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DRACS/RACS/ERAs and SNMP..
Alright, so like allot of other people out there, I have several hundred Dell Servers in our racks. We would like to increase our managment and monitoring of these servers using Dell Open Manage combined with a DRAC/RAC/ERA solution. Our only issue is that we wish to have a seperate physical network that does that.
So, we would like to be able to use all the features of SNMP + the low level remote access that the DRACS/RACS/ERAs allow. Right now, that would involve using a traditional NIC + a DRAC, which means two extra cat5 cables per server.
Is there a card out there that dell provides that will give us the low level access + the application level SNMP access to the OS, all in one NIC?
I am so confused as to DRACs II/III/IV, along with RACS and ERAs. Some are built in; some are add on cards; and some are PCI cards.
Is there anybody out there that can recommend a solution? We are using primarily Dell 2650s, but we have a range of dell servers in our room.
Saunders
So, we would like to be able to use all the features of SNMP + the low level remote access that the DRACS/RACS/ERAs allow. Right now, that would involve using a traditional NIC + a DRAC, which means two extra cat5 cables per server.
Is there a card out there that dell provides that will give us the low level access + the application level SNMP access to the OS, all in one NIC?
I am so confused as to DRACs II/III/IV, along with RACS and ERAs. Some are built in; some are add on cards; and some are PCI cards.
Is there anybody out there that can recommend a solution? We are using primarily Dell 2650s, but we have a range of dell servers in our room.
Saunders
Steve_GL
8 Posts
0
January 7th, 2005 19:00
HP NC150T PCI 4-port Gigabit Combo Switch Adapter
Info Here:
http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=pes_oms&message.id=5644
Can buy it here or from HP:
http://www.pcsuperdeals.com/ProductView.asp?ProductID=ef7ef620-2144-4d21-b3c0-94064d1408c9&Refer=3
The switch functions as soon as the motherboard has power so allows access to the DRAC during boot up. We installed the HP card and simply looped a Cat 5 cable from it to the DRAC 4 NIC socket. Then we simply used the Broadcom NIC built into the card as the main server NIC. All functions perfectly and drivers are available from HP/Broadcom for all major OS's (the switch part does not need a driver so you could just loop a short cat 5 cable from it to your existing Dell NIC port)
A cheaper solution could be using a RealTek RTL8139D 4-Port 10/100 PCI Router Card instead of the HP card. It is a 5V only PCI card and will not work on the very latest Dell Servers.
If you are interested I have a DRAC 3 card and RealTek RLT8139D for sale - $50.00 for the pair - let me know if you are interested.
Hope this helps.
P.S. Currently we are having an issue with the DRAC4 working across a router (see my other post yesterday in this forum) if you know any solution for this I would be grateful!
SaundersR
17 Posts
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January 7th, 2005 21:00
1) using an onboard NIC for application layer/OS layer SNMP and other functions
2) using the DRAC 4 for low level/bios level management of your servers
Then, multiplexing both ethernet cables into a mini switch built into a PCI card. The sounds like a good solution, but I was hoping to use a DRAC card to do both things.
My main question is: how is the DRAC4 card? Does it allow SNMP polling of the servers through the DRAC4? Will the DRAC4 produce traps and send them off to a server? Does the DRAC4 show up as an interface in the operating system so that the SNMP can be done directly from Windows 2000?
Thanks for your response...
Saunders
Steve_GL
8 Posts
0
January 7th, 2005 23:00
SaundersR
17 Posts
0
January 8th, 2005 01:00
I had a question about this:
>4) The coolest thing is it has a "remote desktop" type application that allows you to control the server >over the internet from a remote client PC through a browser. This application known as the Dell Console >Redirect even allows control during Bios bootup etc - because the DRAC card functions totally independantly >from the server's hardware.
Does this remote desktop feature work from bootup till when the OS loads? I know we have the ERAs on there, and they only work untill the OS takes over on load up. After that, the ERA is pretty much worthless, since it cant do anything at the application layer. So, does the DRAC4 work similar to a WinVNC type product? If so, that would be great.
And since the DRAC4 is not visible at the OS layer, i assume it has its own built in SNMP polling stuff. I guess you arent to familiar with SNMP at the OS layer, but I was hoping to gather both low level SNMP data (fan speed, processor speed, etc) and OS layer information (physical memory in use, processor usage, hd space). Perhaps there is a way to set that up that I might read about.
Anyways, thanks for the help. I will purchase a few DRAC3 cards for our Dell 2650s, and work some with our 1850s that we have in.
Saunders
Steve_GL
8 Posts
0
January 8th, 2005 16:00
SaundersR
17 Posts
0
January 10th, 2005 12:00
I really like the console redirect features that are provided with the DRAC series and that it does the low level SNMP that would be useful in monitoring certain events. Its just too bad that the onboard nic that is provided as a DRAC cannot be used at the OS level. That would be a great feature and be a complete solution to our problem.
Just from looking at Dell's site, it looks like we are stuck with the ERA, as it doesnt seem that any of the DRAC lineup is supported on the 2650s (as far as i can tell). So, it looks like we will just have to deal without the low level connectivity, and use application level SNMP over a traditional NIC in order to manage our servers.
Thanks again for all your advice and help Steve
Saunders