Dell-KentS joined.

 

DELL-ScottH

Hey Kent

 

Dell-KentS

Hey

 

Dell-KentS

Sorry, trying to do 4 things at once

 

DELL-ScottH

ohh yeah, the way of the world

 

DELL-ToddM joined.

 

DELL-MBA joined.

 

DELL-ScottH

Hey Mba, how are you ?

 

DELL-MBA

good

 

DELL-MBA

I got the note yesterday about the chat

 

DELL-MBA

so I though I join in

 

DELL-ScottH

thanks for joining, going to wait a few minutes see if we get any customers

 

DELL-MBA

sure

 

andyforo joined.

 

DELL-ScottH

hi andy ?

 

DELL-ScottH

whoops .. i mean Hi Andy !!

 

getting a bunch of error messages

 

cannot start chat low memory

 

is that my end or the server

 

?

 

DELL-ToddM

Are you still getting them?

 

DELL-ScottH

in the browser java window ? server is setup for 200 concurrent connections , we've had more than this on before

 

they're scrolling through the chat window

 

error cn723 cannot s

 

low memory or no connection

 

DELL-ScottH

have you dis and re connected ?

 

let me try that

 

gsherman03 joined.

 

DELL-ScottH

hi gsherman, how are you ?

 

andyforo left.

 

gsherman03

good how are you

 

andyforo joined.

 

DELL-ScottH

great, was waiting for a few customers to get started .. would that be you ? What companyt are you with ?

 

gsherman03

what is the scope that we can discuss here we have a few Powerconnect and open manage questions

 

andyforo left.

 

gsherman03

Rvm Inc

 

DELL-RogerF joined.

 

DELL-ScottH

scope is on Openmanage for this session, but we can try to tackle whatever you bring up ..... let me give a few minutes of intro, then we can kick your questions off

 

gsherman03

great

 

DELL-ScottH

Thanks to all for joining, hopefully andy will be able to get back in .... This is the kickoff of our weekly chat sessions, we'll be here every Tuesday at 3PM with different topics ... be sure to check the main page for a list of upcoming topics

 

DELL-ScottH

The transcripts are available for viewing, so be nice ! .... the chat box is also open 24/7 so feel free to drop in anytime to see who is hanging out.

 

DELL-ScottH

maybe Dell Developers, engineering, you never know.

 

DELL-ScottH

Today is all about Dell Openmanage .... Version 5.3.1 was just released in conjunction with out new M1000e Blades ... be sure to check out the main Openmanage page for details --> http://www.delltechcenter.com/page/openmanage+systems+management

 

DELL-ScottH

That page will cover the basics, as well and some intro and advanced demos on features of the products.

 

DELL-ScottH

I've also started testing some of the power monitoring features for the blades .. check that out here --> http://www.delltechcenter.com/page/blade+power+monitoring+with+ita

 

DELL-ScottH

so with that, some intros of the people here ....

 

DELL-ScottH

toddm, rogerf, and myself are with the Dell Enterprise Technology Center, Mba is will Dell Engineering with a focus on Exchange, and Kent is an Se in the field , is that correct Kent ? .... any questions to start us off on a path of discussion ?

 

Dell-KentS

I am the Enterprise Technologist for Server Management for Dell Canada

 

DELL-ScottH

cool, sorry for the Se, it's the old job in me comig out

 

gsherman03

I have a few I noticed with the new blade centers that power management is shown specifically power consumption is this available to other servers e.g. 1950, 2800, etc

 

DELL-ScottH

depends, some of the attributes are exposed, some are not ... you definetly want to install the latest Omsa agent, the attributes that are not available will be grayed out as a selection ....look at the 3rd pictures in that 2nd link I just posted

 

DELL-ScottH

my testing just started with the blades, but the plan is to do some on the 2950 and our older boxes to see what is exposed. Keep an eye on the wiki, or my blog to see finding

 

DELL-ScottH

fyi blog is here --> http://www.delltechcenter.com/page/systems+edge

 

gsherman03

Ah ok we will update for sure another though is what is the cost from a network and or processor overhead to collect this information

 

Dell-KentS

Most of the information requires intrumented Power Supplies trhat are available in the latest 9th Generation Servers as well as all of the 10th generation servers

 

DELL-ScottH

minimal overhead, but the default is to collect info every 2 minutes, you might want to decrease that sample rate if you are concerned

 

bybee joined.

