Can we manage ESXi with Open Manage using the DRAC?

Hello Thailu,

yes, of course you can via web browser and console redirect plug in you can work on the server, you can also mount iso images, its possible to install the whole server via drac , no prob at all, also a nice feature is to get feedback via e-mail from drac card of server, if a hardware component fails, a very good doc can be found at http://support.euro.dell.com/support/edocs/software/smdrac3/ , klick on your used model and download or view the documentation online
another possiblity and the most used way to administer the ESXi is to open up the web access of ESXi server, just open a browser , insert the ip adress of the esx server and download the infrastructure client, install it, then login and lets virtualize *g

for access to the CLI you need to open up the remote CLI access via SSH and connect via CLI tool like PUTTY to server.

Cheers Neph aka Marcus

Hello again,

sorry for my last post did not mention the words open manage, sry 4 that....
the drac is an addon to manage your server, Scott releaseda very good script on that web site how to implement open manage on esx3i , please take a look on http://www.delltechcenter.com/page/OpenManage+Systems+Management there you will find a very start how to use and implement open manage , definately worth to read. get closer on http://www.delltechcenter.com/page/Install+and+Configure+OMSA+on+ESX , the drac provides more a single server access and control function, also good for hardware checking, but only for one server

Best regards

Marcus

The TS asked for ESXi, not ESX, very different product, so your answer (although very helpful for ESX) does not apply here.. Correcy me if I'm wrong.

Kind of half and half, the question is phrased in a way that is hard to interpret. OpenManage is not a product, but an umbrella of products and the DRAC is a specific piece of hardware management. So if I have to interpret as OMSA, then obviously won't work in ESXi because of no service console. If the question is just about using the DRAC for remote console, then the answer is yes, because that's out of band.

Best document that covers this is here -- http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/software/eslvmwre/Systems_Mngmnt/ESXi_MNGMNT/PDF/MSMPA02.pdf

From our Virtualization Engineering Team, the "Systems Managment Guide for VMWare ESXi on Dell PowerEdge Servers". It will cover using the RCLI to configure SNMP settings so the ESXi host can send traps to ITA.

Hopefully that clears it up for the original poster. Thanks for poking us to provide clarification.

I am using an r720 with IDRAC. I am running ESXI with pfSense running as a virtual machine on the same server. I know this isn't ideal, but it is fine for what the server is used for.

My question is can I manage pfSense (at least) though the IDRAC interface? I'm using the quad port NIC for my WAN and LAN connection and I have 3 ports passed though to pfSense, because I fear if I pass all four through, I wont be able to manage anything (in the event my pfSense stops functioning correctly) and would have to go though a long process to fix it.

I have all the expansion slots filled up, so adding another NIC is not an option.