DellServer Templates

Creation & DeploymentVia

Dell OME Jobs&/or

Drac “racadm” cli (no cost methods)

Mark Maclean – July 2015 – Version 1 – Essential Guild

Summary & TermsSummary

The aim of this deck is to provide a simple overview using screen shots of how to create & run OME jobs / scripts to collect + push Dell server templates via the iDRAC.

OME/iDRAC offers both simple free methods & more automated chargeable methods to deploy server templates

Template – collection of server firmware setting eg bios/raid/nic/drac in XML format

OME – OpenManage Essential windows based Dell management solution/console

DRAC – Dell Remote Access Controller offering lights out management of Dell servers

Racadm – CLI for DRAC

Use Case Server Templates are used to save customers server setup time to streamline device configuration management .

They are mostly used during deployment & repurpose work.

Configuring multiple servers/blades to match a precise setup is an arduous task.

Examples “Use Case” include

Configuration of the just the Drac accounts/snmp & smtp settings

Setting perc raid config on the first two disks to raid 1 automatically

To complete cloning of one servers settings (bios/Drac/Perc) to a set of new servers

How To Collect A Template

Clone the“Sample – Server XML

configuration” job

Create The Server ”Get” Template Job In OMEClone Exiting OME DRAC XML Task

Name the new“cloned” task

Create The Server “Get” Template Job In OME

Create The Server “Get” Template Job In OME

Check that thenew “cloned” task is now in “remote tasks” listThen Right click it Select edit

Note : existing command is “set” to push a configso needs updating with getCommand & real template file location

Create The Server “Get” Template Job In OME

Edit existing command change to “get” see below & add real template file save location

Create The Server “Get” Template Job In OME

Correct syntax of command Get -f \template\template.txt -t xml --clone

Review type of commandIs racadm

Review where tosave log

Create The Server “Get” Template Job In OME

Select one of more “targets” for this jobPick required DRAC cards Via “tick box” list

Create The Server “Get” Template Job In OMEUsing Set Command To Deploy The Server Template

Note : “set”push commandto deploy Server Template(file names is inthe command string)

Select DRAC card(s)All/some from list of already Discovered DRACs

Create The Server “Get” Template Job In OME

Select required schedule

Enter required Credentials forDrac access

Create The Server “Get” Template Job In OME

Create The Server “Get” Template Job In OME

Job CompleteTemplate file hasBeen Save on the ome Server In \template folder

How To Deploy A Template

Clone the“Sample – Server XML

configuration” job

Deploy The Server Template Jobs In OMEClone Exiting OME DRAC XML Task

Name the new “cloned” task

Deploy The Server Template Jobs In OME

Deploy The Server Template Jobs In OME

Check that the new “cloned” task is now in The remote tasks list

Deploy The Server Template Job In OME

Right click the new task & select “edit”

Note : existing command is “set” to push a configbut needs updating with real template file location(so will not currently run)

Deploy The Server Template Jobs In OME

Edit command with : where to save the server template file & add “--continue” (the –f set the file name for the server template to be saved, example “template.txt” )

Deploy The Server Template Jobs In OMEUsing Set Command To Collect Server Template

Deploy The Server Template Jobs In OME

Select one of more “targets” for this jobPick required DRAC cards Via “tick box” list

Select required schedule

Enter required credentials

Deploy The Server Template Job In OME

Deploy The Server Template Job In OME

JobRunning

Deploy The Server Template Job In OMEUsing Set Command To Deploy The Server Template

Note : “set”push commandto deploy Server Template(file names is inthe command string)

RACADM cli command to “get”/ collect server template Example RACADM Commands

# example script to collect server template from dell server via the remote idrac

racadm -r 192.168.0.92 -u root -p calvin get -f template.txt -t xml --clone

# run from remote system to push profile file "profile.txt" to target server using xml file in "clone" format

# --continue : makes configuration job continues with next section in file if error occurs

racadm -r 192.168.0.92 -u root -p calvin set -f profile.txt -t xml --continue

RACADM cli command to “set” push server template

Example RACADM CLI Command for iDRAC

Example Sample of Server Template

Next StepsWhite Papers : covering this topic deeper

“Deployment and Managing Configurations with Dell OpenManage Essentials”” “Creating and Managing Server Configuration Profiles”

Racadm Command Set

RACADM command Line Interface Guide

Dell tech center iDRAC – Whitepapers/videos etc

OME

Dell tech center OpenManage Essentials “OME” – Whitepapers/videos etc

Dell System Management technical forum

Dell tech center – a customer forum to post questions on for all thing OpenManage