The Dell™ Lifecycle Controller 1.2 embedded technology that helps enhance the Dell Embedded Management strategy builds on the capabilities provided in earlier releases by adding remote services for OS installation, integration with the consoles of leading-edge industry partners, and GUI enhancements. The Lifecycle Controller offers integration for the Microsoft® System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) 2007 systems management tools to help simplify and enhance OS deployments on Dell PowerEdge™ servers. This discussion focuses on Lifecycle Controller integration with SCCM 2007 and how the combination of embedded Lifecycle Controller 1.2 capabilities, the Dell Server Deployment Pack (DSDP) 1.1 for ConfigMgr, and the Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller 6 (iDRAC 6) offers a powerful, remote provisioning solution for Microsoft ConfigMgr deployments.

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Chat Transcript

Raajeev Hello, Scott. I have the rest of my team with me here as well: Ravi, Michael Hepfer, Frank
Dell-ScottH We'll get started in a few minutes; give everyone time to join. Then I'll introduce you all and we can kick it off from there
HoosierCAB Not sure if this chat is applicable, but the tweets and calendar reminder made me click on the link :)
Dell-ScottH Okay, let's get started. You all know the drill...be nice, have fun. Today's chat is on Dell Lifecycle Controller integration with Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) 2007
erson My workstation hard drive decided to die on me two hours ago... plenty of time to make a fresh install of Microsoft Windows 7 :)
Dell-ScottH We have guest speakers joining us today. I'll introduce two and the rest can introduce themselves along the way. A reminder that this chat is recorded, so come back any time and drill through the links. We have Raajeev from the Dell team with expertise in Lifecycle Controller and Angie from the Dell IT team with expertise in SCCM.
Dell-ScottH This is an informal chat session, so don't worry about interrupting; we'll sort through it all in real time
Raajeev I'll go ahead with a quick overview of the Lifecycle integration; unsure if anyone here has downloaded and tried the plug-in out already
Dell-ScottH Let's have Raajeev kick it off with a little introduction to the topic. Can you give us the low-down on the integration; a little 101. I'll throw out some random links along the way. If you are unfamiliar with the Lifecycle Controller, here's a link with some demos and a quick introduction: www.delltechcenter.com/page/lifecycle+controller
Raajeev Thanks, Scott. The primary features enabled by the Lifecycle Controller in 1.2 are the ability to auto-discover new bare-metal 11th-generation servers, Preboot Execution Environment (PXE) removal—through support of Common Internet File System (CIFS) shares for booting pre-OS images—and driver maintenance. I'll drill down into each of the features a little bit
Raajeev Auto-discovery: This feature requires Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP)/Domain Name System (DNS) configuration (white papers are available on the TechCenter site)—in essence, when a bare-metal system is racked and stacked it gets an IP address and some custom DHCP scope options that point to a Provisioning Service (this is installed by the Dell plug-in). The system announces itself to the Provisioning Service and is then provisioned with credentials—basically, a new account for all out-of-band management is created on the Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller (iDRAC)
Raajeev This process ties in with SCCM. When these credentials are provisioned on the system, the plug-in uses the Web Services for Management (WS-Management) protocol and extracts information from the system. It then imports the new host system into the console and associates it with an out-of-band controller. The plug-in also automatically creates a new collection when the first bare-metal system is auto-discovered and provisioned in ConfigMgr
Dell-ScottH Here's the link to the two-part demo: www.delltechcenter.com/page/lifecycle+controller+integration+for+microsoft+config+manager
Raajeev Awesome. Thanks, Scott!
erson The manuals can be found here: http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/software/smusc/
Raajeev The demo goes into good detail on the properties of the system that we pull in and the integration of a new tab in the Properties window that shows out-of-band controller information as well
Dan Where exactly does the Dell plug-in get installed?
Dell-ScottH Oh, another reminder: the chat client will sometimes boot you when clicking on links, try right-clicking and it should work. Or click on the links in the transcript tomorrow
Raajeev The Dell plug-in is installed on the primary site server in this release
CharlcyeM Thanks, Scott ;)
Raajeev When installed it prompts for some minimal information (account information to be provisioned on the system, ConfigMgr admin credentials) and installs and configures the Provisioning Service and plug-in utilities and UI
Dell-ScottH Supported on Essentials? Or not?
erson Was about to announce that this was the first chat without the information about how to click on links :)
Dell-ScottH :-)
erson Microsoft System Center Essentials 2010?
Dell-ScottH They stopped paying me by the word
ravi_kumar_pare Not SCE please
Raajeev We don't support SCE 2010; we support SCCM 2007 SP1. SP2 support is forthcoming
Dell-ScottH The demo goes into great detail. Many thanks to Michael H., who is lurking in the background, for the great work on the demo!
Dell-ScottH Any prep work that needs to be done on the servers? Or will it work right out of the box with discovery?
