OpenManage Infrastructure

Morning

we are currently in the process of evaluating OpenManage Essentials. It's been setup on it's own dedicated Server 2016 VM, we have it configured so far to discover the physical servers, storage arrays and Enterprise clients.

I still need to setup discovery of the VM hosts, switches etc.

One of the key things for us was not so much discovery and management of the servers, we only have 7 so not a major issue but we do have around 600 clients that I was hoping this software would be able to help manage when it came to patching.

Now in addition we have downloaded and installed the Dell Repository Manager Data Center and Business client versions. Though you can seem to integrate the Data Center version into the OME, that does seem to be the case for the Business version.

Through OME I can and have updated one of the physical servers with the latest BIOS, firmware etc - and I have to say it was an easy process, but I can't seem to find a way of doing that to the client PCs which is really annoying.

As I understand it, in order to update the client PCs you need to install the 'Command' suite of tools on the client PCs and run the update from there.

Several things with this - firstly we do not use SCCM at this point in time and generally deploy software using GPO and an MSI - the Command Update software only has an exe, ironically the rest of the suite does have msi as an option?

Secondly these does not seem to be a way of redirecting the client to the server to look for updates as you would say WSUS. There is an option within the client but where do you point it to - there doesn't seem to be a http / https address that you would default to.

It would be soooo much easier if like the server you could run the updates directly from OME, I can't understand why this is not a default part of the software. I know for years everyone has touted the death of the PC, but they are still here and will be for many many years so can we have this feature?

within today's environment we have to monitor and use so many different bits of software to manage and update the hardware and OSes, having yet another piece of disjointed software isn't helpful.

Of course I am probably missing a key piece of the puzzle here - so if some one could explain in basic terms the integration I would be eternally grateful.

Many thanks