Dell OpenManage Integration for VMware vCenter 2.1 Technical White Paper
Chassis Inventory using the Dell
OpenManage Integration for VMware
vCenter
How to configure and view Dell chassis inventory and health information from
within the VMware vCenter Web Client using the OpenManage Integration for
VMware vCenter
Irfan Azam
Kathleen Hattaway
Michael Hepfer
Sangita Pandit
Michael Regert
May 2014
A Dell Technical White Paper
Date
Description
May 2014
Initial release
Revisions
THIS WHITE PAPER 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.
© 2014 Dell Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction of this material in any manner whatsoever without the express
written permission of Dell Inc. is strictly forbidden. For more information, contact Dell.
PRODUCT WARRANTIES APPLICABLE TO THE DELL PRODUCTS DESCRIBED IN THIS DOCUMENT MAY BE FOUND
AT: http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/19/terms-of-sale-commercial-and-public-sector Performance of network
reference architectures discussed in this document may vary with differing deployment conditions, network loads, and
the like. Third party products may be included in reference architectures for the convenience of the reader. Inclusion
of such third party products does not necessarily constitute Dell’s recommendation of those products. Please consult
your Dell representative for additional information.
Trademarks used in this text:
Dell™, the Dell logo, Dell Boomi™, Dell Precision™ ,OptiPlex™, Latitude™, PowerEdge™, PowerVault™,
PowerConnect™, OpenManage™, EqualLogic™, Compellent™, KACE™, FlexAddress™, Force10™ and Vostro™ are
trademarks of Dell Inc. Other Dell trademarks may be used in this document. Cisco Nexus®, Cisco MDS®, Cisco NX0S®, and other Cisco Catalyst® are registered trademarks of Cisco System Inc. EMC VNX®, and EMC Unisphere® are
registered trademarks of EMC Corporation. Intel®, Pentium®, Xeon®, Core® and Celeron® are registered trademarks of
Intel Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. AMD® is a registered trademark and AMD Opteron™, AMD
Phenom™ and AMD Sempron™ are trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Microsoft®, Windows®, Windows
Server®, Internet Explorer®, MS-DOS®, Windows Vista® and Active Directory® are either trademarks or registered
trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Red Hat® and Red Hat® Enterprise
Linux® are registered trademarks of Red Hat, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. Novell® and SUSE® are
registered trademarks of Novell Inc. in the United States and other countries. Oracle® is a registered trademark of
Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates. Citrix®, Xen®, XenServer® and XenMotion® are either registered trademarks or
2 Chassis Inventory using the Dell OpenManage Integration for VMware vCenter
trademarks of Citrix Systems, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. VMware®, Virtual SMP®, vMotion®,
vCenter® and vSphere® are registered trademarks or trademarks of VMware, Inc. in the United States or other
countries. IBM® is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation. Broadcom® and
NetXtreme® are registered trademarks of Broadcom Corporation. Qlogic is a registered trademark of QLogic
Corporation. Other trademarks and trade names may be used in this document to refer to either the entities claiming
the marks and/or names or their products and are the property of their respective owners. Dell disclaims proprietary
interest in the marks and names of others.
3 Chassis Inventory using the Dell OpenManage Integration for VMware vCenter
Table of contents
Revisions ............................................................................................................................................................................................. 2
Executive summary .......................................................................................................................................................................... 5
Introduction ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 5
1 Chassis Discovery ...................................................................................................................................................................... 6
1.1 Chassis discovered during host inventory .................................................................................................................. 6
1.2 Removing a discovered chassis .................................................................................................................................... 7
2 Chassis Profile ............................................................................................................................................................................ 8
2.1 Creating a Chassis Profile .............................................................................................................................................. 8
2.2 Editing, Removing and Testing a Chassis Profile ...................................................................................................... 11
3 Chassis Inventory and Health ................................................................................................................................................ 13
3.1 Scheduled Chassis Inventory ...................................................................................................................................... 13
3.2 Initiating a Chassis Inventory on Demand ................................................................................................................ 13
3.3 Viewing Chassis Inventory and Health ...................................................................................................................... 14
3.3.1 Dell Chassis Object List ................................................................................................................................................ 14
3.3.2 Chassis Summary Page ................................................................................................................................................ 15
3.3.3 Chassis Information Page ............................................................................................................................................ 17
3.3.4 Hosts Associated with the Chassis ............................................................................................................................. 19
3.3.5 Host Health Summary Portlet ..................................................................................................................................... 20
Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 20
4 Chassis Inventory using the Dell OpenManage Integration for VMware vCenter
Executive summary
The OpenManage Integration for VMware vCenter provides value to IT administrators by surfacing
hardware inventory and health information in the single pane of glass that they use for their daily
virtualization management tasks. Instead of logging in to the chassis management console (CMC),
important information is now easily obtained when using the VMware vSphere Web Client. The
integration also enables a new set of alerts that are registered with the VMware vCenter.
Introduction
The purpose of this white paper is to provide information about monitoring a chassis by Dell OpenManage
Integration for VMware vCenter, instructions on creating a chassis profile, and additional information
about the integration points for displaying health and inventory information presented by the integration.
Objective
Using this whitepaper as a guide, the user should have a better understanding about the chassis discovery
process and how to configure a chassis profile. With a chassis profile created, the user should be able to
see inventory and health information about the managed chassis.
Prerequisites
The OpenManage Integration for VMware vCenter is designed to display chassis information within the
VMware vSphere web client only. Chassis information is not available within the OpenManage Integration
desktop client. Chassis information is only available for Dell 10th generation or latest blade servers and
designed for the Dell M1000e and Dell VRTX blade chassis. The OpenManage Integration for VMware
vCenter version 2.1 or later should be installed and configured as specified in the User’s Guide.
If you want to view information about chassis and health in the VMware web client, the chassis must first
be discovered and inventoried. The required configuration prerequisites to monitor the chassis from the
web client are:
1. Discovery of the chassis by the OpenManage Integration for VMware vCenter
2. Adding the discovered chassis to a Chassis Profile
3. Inventory of the chassis
5 Chassis Inventory using the Dell OpenManage Integration for VMware vCenter
1 Chassis Discovery
Chassis Discovery is the term used when the Dell OpenManage Integration for VMware vCenter obtains
information about the existence of a chassis.
1.1 Chassis discovered during host inventory
A chassis is discovered when a Dell 10th Generation or latest blade server configured as a VMware host is
inventoried by the OpenManage Integration for VMware vCenter. The chassis for which the blade server
belongs is identified, and during the host inventory process only basic information about the chassis is
retrieved and stored.
NOTE: Discovered chassis information is visible from the integration in the VMware web client only.
In the vCenter Home context, the number of chassis is visible on the left hand navigation menu. The
number of discovered chassis is displayed next to the “Dell Chassis” menu item.
Figure 1 Number of discovered chassis as displayed on the Dell chassis menu item
If you click on the “Dell Chassis” menu item, a list of the discovered chassis is displayed.
Figure 2 Dell Chassis objects with minimal information after discovery
After discovery, the minimal information about the objects available on the Dell Chassis page is:
CMC IP address
Service Tag
CMC URL
After a chassis has been inventoried, additional information about the chassis and its components is
displayed.
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