Ubuntu Server 14.04 LTS

The Dell Linux Engineering team has worked with Canonical to test and certify PowerEdge & PowerEdge-C servers with Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, the latest Long Term Support release from Canonical. We have certified 39 servers, more than any other server partner! Customers looking to deploy Ubuntu Server can choose Dell PowerEdge and PowerEdge-C with confidence knowing that LTS releases are supported by Canonical for 5 years.

For a quick glance at the Ubuntu Support Matrix for PowerEdge servers, click here. For full details, visit Canonical’s Hardware Compatibility List here.

Ubuntu Server 12.04 LTS and the Hardware Enablement Stack

The Hardware Enablement (HWE) Stack in LTS releases provides kernel and graphic updates to support and enable newer hardware in your environment. The HWE Stack is provided via LTS point releases every 6 months and they follow the kernel stack provided in non-LTS releases.

For customers using 12.04 LTS that have enabled the HWE Stack, the latest point release is 12.04.4 (released Feb 2014), which is based on upstream kernel 3.11. The 5^th and final point release 12.04.5 will be released on August 7, 2014, at which point security updates and bug fixes for older 12.04 point releases will no longer be provided. All users of older 12.04 HWE stacks will need to update to 12.04.5 or fully upgrade to 14.04 LTS. For full details, please read here.

It’s the Cloud!

Ubuntu 14.04 LTS includes a set of tools to easily deploy and orchestrate services in the cloud. MAAS (Metal-As-a-Service) is used to deploy Ubuntu on bare metal and is used together with Juju to deploy services on top of them. Ubuntu 14.04 LTS also includes full support for containers, a lightweight virtualization technology rapidly gaining popularity in cloud deployments.

The Dell Linux Engineering team has worked with Canonical to publish technical articles and whitepapers on Juju, MAAS and containers:

• Deploying workloads with Juju and MAAS
• Using MAAS tags with Juju
• Introduction to containers, Part 1 and Part 2
• Using Juju with containers on a single machine.

Additional articles and whitepapers are in the works, so stay tuned.

Support

Ubuntu support from Canonical is available through the Ubuntu Advantage program. Best-effort support from Dell is available with your Dell ProSupport contract. For questions and general discussion, contact our mailing list Linux-PowerEdge where Dell engineers, support teams and customers discuss Linux on PowerEdge servers. We welcome your participation and feedback.

Overview: Dell Firmware Updates

Firmware updates come out for several reasons: performance improvements, new features, or perhaps bug fixes or security enhancements.  Staying on top of these can be a challenge.  Many people would like to receive automatic notification when urgent updates are made available.

For customers who choose not to use the Dell OpenManage Repository Manager, Dell now offers a quick, easy way to be informed when updates are made available.  This quick guide will show you, in a few steps, how to set up customized email notifications.

1. First, navigate your web browser to www.dell.com/support.
2. Once there, select a Dell product that is of interest. In this example, we’re going to select the PowerEdge R920 server. Just follow the steps depicted in the following illustrations:

3. Next, click on “Get drivers and downloads”

4. Then scroll down this page to “Driver Update Notification” and sign in to “Create new driver update eMail subscription”

5. Sign in to your Dell account, or create a new one:

6. When your account has been created and you are logged in, scroll back down to the Driver Update Notification. From here, you can select the operating system, the devices you are most interested in, the alert type, and the desired update frequency.

7. There’s another option, if as well. If you are already on a server page, you may click on the “Technical Update Subscriptions” link:

8. Next, choose “create an email subscription”

9. Choose your operating system(s)

10. Then, choose the desired alert topics:

11. Choose your alert preference:

12. Choose your update frequency:

13. Once you’ve submitted this request, you’ll begin to receive emails when new releases that meet your criteria are published to Dell’s public file repository. In this example, you would receive an email update that covers critical updates for BIOS, iDRAC, and the Lifecycle Controller on a bi-weekly basis. 

Thanks for reading. Please continue to visit the Dell Techcenter for more news and information at delltechcenter.com.

In this interview series we will introduce IT Professionals selected for this year’s Dell TechCenter (DTC) Rockstar Program. This program recognizes independent experts, Dell customers and employees for their significant positive impact on Dell TechCenter, blogs and social media when discussing Dell. You can find a list of all our Rockstars here. Our fourteenth interview is Shawn Cannon.