 

DELL-ScottH

hello bybee

 

Hello

 

gsherman03

how does one decide if it is needed to deploy the open manage network assistant we currently run the It assistant and we have categorized each Vlan stoping at the default gateway so we do not hit the core switches over and over again

 

gsherman03

seems this was an issue

 

DELL-ScottH

Kent, you know much about networking management ? ... .not an area I have dived into yet

 

gsherman03

my understanding was it was costly (bandwidth wise) and only needed if the switches are managed and the count exceeds 15+

 

DELL-ScottH

Send me an email with the details of the question, and I can forward to some people that can help .. scott_hanson@dell.com .... or wait, maybe Kent knows, I think he's typing

 

Dell-KentS

I haven't looked at this that deply, but best practices dictate that you want to minimize unnecessary trafiic across the core.

 

DELL-ScottH

bybee, fyi, click on "actions", then "recent Room history" to catch up

 

DELL-MBA left.

 

Dell-MBA joined.

 

 

gsherman03

of course I mean basicall we dicated a range covering the whole vlan that would include its default gateway therefore hitting back to the core so we limited this

 

gsherman03

seemed to help with a memory issue on the 6248's however we still have a memory leak of some sort as a result of open manage

 

gsherman03

have a case open anyone hear of this

 

shelley joined.

 

DELL-ScottH

Hi Shelley

 

DELL-ScottH

Nothing I know of, that doesn't mean much, support case is the right path to drive to resolution, also a posting on the Dell Community forums might help as well.

 

gsherman03

yeah ok lets move on then and I hope I am not dominating here if others have questions go ahead by all means

 

DELL-ScottH

not a problem, we are here you you. Bybee, what company are you with and any threads of discussion around systems management youd like to bring up ?

 

DELL-ScottH

shelley, fyi, click on "actions", then "recent Room history" to catch up on the chat

 

gsherman03

Next item I feel which would be of use is a Best practices for monitoring in open manage for example if i want to monitor and exchange server, sql server are there specifics I should target in open manage

 

I'm with Blackrock, and have recently deployed It Assistant and am in the process of updating our base of production Dell servers to current Omsa versions

 

just here to lurk and gleam some info, seems to be an interesting platform to gain some info outside the std documentation etc

 

DELL-ScottH

That's a good point that I don't think has been brought up before, would be a good candidate for a wiki articel .... Om is focused on the hardware, but there are some things that could be monitored in the performance section for specfic enteprise apps, we'll have to visit this.

 

DELL-ScottH

@bybee, yeap we encourage lurking !

 

currently trying to sort how best to utilize Om tools in combination with Sms and Mom for hdware update baselining, deployment, and monitoring

 

DELL-ScottH

for sql, exchange, etc ... probably want to be using Mom, sorry mean Scom, the new stuff to monitor the standard things in those apps

 

DELL-ScottH

Have you seen the intergration pack for Scom ?

 

haven't had much luck w/ software deployment (omsa) via Ita

 

DELL-ScottH

doesn't deploy ?

 

yes, I've installed, but haven't worked with it in depth yet at this point

 

trying to get up to speed on features of the various product and how best to combine their strengths

 

yes, deployment erros

 

created deployment task/pkg but tend to get errors/failures

 

have started leaning towards Sms deployment of Omsa

 

DELL-ScottH

the most common deployment errors are usually seen when specifying crendentials for autentication, make sure you use "doman/id" and not just id

 

interested in getting the online reppository dialed in in Ita

 

shelley left.

