States and/or other

countries. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvolds. VMware is a registered trademark and ESXi

is a trademark of VMware, Inc. 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 disclaims proprietary

interest in the marks and names of others.

April 2011

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Contents Introduction ................................................................................................................ 4

HP Operations Manager ................................................................................................... 4

Dell SPI v2.0 Overview .................................................................................................... 4

Dell SPI Architecture ................................................................................................... 4

Support Matrix .......................................................................................................... 6

What Dell SPI v2.0 Offers ................................................................................................ 7

Dell SPI Install/Uninstall ............................................................................................... 7

Dell SPI Configuration Utility ...................................................................................... 8

Classification of Dell Servers ......................................................................................... 8

Periodic Health Monitoring .......................................................................................... 10

Events and Event-based Health Monitoring ...................................................................... 11

Dell_Process_SNMPTraps ......................................................................................... 11

Dell_Process_SNMPTraps_AckManual ........................................................................... 12

Application Launch using Tools .................................................................................... 12

Summary .................................................................................................................. 13

References and Links ................................................................................................... 14

Tables

Table 1. Dell SPI Policies ................................................................................................ 6

Table 2. Supported Devices ............................................................................................ 7

Table 3. Dell SPI Configuration Utility Options and Values ....................................................... 8

Figures

Figure 1. Architecture Diagram of Dell SPI ........................................................................ 5

Figure 2. Dell SPI Policies and Tools Screen ....................................................................... 6

Figure 3. Dell SPI Installer Screen with Custom Options ........................................................ 7

Figure 4. Dell Nodes Grouped under Service Map and Nodes Group ........................................ 10

Figure 5. A Global Status Health Message with Properties ................................................... 11

Figure 6. OMSA SNMP Temperature Trap and its Properties ................................................. 12

Figure 7. Launching Server Administrator Tool from Windows Node under Service Map ................ 13

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Introduction Today, data center administrators need to use multiple consoles from different vendors to manage

heterogeneous information technology environments. The centralized network management plays a

vital role in reducing the operational cost and complexity in data center environments. Dell

OpenManage™ Connections offer solutions that integrate with various consoles for management of Dell

hardware. One such solution is the Dell Smart Plug-in (SPI) for HP Operations Manager (HPOM). This

solution simplifies the management of Dell hardware for HPOM administrators.

Features of the Dell Smart Plug-In include:

Support for Microsoft® Windows® operating systems, VMware® ESXi™ virtualization software and

Linux® operating systems

Device communication using SNMP and WSMAN

Utility to configure Dell SPI communication parameters

Event-triggered health polling and periodic polling for system health

Alert auto-correlation support as well as manual support

Chassis and blade server correlation

Web console launcher tools to gather detailed information for troubleshooting

The Dell Smart Plug-in for HP Operations Manager for Windows enables system administrators to

manage and monitor Dell servers through HP Operations Manager console. Dell SPI creates specific

groups for Dell servers, periodically monitors the global system health of Dell servers, and processes

SNMP traps generated by Dell OpenManage™ Server Administrator (OMSA) and OpenManage Storage

Systems (OMSS) running on Dell servers. Dell SPI also allows administrators to launch OMSA console for

Dell servers.

The latest release of Dell SPI for HP Operations Manager v9.0 for Windows is v2.0; it can be

downloaded at no cost from the following site:

http://support.us.dell.com/support/downloads/format.aspx?releaseid=R298576

HP Operations Manager HPOM for Microsoft® Windows® operating system is a centralized management system for managing

business services in a heterogeneous IT environment. The Dell Smart Plug-In (SPI) is used to integrate

Dell hardware with the HPOM console through various policies, tools, etc.

For further details about HPOM for Microsoft® Windows®, refer to the HP Web site:

http://support.openview.hp.com/selfsolve/manuals.

Dell SPI v2.0 Overview

Dell SPI Architecture The architecture diagram in Figure 1 illustrates the integration of various Dell policies in the HPOM for

grouping and monitoring of Dell hardware. The Dell SPI policies need to be deployed only on the HPOM

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management server since the Dell SPI works in agent-less mode (i.e., without using HPOM agents).

These policies are grouped as a policy group called SPI for Dell Devices under the Policy

ManagementPolicy Groups in the HPOM console. Table 1 shows all Dell SPI policies with its policy

type and purpose of that policy.

The Dell SPI provides two tools—Server Administrator and DWS (Distributed Web Server) Server

Administrator—under the Dell OpenManage tool group in the HPOM console. Using these tools,

administrators can launch Dell OpenManage Server Administrator console to manage the discovered

Dell servers. Figure 2 shows the Dell SPI policies and tools in HPOM console.