Dell TechCenter: Can you please explain to folks who are not experts in your area: What is your domain of expertise?

Shawn Cannon: I am our Systems Admin here at work so I deal with many different things.  I would say I am proficient at VMware, Microsoft AD, EMC storage and Dell servers.

Q: What are the most exciting trends in your area?

A: I think this is always in the area of virtualization. More and more things are being pushed to the cloud.  In our side it is all internal but we are going to be pushing cloud services for our clients very soon.

Q: Can you point us to resources you find particularly valuable?

A: I always hit up Twitter first to ask my community friends for help.  I get the best answers there.  I know I can find anything related to Dell servers on TechCenter.  EMC forums and VMware forums are a great place to find product specific help as well.

Q: How do you engage with the IT community?

A: I am active on Twitter and I do have some blogs.  My main blog is one that I have partnered with Roger Lund on and it is vBrainstorm.com.  I still own vTech411.com as well. I have a personal blog at shawncannon.com which I mainly use for posting book reviews.

Q: What are the most cutting edge Dell products – and why?

A: I think that the VRTX was one of the most exciting things that Dell released.  An all in one solution for small offices (servers, networking and storage) that uses normal power and is super quiet.  I wish I had one myself!

Dell TechCenter:  Thank you Shawn!

Just over a year sounds like a long time for migration, but it’s really not. Your business’s future requires that you start planning for the Windows Server 2012 R2 migration sooner rather than later so you can rest assured that the security and reliability you have enjoyed with Windows Server 2003 continues. After July 14, 2015, Microsoft will no longer develop or release updates to the software which could affect compliance. Many industries like banking, healthcare and governmental agencies (among others) must comply with a host of requirements that technology enables. Without the most updated editions, you could put your business at risk. If that isn’t bad enough, not having the most updated patches can also leave your virtual and physical instances of Windows Server 2003 vulnerable. Check out the differences between Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2012 R2 in the table below and here. 

You can buy Windows Server 2012 R2 from most any technology partner, so why should you choose Dell? The list is long, but essentially, Dell collaborates with Microsoft in a variety of ways to ensure that our 12^th generation servers are certified and integration seamless, not to mention that we are the single point of contact for hardware, software and consulting services. These migration services offer skilled solution architects, automated tool analyses, best of breed partners and unique intellectual property; not to mention peace of mind. Not only that, but we can do a complimentary white board session to help conceive a migration strategy.  

Read more answers to the FAQs of the Windows 2012 Recycle Bin and Recovery Manager for AD here.

Dell Fluid Cache

Available worldwide today with support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, Dell Fluid Cache for SAN delivers the stability of a highly available write-back caching solution within a scalable, low-latency SAN environment and can provide extraordinary I/O performance for workloads such as OLTP and VDI.

 Designed around a highly available, low latency networked cache pool of servers Dell Fluid Cache for SAN can substantially reduce storage latency. With the use of write-back caching technology, data is protected as it travels from server to SAN. Customers can even revitalize applications on compatible non-Dell servers by including them in an established cache pool. Dell Fluid Cache for SAN enabled two HP ProLiant DL380 Gen8 servers to deliver up to 2.97x more OLTP Transactions Per Minute (TPM), than without Dell Fluid Cache for SAN*.

 Read this Dell Power Solutions article to understand how a Dell Fluid Cache for SAN deployment can dramatically accelerate your productivity. Dell lab tests found that adding the Dell Fluid Cache for SAN solution into the same hardware stack decreased average I/O response times by 99 percent. That’s down to an astounding 6 milliseconds! Dell Fluid Cache for SAN also increased concurrent users six times. All of which can translate to better experiences for your customers, and greater revenue for your business or organization.

 This end-to-end compute layer application acceleration solution combines Dell Fluid Cache for SAN software,validated PowerEdge servers using PowerEdge PCIe Express Flash SSDs, connection to Dell Networking 10/40 GbE switches, and full integration with Dell Compellent SAN storage. Dell Fluid Cache for SAN can also allow rapid scaling of the cache pool as business demands grow, either by adding additional cache capacity into existing cache pool servers, or by adding additional caching servers into an established cache pool. Watch this video to find out how it works.