Raajeev Good question. I believe factory configuration can be ordered with auto-discovery enabled in case of firmware upgrades of existing 11th-generation systems you will have to enable the auto-discovery flag in the iDRAC configuration screen at start-up time and also ensure all admin accounts are disabled; otherwise, auto-discovery will not run
Raajeev That's basically auto-discovery. With flea power and network connectivity you get to see newly racked/stacked bare-metal systems come up in the Dell collections. Do note that our install depends on the Dell Server Deployment Pack (DSDP). We utilize the DSDP for OS deployment, especially the task sequence parts, and allow the user in this case to use drivers from the Lifecycle Controller (as opposed to only drivers from the console repository)
Dell-ScottH Information on the Dell Server Deployment pack for SCCM: www.delltechcenter.com/page/dell+deployment+pack+for+configmgr+%28server+deployment%29
Dell-ScottH Raajeev, "flea" power?
Raajeev The system doesn’t need to be turned on; it needs to be plugged in though. The cool thing is that the act of deploying an OS and starting up the task sequence will power the system on
erson So you can auto-discover servers that are not turned on?
Raajeev Yes. It requires the power cable to be plugged in—you just don't have to explicitly hit the power button on the system. This is initiated from the iDRAC (the out-of-band controller) on the system
erson Okay, and possible to deploy an OS to a turned off server...that’s awesome with a capital A
Raajeev So that's auto-discovery in a nutshell
Raajeev The Dell plug-in installs some components on the system. There is a UI that is launched in the context of any collection. Do note that activities run out of this UI will only work on 11th-generation systems with an iDRAC that were auto-discovered. In addition, we have integration points on the Site Settings tab if you want to change the credentials used for newly provisioned systems and point to a default share where your Windows Preinstallation Environment (WinPE) images are stored
Raajeev The next key feature we enable is PXE removal. Essentially, when you create a task sequence ISO, we modify it (to remove the "press any key to boot from the CD/DVD" and also the Next button to select the task sequence and initiate ConfigMgr task sequences) and allow you to boot to this WinPE image off of a CIFS share on the network
Dell-ScottH Ah, my biggest peeve...prompting when I'm trying to roll out 100s or 1000s
Raajeev Yes, this was high on the list of priorities to provide a true touchless OS deployment capability
Dell-ScottH Angie, if I had to learn SCCM quickly, where would you point me?
angie Microsoft Technet
erson http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/configmgr/default.aspx
angie Sorry Internet Explorer 8; no like Java
erson That's the TechCenter for SCCM
Dell-ScottH I thought you were going to say "the Internet" :-)
angie They did a great job on the documents
Dell-ScottH Thanks for the link, Erson
erson Technet is my second home :)
Dell-ScottH Oh wow, that is laid out quite nicely
angie Well, I wouldn’t go that far...
Dell-ScottH At least for a beginner like me
Raajeev The demo Scott pointed to at the start shows how to use the PXE removal feature. There is a small addition in this release though that enables driver maintenance. Here we allow the user to install the OS and use drivers from the Lifecycle Controller instead of having to import and use the drivers from the ConfigMgr repository
erson The video guides on edge.technet.com are also awesome: http://edge.technet.com/tags/system+center+configuration+manager/
Dell-ScottH Link to the demo again for those that missed it: www.delltechcenter.com/page/lifecycle+controller+integration+for+microsoft+config+manager
Dell-ScottH Thanks, Erson. Was not aware of the edge site…nice
erson Great video guides on most Microsoft stuff there
Raajeev The driver maintenance feature kicks off some WS-Management commands to expose the drivers for the OS you plan to install. Also you can view the progress in a Task Manager–like application we put in the System Tray when you initiate rebooting the system to WinPE for OS deployment. The demo takes you through modifying the task sequence to enable this functionality. In addition to these three key features we also enable modifying credentials on a per-collection basis and checking if out-of-band communication works (again on a per-collection basis). We also enable setting separate credentials per collection
Raajeev That covers the list of features the plug-in enables in the first release—any questions?
Dell-ScottH Covered quite a bit; a lot to digest and review, especially in the demos. Will you all be lurking around on the forums if any questions pop up?
Raajeev Apologies for pushing out so much information: there are a lot of cool new features and wanted to ensure we covered them all
Dell-ScottH It's good material for the transcript
erson Don't ever need to apologize for pushing out information :)
Raajeev Any feedback on usage of this is always very welcome
Dell-ScottH Erson will always pull it out, if you don't push it out :-)
Raajeev And, yes, our team will monitor the forums and be as responsive as possible
erson I might try anyway ;)
Dell-ScottH Thanks to everyone from the Dell team for joining today to help on the chat...and a big thanks to everyone for joining today
Dell-ScottH Same time next week
angie Bye
Brady_Lambert Thanks Scott and Dell team ::beer
angie Goodbye everyone :)
Dan Thanks!
TTM3 Thanks!
Dell-KongY Thanks everyone
Raajeev Bye everyone. Thanks again for joining!
erson Thanks to Raajeev and Angie
Dell-ScottH ::beer back at you!
erson So next week we have Driver Pack for OS deployment with SCCM. I'm guessing Ramseyg will be here for that one?
Dell-ScottH Correct
Dell-ScottH Angie, who's leading next week?
erson If I remember correctly Ramseyg said you could use the Driver Pack with Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2010 stand-alone or with SCE as well
warren_byle I've been tapped to lead the Driver Cab discussion
erson Okay, great, see you next week then
erson I'm off. Time to watch “House” and then hit the bed. Bye.
erson Hey, I just found this: http://edge.technet.com/media/integration-of-dells-lifecycle-controller-with-microsoft-system-center/
erson Should at least be in the chat log for this topic