 

domain/id, goi it

 

<got it>

 

DELL-ScottH

yes that part is very useful, it won't deploy Omsa , but will do firmware/bios/ driver updates ... I've got a demo on that

 

firmware/bios/driver updts is primary goal

 

i've viewed the demo, I believe

 

DELL-ScottH

http://www.delltechcenter.com/page/openmanage+demos

 

DELL-ScottH

anything else on anyones minds ? .. not a bad start for our first chat, be sure to get the word out to all your compadres

 

I'd like to see a demo/wiki on how to create a baseline report in Ita showing hdwr rev/ver in comparison to online repository levels

 

DELL-ScottH

I do that in the one of the demos, let me remember which one

 

if that makes sense... I'm still pretty *green* to the whole Om sweet

 

DELL-ScottH

yeah, the comparison report is a little buried

 

gsherman03

Agreed on the ussage of open manage for application specific what about the hardware attributes most recommended

 

gsherman03

there are so many things to trap in the new dell servers its overwellming

 

DELL-ScottH

Todd had some ideas, he's about to chime back in ... looks like Kent too

 

gsherman03

ok

 

how do the Suu and Ita "repository" overlap in feature set... similar in effect, no?

 

Dell-KentS

Bybee, If you select a specific bundle from the online reposiory listing, there will be a tab for Compliance which will allow you to compare against the systems in your environment

 

Dell-KentS

Ita leverages the Suu repository.

 

DELL-ToddM

There is usually a different level or tiering for a server depending on what it is doing

 

DELL-ScottH

@bybee, look at my first demo in the Openmanage Demos @4:00 into the demo it shows the Complinace report

 

DELL-ToddM

So an Exchange server is usually more important that a file-server or backup server

 

DELL-ToddM

So if you group or tier systems based on function, you can then setup response actions based on how important they are

 

DELL-ToddM

So when your Exchange Server has a problem - You get a text msg to your phone

 

DELL-ToddM

When your Test and Dev system has a hiccup - you get an email

 

DELL-ToddM

You may also want to monitor different sets of things based on the server function / importance

 

gsherman03

right but more specifcally what items are recommended not just methods of updating staff

 

gsherman03

Thanks by the way Todd

 

DELL-ScottH

yeah, I think we need to explore that and write it up in the wiki, is a good idea for others to post what they might have done as well ... we will start a topic on that "what to monitor for different Enterpise Apps" .. sound good ? thanks for the idea

 

gsherman03

yup thanks

 

does sound interested, and would be helpful

 

DELL-ScottH

bybee, like your profile on the wiki :-)

 

haven't yet gotten into monitoring/notification via Ita

 

we use Mom/scom for this

 

among others

 

:)

 

DELL-ToddM

With the Openmanage pack for Mom/scom you can use Mom to alert on Openmange events

 

yes

 

first have to have Omsa out to the fleet, on latests vers hopefully

 

gsherman03

mom/scom free these days?

 

DELL-ScottH

no

 

DELL-ToddM

Not free

 

alerts on storage controller fmwr/driver ver would be cool, if an outdated box or incorrect build ended up out in production?

 

gsherman03

agreed

 

not free (nor cheap)

 

gsherman03

the 2900 had some showstoppers

 

gsherman03

so that is something we can monitor against dells distributed releases

 

gsherman03

another question in the demo for Ita it shows the ability to check for updates from dell via ftp or something along those lines

 

gsherman03

I am bringing it up now but I do not have the same functionality as shown in the demo

 

Dell-KentS

This feature is available in Ita 8.1

 

DELL-ScottH

let me bring mine up too

 

DELL-ScottH

what verison is yours

 

it took me *quite a while* to sort that the online repository was in a newer release

 

DELL-ScottH

what functionality are you missing ?

 

I even called support after watching scott's demo here, and they had No Clue what ver would include that type of function

 

gsherman03

Manage/software updates

 

DELL-ScottH

doooh, guess I should show versions and prereqs up front

 

gsherman03

It Assistant rep...