 Learn more about this solution at Dell.com/fluidcache

*Additionally, Fluid Cache for SAN helps accelerate OLTP TPM (Transactions Per Minute) on HP servers by 2.9X. These results are based on July 2014 Principled Technologies Test Summary commissioned by Dell comparing two (2) HP ProLiant DL380 Gen8 servers running in a two-node Oracle RAC cluster, targeting a Compellent SC8000 array backed by rotational drives, versus the same two (2) HP Proliant DL380 Gen8 servers running in a two-node Oracle RAC cluster, plus three Dell PowerEdge R720 servers with no Oracle software running, serving as caching servers, and installed with PCIe SSD devices. Actual performance will vary based on configuration, usage and manufacturing variability http://www.principledtechnologies.com/Dell/Fluid_Cache_for_SAN_0814.pdf.

Mellanox 10/40GbE ConnectX-3 Ethernet Adapters deliver high-bandwidth connectivity for performance-driven server and storage applications in the Data Center

Using Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) Mellanox has collaborated with Dell’s Fluid Cache for SAN to deliver performance. Read this Mellanox blog to discover how Dell Fluid Cache for SAN enabled by Mellanox ConnectX®-3 10/40GbE Network Interface Cards (NICs) with Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA), can help the solution reduce latency and improve I/O performance for applications such as Online Transaction Processing (OLTP) and Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI).

Several months ago, Dell updated its process for external (and internal parties) to report potential security vulnerabilities in Dell products. I recently learned about this Dell initiative and thought I could increase awareness by blogging here. This is particularly relevant given the recent heightened global concern about computer security.

As part of Dell's updated process, Dell has established a cross-functional team known as the Dell Vulnerability Core Team. The goal is to have a core team to process reports and that is representative of Dell's many business functions. For external parties needing to report issues to Dell, please refer to the following page: http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/555/large-business/report-vulnerability

It's SysAdmin Day!

Today is System Administrator Appreciation Day. It is a day where all system administrators will feel the love. And to celebrate SysAdmins everywhere, we are giving away an Alienware and five $100 Amazon gift cards! If you're a system administrator, find out how you can enter the SysAdmin Sweepstakes. Today is the last day!

And Happy SysAdmin Day!

By Alex Dubrovsky, Director of Software Engineering & Threat Research, Dell SonicWALL (Dell Security)

During the recent Threat Update, we discussed various malware targeted for Android-based devices (smartphones). Previously, the main purpose of Android-based malware was mainly data theft, reconnaissance and malware propagation onto Windows-based machines. However, we recently discovered that ransomware has now made its way onto Android smartphones. To stay up to date on the latest threats research here via the Dell SonicWALL Security Research Center, please click here

Here’s a snapshot of my analysis as to why this is particularly noteworthy:

AndroidLocker disables the phone from going into a “sleep mode” and completely locks the user’s access to the phone and uses Geo-location API to determine the ransom amount based on user’s location.

SimpleLocker tries to mimic some of the Windows-based malware that encrypts data (such as CryptoLocker, Cryptowall) by encrypting the user’s data stored on SD card and charging a fee to decrypt it. However, this malware is not very sophisticated yet, since it uses symmetric AES encryption, and this encryption key can be found during malware disassembly. The above shows a trend in Android based malware that illustrates it will become more sophisticated and will try to monetize Android based devices just like Windows based devices.

I also provided in-depth analysis of the CVE-2014-1776 MS Internet Explorer vulnerability. CVE-2014-1776 was a “use-after-free” vulnerability type that affected all versions of MSIE from IE6 through IE11. During the presentation, I gave examples of how this vulnerability was being exploited in the wild using VML, SWF and JavaScript files and I gave examples/tutorial on how heap spray technique can be used to exploit such vulnerabilities along with examples of uses of ActionScript vector objects to accomplish such task.

Further into the presentation, I talked about a new trojan (Soraya Infostealer), which combines capabilities of banker form-stealing trojan functionality and POS (Point of Sale) memory scraping malware functionality. In the examples I showed, malicious code is injected into IE processes to invoke form-grabbing functionality, and it uses other threads to scan memory of running non-system processes – thus invoking POS process memory scraping functionality. I also showed examples of how information stolen by Soraya is communicated back to the C&C server.

