Dell Systems Management White Papers

White Papers

Competitive Comparisons

Does DELL Beat HP at Delivering Simplified IT Management? (March 2008) - Dell is now working to simplify the IT management infrastructure. With the announcement that the future of Dell's OpenManage console products will be based on Altiris technologies from Symantec, Dell demonstrates their serious commitment to the necessity of simplification as defined by ease of control and maintenance of the IT infrastructure. Dell believes their management solutions will simplify IT in comparison to HP's solutions in some areas including: Ease of use via fewer consoles, Management infrastructure required, Ease of solution implementation, Total cost of ownership. This paper examines these claims. Server Management Solution Comparison on Dell PowerEdge R710 and HP ProLiant DL385 G5p Servers (March 2009) - Dell Inc. commissioned Principled Technologies to compare server management solutions on the following two servers, Dell PowerEdge R710 and HP Proliant DL385 G5p. Server Management provides ease of use for end users during various tasks they perform. For this comparison, we used each manufacturer's application to perform the following tasks: initial operating system installations, firmware updates, diagnostics, and remote management setup.

Dell Lifecycle Controller with Unified Server Configurator

Dell Lifecycle Controller Remote Services Overview (August 2009) - Dell's Embedded Management strategy focuses on simplifying IT management and delivering products and services which allow IT administrators to get their work done more efficiently. A key component in this strategy is Lifecycle Controller, which simplifies end-to-end server lifecycle management across provisioning, deployment, firmware updates, servicing and user customization. Lifecycle Controller 1.2 offers new capabilities for remotely deploying and managing Dell 11th Generation PowerEdge servers. This white paper provides a detailed description of Lifecycle Controller 1.2 Remote Services capabilities which are focused on enabling automated system platform discovery and enhancing remote operating systems deployment. Unified Server Configurator: IT and Systems Management Overview (March 2009) - Systems management has typically been a key part of the IT administrator's job. Being able to install an operating system, updating firmware to satisfy function and policies requirements, configuring devices and getting the most out of an IT network are integral aspects of this role. With the introduction of the latest PowerEdge Servers, Dell now offers Embedded Management, which dramatically reduces the time it takes to perform several common management tasks. Embedded Management is comprised of several interdependent components, including Lifecycle Controller and the Unified Server Configurator interface. This white paper provides an overview of this solution. Unified Server Configurator Security Overview (March 2009) - Dell introduces the Unified Server Controller (USC) as a part of the latest PowerEdge server embedded management capability that facilitates IT administrators to perform various operations without the use of any media. This paper discusses the security features that were carefully considered and implemented as a part of the USC solution. The first section discusses the development process that was used to engineer security into the solution. The remaining sections deal with the various security-related configuration and authentication options available in USC.

Dell Remote Access Controllers

Dell Remote Access Controller 5 Security - DRAC 5 enables users to remotely monitor, troubleshoot and repair servers, even when the server operating system is down. DRAC 5 security features mitigate the security risks that exist while data is being transmitted across the network. This white paper briefly describes the security features that DRAC 5 uses to help ensure authentication, authorization, privacy and data integrity Dell Remote Access Controller 4 Security - DRAC 4 enables users to remotely monitor, troubleshoot and repair servers, even when the server operating system is down. DRAC 4 security features mitigate the security risks that exist while data is being transmitted across the network. This white paper briefly describes the security features that DRAC 4 uses to help ensure authentication, authorization, privacy and data integrity.

Dell Systems Build and Update Utility

Single Media Integration of Systems Build and Update Utility and Firmware Repository (April 2008) - Dell Systems Build and Update Utility is used for deploying and updating Dell PowerEdge servers. It provides a pre-installation environment to update system firmware by sourcing the firmware packages from Server Update Utility or a repository on a network share or a repository on the web. This White Paper explains how this utility can be customized by the user to perform firmware updates on selected servers without requiring additional media or network connectivity for accessing external repositories.

Dell Integration with Microsoft System Center

Deploying Operating System Images on Dell Business Client Systems using Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (June 2009) - The intended audiences for this paper are IT and network administrators or managers who need to understand the technical aspects of creating and deploying their own customized images on Dell business client systems. This technical paper primarily focuses on using the Light Touch Installation (LTI) mechanism along with Deployment Workbench for deployment of OSs on Dell business client systems using Dell driver packs; the Dell Client System Deployment CAB helps simplify the deployment of customized images on Dell hardware. While the installation how-to steps detailed in this White Paper are LTI specific, the installation process resembles the Zero Touch Installation (ZTI) method that uses the underlying System Center Configuration Manager capabilities to discover and deploy operating systems. Deploying Operating System Images on Dell LatitudeTM  and Dell PrecisionTM  E-Series Systems using Microsoft® System Center Configuration ManagerTM  2007 (June 2009) - The intended audiences for this paper are IT and network administrators or managers who need to understand the intricacies of creating and deploying their own customized images on Dell Business Clients. Some typical IT administrator activities involve deployment of standardized corporate operating system (OS) images to client hardware and use of a consistent mechanism to gather application software, hardware, and operating systems information across the network from a central management console. This White Paper provides an overview of the operating system deployment capabilities of Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) 2007 to deploy a customized OS image on Dell Business Client systems in a heterogeneous environment. Dell Catalog for Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 (May 2008) -This White Paper provides an overview of the system update process using Windows Server Update Services (WSUS), Microsoft System Center Update Publisher (SCUP), System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) 2007, and Dell Catalog. It provides tips and best practices for importing Dell Catalog into SCCM to update Dell systems with the latest BIOS, firmware, drivers and Dell applications. As IT administrators design and implement a holistic methodology to manage their software and security patch updates, by importing Dell content into SCCM, IT administrators can also plan for hardware updates using the same process. This minimizes the resources required to transport Dell hardware updates across the network and simplifies the IT process.

Dell OpenManage Connections

Simplifying Systems Management for CA NSM and Dell Hardware (September 2009) -The Dell OpenManage Connection for CA Network and Systems Management (NSM) is designed to simplify monitoring and management of Dell hardware by integrating Dell systems management data and applications into CA NSM. This White Paper is intended for administrators who discover and monitor Dell hardware using CA NSM r11.1 and r11.2. It is assumed that the readers are familiar with CA Network Systems Management and Dell management applications OMSA, OMSS and DRAC.

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