Dell Server Helper Utility Library communicates using SNMP to Dell Servers running Microsoft®

Windows® and Linux® operating systems and communicates using WSMAN for Dell servers running

VMware® ESXi™ software. Dell SPI provides a command line utility named DellSPIConfigUtility, which is

used to configure the SNMP and WSMAN communication parameters used by Dell SPI.

Figure 1. Architecture Diagram of Dell SPI

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Table 1. Dell SPI Policies

Dell SPI Policies Policy Type Policy Purpose

Dell_Autogroup_Servers Scheduled Task Identifies and groups Dell hardware depending on the operating system and hardware type.

Dell_Sched_Status_Update Scheduled Task Polls for the Global System status of Dell servers periodically.

Dell_Process_SNMPTraps SNMP Interceptor Processes the OMSA and OMSS SNMP traps from Dell servers. This policy has trap correlation feature enabled.

Dell_Process_SNMPTraps_AckManual SNMP Interceptor Processes the OMSA and OMSS SNMP traps from Dell servers. This policy does not have the trap correlation feature enabled.

Figure 2. Dell SPI Policies and Tools Screen

Support Matrix The Dell devices and agents supported in Dell SPI v2.0 for HPOM v9.0 for Microsoft® Windows® are listed

in Table 2.

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Table 2. Supported Devices

Supported Devices Supported OS in Managed Node

Supported

OMSA version

Dell PowerEdge Servers and PowerVault™ Storage

Microsoft® Windows® OM 5.5 to OM 6.5

Dell PowerEdge Servers Linux® OM 6.1 to OM 6.5

Dell PowerEdge Servers VMware® ESXi™ OM 6.1 to OM 6.5

What Dell SPI v2.0 Offers

Dell SPI Install/Uninstall The Dell SPI v2.0 installer supports install, uninstall, modify and repair functionalities. This installer

provides options to select monitoring of Dell servers running Microsoft® Windows® or Linux® operating

systems and VMware® ESXi™ software. It also provides an option to auto-deploy the Dell SPI policies and

tools on the HP management server. If the user selects the option to monitor Dell servers running

Windows® or Linux® operating systems, the Server Administrator tool will be installed and the DWS

Server Administrator tool will be installed if the option to monitor Dell servers with VMware® ESXi™ is

selected. If the auto-deploy option is selected during install, Dell_Autogroup_Servers,

Dell_Sched_Status_Update and Dell_Process_SNMPTraps policies will be automatically deployed on the

HP management server and will run as per the default schedule. Otherwise, administrators have to

manually deploy the required policies on the HP management server from the SPI for Dell Devices

policy group.

Figure 3. Dell SPI Installer Screen with Custom Options

The modify option in the installer allows the user to change the selection of monitoring Dell Servers

(Microsoft® Windows®, VMware® ESXi™ and Linux®). The repair option will help the user to repair the

Dell SPI installation related problems like file corruption, file deletion, etc.

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Dell SPI Configuration Utility

Dell SPI includes DellSPIConfigUtility.exe, which is a command line utility to configure the SNMP and

WSMAN communication parameters. This utility is available in the location where Dell SPI is installed.

Table 3 lists Dell SPI Configuration Utility command line options with brief descriptions and default

values.

Table 3. Dell SPI Configuration Utility Options and Values

Command line Option Description Default Value

snmptimeout SNMP timeout value in milliseconds; supported value is between 100 milliseconds and 4294967290 milliseconds

5000 milliseconds (5 seconds)

snmpretries Number of SNMP retries 1

wsmanusername Specifies the username of a local or a domain account on the ESXi system and provides authentication to access ESXi

“” (EMPTY)

wsmanpassword Password for the specified username “” (EMPTY)

wsmantimeout WSMAN timeout value; supported value is between 500 milliseconds and 4294967290 milliseconds

30000 milliseconds (30 seconds)

wsmancacheck Option to check for the authentication of Certificate Authority that issued the certificate—the value can be “yes” or “no”

“no”

wsmancncheck Option to check for the authentication of the Common Name (CN)—the value can be “yes” or “no”

“no”

wsmanrevocationcheck Option to specify whether the WSMAN connection should validate the revocation status of the server certificate or not—the value can be “yes” or “no”

“no”

dwsurl Specifies the Distributed Web Server (DWS) URL “” (EMPTY)

help Help messages Not Applicable

The WSMAN communication parameters are applicable only for Dell servers running VMware® ESXi™

software and the SNMP communication parameters (snmptimeout and snmpretries) are applicable for

only Dell servers running Windows® and Linux® operating systems. The WSMAN username and password

need to be configured for monitoring the Dell servers with VMware® ESXi™ software. The password is

stored in encrypted form for security.