In the wrap up, we discussed CVE-2014-0502 (Adobe Flash zero-day) and Parcim Trojan, which was being propagated using Adobe Flash vulnerability. I gave examples of how the vulnerability was being exploited in the wild and provided information about the data being communicated back to the C&C server.

To access detailed presentation, please click here:

This post was originally written by Perumal raja and Vinay Patkar.  Send your suggestions or comments toWinServerBlogs@dell.com.

     Dell is making it easier for customers to exercise downgrade rights to previous Microsoft Windows Server® OS versions. Downgrade rights allow a customer to install previous versions of Windows Server OS on a newly bought server with the latest license. For example, if you are buying a Dell server with Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard Edition, you are also entitled to run Windows Server 2012 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 Standard Edition. This will help those who want to standardize on a previous version of the OS, while keeping the option to upgrade later. For more information about downgrade rights, refer to Microsoft links

http://blogs.technet.com/b/licensing/archive/2013/02/07/downgrade-rights-explained.aspx

http://www.microsoft.com/oem/en/licensing/sblicensing/pages/downgrade_rights.aspx#fbid=KlcfhK05c2h

         Dell currently offers the option for DVD media of the downgrade versions, including product activation keys, with OS factory installation. Your feedback indicates that keeping track of the media over time can be difficult, and ordering additional media from Dell or Microsoft can delay implementation. To provide a better customer experience, we are placing the ISO files of the downgrade OS versions on the hard drive with the factory installed OS. When booting the system for the first time, a screen pops up (Fig 1) to inform you of the downgrade ISO file(s) location and also provides an option to save or delete the files.

Fig. 1

Option 1 - You can choose to save the downgrade ISO files to different location by selecting the files and clicking SAVE button.

Option 2 – You can keep the ISO files in the current location by selecting the files and clicking CANCEL button.

Option 3 – You can delete the ISO files if you don’t want them by selecting the files and clicking DELETE button.

NOTE: Product activation keys for the downgraded images are provided along with physical recovery media kit. It is highly recommended to put them in a safe place, as these cannot be replaced.

(Published on behalf of Jordan Hargrave.)

Previous versions of Red Hat used the biosdevname helper to use heuristics to identify the physical location of network devices in a system. The naming scheme was emX for embedded controllers and pXpY for devices on add-in cards. RHEL7 introduces a new network naming scheme as part of systemd. Biosdevname will continue to ship with RHEL7 so either naming system can be used. This blog will describe the differences between the two naming systems.

Biosdevname uses hints from the BIOS to create the mapping from PCI device to embedded index or slot number. Multi-port add-in cards are assigned port numbers by counting the number of sibling devices. Virtual functions are determined from SRIOV or NPAR tables stored in the PCI Vital Product Data area. To create these mappings, biosdevname must enumerate the entire PCI config space.

Systemd currently only knows about its own device and uses only information available through its sysfs variables. Therefore it cannot determine if two devices actually are the same physical device. Virtual functions will be named according to their function number.

For example, on a system with Broadcom onboard, Mellanox Add-in (with SR-IOV enabled) and Intel quad-port add-in card will give the following names:

Systemd does introduce some new environment variables that can be used for custom udev scripting:
ID_NET_NAME_MAC

Onboard devices:
ID_NET_NAME_ONBOARD
ID_NET_NAME_ONBOARD_LABEL

Add-in cards:
ID_NET_NAME_PATH
ID_NET_NAME_SLOT

Biosdevname defaults to enabled on Dell PowerEdge servers. Biosdevname can be disabled on the command line by putting biosdevname=0 into your installation (ks.cfg) or grub boot menu.

More resources:
http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd/PredictableNetworkInterfaceNames/

Flash has moved out of the hype cycle and can now be found almost anywhere and everywhere when it comes to the datacenter.  Previously I've talked about the differences in flash drives and why everyone should be aware of them. This time I want to talk about some of the common approaches people are taking when it comes to actually adopting flash into their data centers.

There are three main use cases that I commonly encounter when talking to customers about flash adoption strategies. They are mainly broken into three approaches, applicationperformance, general performance and consolidation.

Application performance is by far the most compelling for a lot of people at the moment. You will see a lot of vendors with offerings focused on All Flash Arrays (AFA) catering to this approach. The basic principle of this is where you have a specific application that you would like to accelerate. The most common example would be a database such as SQL. This application will have its own dedicated compute stack, and with the use of an All Flash Array it will have a dedicated flash storage - meaning you can ensure the performance of the environment and many implementations can typically accelerate them. Justifying the purchase can be easier for customers where the database performance is tied to the revenue model of the organization. For example the more transactions per second they can process, the more revenue the organization generates.

