Dell OpenManage Client Instrumentation (OMCI) is software that allows remote management application programs to access information about the client computer, monitor the status of the client computer, or change the state of the computer, such as shutting it down remotely. OMCI uses the Common Information Model (CIM), which is a systems management protocol defined by industry standards. Microsoft Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) is Microsoft's implementation of CIM instrumentation. OMCI provides data to WMI, which is the common interface to WMI management applications.

Although OMCI has numerous features, its primary purpose is to package and provide access to information requested by the CIM Object Manager (CIMOM), which in turn provides the information to systems management application programs such as Dell OpenManage IT Assistant and Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager. This chat provides an opportunity to focus on how Dell is working to help the ConfigMgr administrator leverage OMCI, along with special features for ConfigMgr.

Technical Community - Background Reading

Chat Transcript

skissinger Hi everyone
Dell-RogerF Afternoon
DELL-ScottH Welcome, welcome. We will get started in a few minutes
DELL-ScottH Glad the Dell IT team made it back safely. You guys have an offsite last week?
Donnie-Dell Yeah, down at the Four Seasons downtown
angie_dell That and Patch Tuesday
angie_dell Some of us had fun downtown; some of us worked :p
DELL-ScottH Ah, yes we pick the best day for the chat
skissinger I thought Patch Tuesday was last week? Some kind of time warp for Dell?
Donnie-Dell Talking about last week :)
DELL-ScottH Oh, it was. This chat was originally scheduled for last week
DELL-ScottH Hello divot and bugbuster!
divot2001 Hello all
DELL-ScottH Hello drez
Donnie-Dell Couple more minutes, Scott?
DELL-ScottH About two minutes
DELL-ScottH Alright, I think I've tweeted as much as I can about the chat :-)
DELL-ScottH Welcome everyone to this week’s chat
DELL-ScottH Joining us today are Angie, Nathan, Donnie, and Greg from the Dell IT team to take us through OMCI and Microsoft Systems Center. Reminders: Right-click on links to avoid exiting the chat, and the transcript is available from the same link that got you here. It will be posted tomorrow, so don't worry about writing down any links. And throw questions out at any time
DELL-ScottH Dell IT team, please introduce yourselves, and let’s get this party started
Donnie-Dell Hello everyone, Donnie Taylor here, and I will be typing the most today :)
DELL-ScottH And it's never rude to throw out a question/comment at any time; we can sort them out in the stream
Donnie-Dell Thanks again for coming, and as Scott mentioned, please feel free to ask questions at any time
Donnie-Dell From my team, we've also got Greg and Angie, who know more about this than I do, and they can answer questions while I dribble on mindlessly
Donnie-Dell Heya Reed
reedracer Greg, the tweeted link goes to your blog
DELL-ScottH Hey Reed
reedracer Hi Donnie!
ramseyg_Dell Reedracer, thanks for the information
Donnie-Dell So, without further ado, let’s get started
drez I have a couple of questions about changing RAID types
DELL-ScottH Another reminder, you can use Action, Recent Room History to catch anything you missed
ramseyg_Dell Greg Ramsey here, Dell IT, one of a few that manage internal Dell IT Systems. Donnie, Angie, Dennis, and Mark are on my team
Donnie-Dell This week we are going to be talking about the OpenManage Client Instrumentation and how to integrate that information into ConfigMgr
angie_dell Angie Stahl here, the cute one on the team
Donnie-Dell For those of you that don't know, OMCI is a set of tools that let you remotely (and locally, with the right tools) manage system status, settings, etc.
DELL-ScottH You have some links to background reading for us newbs?
reedracer ::biglips
Donnie-Dell Here is a link to more information about OMCI, in particular: www.delltechcenter.com/page/openmanage+client+instrumentation+(omci)
skissinger Question: I see one sample Web report in the “Inventorying Wake on LAN” sample online. Are there going to be more sample Web reports provided?
Donnie-Dell Oh yeah, links I have :)
Donnie-Dell Yeah, Sherry, we are working on more samples
Donnie-Dell You can download the OMCI bits at this link: www.dell.com/content/topics/global.aspx/sitelets/solutions/management/client_software#1
Donnie-Dell And installation instructions can be found here: http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/software/smcliins/cli76/en/ug/ugenpdf.pdf
Donnie-Dell Once installed, OMCI will place into WMI several new classes that are specific to Dell machines. These new classes can greatly expand the inventory you collect with ConfigMgr, if you change your hardware inventory settings. Which is where this discussion takes place. One of our excellent engineers, Nathan, put together a great white paper that shows how to modify the sms_def.mof file to collect this new Dell information: http://media.community.dell.com/en/dtc/attach/omci_sccm_whitepaper.pdf
DELL-ScottH Last link didn't work for me
reedracer You guys were busy on those furloughs!
