Dell Management Plug-in for VMware vCenter version 1.0.1 Quick Installation Guide

Brand: Dell

Model: Management Plug-in for VMware vCenter version 1.0.1

Category: Servers

Type: Quick Installation Guide

Dell Management Plug-in for VMware vCenter version 1.0.1 is designed to seamlessly integrate with VMware vCenter Server and extend the management capabilities to include hardware monitoring, configuration, and management of Dell PowerEdge servers. With this plug-in, you can efficiently manage your Dell hardware infrastructure alongside your virtualized environment, gaining a comprehensive view of your IT assets.

Here are some of the key capabilities of Dell Management Plug-in for VMware vCenter version 1.0.1:

Enhanced Monitoring and Alerting: Monitor the health and status of your Dell hardware in real-time, receive alerts for potential issues, and take proactive actions to prevent downtime.

Here are some of the key capabilities of Dell Management Plug-in for VMware vCenter version 1.0.1:

Enhanced Monitoring and Alerting: Monitor the health and status of your Dell hardware in real-time, receive alerts for potential issues, and take proactive actions to prevent downtime.

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.

Reproduction of these materials in any manner whatsoever without the written permission of Dell Inc.

is strictly forbidden.

Trademarks used in this text: Dell™, the DELL™ logo, Dell Precision™, OptiPlex™, Latitude™,

PowerEdge™, PowerVault™, PowerConnect™, OpenManage™, KACE™, FlexAddress™ and

Vostro™ are trademarks of Dell Inc. Intel

, Pentium

, Xeon

, Core™ and Celeron

are registered

trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. AMD

, the AMD logo

, and

combinations thereof, are registered trademarks and AMD Opteron™, AMD Phenom™, and AMD

Sempron™ are trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Microsoft

, Windows

Server

, MS-DOS

and Windows Vista

are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Microsoft

Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Red Hat Enterprise Linux

and Enterprise

Linux

are registered trademarks of Red Hat, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. Novell

is a registered trademark and SUSE ™ is a trademark 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 trademarks of Citrix 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.

Other trademarks and trade names may be used in this document to refer to either the entities claiming

the marks and names or their products. Dell Inc. disclaims any proprietary interest in trademarks and

trade names other than its own.

October 2011

Contents 3

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

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

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

. . . . . . . . 11

Management Plug-in Port Requirements

. . . . . 11

Administration Portal Supported Browsers . . . . 11

Space Required for Provisioned Storage

. . . . . 11

Installation Overview

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

Deploy OMSA Agent onto a ESXi System or ESX

System

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

Configure OMSA Agent to Send Traps

. . . . . . . 13

4 Contents

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

Overview 5

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

—Inventory key assets, perform configuration tasks, and provide

cluster and datacenter views of Dell platforms.

•

Monitoring and Alerting

—Detect key hardware faults, perform

virtualization-aware actions (for example, migrate workloads or place host

in maintenance mode), and provide proactive resolution based on

hardware events.

•

Firmware Updates

—Update Dell hardware to the most updated version of

BIOS and firmware.

6 Overview

•

Deployment and Provisioning

—Create hardware profiles, hypervisor

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.

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

Overview 7

• 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

8 Overview

Installation and Quick Start 9

Installation and Quick Start

The following sections provide installation and quick start information,

including step-by-step instructions for plug-in installation and initial

configuration. Once these steps are complete, the Dell Plug-In for VMware

vCenter is ready for use.

NOTE: Dell OpenManage agents are required on Dell hosts, and must be

deployed on existing hosts prior to installing the Dell Management Plug-in. You can

find details on installing the agents at

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/software/eslvmwre/sysman/sysman.htm

Open the guide for the appropriate version of ESX/ESXi software, and refer to the

Installing the Dell OpenManage Server Administrator

chapter.

Information Prerequisites

The following information is needed prior to the start of plug-in installation.

• TCP/IP address information to assign to the plug-in virtual appliance; a

DHCP server is required

• A user name and password for the plug-in to access the vCenter server.

This should be an administrator role that has all needed permissions. For

additional information on the available Dell Management Plug-in roles

within vCenter, see the

Plug-In Configuration

chapter of the

User’s

Guide.

• Root password for ESX/ESXi host systems

• User name and password associated with iDRAC Express or Enterprise

(only for host systems that include an iDRAC)

• vCenter and vSphere client are currently running

• OVF plug-in file location after installation completes

• The virtual appliance can be installed on any ESX/ESXi host managed by

the vCenter instance that will be registered with the appliance

10 Installation and Quick Start

NOTE: The virtual appliance functions as a regular virtual machine; any

interruptions or shut downs will impact overall functionality.