General Performance is a way of improving the overall performance of your central storage by adding flash drives to the environment to augment it. This is greatly beneficial when the central storage environment can make use of intelligent tiering by allowing data to move between flash and spinning drives automatically as required by usage of either the application or the user. As an example, Dell Compellent can intelligently tier data between write intensive, read intensive flash drives and conventional slow spinning drives. This is becoming a common place for users who have a storage array that can support flash drives in the array. By including flash drives into their existing array,it allows for a higher density of applications so you get the benefit of using a centralized SAN strategy, which will increase the overall return on investment.

Consolidation is a little bit more uncommon to see, however it has great benefits. This is typically seen with customers who have legacy storage environments typically between the 5 to 7 year old timeframe. Another common trait is that they have a lot of 15k spinning drives for performance requirements and not for capacity. Replacing these legacy environments with the use of flash drives can result in a rather drastic reduction of required rack space.  This works out particularly well for environments that are space and power constrained, where consolidating down rack space and power requirements means incremental savings per month. 

One thing to keep in mind is that flash isn't a magic silver bullet that will solve all performance related challenges. It doesn’t always mean it is the right storage strategy to adopt – it depends on the environment and also the performance requirements. You need to carefully determine the performance requirements of either your environment or the application depending on where you want to deploy flash. This is where we recommend using DPACK, the Dell Performance Analysis Collection Kit. It thoroughly collects the performance data of your environment so that accurate sizing can take place to ensure if flash is suitable for the environment and accurately sized to ensure best performance. 

The following blog post is from Didier Van Hoye, a Technical Architect, Dell TechCenter Rockstar and avid blogger.

When you get your Force10 switches up and running and are about to configure them you might notice that, when looking at the logs, the default timestamp is the time passed since the switch booted. During configuration looking at the logs can very handy in seeing what’s going on as a result of your changes. When you’re purposely testing it’s not too hard to see what events you need to look at. When you’re working on stuff or trouble shooting after the fact things get tedious to match up. So one thing I like to do is set the time stamp to reflect the date and time.

This is done by setting timestamps for the logs to datetime in configuration mode. By default it uses uptime. This logs the events in time passed since the switch started in weeks, days and hours.

service timestamps [log | debug] [datetime [localtime] [msec] [show-timezone] | uptime]

I use: service timestamps log datetime localtime msec show-timezone

F10>en
Password:
F10#conf
F10(conf)#service timestamps log datetime localtime msec show-timezone
F10(conf)#exit

Don’t worry if you see $ sign appear left or right of your line like this:

F10(conf)##$ timestamps log datetime localtime msec show-timezone

it’s just that the line is to long and your prompt is scrolling .

This gives me the detailed information I want to see. Opting to display the time zone and helps me correlate the events to other events and times on different equipment that might not have the time zone set (you don’t always control this and perhaps it can’t be configured on some devices).

As you can see the logging is now very detailed (purple). The logs on this switch were last cleared before I added these timestamps instead op the uptime to the logs. This is evident form the entry for last logging  buffer cleared: 3w6d12h (green).

Voila, that’s how we get to see the times in your logs which is a bit handier if you need to correlate them to other events.

The integrated Dell™ Remote Access Controller with Lifecycle Controller helps to manage, monitor and deploy Dell Servers. iDRAC provides remote management capability. It provides an Out-of-band mechanism to monitor, update and troubleshoot the servers. The latest version of iDRAC is iDRAC7 which is present in the Dell™ 12th generation servers.

IPMI is a standardized computer interface that is used for hardware management. IPMI supports both in-band and out-of-band management. The focus of this post is the in-band management of Dell PowerEdge servers using Dell iDRAC7 and Windows Server 2012R2.

Microsoft Windows PowerShell includes CIM Cmdlets which make remote management operations easy.PowerShell 4.0, which is a part of Windows Server 2012 R2 /Windows 8.1, also supports the CIM Cmdlets that were first introduced in PowerShell 3.0. Integration of PowerShell in Windows Server 2012 / 2012 R2 along with  iDRAC7 provides a rich set of remote management capabilities.