Donnie-Dell That is a link to the white paper. Excellent reading. We also have the modification to the sms_def.mof file broken out in a separate attachment: http://media.community.dell.com/en/dtc/attach/omci_sccm.txt
ramseyg_Dell Hmmm, links aren't working from here... I'll repost with TinyURL in a sec...
Donnie-Dell Hmmm, I will re-check that link in a moment, Scott. Regardless, most of these links can be accessed directly from the ConfigMgr and OMCI home page here on the TechCenter: http://www.delltechcenter.com/page/using+omci+with+configmgr
ramseyg_Dell White paper: http://tinyurl.com/ay4yv9
Donnie-Dell Check that last link; make sure it works. The attachment links might be messed up from my copying/pasting
Donnie-Dell Thanks, Greg :)
DELL-ScottH Thanks! TinyURL much better
ramseyg_Dell Dell MOF Extensions: http://tinyurl.com/8twu9c
BugBuster The links directly into Wetpaint don't work, but the others work great
Donnie-Dell The basic idea is pretty simple, though. Install OMCI on your clients, modify the sms_def.mof file, and wait for the inventory to come rolling in
Donnie-Dell Let's try this one—just a generic link to the Microsoft Technet area that shows how to modify the ConfigMgr inventory: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb633227.aspx
ramseyg_Dell You can deploy OMCI using Standard Software Distribution in ConfigMgr, or you can use SCUP (System Center Updates Publisher) and deploy like a Microsoft Software Update
ramseyg_Dell I'm working on a sample document for deploying OMCI using SCUP that should be on the Dell TechCenter by the end of the week :)
skissinger I see for some of the classes they are set False by default. Is there a rationale somewhere for under which circumstances you might want to enable a class and attributes?
DELL-ScottH Hello Dackerman, use Action, Recent Room History to catch up
Donnie-Dell Another great resource when it comes to modifying ConfigMgr inventory comes from Myitforum, a bunch of which comes from Ms. Kissinger here :): www.myitforum.com/myitwiki/sccminv.ashx
Donnie-Dell No best practices yet, but that is a great suggestion. They were all set to False to begin with to not put too much data into the ConfigMgr database—lets you pick and choose. The white paper goes into a bit of detail on this. But basically, if you want data from a particular property, change both the property report value from False to True, in addition to the class report from False to True. If you don't set the class reporting to True, it doesn't matter how many properties you set to True—it won't come in until the class is set
ramseyg_Dell Another note: this works for ConfigMgr 2007 and SMS 2003
Donnie-Dell Good point, Greg. The documents mention ConfigMgr, but it will also work with SMS 2003. Takes a few steps more getting the inventory compiled and such, but it will work there as well
skissinger Maybe a sample wmidump (a la dudeworks' wmidump for the root cimv2 classes)? www.dudeworks.com/inventorymanager/wmidump/index.html
I found this next one at Dell, but it takes a bit of interpretation (at least to me) to see what I really might want (or not) set to True: http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/software/smcliins/cli76/en/refgd/index.htm
Donnie-Dell One of the best practices that Greg has found before, just from a strictly OMCI standpoint, is that it might be a good idea to wrap your OMCI installer to keep it from reporting locally for things like chassis intrusion
divot2001 I've got a question about how this relates to IT Assistant. I've had mixed success using IT Assistant to simplify pushing out the OpenManage instrumentation clients to new systems that are listed in the unknown category
Donnie-Dell We are trying to get a dump together now; just had some issues getting it uploaded. Should be up later this afternoon, if everything works out
skissinger Actually, Donnie, it's just as much work. The WMI classes are already on the client with the OMCI install; there's no need to mofcomp anything with these sms_def.mof extensions even under SMS 2003
divot2001 While using the Software Deployment tasks has always worked perfectly for any new servers that get Server Administrator, the OMCI equivalent has so far eluded me. I have experimented with using Command Line tasks also, but for whatever reason it doesn't seem to work as transparently with a client as with a server
Dell-Nathan Is there anything we can do to the Reference Guide to make things easier/more relevant?
Donnie-Dell Good point, Skissinger. I can never remember when we needed to mofcomp in SMS 2003—only when the classes are not on the client, right?
Donnie-Dell Divot2001, I've not had experience pushing the OMCI software through IT Assistant. Perhaps we can get your information and try to dig that up through another area in the TechCenter. As Nathan just asked, once we get the dump up in a separate file, we will be looking for feedback on how to make it more readable and more user friendly
Donnie-Dell The OMCI reference guide is good: http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/software/smcliins/cli76/en/refgd/index.htm, but the one we are trying to upload now is dedicated to ConfigMgr, listing the new tables and how they correspond to the WMI class OMCI creates
Donnie-Dell It will help a lot when creating new ConfigMgr reports
skissinger Regarding the Reference Guide: it's fine, it's just a lot of detail. For me (maybe it's just how my brain works), I need to see results in context
Dell-Nathan @skissinger, More samples then
Donnie-Dell When we get the new one uploaded, I might e-mail you the document to get your feedback on it and the OMCI Reference Guide. Speaking of which, what other examples would you like to see? We have the WOL reporting example, but need some feedback on what else you like
skissinger Cool
Donnie-Dell Any other ideas on samples reports?