Product Hardware Requirements

The Dell Management Plug-in for VMware vCenter provides full support for

11th generation Dell servers with iDRAC and limited support for ninth and

tenth generation Dell servers. Servers must also officially support the ESX

and ESXi version listed below. See the Dell Management Plug-In for VMWare

vCenter Version 1.0.1 Release Notes for specific hardware support information.

Software Requirements

The vSphere environment must meet virtual appliance, port access, and

listening port requirements. You must install Adobe Flash player 10.0 or

higher on the vSphere client system.

vSphere 4 has both a desktop client and Web client. The Dell Management

Plug- In is not available from the Web client, only the desktop client.

NOTE: It is recommended that the Management Plug-In virtual appliance and

the vCenter server are located on the same network.

OpenManage Server Administrator (OMSA) Agent - Required

The OMSA agent is a required prerequisite, and must be installed on all

ESX/ESXi hosts prior to Management Plug-In installation.

ESX/ESXi and minimum OMSA versions supported

• ESX/ESXi 4.0 U1 with OMSA 6.2 or later

• ESX/ESXi 4.0 U2 with OMSA 6.4

• ESX/ESXi 4.1 with OMSA 6.3 or later

• ESX/ESXi 4.1 U1 with OMSA 6.5 or later

• ESXi 5.0 with OMSA 6.5 or later

Lifecycle Controller versions supported

• 1.4 or later

Installation and Quick Start 11

iDRAC firmware versions supported

•iDRAC for Blade 3.0

• iDRAC for Tower/Rack 1.5

Management Plug-in Port Requirements

• 443 & 80 (https) - Administration portal

• 4433 (https) - For auto discovery and handshake

• 162 & 11620 - For SNMP trap listener

• 2049, 4001, 4002, 4003, 4004 - NFS share

Administration Portal Supported Browsers

The administration portal can be accessed using the following browsers:

• Internet Explorer 7.0.x and 8.0.x set to not use a proxy when

communicating with the Plug-In.

Space Required for Provisioned Storage

The plug-in virtual machine requires the following amount of disk space for

provisioned storage:

• ~40 GB

Installation Overview

The following high-level steps outline the overall installation and deployment

procedure for the plug-in.

Deploy OMSA Agent (required pre-requisite for the plug-in to manage

hosts).

How to deploy OMSA agent onto a ESXi or ESX system

Configure OMSA agent to send traps - SNMP communities and/or

trap destinations must be configured as those items are needed for the

OMSA agent setup to work properly.

Install the plug-in.

Systems are connected, and vCenter server and vSphere client is

running

12 Installation and Quick Start

Deploy a Open Virtualization Format (OVF) file that contains the

plug-in using the vSphere client

Upload license file

Complete Configuration Wizard

Enable OMSA functionality

Enter the OMSA URL on the plug-in

Setting

page

Enable Dell Events

Set up event filter options on the

Setting

page

Navigate to the OMSA user interface on selected hosts, and configure

appliance IP as trap destination if not already configured

Enable firmware updates

Download firmware updates, and make them available to applicable

systems

Configure the Dell iDRAC auto discovery and initial start-up

Disable/enable iDRAC user name and password

These procedures assume that the required hardware is in place and running

the required VMware vCenter software.

Deploy OMSA Agent onto a ESXi System or ESX System

The OMSA VIB must be installed on an ESXi system, or the OMSA tar.gz

must be installed on an ESX system to gather inventory and alert information

from the systems.

NOTE: Dell OpenManage agents are required on Dell hosts, and must be

deployed on existing hosts prior to installing the Dell Management Plug-In. Details

on installing the agents can be found in at

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/software/eslvmwre/sysman/sysman.htm

Open the guide for the appropriate version of ESX/ESXi software, and look for the

"Installing the Dell OpenManage Server Administrator" chapter.

To install the OMSA VIB on an ESXi system:

NOTE: The following URL contains installation information and a download

link for the OMSA VIB:

http://www.delltechcenter.com/page/Install+and+Configure+OMSA+on+ESX

Installation and Quick Start 13

Install the vSphere command line tool (vSphere CLI) from VMWare.com,

if not already installed.