Consider a scenario where you want to retrieve the iDRAC IP Address. To manage the system remotely, you can retrieve the iDRAC IP address in-band from the OS easily. This script uses the IPMI functionality that comes native within the OS.

Additional Resources:

Using Microsoft Windows PowerShell CIM Cmdlets with Dell iDRAC

For more related articles visit Managing Dell PowerEdge VRTX using Windows PowerShell

In this interview series we will introduce IT Professionals selected for this year’s Dell TechCenter (DTC) Rockstar Program. This program recognizes independent experts, Dell customers and employees for their significant positive impact on Dell TechCenter, blogs and social media when discussing Dell. You can find a list of all our Rockstars here. Our fifteenth interview is Marius Sandbu.

Dell TechCenter: Can you please explain to folks who are not experts in your area: What is your domain of expertise?

I come from a typical Windows admin role related to virtualization and system management mostly with Hyper-V and System Center and of course cloud solutions with Azure. Lately I've also been more and more involved working with networking and security. Also I’m a Microsoft MVP within Enterprise Client Management and is part of the local Microsoft Technology User Group here in Norway

What are the most exciting trends in your area?

At the moment a lot is happening in the virtualization space, with the arrival of “Software-defined Storage/Networking” and converged solutions which gives a more flexible and dynamic virtualization platform. With the recent partnership between Dell & Nutanix it’s going to be really interesting to see what the future holds.

And of course with the rapid improvements and updates happening in the cloud space it’s really fun times!

Can you point us to resources you find particularly valuable? 

I use feedly with RSS adding most of the common blogs from both Dell and Microsoft and of course blogs from other Rockstars and MVP’s. Also Dell provides a good list of reference architectures which a properly documented and tested which I often use as a blueprint for future deployments.

How do you engage with the IT community? 

Mostly on social media, such as twitter where you can find me @msandbu I also blog at http://msandbu.wordpress.com about what I find interesting at the time.  You can also find me presenting at seminars/webinars.

What are the most cutting edge Dell products – and why?

At the moment it is the Dell VRTX, because it is quite the powerhouse and allows for deployment of a full cluster up to 4 nodes / 20+ disks / and even PCI-e cards within the same chassis and with an simplified disk management. But! With the upcoming Dell XC series combining Nutanix software with Dell hardware (combining converged hardware with SDS) it will open up a new world of opportunities!

Dell TechCenter:  Thank you Marius!

(Posted on behalf of Jordan Hargrave.)

Biosdevname is a utility used to help map Linux Ethernet devices to their physical location in a system. Traditionally in Linux, ethernet devices have been named ethX, which may or may not correspond to the Lan-on-Motherboard (LOM)
numbering in the system. Biosdevname is a udev helper application that maps the original ethX names to location-specific names. This is useful when deploying multiple servers that require all ethernet names to be the same. The names are of
the form eX_vf for embedded slots and pXpY_vf for NICs in PCI slots.

The latest release of biosdevname 0.6.0 adds support for network cards that support more than 8 Network Virtual Paritions (NPAR) and corrects numbering of slots connected directly to a PCIE root port.

This version will be available in future OS releases from Red Hat, SUSE and Ubuntu.

The latest version of biosdevname is available from http://linux.dell.com/biosdevname or the git repository: http://linux.dell.com/git/biosdevname.git

Author: Jon Hass

As revealed in a joint press release yesterday, Dell is participating in a coalition including Emerson, Hewlett Packard, and Intel whose purpose is to create a new industry standard for the management of data center hardware. The initial Redfish specification, which specifically targets server management, will be publically available once published by an industry standards body such as Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF). But today, I want to talk a little about this standard and what it might mean for Dell customers.

Dell has a long history of supporting industry standards, from IPMI, which was introduced in 1998, to more recent standards such as SMASH. Five years ago, Dell introduced its web services interface (WSMAN) and has since evolved it into one of the world’s most sophisticated and capable server management APIs.  Backed by this kind of experience, Dell is a critical partner in the Redfish project, and our participation continues this long legacy of supporting industry standards.

As with previous industry standards, Dell’s support is a boon to our customers, allowing them to limit the number of management processes needed to manage a multitude of servers. Redfish is no different in this respect, but it brings much more to the table. With scale-out data centers becoming more and more common, a standard that can comprehend the vicissitudes of today’s complex environments is needed. 