Dell-Nathan There are also a few samples in the OMCI/SCCM white paper itself
Donnie-Dell Anything else I am forgetting to mention, Dell Team?
angie_dell Perhaps one on the born on date—For life-cycle planning purposes—but with a caveat that only certain models going forward will have this value available for harvesting
skissinger The only other by-request I was asked for was the one for getting whether or not the boot password was set (dell_configuration): http://myitforum.com/cs2/blogs/skissinger/archive/2008/10/15/dell-omci-configuration-hardware-inventory-extension.aspx
Dell-Nathan I know that people have asked about the HDD password being set as well
Donnie-Dell Good, I will take note of both of those. The born on date Angie mentioned is a new thing, but something we know people will be interested in
Dell-Nathan We can provide that as a sample
BugBuster How about TPM state as well?
Donnie-Dell Nathan, is TPM state listed in OMCI?
Dell-Nathan We can report some on the TPM. The two BIOS settings are accessible through OMCI
skissinger I didn't know TPM was in OMCI. That would be nice if it was. That's a tricky one
divot2001 TPM is in
ramseyg_Dell Some Vpro/amt configuration is in there too
Dell-Nathan On E Series, you can even activate the TPM (through BIOS setting) through OMCI
BugBuster That's great news. I haven't looked at OMCI for quite some time and obviously need to take a look at the great documents you pointed us to
Dell-Nathan I know that is not strictly part of this conversation, just thought I would mention it
Donnie-Dell Thanks, Bugbuster; most of the thanks goes to Nathan. He worked hard on the document and has been great with all of our requests :)
ramseyg_Dell @dell-nathan, oh, that's a great point though
Donnie-Dell Definately check out the white paper, and later on when we get the dump upload, will give you a great idea of what you can report on!
ramseyg_Dell And that brings up something else; in two weeks we'll have a chat on scripting and OMCI
Dell-Nathan Donnie, the dump you are talking about is the SQL reference information?
Donnie-Dell Yeah, I think it will give them a great idea on how the OMCI classes correspond to the SQL tables
divot2001 Scripting in what kind of scenario? Just in general as if it was a local installation or will there be some deployment environment to use for an example?
skissinger Scripting? Excellent
Dell-Nathan Greg, that's my favorite subject. ::cool
ramseyg_Dell @divot2001, send us some feedback; tell us what you want to see
Donnie-Dell Yeah, next week is the deployment tool chat. Angie will be running that one, and then the OMCI scripting one after that. Greg, are you running that one?
divot2001 One of my biggest headaches has been trying to trace where the logs get generated to troubleshoot a particular failure
Dell-Nathan I use scripts for OMCI remotely all the time
ramseyg_Dell Dell-nathan is our OMCI guru, and he's a scripting guru too. We'll show some examples of flipping bits and changing configuration using Dell OMCI. We'll use VBScript and Powershell
divot2001 Which always makes tools like IT Assistant so attractive
skissinger Divot, ConfigMgr logs?
Dell-Nathan Don't know about guru, I try
Donnie-Dell Just too bad he's a Jayhawk
Dell-Nathan Tigers are always so sour
Donnie-Dell So, is everyone going to check out the white paper, grab the MOF extensions, and start collecting that new data? Thought so :)
Dell-Nathan Donnie is :)
reedracer Those Jayhawks sure sucked last night—lol, not
skissinger Well, yeah
divot2001 Actually the misexec logs can be hard to locate when you don't know whether things blew up transferring the client install files over the network or if the installation never even began. Relying on a script-only process means all the logs are spread over so many machines it becomes difficult to keep track
Donnie-Dell Even if I didn't work at Dell, you know I would :)
skissinger Divot, so not ConfigMgr then?
divot2001 Does Dell have a suggested deployment scenario in mind for the client side like there is for the servers? SCUP? SMS?
