R510 Questions: iDrac Setup, OSMA, vFlash, FreeNAS

Hello all,

Thanks in advance for helping out a complete newbie to server architecture. I'm an experienced custom desktop PC builder for almost two decades, but I recently purchased a used R510 and have realized I have much to learn! This server is being used in my home, not a business setting.

Objectives: 

• Setup remote management, as this system will be headless once installed in a rack
• Install FreeNAS on mirrored 2.5" HDD's in the internal drive caddy
• Use all 12 front 3.5" drive bays for 8TB WD Reds, this will be my FreeNAS array

Background:

Here's an ongoing thread I have over at the FreeNAS forums, in case it is useful for reference, or anyone is trying to emulate what I'm attempting and find it useful reading.

Here's a link to my Dell Service Tag so you can see how the server was configured from Dell. 

The server currently is setup in a RAID configuration using the H700 with 10 drives combined into a single virtual drive. That drive has Windows Server 2016 Standard installed and activated on it. There's also an iDrac Enterprise card installed. 

Questions:

• My goal is to place this server in a rack, but still want to keep an eye on thermals, power consumption, software updates and so forth over my home network. Once configured, I want to make the system completely headless.
  
  The system already has iDrac Enterprise card installed, but no vFlash SD card. I'd like to make a backup of the server's current system configuration before I make any changes to it. There are 10 Dell SAS HDD's (lower capacity than the WD Red's I want to use for FreeNAS) currently installed with the RAID config for Windows Server 2016.
  
  
  • Is there any easy way to export this current hardware configuration via USB thumb drive before I remove all the Dell drives and swap them out with the WD Reds?
    
    I tried exporting the server configuration, but it gave me an error message about needing a licensed Dell vFlash card. I had just a standard SD card in the slot, but the only other option that seemed to be available was export to CDROM, of which there was none attached to the system.
    
    How does one select USB thumb drives as an export destination for server configuration files?
    
    I'd like to save a copy of the current RAID config, plus Windows Server installation information in case I ever wanted to repurpose the server away from FreeNAS and swap out drives to go back to its original Windows Server 2016 configuration. 
    
    

How do I setup the iDrac management to use OMSA?

Once FreeNAS (based upon FreeBSD) is installed, I won't have any Windows environment to install Windows-based utilities. Based on my reading (someone correct me if I'm wrong!) OMSA needs to be installed on both the management station (my primary Windows 10 desktop) and on the R510 too, inside of Windows.

Can one take full advantage of the remote management features without having an operating system installed? If so, how does one start to configure this?

I've read that iDrac Enterprise works in a pre-OS environment, which is exactly how I'd want to access it once FreeNAS is installed. What needs to be installed/configured on the R510 to make this happen? What needs to be installed/configured on my Windows 10 desktop to access it once configured, or can everything on the management desktop be done over a web-browser? 

Those are my main concerns right now, and if anyone can point a complete server beginner in the right direction, I'd really appreciate it. I realize I have much to learn. Thank you for your assistance!