Leveraging existing web protocols such as JSON and HTTPS while embracing RESTful design principles and a light weight data model, Redfish is built to meet the challenges of today’s large scale data centers who primarily manage to the lowest common denominator: IPMI.Though IPMI has served the industry well, it was designed for an earlier era of computing, falling short in describing today’s complex, and more and more disaggregated, computer systems.
 
Several computer security researchers, such as Dan Farmer, have pointed to vulnerabilities with many implementations of IPMI. For this reason, Redfish is designed from the ground up with security best practices in mind.

Another advantage to Redfish is that it is opaque, meaning that, unlike IPMI, it does not prescribe the implementation to server vendors like Dell. Instead, it is limited to the API only. Furthermore, the protocol and data model can be revised independently, which will reduce the complexity of implementing any future revisions.

So, what can Redfish do? Though Redfish will evolve, the initial specification defines a set of management capabilities similar to those available in IPMI:

Retrieve Telemetry
-          Basic server identification and asset information
-          Health state
-          Temperature sensors and fans
-          Power consumption and thresholds

Discovery
-          Service endpoint (network-based discovery)
-          System topology (rack, chassis, server, node)

Basic I/O Infrastructure Data
-          Host NIC MAC addresses for LOM devices
-          Simple hard drive status / fault reporting

Security
-          Session-based leveraging HTTPS

Common Management Actions
-          Reboot / power cycle
-          Change boot order
-          Configure BMC network settings
-          Manage user accounts

Access and Notification
-          Serial console access via SSH
-          Alert / event notification
-          Event log access

Since the joint announcement of Redfish, several questions have been raised about what this means for the future of IPMI and Dell’s WSMAN interfaces. To be clear, Redfish, once it is broadly implemented, will be ideal for large heterogeneous data centers, but at the moment, it currently offers a fraction of the capability in Dell’s WSMAN interface. 

For this reason, Dell still recommends WSMAN as its primary application programming interface and will continue to invest in it for the foreseeable future. Until Redfish is implemented in a large amount of industry server hardware, IPMI will still be a critical standard in the data center. Therefore, until this happens, Dell has no plans to drop support for IPMI in its server products.

To learn more about Redfish, please visit www.redfishspecification.org.

The latest release of Dell Command | Monitor (formerly known as Dell OpenManage Client Instrumentation) v9.0 is available now. All products of the Dell Command Suite are listed here. 

The Dell Command | Monitor (DC | M) enables remote management application programs to access the client's system information, monitor the status, or change the state like shutting it down remotely. Through standard interfaces, DC | M (or OMCI) exposes key system parameters, allowing administrators to manage inventory, monitor system health, and gather information on deploying Dell Enterprise Client systems like Latitude, Dell Precision Mobile, Optiplex and Dell Precision Workstation.

New features and enhancements in DC | M v9.0 include:

• Extended Support for Monitoring and Alerting for LSI.
• Added Support for Client specific 10909 MIB.
• Added equivalent SNMP traps for all supported client alerts.
• Rebranded OpenManage Client Instrumentation (OMCI) to Command | Monitor.
• Removed Legacy (root/dellomci) namespace.
• Support for monitoring and alerting for sensor devices.
• Support for following simple tokens.

• • Back camera
  • Function Lock
  • Function Lock Mode
  • Onboard Unmanaged NIC
  • Rear USB Ports
  • Side USB Ports
  • Keyboard Backlight with AC
  • GPS Radio
  • Fan Speed
  • Trusted Execution

We have released a white paper exclusively on Monitoring health of RAID Controllers and its associated drives .

We have been engaged over the forums and have tried to address most of the major concerns to enhance the customer experience. Once again, we will love to hear from you to improve the product.

Downloads for DC | M v9.0 are available here.

The Dell TechCenter community has provided great feedback to the OMCI team, so we encourage you to continue that discussion in the OMCI - OpenManage Client Instrumentation forums.

Great news! Our BOGO offer has been extended! Register at https://dellworld.activeevents.com/2014/portal/registration/DWUserForum before September 22nd.