Enter the following command:

Vihostupdate.pl -server <IP Address of ESXi host>

-i -b OM-SrvAdmin-Dell-Web-6.3.0-2075.VIB-

ESX41i_A00.8.zi

NOTE: It can take a few minutes for OMSA to install. This command will require a

reboot of the host after it completes.

To install OMSA agent tar.gz on ESX system with the required remote

enablement setting (-c):

Run the OMSA agent installation script:

srvadmin-install.sh -x -c

Start OMSA services:

srvadmin-services.sh start

If the OMSA agent is already installed, make sure that it has remote

enablement configuration (-c) or the Plug-In installation will not complete

successfully. Reinstall it with the

-c

option and restart the service:

srvadmin-install.sh -c

srvadmin-services.sh restart

Configure OMSA Agent to Send Traps

The Install and Configure OMSA agent on ESX Web site contains detailed

instructions, as well as sample scripts, that can be used to configure the

OMSA agent to send traps to the Management Plug-In appliance. It is

located at the following URL:

http://www.delltechcenter.com/page/Install+and+Configure+OMSA+on

+ESX

Deploy Plug-In OVF Using the vSphere Client

Double-click on the downloaded executable file. The extraction process

begins.

Save the files extracted in step 1 to a location that is available to the

vSphere client.

14 Installation and Quick Start

From the vSphere client, select

File



Deploy OVF Template.

Figure 2-1. Deploy OVF template from vSphere

The

Source

window displays. Use the

Browse

button to locate the OVF

package; the location can be a local drive, network drive, CD/DVD, or from

the Internet. The plug-in file size is approximately 720 MB.

CAUTION: It is not recommended to use shared/remote network drives to install

the plug-in, as the install can take 10-30 minutes.

Click

Next.

Installation and Quick Start 15

Figure 2-2. Select the source location

The

OVF Template Details

window displays. Review the information

presented and click

Next.

Figure 2-3. OVF Template Details

The

Name and Location

window displays. Name the template; the name

can contain up to 80 characters. Select a location to store it in an inventory

folder and click

Next.

16 Installation and Quick Start

Figure 2-4. Name the OVF template

The

Resource Pool

window displays. Select the resource pool of virtual

servers to deploy the template to and click

Next.

Figure 2-5. Choose a resource pool

The

Datastore

window displays. Select where to store the virtual machine

(VM) files from the data stores displayed, and click

Next.

Installation and Quick Start 17

The

Disk Format

window displays. The data formats available to store the

virtual machines on the selected data store are displayed. Select

thin

provisioned format

to allocate storage space as needed to the virtual

machines, and select

thick provisioned format

to allocate all needed

storage space up front to the virtual machines.

NOTE: It is recommended that the thick provisioned format is used for better

performance.

Click

Next.

Figure 2-6. Choose a disk format

The

Ready to Complete

window displays. Review the selected options for

the OVF deployment task and click

Finish

. The deployment job runs and

provides a completion status window where you can track job progress.

18 Installation and Quick Start

Figure 2-7. Ready to complete

Upload License File and Register Plug-In Within vCenter

Locate the plug-in VM just deployed, and click

Power on the virtual

machine

Click on the

Console

tab in the main VM window to initiate the console

administration portal.

Wait for the appliance to finish booting up.

Enter the default user name of "admin," and set a password of your choice.

Configure appliance network and time zone information using applicable

wizards if needed; see Figure 2-8.

Installation and Quick Start 19

Figure 2-8. Admin portal URL

Launch another browser window, and enter the

Admin Portal URL

displayed in the

Console

tab. The URL uses the following format and is

case sensitive:

https://<ApplianceIPAddress>/DellAdminPortal/index.html

The

Administration Console

created in Step 4 and click

20 Installation and Quick Start

Figure 2-9. Administration Console

The

vCenter Registration

window displays. Any vCenter servers that are

registered are displayed. To register a new vCenter server, click

new vCenter Server.

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Dell Management Plug-in for VMware vCenter version 1.0.1 Quick Installation Guide

Brand: Dell

Model: Management Plug-in for VMware vCenter version 1.0.1

Category: Servers

Type: Quick Installation Guide

Here are some of the key capabilities of Dell Management Plug-in for VMware vCenter version 1.0.1:

Enhanced Monitoring and Alerting: Monitor the health and status of your Dell hardware in real-time, receive alerts for potential issues, and take proactive actions to prevent downtime.

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Dell Management Plug-in for VMware vCenter version 1.0.1 Quick Installation Guide

Dell Management Plug-in for VMware vCenter version 1.0.1 Quick Installation Guide

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