Heterogeneous environments can be a challenge to

monitor and manage, typically requiring different

management consoles for different systems. Dell

OpenManage Connection plug-ins are designed to simplify

that challenge by integrating the management of Dell

PowerEdge™ servers, Dell PowerVault™ storage, Dell OptiPlex™

desktops, and Dell Latitude™ notebooks into third-party soft-

ware. Deploying these plug-ins enables administrators to

monitor Dell system health with Dell agents by collecting

information from widely dispersed enterprise networks and

viewing it in real time through a single console, and to launch

and use Dell systems management applications such as Dell

OpenManage Server Administrator (OMSA), Dell OpenManage

Array Manager, and the Dell Remote Access Controller

(DRAC) console.

Dell OpenManage Connection plug-ins are currently

available for four management applications: Microsoft

Operations Manager (MOM), IBM Tivoli Enterprise Console

(TEC), CA Unicenter, and HP OpenView Network Node

Manager (NNM). Figure 1 illustrates how Dell OpenManage

Connection plug-ins function as part of an enterprise moni-

toring framework.

Dell OpenManage Connection for Microsoft Operations Manager MOM is a comprehensive monitoring application that pro-

vides a centralized console and automated problem resolu-

tion for enterprise networks.1 The Dell OpenManage

Connection for MOM—also called the Dell Management Pack

for MOM—is a software module imported into the MOM con-

sole that enhances its ability to depict Dell system status

for a defined network segment. The enhanced representa-

tion, which includes general status alerts and pre-failure

alerts, can help administrators assess, respond to, and

ensure the availability of Dell systems monitored through

the centralized MOM console, as well as allowing them to

install and uninstall MOM agents on monitored servers.

Figure 2 illustrates this plug-in as part of a MOM-based

enterprise monitoring framework.

The plug-in also imports processing rule groups for Dell

events generated by OMSA to help administrators monitor

and manage Dell servers. These rules are invoked based on

the criteria defined for each rule, which include event source,

ID, and type. When event criteria match a particular rule and

the event is a warning or critical event, a Dell-specific alert

Related Categories:

Dell PowerEdge servers

Dell PowerVault storage

Systems management

Visit www.dell.com/powersolutions

for the complete category index.

Centralizing access to routine tasks can help increase efficiency for data center administrators. Dell OpenManage™ Connection plug-ins are designed to simplify the monitoring and management of Dell™ hardware by integrating Dell systems management data and applications into Microsoft® Operations Manager, IBM® Tivoli Enterprise Console, CA Unicenter, and HP OpenView Network Node Manager software.

By Sanjeev Kumar Singh

neeraj Sharma

1 mOm is now part of the microsoft System Center family of solutions; the latest version of this software is called System Center Operations manager 2007.

Importcorner art

here

systems management

DELL POWER SOLUTIONS | august 20071 reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, august 2007. Copyright © 2007 Dell inc. all rights reserved.

Simplifying Dell Systems Management with Dell OpenManage Connection Plug-ins

is generated and logged in the MOM Dell

OpenManage Alerts view, located in Public

Views > Dell OpenManage.

After installation, the MOM Operator con-

sole should look similar to Figure 3, provided

that the Dell servers already have OMSA

installed. The plug-in makes various Dell-

specific views available in MOM, including the

Dell State, Dell Services Role, Dell Topology, and

Dell Tasks views.

Dell State view. The Dell State view reflects

the health of Dell servers managed by MOM.

Administrators can access this view from the

MOM Operator console by clicking on the State

tab in the left Event Views pane, then clicking

on “Dell OpenManage.”

Dell Services Role view. The Dell Services

Role view shows the health and color-coded

status for Dell services running on agent-managed

nodes, with red, yellow, green, and white denot-

ing stopped, paused, running, and inapplicable,

respectively. The health is determined by the

severity level of the most severe unresolved alert

for each service, and is updated based on sched-

uled time intervals or specific tasks.

