Hello

I would look into using OpenManage Enterprise instead of Essentials. Essentials is being replaced by Enterprise. I'm not sure how much longer Essentials will be actively developed. Enterprise does not support older products, so if you have older hardware that is supported by Essentials but not Enterprise then that may be a reason to use it. You can find compatibility lists and documentation on the support page of each of the management stations.

http://www.dell.com/openmanagemanuals/

The management station communicates with an agent or device of some kind to perform management and monitoring. Baseboard management controllers, remote access controllers, and OpenManage Server Administrator are capable of communicating with management stations to provide information. The features available for management and monitoring may change with each agent or device, some provide more information or capabilities than others.

If discovery finds a remote access controller(RAC) and an OMSA agent on the same server it will likely list the server twice. You can control the discovery methods.

Thanks

Hi Daniel

Thanks for the reply.

Unfortunately my place of work does not wish to invest in the Enterprise edition, so I'm still seeking some guidance to make essentials work as best I can.

According to the support matrix, most if not all of our hardware is supported by Essentials 2.5.

My currently known hardware is (and this list may grow as I learn more about this companies infrastructure):

4x Dell PowerEdge R720 (Running ESXI 6.0) - I know I need to get a VIB installed for 2 of these.

1x Dell PowerEdge R510 (This will be retired soon, so not too concerned here)

2x Dell SCv2020 SANs

1x Dell Powerconnect 7024

All of these are in the support list for OME 2.5 -- But I still struggle to figure out this baseline function.

Whats strange is that since yesterday where I provided the screenshot of the ESXI host being available in the baseline function (but not usable) it has since disappeared.

Can you please provide any guidance possible?

Thanks again!

Hi, I would like to know what you want to achieve by baselining. Is it the firmware and drives baseline or device settings (configuration) baseline? I would provide further direction based on this.

Please also note: Both of the above baselining features are only available for Dell servers and chassis (along with IO Aggregators). Storage and networking (TOR/standalone) devices don't have that support available for them.

Hi Shivendra

I think the idea is to monitor the Dell hardware both for hardware health, as well as to try to keep up to date with firmware releases.

To my understanding, the thought behind using this tool is to be able to push firmware when new versions release.

For firmware updates, please visit System Update tab in OM Essentials. Configuration tab is meant for configuration compliance workflows.

By default, firmware and driver compliance is done against the online Dell catalog (always latest and greatest). Following paper would help to implement the same.

https://downloads.dell.com/solutions/general-solution-resources/White%20Papers/Update%20Dell%20server%20hardware%20with%20Dell%20OpenManage%20Essentials.pdf

If you wish to create your own catalog using DRM and use it in OME, following paper has the guidelines to go about it.

https://downloads.dell.com/manuals/all-products/esuprt_software/esuprt_ent_sys_mgmt/openmanage-essentials-v25_white-papers1_en-us.pdf

Hi Shivendra

Ok - using the System update tab - most of my hardware is not shown.
Only one very old physical Dell Server.

My SANs, switches, etc do not appear here. They DO appear under devices, in their various subheadings.

Am I missing something here?

System update features are only available for Dell servers and chassis hardware. It is not available for storage and networking devices.