Dell OpenManage Essentials Setup Guide

OME Engineering Team

Setting Up Multiple OpenManage

Essentials Instances on the Same SQL

Server Database Instance

This Dell technical white paper explains how to redirect OpenManage
Essentials to a system on a single SQL Server database instance so that one
SQL Server database instance supports multiple OpenManage Essentials

instances.

Setting Up Multiple OpenManage Essentials Instances on the Same SQL Server Database Instance

This document is for informational purposes only and may contain typographical errors and technical
inaccuracies. The content is provided as is, without express or implied warranties of any kind.

© 2013 Dell Inc. All rights reserved. Dell and its affiliates cannot be responsible for errors or omissions in
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July 2013| Version 1.0

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Setting Up Multiple OpenManage Essentials Instances on the Same SQL Server Database Instance

Contents

Executive Summary ..................................................................................................... 4

Introduction .............................................................................................................. 4

Advantages of setting up multiple OpenManage Essentials installations to run on same instance of

SQL Server database .................................................................................................. 4

Setting Up Multiple OpenManage Essentials Installations on a Single SQL Server Instance ................ 5

First Approach: Back Up and Restore ............................................................................ 6

Second Approach: Using MDF/LDF Files .......................................................................... 9

Removing the Connection Between OpenManage Essentials and the Database ........................ 11

Common Problem During Back-Up/Restore Process ........................................................... 17

Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 17

Figures

Figure 1. Installing OpenManage Essentials on a Local Server Without SQL ................................. 5

Figure 2. Creating a Back-Up of the OpenManage Essentials Database ...................................... 6

Figure 3. Final Step in Creating a Back Up of the OpenManage Essentials Database ...................... 7

Figure 4. Restoring the Database ................................................................................... 8

Figure 5. Restoring the Back Up of OpenManage Essentials Database ........................................ 9

Figure 6. Taking the OpenManage Essentials Database Offline .............................................. 10

Figure 7. Attaching the OpenManage Essentials Database Using MDF/LDF Files .......................... 11

Figure 8. Changing the Account Password for the OpenManage Essentials Database .................... 12

Figure 9. Changing the Status of OpenManage Essentials Database ........................................ 13

Figure 10. Connection is Lost Between OpenManage Essentials and the Database ........................ 14

Figure 11. Database Retargeting to the Centralized SQL Database .......................................... 14

Figure 12. Changing the Registry Value Under Database ....................................................... 15

Figure 13. Changing the Registry Value Under UserDefined ................................................... 16

Figure 14. Restarting OpenManage Essentials Services From the Preferences page....................... 16

Figure 15. Microsoft SQL error which might occur during back-up and restore process .................. 17

Figure 16. Changing the details for restore to point to correct database back-up ........................ 17

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Setting Up Multiple OpenManage Essentials Instances on the Same SQL Server Database Instance

Executive Summary

OpenManage Essentials is a one-to-many systems management tool which helps in monitoring servers,
storage devices, printers, KVMs, UPSs, PDUs, chassis and network devices, etc. With the highest
configuration supported (i.e. 8 GB RAM and 8 core processor) on the server running OpenManage
Essentials, a maximum of 2000 devices can be monitored using OpenManage Essentials. This white
paper provides a way to scale up the monitoring to more than 2000 devices by targeting multiple
OpenManage Essentials instances to the same SQL Server database instance. The only pre-requisite is to
install OpenManage Essentials on multiple servers first, as one server supports only one installation of
OpenManage Essentials. This scalability feature is supported by OpenManage Essentials v1.2 and
above.

Introduction

The goal of this white paper is to describe how you can set up multiple OpenManage Essentials
instances to run on the same SQL Server instance. When there are multiple OpenManage Essentials
instances running on the same SQL Server instance, then the administrator has the privilege of using a
single system for installing SQL Server which is used as the database for all OpenManage Essentials
instances.

During installation, OpenManage Essentials supports the installation of only one OpenManage Essentials
server on one database. This white paper provides a way to set up multiple OpenManage Essentials
instances to run on the same database instance. Instead of installing multiple SQL Servers, the
administrator can install OpenManage Essentials with a local database using SQL Express 2012 which is
included with OpenManage Essentials v1.2.

Advantages of setting up multiple OpenManage Essentials instances to run on
same instance of SQL Server database

1. When there are multiple subnets, sites and geographies that need to be managed, multiple

OpenManage Essentials servers managing different geographies can be run on the same database
instead of all being run on different databases.

2. When the set up is such that there is a centralized SQL Server which is used as the database for

various applications, then OpenManage Essentials can be installed on the same centralized SQL
Server instead of having multiple systems running SQL Server for all the OpenManage Essentials
servers.

3. There is a limit to manage only 2000 devices using one OpenManage Essentials server. If there are

more than 2000 devices that need to be managed in a data center, setting up multiple OpenManage
Essentials instances on the same SQL Server instance, allows you to scale up the management of all
the devices on the same SQL database.

4. Multiple OpenManage Essentials servers can be installed with different databases and database

names respectively, on the same SQL Server instance. Doing this helps in saving resources and time
which would otherwise be consumed in the creation of individual SQL databases for the installation
of each OpenManage Essentials instance.

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Setting Up Multiple OpenManage Essentials Instances on the Same SQL Server Database Instance

Setting Up Multiple OpenManage Essentials Instances on a Single
SQL Server Instance

1. Install OpenManage Essentials on the remote or local database which is the centralized SQL

server. For this example, let us assume it as OMEssentials1.

2. On another server, install OpenManage Essentials on a different local or remote database.

OpenManage Essentials can also be installed on a local server that does not have a database.
While installing OpenManage Essentials, if a database is not found, then OpenManage Essentials
prompts for the installation of SQL Express 2012 on the local server as shown in Figure 1. On
clicking ‘Yes’, SQL Express 2012 will be installed on the same server and after that a typical or
custom installation of OpenManage Essentials can be performed. For this example, let us
assume this OpenManage Essentials to be OMEssentials2.

Installing OpenManage Essentials on a Local Server Without SQL Figure 1.

3. Copy the SQL Server database instance from the second OpenManage Essentials instance( i.e.

OMEssentials2) and attach it to the centralized SQL server. This can be done in two ways:

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Setting Up Multiple OpenManage Essentials Instances on the Same SQL Server Database Instance

First Approach: Back Up and Restore

i. Launch SQL Server Management Studio and connect to the OpenManage Essentials

database.

ii. Right click Databases>>OMEssentials and click “Back Up” under “Tasks” as shown in

Figure 2.

Creating a Back-Up of the OpenManage Essentials Database Figure 2.

iii. A window will open as shown in Figure 3. Verify that the values are the same as shown

in Figure 3, and then click “OK.”

iv. The back up is created in the mentioned folder location under “Destination”. Copy the

back up file to the centralized SQL server.

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