NEW-GENERATION SERVER TECHNOLOGYSystems Management Techniquesfor the <strong>Dell</strong> <strong>Power</strong>Edge 1855 Blade ServerSystems management capabilities built into the <strong>Dell</strong> <strong>Power</strong>Edge 1855 blade serverallow administrators to manage individual server blades using the <strong>Dell</strong> OpenManage infrastructure, while also enabling management of the entire system through the <strong>Dell</strong>Remote Access Controller/Modular Chassis management module. This article providesa high-level overview of the deployment, monitoring, and change management capabilitiesof the <strong>Power</strong>Edge 1855 blade server.BY STEVEN GRIGSBY AND NARAYAN DEVIREDDYThe <strong>Dell</strong> <strong>Power</strong>Edge 1855 blade server is a modularsystem consisting of a chassis, up to 10 independentserver blades, and the infrastructure components sharedby the server blades in the chassis. The shared infrastructurecomponents include power supply modules;cooling modules; network I/O modules; the <strong>Dell</strong> RemoteAccess Controller/Modular Chassis (DRAC/MC) remoteaccess management module; and a keyboard, video,mouse (KVM) switch module. Systems management ofthe <strong>Power</strong>Edge 1855 blade server can be categorized intotwo key areas:• Server blade management: Server blade managementis accomplished through individual managementfeatures on the server blades and in the I/Omodules.• Chassis management: System-wide management ofshared infrastructure components is accomplishedthrough the DRAC/MC.Managing <strong>Dell</strong> <strong>Power</strong>Edge 1855 blade servers is similarto managing stand-alone <strong>Dell</strong> <strong>Power</strong>Edge servers. Eachserver blade provides traditional in-band 1 managementfeatures using the <strong>Dell</strong> OpenManage suite and out-of-band,agentless management using a built-in baseboard managementcontroller (BMC)—and each server blade canbe managed independently of the other server blades inthe chassis.Because all the server blades in the modular systemshare the common chassis infrastructure components, chassismanagement plays a critical role in overall <strong>Dell</strong> <strong>Power</strong>Edge1855 systems management. The <strong>Dell</strong> <strong>Power</strong>Edge 1855 bladeserver chassis and its common infrastructure components aremanaged through the DRAC/MC component. The DRAC/MCmonitors power supplies, power allocation, blade presence,and I/O module presence. The DRAC/MC provides thefollowing management access points:• Web-based graphical user interface (GUI) accessiblethrough a browser• Command-line interface (CLI) accessible through aTelnet connection• CLI accessible through the DRAC/MC’s integratedserial port1In-band features are used when the operating system is present.14POWER SOLUTIONS Reprinted from <strong>Dell</strong> <strong>Power</strong> <strong>Solutions</strong>, February 2005. Copyright © 2005 <strong>Dell</strong> Inc. All rights reserved. February 2005
NEW-GENERATION SERVER TECHNOLOGYThe DRAC/MC runs on low-wattage power and has a separatenetwork connection to help ensure remote access to the system.The separate network connection provides a redundant path forthe routing of network alerts.Server blade configuration and deploymentManually configuring the server blade hardware and deploying anoperating system (OS) image on multiple blades may seem simple,but can become a daunting task when a large number of servers areinvolved. Several local and remote deployment options are available—ranging from local, attended deployment with CD media to remote,unattended deployment using Preboot Execution Environment (PXE)and custom scripts.Local configurationManually configuring the server blades and deploying the OSrequires administrators to physically interact with the blade serversystem. This may be practical in organizations that have relativelyfew servers if all the serversare physically accessible. Onelocal deployment method is torepeat the configuration anddeployment steps for eachserver blade. However, it maymake more sense to performthe steps once, save the configurationdata, and use thedata to configure and deploythe remaining systems.Local, attended configurationand deployment is accomplishedby booting the <strong>Dell</strong>OpenManage Server Assistant(DSA) CD using a UniversalSerial Bus (USB) CD driveBecause all the server bladesin the modular systemshare the common chassisinfrastructure components,chassis managementplays a critical role in overall<strong>Dell</strong> <strong>Power</strong>Edge 1855systems management.attached to the front-panel dongle of the server. This requires theadministrator to configure the boot order in the BIOS. Once the DSACD boots, a DSA configuration wizard prompts the administratorwith a series of questions to configure the server blade. As part ofthis configuration, the administrator must select an OS. DSA thenprompts for the OS configuration data including network settingsand time zone. To complete the installation, DSA prompts the administratorto insert the OS installation media.To enable local, unattended installation, the administrator canchoose to save the configuration data to a USB floppy disk driveattached to the front-panel dongle of the server and use this datato replicate subsequent installations on additional server blades.When the administrator moves the floppy disk containing theconfiguration data to the next server blade and boots the DSA CD,the configuration data is automatically read by DSA to completethe installation.Remote configurationWhen an organization has many servers to deploy, or when physicalaccess is limited, administrators can opt to configure and deployserver blades remotely. The <strong>Dell</strong> OpenManage Deployment Toolkitcontains several configuration tools for scripting tasks such as partitioningdrives and configuring BIOS settings, BMC settings, andRAID controllers.Using a combination of the <strong>Dell</strong> OpenManage DeploymentToolkit and third-party remote deployment products such as AltirisDeployment Solution, Microsoft ® Automated Deployment Services(ADS), VERITAS OpForce, and Symantec ON iCommand, administratorscan rapidly deploy remote <strong>Power</strong>Edge 1855 server blades.The <strong>Dell</strong> OpenManage Deployment Toolkit provides configurationtools and sample scripts to configure hardware devices in a pre-OSenvironment. Scripts that configure BIOS, BMC, RAID, and diskdevices can be leveraged in PXE to remotely configure the hardwareand deploy the OS on the server blades.Using PXE and remote deployment products is an excellentoption for remotely deploying numerous servers. Although suchtechniques require additional time up-front to create the PXE imageand script the configuration, the time investment is rewarded withthe automatic, remote configuration and deployment of the serverblades. <strong>Dell</strong> OpenManage Deployment Toolkit tools can also beleveraged in any custom deployment environment.<strong>Power</strong>Edge 1855 blade server monitoring capabilitiesHardware monitoring and alerting on a <strong>Power</strong>Edge 1855 blade servercan be accomplished with the following components:• On-board BMC on each server blade• <strong>Dell</strong> OpenManage Server Administrator (OMSA) running oneach server blade• DRAC/MC management module in the chassisThe embedded BMC is designed to work in conjunction with theDRAC/MC (which resides in the chassis) and OMSA (which runson the server blade OS) to log and send alerts on the network. TheBMC is responsible for monitoring the status of the voltage and temperatureprobes on individual server blades. When the BMC detectsan event, the event is written to the BMC hardware log and sent tothe DRAC/MC using the Intelligent Platform Management Interface(IPMI). The DRAC/MC then writes a corresponding event to thesystem event log (SEL) and sends a corresponding Simple NetworkManagement Protocol (SNMP) trap to the configured recipient. TheDRAC/MC can also be configured to send an e-mail alert usingSimple Mail Transport Protocol (SMTP).www.dell.com/powersolutions Reprinted from <strong>Dell</strong> <strong>Power</strong> <strong>Solutions</strong>, February 2005. Copyright © 2005 <strong>Dell</strong> Inc. All rights reserved. POWER SOLUTIONS 15
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