Dell Topology views. The Dell Topology

views display diagrams representing Dell serv-

ers in a network; these views include the Dell

Computer Listing and Dell Computer Group

Listing views. The Dell Computer Listing view

displays discovered Dell servers both with and

without OMSA installed along with their status,

depending on the computer group selected in

the MOM Operator console toolbar. The Dell

Computer Group Listing view shows Dell com-

puter groups, which administrators can view by

setting the computer group to “Dell Computers”

or “Dell Computers without OMSA” in the MOM

Operator console toolbar. The plug-in can dis-

cover hardware properties in addition to roles

and components for particular servers, and

some of these attributes are displayed when

administrators hover the mouse pointer over the

server icons in these views.

Dell Tasks view. Installing the plug-in adds

several options to the MOM Tasks view: Launch

Server Administrator, which launches OMSA for

the selected server; Intelligent Platform

Management Interface (IPMI) tasks such as

Check Power Status and Power Cycle; and Clear

Agent ESM Log, which stores the contents of the

Embedded Server Management (ESM) log for

the selected server in a backup file and clears

the ESM log. The backup log file for the Clear

Figure 1. Dell OpenManage Connection plug-ins as part of an enterprise monitoring framework

Delldiscovery

plug-in

Dellconfiguration

files

Dellstatusplug-in

DellmiBs

Dell OpenManage Connection components

Discovery eventsStatusmanagementinformationbase (miB)

browser

Enterprise monitoring framework

in-context launch

OMSA

Dell OpenManageArray Manager

DRAC

Dell Embedded RemoteAccess (ERA) controller

management station

managed node

Dell OpenmanageiT assistant

Out-of-context launch(SnmP, Desktop management

interface [Dmi], Commoninformation model [Cim])

SnmP, Dmi

OmSa

Dell agents and other components

Dell Openmanagearray manager

agentDraC agent Other agents

mOmOperatorconsole

MOM management station

Dell views

Dataaccess

agentmanagerDell alert

Sendsupdates

generatesalerts

mOmdatabase

Dell OpenmanageWeb console(s)

Launchesconsole(s)

Managed nodemOmDell

processingrules

Dellresponse

scripts

executesscripts

Dell Openmanagearray manager, OmSaStorage management

OmSa

microsoft Windows®

event log

Sendsevents

SnmP, Cim

runs OmSa command-line interfaceand returns global status

monitorsevent logs

installs and uninstalls agents

Sends collected information

Pushes processingrules and scripts

Dell Openmanage software

Dell Openmanage Connection for mOm

mOm

Figure 2. Dell OpenManage Connection for MOM as part of an enterprise monitoring framework

2www.dell.com/powersolutionsreprinted from Dell Power Solutions, august 2007. Copyright © 2007 Dell inc. all rights reserved.

www.dell.com/powersolutions

Agent ESM Log task is created on the managed

node in X:\DellMP\ESMData-timestamp.log,

where X:\ is the OMSA installation drive and

timestamp is the time at which the backup log

was created.

Dell OpenManage Connection for Tivoli Enterprise Console The Dell OpenManage Connection for TEC allows

events generated by Dell systems management

applications to be logged in the managed node’s

Windows event log and forwarded to the TEC

console on the management station by the TEC

Windows Event Log Adapter. This plug-in’s instal-

lation package comprises a set of .baroc and

.fmt files containing Dell events in a TEC-specific

format. Using the plug-in requires that the TEC

framework and console be installed on the man-

agement station and that the TEC Windows Event

Log Adapter be installed on the managed node.

Installing the plug-in on the management

station creates a new set of rules and then loads

and compiles the rules from the .baroc files,

which the TEC rule engine uses to process

events. Similarly, the plug-in appends new

events to the tecad_win.fmt file and generates

a new .cds file using the win_gencds.exe tool.