 

DELL-ScottH

k, I'm on that screen

 

gsherman03

I get add but only bin./exe

 

gsherman03

no website

 

gsherman03

hence my repository comparison is less then interesting

 

the online repository only shows after upg to 8.1.0

 

DELL-ScottH

you don't have the "online Repository" under the "IT Asst Rep" ??

 

DELL-ScottH

what does your "about" button say, in the top right ?

 

Dell-KentS

Under Actions do you have "configure Online Synchronization"?

 

gsherman03

checking version here any

 

gsherman03

ouch 8.0.0

 

gsherman03

not in the ballback here I will update

 

DELL-ScottH

ohhh a short between the keyboard and the chair :-)

 

gsherman03

 

DELL-ScottH

yup, I had several of those yesterday !

 

i've found it challenging to keep up to speed/date on the versioning of all the Om components

 

gsherman03

ok so we have eliminated that issue potentially any performance improvement seems to be a bit slow to load the web interface

 

and the filename/distribution points arent always intuitive

 

 

gsherman03

it's sitting in a Vm but the server is pretty fast

 

DELL-ScottH

yes, there were several recently, not a good time to be green field bybee

 

so with regard to "complianc" reporting in the online rep

 

i'm finally seeing how this may work

 

DELL-ScottH

8.1.1 seems a little faster, buts it's java based for what that's worth, when I increased my java heap size it seemed to be a little faster in the browser

 

gsherman03

Also another item and I assume this isnt a dell thing but we monitor our Hp printers in Om Ita when they require a maintenance kit, or at least I think this is why it happend open mange marks them as a problem any way to acknowledge so that I can glace at a group and see that it is clean

 

gsherman03

hmmm

 

is there a way to create a compliance repport for multiple Pe models and collections?

 

or is per server type

 

only

 

gsherman03

does that need to be handled on the server too

 

gsherman03

I dont see the heap size is that in Open manage or in the control panel/ Java settings

 

DELL-ScottH

compliance can be run against the whole server liine, or filtered, just click the "filter" button after running the report

 

DELL-ScottH

control panel/java

 

Dell-KentS

Bybee - the compliance is done on an "update" basis whteher this is a single update or a bundle.

 

can compliance reporting be done, selecting multiple bundles?

 

DELL-ScottH

Todd and I have to run to a meeting .... thanks to all for joining, we have sent several compliments in the Wiki to those in attendance. Your pellet, as it may be :-)

 

i.e. I want an overall report of hdwr compliance for all server models currently monitored/managed in Itsa

 

what I'm understanding now, is that I can do this individually per server/collection "update"

 

thnx guys

 

gsherman03

thanks when do we cover powerconnect switches?

 

DELL-ScottH

thank you, stay on as long as necessary, Kent can you hang around and help out ?

 

DELL-ToddM

Gotta Go - Thanks to all. We can keep these threads going via discussion threads (or comments) on the wiki Or we can have another web chat for Openmanage soon

 

sounds good, ttfn

 

DELL-RogerF left.

 

Dell-KentS

You can run a complete report for all systems and their respective versions but not a compariosn against the repository since there can be multiple veriosn in the repo

 

DELL-ScottH

gsherman, add that as a thread on the Chat page, and we'll set it up for a chat in the next few

 

DELL-ToddM left.

 

gsherman03

will do

 

Dell-KentS

If I understand correctly, you are looking for a report that compares the environment against the "latest: bundle in the repository

 

Ok Kent, i'll work some more to tune some reports and shout if any ?'s or feature req are needed

 

Yes!

 

Dell-KentS

I'll take that back to dev.

 

ok

 

take it easy, thnx again

 

gsherman03

thanks

 

Dell-KentS

You're welcome.

 

gsherman03

hmm not seeing the thread to add to

 

bybee left.

 

gsherman03

nm i got it

 

gsherman03

thanks guys later