Donnie-Dell Divot2001, I think you might enjoy the OMCI scripting chat in two weeks. I believe a lot of that information, deployment, examples, and so on will be discussed then
divot2001 ConfigMgr has not been embraced just yet, but I'm beginning to lean that way since it seems to be the new direction for OpenManage at least
Donnie-Dell I know that Greg has been working with putting OMCI into SCUP, but we don't have anything documented yet
Dell-Nathan I think Greg mentioned that he is working on a deployment scenario for OMCI
divot2001 IT Assistant was the main focus for so long; we haven't switched over
Donnie-Dell Once we have it all worked out, you bet we will put that up on Dell TechCenter
divot2001 That is awesome
divot2001 Awesome
ramseyg_Dell Yes, I'll have that documented by the end of the week
Donnie-Dell (Don't you just love how I just lobbed that right over there to Greg?) :)
skissinger Sorry, Divot, not familiar with IT Assistant. I'm an SMS/ConfigMgr girl from way back
ramseyg_Dell Keep an eye on this page. We'll have a new link here: www.delltechcenter.com/page/using+omci+with+configmgr
skissinger Lol, Greg loves a challenge
Donnie-Dell Working with Angie and me are enough of a challenge, I think :)
Dell-Nathan Divot, I'll see if I can get the information for IT Assistant
divot2001 No rush. I don't mind reading documentation. The server administrator deployment section is particularly well done, and I'd be interested to see more of that type of thing for OMCI
Donnie-Dell So, any other questions about OMCI and ConfigMgr? Anything else we can answer or other comments?
angie_dell Speak for yourself there, Mister
reedracer It was good for me, thanks!
DELL-ScottH Or just questions in general. I handled Drez's RAID question in the background. And no I won't tell you the answer :-)
Dell-Nathan You have my undivided attention for another 12 minutes or so
Donnie-Dell Hehe
DELL-ScottH If you missed anything in this chat or want to review the previous chats all you need is right here: www.delltechcenter.com/page/chat+topics+and+transcripts
Dell-Nathan Okay, only a little divided by fighting with safeboot
Donnie-Dell Well, before this degrades into name calling and sound effects, thanks to everyone for coming and listening to us once again. Feel free to e-mail me with any questions; I might not know the answer, but I know the people to ask!
DELL-ScottH Don't get me started with safeboot. Any way you guys can "boot" it off my system :-)
Donnie-Dell And thus, it begins :)
divot2001 Sorry
Donnie-Dell Heh
divot2001 Someone had to do it
Dell-Nathan Sorry, didn't mean to sidetrack
reedracer How hard is this SAN stuff to pick up? I just applied for a gig with Field Tech Services here in KC
skissinger Yes, you did!
DELL-ScottH Spell it right
DELL-ScottH Sand
Dell-Nathan Seriously, though, I should be able to answer any additional OMCI questions (or find the answer and get it to you) if you have any
DELL-ScottH If you are reading this transcript, just ask any question by starting a new thread at the bottom of this page—Nathan, Greg, Donnie, Angie, and I will be glad to answer
divot2001 Why do bad things happen to good people?
DELL-ScottH Hmmm...hazy; shake and ask again
Donnie-Dell That would be Scott’s fault
DELL-ScottH That's what my therapist says
divot2001 Thanks, everyone. I enjoyed the information, and I guess I'll see you at the next chat
DELL-ScottH Hey, did anyone over there in Dell IT–land measure network traffic today? Let's say, around 11ish? :-)
Dell-Nathan If anyone has any feedback on the white papers, please let us know
Donnie-Dell Thanks, Divot2001. See you at the next one!
BugBuster Thanks, guys and gal
drez Question…
DELL-ScottH Thanks, everyone! See you next week...same bat time, same bat channel
DELL-ScottH Shoot, Drez
Donnie-Dell Thanks for joining, Bugbuster!
drez Does OMCI integrate with Spiceworks?
divot2001 That would require a lot of duct tape
drez Heh, well, we buy it by the case
Dell-Nathan I think Spiceworks uses proprietary namespace/classes
drez Gotcha
Dell-Nathan I'll look into it though
divot2001 Sounds like I need to get crackin’ on ConfigMgr though. With the number of client machines, I need a process with enough sophistication to allow me to automate things to some extent. Ideally in the same place as the other initial setup tasks, so something from Microsoft like ConfigMgr may do the trick
drez Thanks ya'll
DELL-ScottH Does this stuff work with Essentials?
DELL-ScottH Thanks
drez <Off to build giant RAIDs>
ramseyg_Dell Not sure on Essentials
Dell-Nathan I'm not sure either, but I can find out
ramseyg_Dell We'll need a Essentials person to give us the information on that; not sure that you can extend inventory in Essentials
Donnie-Dell Don't know how Essentials collects inventory
DELL-ScottH Okay, fair enough. Trying to look out for the budget-conscious folk
Donnie-Dell Alright folks, I am going to try and find the license plate of the Mac truck that ran me over and gave me a fever. Talk to you all soon!
Dell-Nathan Thanks everyone, hope this helped
DELL-ScottH Get well
ramseyg_Dell Thanks all for your time!
DELL-ScottH Thanks again, see you all next week