Classification of Dell Servers The Dell_Autogroup_Servers policy is the auto grouping policy of Dell SPI, which is used to identify and

classify the Dell servers based on the form factor (Monolithic/Modular) and operating systems

(Microsoft® Windows®, VMware® ESXi™ and Linux®). Auto-grouping policy groups all the Dell servers,

which are discovered in HPOM and satisfies the pre-requisites, under the node group called Dell

Managed Systems. All the Dell servers will be classified in to two groups based on the form factor as:

Dell Modular Systems

Dell Monolithic Systems

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Under the Dell Modular Systems group, each chassis will be created with its chassis service tag name as

node group and the blade servers will be grouped under this node group appropriately. All Dell

Monolithic Systems will be grouped under the Dell Monolithic Systems group.

It also creates a service group for Dell systems named Dell Hardware under ServicesSystem

Infrastructure. Based on the operating system, all the discovered Dell servers (nodes) will be classified

under the following service groups, which are created under the Dell Hardware service group:

Windows® servers

Linux® servers

VMware® ESXi™ servers

Each Dell server in the Service Map will have two sub-services:

Dell Global System Status service: This service is used to show the global system status of the server. This status is propagated to its parent service. The administrator will use this service to monitor the health status of each Dell server.

Dell SNMP Traps service: This service is used to show the highest severity status of all OMSA and OMSS traps received from the server. This status is not propagated to its parent service.

This policy also associates web console launcher tools for all grouped Dell servers. It associates the

Server Administrator tool for Dell servers with Windows® OS and Dell servers with Linux® OS as well as

DWS Server Administrator tool for Dell servers with ESXi™ software. The default schedule of this policy

is 23:00 hours daily.

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Figure 4. Dell Nodes Grouped under Service Map and Nodes Group

Periodic Health Monitoring The Dell_Sched_Status_Update policy periodically polls for the global system health of the Dell servers

grouped under Dell Managed Systems group and sends a message to the active message browser of the

corresponding node in the HPOM console. The global system status will also be reflected in the Dell

Global System Status service of the corresponding Dell system in Service Map. This policy maintains

only one latest health message for each Dell node. The default schedule of this policy is every 1 hour.

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Figure 5. A Global Status Health Message with Properties

Events and Event-based Health Monitoring Dell SPI supports two types of SNMP Interceptor policies: Dell_Process_SNMPTraps and

Dell_Process_SNMPTraps_AckManual.

Dell_Process_SNMPTraps

Dell SPI processes the OMSA and OMSS traps from all discovered Dell servers and sends formatted

messages to the Dell SNMP Traps service of the corresponding node in the Service Map. The message

severity will be Normal, Warning or Critical. This policy supports message duplication, auto-correlation

and system health update. Each trap is classified with a unique message key, which is used for message

duplication. The Warning or Critical message will be acknowledged automatically when the

corresponding clear message of Normal severity is received. When an OMSA or OMSS SNMP trap is

received, the global system status of the corresponding node will be retrieved and an appropriate

health message will be sent to the active message browser of the node in HPOM console. This status

will be updated in the Dell Global System Status Health service of the node in Service Map as well.

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Dell_Process_SNMPTraps_AckManual

This policy functions the same way as Dell_Process_SNMPTraps policy except for the auto-correlation

support. The administrator needs to manually acknowledge the faulty messages (Warning/Critical)

after taking necessary actions.

Figure 6. OMSA SNMP Temperature Trap and its Properties

Application Launch using Tools The Dell SPI supports two tools, Server Administrator and DWS Server Administrator, under the tool

group named Dell OpenManage in the HPOM console. The Dell SPI enables the administrators to launch

the OMSA Web console from the HPOM console to get more information about the Dell systems that are

monitored. OMSA can be launched in several ways:

From the Tools group

By right clicking on nodes and selecting the option Launch Tool

From all the nodes in Service Map

From Messages

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The Server Administrator tool is used for Dell servers using Windows® and Linux® operating systems.

Similarly, DWS Server Administrator tool is used for Dell servers running VMware® ESXi™ software,

which requires the DWS URL configuration using DellSPIConfigUtility.

Figure 7. Launching Server Administrator Tool from Windows Node under Service Map

Summary The Dell OpenManage™ Connection helps administrators increase their efficiency and flexibility,

particularly in large heterogeneous environments. This document provides information on using Dell

Smart Plug-in to help administrators easily and effectively discover and monitor Dell devices using HP

Operations Manager. Dell SPI v2.0 is a true 64 bit solution which additionally supports OpenManage

versions 6.4 and 6.5.

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References and Links For more information, see the following resources:

Dell OpenManage™ Connection Documentation: http://www.support.dell.com/support/edocs/software/smconect

Dell OpenManage Documentation: http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/software/smsom/

Dell OpenManage Server Administrator Documentation: http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/software/svradmin/

Dell OpenManage Server Administrator Storage Administrator Documentation: http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/software/svradmin/

HP documentation: http://support.openview.hp.com/