Summary:
Dell RedHat Ansible Modules allows Data Center and IT administrators to automate and orchestrate the provisioning, configuration, deployment, and update of PowerEdge Servers by
leveraging the out-of-band (agentless) management automation capabilities built into the Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller (iDRAC), Dell OpenManage Enterprise-Modular, and Dell OpenManage Enterprise.
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Dell OpenManage Ansible Modules allows Data Center and IT administrators to use Red Hat Ansible to provision, configure, deploy, and update PowerEdge servers through the management automation capabilities built into the Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller (iDRAC), OpenManage Enterprise, and OpenManage Enterprise-Modular. Ansible by Red Hat is a DevOps tool that can configure systems, deploy software, and orchestrate more advanced IT tasks such as continuous deployments or zero downtime rolling updates.
OpenManage Ansible Modules simplifies and automates provisioning, deployment, and updates of PowerEdge servers and modular infrastructure. It allows system administrators and software developers to introduce the physical infrastructure provisioning into their software provisioning stack, integrate with existing DevOps pipelines and manage their infrastructure using version-controlled playbooks, server configuration profiles, and templates in line with the Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) principles.
OpenManage Ansible modules are available as an Ansible Collection on Ansible Galaxy.
OpenManage Ansible collection is certified and included as part of the Ansible community major release v3.0.0 and onwards.
OpenManage Ansible Modules for OpenManage Enterprise and OpenManage Enterprise-Modular
Smart Fabric management:
Network VLAN configuration
Fabric management – create, modify and delete fabrics
Uplinks management – create, modify and delete uplinks
Port breakout – configure port breakouts for fabric configuration
OpenManage Ansible Modules for iDRAC
Enhanced firmware update:
Check firmware compliance with check mode support
Improved job tracking till completion for all components' update
Removed dependency on python omsdk library for iDRAC9
Enhanced user configuration:
Support for configuring privacy encryption protocols (AES, DES etc.)
Enhanced server power management:
Removed dependency on omsdk for both iDRAC7/8 and iDRAC9
Standard redfish API support for power management operations
Bug-Fixes and Deprecations – please see the CHANGELOG for all the details
Ansible Roles: The following Ansible roles are also provided as part of this release. However, unlike the collection and modules, these are provided as is and community supported only
Import server configuration profile – import SCP from a remote network share (CIFS, NFS, HTTP/S) or a local path
iDRAC certificate management – generate certificate signing request (CSR), import / export certificates, and reset SSL certificate to factory default
iDRAC lifecycle controller job – get job status, delete a job, delete job queue and force delete job queue
iDRAC lifecycle controller status – get lifecycle controller status and the server status
iDRAC attributes configuration – iDRAC, LC and system attributes configuration
Features of OpenManage Ansible Modules
OpenManage Ansible modules for OpenManage Enterprise and OpenManage Enterprise-Modular
Automate the lifecycle management of PowerEdge servers, MX7000 chassis and compute blades
Device Inventory and Health Status - View detailed device inventory, including health status, of all the devices OpenManage Enterprise and OpenManage Enterprise-Modular manage and monitor
Template-based server deployment:
Capture reference deployment templates from a golden server and deploy it on target servers to ensure consistent and repeatable configuration
Edit configuration templates as per the desired server configuration end state
Deploy OS images as part of the template deployment using a single task
Firmware baseline compliance using a catalog and firmware repository
User Administration – automate the CRUD operations for OpenManage Enterprise and OpenManage Enterprise-Modular users
Power Management – automate the power management operations such as power up, power down, graceful restart, etc. of servers and compute blades
Job Management – View job details and monitor their progress status within your playbook for complex workflows
Appliance Configuration – webserver, network proxy, time-zone, NTP, DNS, and IPv4 / IPv6 addressing including multi-homing configuration
Supports agent-free and automated bare-metal configuration, provisioning, deployment, and update of PowerEdge servers with iDRAC7, iDRAC8, or iDRAC9
Leverages Redfish REST APIs provided by iDRAC for agent-Free (out-of-band) bare-metal provisioning, deployment, and update of PowerEdge servers
Export Server Configuration Profile (SCP) containing the complete representation of server configuration in XML or JSON format to a remote network share (CIFS or NFS) or local file path
Import Server Configuration Profile (SCP) from a remote network share (CIFS or NFS) or local file path for a consistent and repeatable configuration
Use Ansible playbooks for zero-touch automated end-to-end configuration, provisioning, deployment, and update of PowerEdge servers:
Power cycle: power up, down, and graceful restart
iDRAC configuration
User and Password administration – create, modify, or delete local user settings
Network Configuration – iDRAC network settings including DHCP and Static address configuration
Services – Web server and SNMP settings
SNMP Alerting and Email settings
Configure Time zone and NTP settings
System Lockdown
iDRAC reset
BIOS configuration - configure all BIOS attributes using a single task including Boot Order, One-Time Boot settings, etc.
Storage configuration - create, modify, or delete multiple RAID volumes on direct-attached storage associated with a storage controller
OS deployment - deploy operating system ISO from a remote network share (CIFS, NFS)
Utilize Ansible modules for keeping status of the Lifecycle Controller jobs and construct a step-by-step workflow for your automation playbook
Get detailed component level hardware and firmware inventory
Perform Out-of-Band firmware updates from remote network file share (HTTP/HTTPS, CIFS, NFS) using Dell Update Packages and catalog files
Licensing for OpenManage Ansible Modules
OpenManage Ansible Modules are open source and licensed under GNU GPL v3.0 License. Learn more >
Download of OpenManage Ansible Modules
OpenManage Ansible Modules are open-source stand-alone software. Dell is continuously improving the modules with minor releases containing new features, enhancements, and bug-fixes. For detailed information, read the CHANGELOG on GitHub repository. Take advantage of the new features and contribute to the ongoing development by either downloading the latest collection from Ansible Galaxy or by cloning the repository from the OpenManage Ansible Modules GitHub repository. Major releases of the modules may also be downloaded from Dell Support.
Demonstrate configuration of a PowerEdge servers using OpenManage Ansible Modules. In addition, demonstrate deploying the entire stack using a single Ansible playbook.
November 2018
OpenManage Ansible Modules for iDRAC - Out of band firmware update
Demonstrate updating firmware out-of-band on a PowerEdge server using a networked remote repository with OpenManage Ansible Modules.
August 2018
Cause
Dell EMC
Resolution
Dell Technologies 2021
Affected Products
OpenManage Ansible Modules
Article Properties
Article Number: 000177308
Article Type: Solution
Last Modified: 28 Feb 2023
Version: 8
Find answers to your questions from other Dell users
Support Services
Check if your device is covered by Support Services.
Article Properties
Article Number: 000177308
Article Type: Solution
Last Modified: 28 Feb 2023
Version: 8
Find answers to your questions from other Dell users
Support Services
Check if your device is covered by Support Services.