After the .cds file has been generated, new

events are formatted and forwarded to the TEC

console, where administrators can review them

using the TEC Event Viewer (see Figure 4). Alerts

are generated in formats beginning with

Dell_OMSM_SCSI, Dell_OMSA, and so on to

help make different types of events readily

identifiable, particularly in heterogeneous

environments.

Dell OpenManage Connection for CA Unicenter The Dell OpenManage Connection for CA Unicenter

enables administrators to monitor and manage

Dell systems through CA Unicenter. Administrators

can install the plug-in by running a Dell-provided

executable. Once installed, the plug-in dynami-

cally creates a Business Process View called “Dell

Managed Systems” (see Figure 5) and populates

it with each discovered system running OMSA

or agent instrumentation.

The primary plug-in functionality is carried

out through the Distributed State Machine

(DSM) component, which discovers and moni-

tors agents and formats traps for agents, and

the WorldView (WV) component, which provides

Figure 3. Dell server monitoring in the MOM Operator console

Figure 4. Dell server monitoring in the IBM Tivoli Enterprise Console Event Viewer screen

Figure 5. Managed objects in CA Unicenter showing the Dell Managed Systems Business Process View

systems managementsystems management

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launch points for systems management applica-

tions and displays subsystem status.

Administrators can launch Dell systems man-

agement applications by using the Dell view and

opening the Dell Managed Systems group. They

can also view descriptions of events and alerts

through the console logs.

Dell OpenManage Connection for HP OpenView Network Node ManagerThe Dell OpenManage Connection for HP

OpenView NNM allows administrators to moni-

tor and manage Dell systems through HP

OpenView NNM and creates Dell submenus

through which they can launch OMSA, Dell

OpenManage IT Assistant, the DRAC console,

and so on. Administrators can install the Dell

OpenManage Connection for HP OpenView NNM

by running the Dell-provided installer.

HP OpenView NNM discovers systems using

Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP)

polling and displays them in the HP OpenView

NNM submap as icons. The Connection plug-in

can automatically query the object ID (OID) spe-

cific to Dell instrumentation on each discovered

system; if it recognizes the OID, it classifies the

system as a Dell system. Administrators can

also discover systems manually by selecting

Tools > Dell in the HP OpenView NNM menu bar,

then selecting the Discover Selected or Discover

All option (see Figure 6). These options run the

discovery process against either a selected

system or all potential Dell managed systems

to determine whether they are Dell systems. If

they are, the appropriate Dell icon is displayed

for those systems; if they are not, a generic icon

is displayed.

Once the Dell systems have been discov-

ered, administrators can manage them using

the various Dell systems management applica-

tions, which they can launch by double-clicking

the icons in the HP OpenView NNM submap.

Administrators can also view SNMP trap details

using the Alarms browser.

Integrated management for Dell systems Dell OpenManage Connection plug-ins are

designed to simplify the monitoring and man-

agement of Dell systems by allowing administra-

tors to view system health and launch Dell

management applications from Microsoft

Operations Manager, IBM Tivoli Enterprise

Console, CA Unicenter, or HP OpenView Network

Node Manager software. Taking advantage of

these plug-ins can help administrators increase

efficiency and flexibility, particularly in large

heterogeneous environments.

Sanjeev Kumar Singh is a senior test engineer

on the Dell Enterprise Systems Test team at the

Dell Bangalore Development Center. He has a B.E.

in Electronics and Communication Engineering

from Visvesvaraya Technological University.

Neeraj Sharma is a senior test engineer on the

Dell Enterprise Systems Test team at the Dell

Bangalore Development Center. He has an M.S.

in Information Technology from Allahabad

University.

Figure 6. Tools > Dell submenu in HP OpenView Network Node Manager

4www.dell.com/powersolutions

QUICK LINK

Dell OpenManage Connection documentation: support.dell.com/support/edocs/ software/smconect

reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, august 2007. Copyright © 2007 Dell inc. all rights reserved.

www.dell.com/powersolutions