Dell Management Plug-in for VMware vCenter Quick Installation Guide

Dell™

Dell Management Plug-in for

VMware vCenter

Version 1.0.1 Update 1

Quick Install Guide

Notes and Cautions

NOTE: A NOTE indicates important information that helps you make better use of

your computer.

CAUTION: A CAUTION indicates potential damage to hardware or loss of data if

instructions are not followed.

____________________

Information in this document is subject to change without notice.
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October 2011

Contents

1Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Dell Management Plug-in for VMware vCenter . . . . . 5

Key Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

How Does the Plug-in Help With vCenter Administration?

Plug-In Features

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

2 Installation and Quick Start . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Information Prerequisites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Product Hardware Requirements

Software Requirements

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

OpenManage Server Administrator (OMSA) Agent ­Required

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

ESX/ESXi and minimum OMSA versions supported

Lifecycle Controller versions supported . . . . . . 10

iDRAC firmware versions supported

Management Plug-in Port Requirements

Administration Portal Supported Browsers . . . . 11

Space Required for Provisioned Storage

Installation Overview

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Deploy OMSA Agent onto a ESXi System or ESX

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

System

Configure OMSA Agent to Send Traps

. . . . . . . . . . . . 10

10

. . . . . . . . 11

. . . . . 11

. . . . . 11

. . . . . . . 13

6

Contents 3

Deploy Plug-In OVF Using the vSphere Client . . . 13

Upload License File and Register Plug-In Within

vCenter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Installation Verification

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Completing The Initial Configuration

. . . . . . . . . . 23

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

4 Contents

1

Overview

Dell Management Plug-in for VMware vCenter

VMware vCenter is the primary console used by IT administrators to manage
and monitor VMware vSphere ESX/ESXi hosts. In a standard virtualized
environment, VMware alerts and monitoring are used to prompt an
administrator to launch a separate console to resolve hardware issues. Today,
using the Dell management Plug-In for VMware vCenter, administrators have
new capabilities to manage and monitor Dell hardware within the virtualized
environment, such as:

• Alerting and environment monitoring

• Single server monitoring and reporting

• Firmware updates

• Enhanced deployment options

Key Features

Dell customers can use the Management Plug-In to perform:

•

Inventory

cluster and datacenter views of Dell platforms.

•

Monitoring and Alerting

virtualization-aware actions (for example, migrate workloads or place host
in maintenance mode), and provide proactive resolution based on
hardware events.

•

Firmware Updates

BIOS and firmware.

—Inventory key assets, perform configuration tasks, and provide

—Detect key hardware faults, perform

—Update Dell hardware to the most updated version of

Overview 5

•

Deployment and Provisioning

profiles, and deploy any combination of the two on bare-metal Dell
PowerEdge 11th generation servers, remotely and without PXE—using
vCenter.

•

Service Information

—Retrieve warranty information from Dell online.

—Create hardware profiles, hypervisor

How Does the Plug-in Help With vCenter Administration?

Dell Management Plug-in for VMware vCenter provides additional
virtualization functionality that supplements the current vCenter
administration functions:

• Compresses tasks and adds management processes, such as firmware
updates and bare-metal deployment, to the vCenter Server Administration
Portal.

• Organizes deployment of multiple bare-metal servers without requiring
Preboot Execution Environment (PXE).

• Provides additional intelligence (inventory, events, alarms) to diagnose
server problems.

• Integrates with standard vCenter authentication, rules, and permissions.

Plug-In Features

The following are high-level features of the Dell Plug-in for VMWare
vCenter:

• Monitor Dell platforms using the standard vCenter event and alarm
subsystem

• Perform advanced hardware management and configuration

• Perform zero touch deployment of hypervisors on bare-metal systems
without using PXE

• Build hardware and hypervisor profiles

• Perform firmware updates

• Troubleshoot infrastructure issues

• Report at the Datacenter and Cluster view—export to CSV file

6 Overview

• Integrate plug-in capabilities with standard vCenter roles and permissions

The following diagram provide an architectural overview of a typical Dell
Management Plug-In deployment, including the communication paths
between the various components.

Figure 1-1. Architecture Overview

Overview 7

8 Overview