OME Server + iDRAC6

Hi,

Thanks for your post.

You are right the behavior is confusing and we are cleaning it up in the upcoming OME release.

In OME 1.0.1, if you discover iDrac using IPMI, it appears as server under servers group. When you discover a corresponding server, the iDrac under servers group gets merged with the discovered server. The iDrac entry goes away and the information gets added to server inventory.

For iDrac discovered over SNMP, the entry gets created under RAC group. After you discover the server, an entry for that server gets added under Servers group and the entry for the iDrac is still present under RAC group.

If you are discovering a server with OMSA, it gives you all the inventory information and health status as well as information about the iDrac. In that case you don't need to discover iDrac 6 separately. OMSA provides information about iDrac IP address and you can also launch iDrac console by right clicking on the discovered server. This would be the easiest option for you.

If you want to see server under servers and iDrac under RAC group, you can disable IPMI in the discover wizard, enable SNMP and discover the server and the iDrac as part of your discovery range. As I mentioned above, if you already have OMSA installed and discover the server, you don't have to discover iDrac 6 separately.

Hope this helps.

Regards

Abhijit

Hi Abhijit,

Thanks for the info. One more question. If I only use omsa, will it then still state a problem with an iDrac? I know if I discover the iDrac sperately using SNMP it will.

Hi, what is the prefer way of managing 12G Servers ? Since all the Management is no Agent-less, and iDRAC7 can send SNMP alerts. Do we still need to load OMSA in order to use OME?

What is the preferred way of discovering the 12G Servers and iDRAC7 ?

Hi,

OMSA will be able to monitor overall server health and should let you know if there is a problem with iDrac. Since OMSA provides iDrac IP address and URL to launch, you can also right click on the server to launch iDrac console to get more details.

Regards

Abhijit

Folks,

What kind of inventory should I expect when using IDRAC alone? We have some hardware with IDRAC6 and some with IDRAC7. We would rather not install OMSA on all the hosts and so, wondering what we would miss out on if we did not use OMSA.

I currently only see:

Device summary with Name, Type (RAC), Model, Service Tag.

IDRAC agent version,

NIC information only for IDRAC

Firmware version - iDRAC Firmware

Regards

Hi,

Thanks for the post.

In OME 1.0.1, iDRAC6 and iDRAC7 can be discovered and inventoried using either SNMP or IPMI protocols.

If you discover iDRAC6 and iDRAC7 using SNMP protocol, following inventory info will be retrieved:

Device Info: Device name, Device type, Model, Service Tag, Location

NIC Info: IP Address, MAC Address

Firmware info: iDRAC version, name

Contact info: contact name, description, location

Overall Health status of Server (on iDRAC6, health of storage subsystem is not retrieved)

Following inventory info is retrieved if iDRAC6 and iDRAC7 discovered via IPMI protocol

Device Info: Device name, Device type, Model, Service Tag, Location

NIC Info: IP Address, MAC Address

Firmware info: iDRAC version, name

Operating System info: OS Name, OS version (if OS installed and running)

Partial Health status of Server (as reported on server LCD panel)

OMSA reports lot more hardware inventory data than iDRAC 6/7, such as memory, processors, Power Supply, Embedded devices, PCI devices, Storage (virtual disks, physical disks, enclosure, controller).

However OME 1.1 release is due to RTS on Oct 30, 2012 (a week from now) which will provide support for discovery and inventory of iDRAC 6/7 using WSMAN protocol. The inventory data retrieved using WSMAN from iDRAC is almost equivalent to OMSA.

-Raj Shresta

Thank you for the detailed response Raj!

What would I be missing with regard to monitoring without the OMSA? Any particular failures, other than IDRAC failure, that wouldn't be reported?

Also, is there a beta version of 1.1 available?

With iDRAC 6 (11G servers), health monitoring is only limited to components in Server subsystem.  Storage subsystem health monitoring is not supported. In terms of SNMP alerts, OMSA supports more alerts than iDRAC6.

With iDRAC 7 (12G servers), health monitoring and SNMP alerts is equivalent to OMSA. OMSA may have few more informational alerts.

With less than a week for OME 1.1 release, I would not advise customers to use Beta version as there is no upgrade/migration path from beta version to release version. You may want to wait until Oct 30th.

Thanks,

Raj Shresta

OME 1.0.1 only supported SNMP and IPMI protocols for discovery/inventory of iDRAC 6. To get additional data, discover iDRAC6 using WSMAN protocol and disable SNMP/IPMI protocol in OME 1.1 release. Let me know how it goes.

Thanks,

Raj Shresta

Raj,

I just installed OME 1.1 and deleted the server with IDRAC6 (PowerEdge R510) and ran discovery & inventory again.

I do not see the information change at all. I am not seeing any additional data than I saw before. What might I be missing?

Raj,

How would I go about configuring WS-MAN on IDRAC6. I tried using IDRAC user name and password in WS-MAN settings during discovery, but that did not help.

Is there something I need to change in IDRAC?

In the OME discovery wizard, under WSMAN configuration page, make sure to enable "Secure Mode". If you dont have the certificate (file), select "Skip common name check" and "Trusted Site" options as well. Re-run discovery/inventory.

If the issue persists, launch "Troubleshooting Tool", select WSMAN, enter the IP address/hostname and credentials. Click "Run Test" to verify if WSMAN profiles are accesible.

Thanks,

Raj Shresta

Thank you Raj! That worked like a charm.

One last question - with 1.1 is there still a reason to install OMSA on the servers that have IDRAC6? Does 1.1 provide storage monitoring capabilities for machines with IDRAC6