Dell World User Forum (#DWUF) brings together Dell Software technical users from organizations across the country and exposes them to the most up-to-date technical, deep-dive content, hands-on labs and demonstrations for the critical Dell Software products that you use to run your business, including:

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Dell OpenManage Connection version 2.2 for IBM Tivoli Netcool/OMNIbus

The new Dell OpenManage Connection version 2.2 for IBM Tivoli Netcool/OMNIbus version 7.3.1 and 7.4 continues to provide a relatively easy way for Dell enterprise customers to monitor Dell devices using IBM Tivoli Netcool/OMNIbus. The Dell OpenManage Connection protects an IT organization’s existing investment in IBM Tivoli Netcool/OMNIbus and helps ease the integration and monitoring of Dell devices by providing a single pane of glass for customers to manage their heterogenous data center environment. The product equips IT administrators with the information necessary to make rapid yet informed decisions regarding their data center resources and helps to increase staff productivity by reducing unplanned downtime. 

The product provides event monitoring capabilities as per Netcool Knowledge Library (NcKL) guidelines. This release supports Dell PowerEdge 10^th to 13^th generation Servers (including iDRAC8 for 13th generation and iDRAC7for 12^th generation), integrated Dell Remote Access Controller 6 (iDRAC6), Dell Remote Access Controller 5 (DRAC5), Dell Precision Rack Workstation, Dell PowerEdge M1000e Chassis , Dell PowerEdge VRTX Chassis, Dell EqualLogic PS-Series Storage Arrays, Dell PowerVault MD StorageArrays, Dell Compellent Storage Arrays, Dell PowerVault NX Storage Arrays (10^th to 12^th generation) and Dell Network switches (M-Series, S-Series, Z-Series, C-Series, N-Series and W-Series). It also supports device specific one-to-one and one-to-many console launch and other Dell Tools from Dell device events in the OMNIbus console to perform troubleshooting, configuration or management activities.

Key Dell OpenManage Connection Features

*Supported only for Dell PowerEdge servers (including iDRAC), Workstation, VRTX, EqualLogic/ Compellent/PowerVault NX storage and M-Series/S-Series/Z-Series/C-Series/N-Series switches

We’re excited to bring this latest release to you. For more information, download links, and product documentation please visit the Dell OpenManage Connection for IBM Netcool/OMNIbus wiki page. We encourage you to continue this conversation in the OpenManage Connections for 3rd Party Console Integration Forum if you have any comments or other feedback.

Dell OpenManage Connection version 2.0 for IBM Tivoli Network Manager IP Edition

The Dell OpenManage Connection version 2.0 for IBM Tivoli Network Manager (ITNM) IP Edition version 3.9 and 4.1 provides end-to-end monitoring capability for the entire Dell infrastructure stack. With this connection, customers have a detailed view of Dell PowerEdge servers, workstations, chassis, storage arrays and networking devices. They can monitor Dell infrastructure from IBM Tivoli Network Manager (ITNM) IP Edition console, the single point of management for the complete data center in customer’s environment. This brings increased ease of use and continued investment protection for IBM Tivoli customers.

This release supports Dell PowerEdge 10^th to 13^th generation Servers (including iDRAC8 for 13th generation and iDRAC7 for 12^th generation), integrated Dell Remote Access Controller 6 (iDRAC6), Dell Remote Access Controller 5 (DRAC5), Dell Precision Rack Workstation, Dell PowerEdge M1000e Chassis , Dell PowerEdge VRTX Chassis, Dell EqualLogic PS-Series Storage Arrays, Dell PowerVault MD StorageArrays, Dell Compellent Storage Arrays, Dell PowerVault NX Storage Arrays (10^th to 12^th generation) and Dell Network switches (M-Series, S-Series, Z-Series, C-Series, N-Series and W-Series). It also supports device specific one-to-one and one-to-many console launch and other Dell tools from dell devices in the ITNM console to perform troubleshooting, configuration or management activities.

Key Dell OpenManage Connection Features

Note: Dell OpenManage Connection version 2.0 for ITNM requires Dell OpenManage Connection version 2.2 for IBM Tivoli Netcool/OMNIbus for event monitoring.

We’re excited to bring this latest release to you. For more information, download links, and product documentation please visit the Dell OpenManage Connection for IBM Network Manager wiki page. We encourage you to continue this conversation in the OpenManage Connections for 3rd Party Console Integration Forum if you have any comments or other feedback.