OpenManage Server

Administrator:
Usage, Benefits, and
Installation
Enterprise Systems Group (ESG)

Dell OpenManage
Systems Management

Dell White Paper

By Jeff Jilg, PH.D.
jeff_jilg@dell.com

February 2002

Contents
Executive Summary..............................................................................3
Introduction...........................................................................................4
Server Administrator Usage Scenarios.............................................5
Requirements and Positioning....................................................5
Usage cases......................................................................................6
Individual Server Administration............................................................6
Comparing and Managing Multiple Servers..........................................9
Alerting and Error Notification..............................................................10
Upgrading Dell OpenManage Agents to Server Administrator........11

Architecture Overview and Feature Highlights............................13

Server Administrator Design Advantages...............................13
Server Administrator Common Infrastructure and Services13
Web Server....................................................................................15
User Interfaces..............................................................................15
Legacy and Enterprise Console Support...............................................15
Lightweight User Interface......................................................................16
Command Line Interface (CLI)...............................................................16
Storage Management................................................................................17

Install and Uninstall....................................................................18

Installation and Uninstall Flexibility......................................................18
Installation Methods................................................................................19

Conclusion...........................................................................................21
Author Biography........................................................................21

Figure 1: Server Administrator Use in a Network.....................................................................................6

Figure 2: Reviewing and Recording Asset Information...........................................................................8
Figure 3: Reviewing and Modifying Temperature Thresholds...............................................................9
Figure 4: Comparing Two Servers Configurations................................................................................10
Figure 5: Configuring an Email Alert/Notification................................................................................11
Figure 6: Server Administrator Architectural Overview.......................................................................14
Figure 7: Server Administrator Install/Uninstall Options.....................................................................18

February 2002

Page 2

Dell Enterprise Systems Group

Section

Executive Summary
OpenManage Server Administrator is a new web-based tool for inspecting and
managing an individual Dell server. The product is designed for easy integration
into existing systems management solutions, including standard enterprise
network management solutions like those from Hewlett-Packard, Tivoli, and
Computer Associates. Server Administrator includes a Command Line Interface
as a scriptable mechanism to monitor and manage Dell servers.

February 2002

Page 3

Dell Enterprise Systems Group

Section

Introduction
OpenManage Server Administrator (Server Administrator) 1.0 is a new Dell
software product that is designed to replace Dells current individual server
systems management agents while increasing functionality and improving easeof-use. The primary objective of Server Administrator is to provide systems
management services and associated user interfaces on an individual server.
Server Administrator is not a console. Server Administrator includes a variety of
features that are necessary for IT organizations to monitor, manage, install and
service Dell servers. Server Administrator is designed for easy integration into
existing systems management solutions. The product provides features that
include the following:
Standards-based support for SNMP and WMI for standard alerting and
messaging.
HTML (web) interface to systems management agent locally or remotely
to a single server.
Command Line Interface (CLI) to provide a scriptable interface to
systems management features.
Server configuration changes including BIOS configuration.
Secure access from the web interface leveraging the SSL protocol.
Simplified install / upgrade install of all agents or services required to
manage Dell servers.
Online Diagnostics for all the components in a Dell server.
This paper discusses these features in detail, and is organized as follows: the first
section provides usage cases to outline scenarios where Server Administrator is
beneficial. The next section discusses the product features and the architecture of
Server Administrator, which is important to understand because different
interfaces provide access to different parts of the product. The final section
discusses installation and un-installation, which includes the ability for
customization and batch installation.

February 2002

Page 4

Dell Enterprise Systems Group

Section

Server Administrator Usage Scenarios

The usage scenarios outlined in this section are designed to demonstrate the
benefits of Server Administrator, and how it is used with existing or new servers.
However, before the usage cases are evaluated, Server Administrator
requirements and positioning should be clear.

Requirements and Positioning

The Server Administrator requirements are simple. To leverage the features and
functions in Server Administrator, it needs to be installed on each server that you
want to upgrade. An upgrade installation procedure is provided with Server
Administrator to upgrade customers using current Dell management agents. The
install and uninstall steps for Server Administrator are discussed in Section 4:
Install and Uninstall on page 18.
Server Administrator is a management interface to an individual server as shown
in Figure 1.
In the context of an overall solution, Dells IT Assistant management console is
used as a reporting and alert collection tool for multiple servers. Similarly, an
enterprise console (i.e. HP OpenView or CA Unicenter) is used as a more
comprehensive reporting and collection tool for multiple servers. In this context,
Server Administrator can be used to manage or configure an individual server
when IT Assistant or an enterprise console identifies a problem. For example, if
Server Administrator detects a temperature deviation, it sends this information to
a console (IT Assistant or enterprise console) using SNMP or CIM. In turn, one
of the consoles sends an alert via email or a pager. To directly inspect the
problem, an administrator can use Server Administrator remotely over the
network, and possibly resolve the problem. Server Administrator supplements IT
Assistant, since Server Administrator now provides the features necessary to
manage an individual server. To summarize this positioning and configuration:
a.
Server Administrator performs initial status detection and typically
forwards this to a management console.
b.
The management console can be configured to inform an administrator
of the status if there is a problem.
c.
Server Administrator can be used to manage or configure an individual
server to delve deeper into the problem.

February 2002

Page 5

Dell Enterprise Systems Group

Figure 1: Server Administrator Use in a Network

Usage cases
The four usage cases discussed in this section are:
1.
Individual Server Administration
2.
Comparing and Managing Multiple Servers
3.
Alerting and Error Notification
4.
Upgrading Dell OpenManage Agents to Server Administrator
In each of the following usage cases, Server Administrator is used as a systems
management interface to an individual server. In some cases, IT Assistant is used
as an interface to multiple servers and storage units as shown in Figure 1.
OpenManage IT Assistant is a management console from Dell that provides a
management interface to multiple servers. In all cases, Server Administrator can
be easily accessed through the Server Administrator web browser interface or the
Command Line Interface (CLI). IT Assistant is used as a single console to
monitor and manage the many components in the network.

Individual Server Administration

Server Administrator provides the ability to administer (manage) an individual
Dell server to proactively set up hardware and software configurations, or to
diagnose problems over the network. Consider two examples:
Asset information
A user may want to enter asset information associated with a specific server (i.e.,
PowerEdge B) to store ownership information on that system.
Thresholds
It is possible to use Server Administrator to modify preset thresholds, such as the

February 2002

Page 6

Dell Enterprise Systems Group

backplane temperature threshold, if an administrator wanted to monitor a higher

or lower temperature than the preset default.
Note: These examples are discussed briefly below in the context of the Server
Administrator GUI. The Server Administrator command line interface (CLI) can
optionally be used to review or modify the data discussed in the examples.
To enter asset information or modify thresholds, Server Administrator can be run
locally or remotely from a Microsoft Internet Explorer or Netscape browser by
typing in the hostname or IP address and the appropriate port number. For
example, to access PowerEdge B, type https://poweredge_b:1311 . This
brings up the Server Administrator GUI directly inside the web browser. The
1311 is Dells registered default port number that is configured with the
product. The port number can optionally be configured to other numbers to suit
a network configuration. However, changing the port number, especially if
different port numbers are assigned to different machines, can impact
integration.
For example 1, ownership data on the server is stored in the Asset Info screen
in the main system tree as shown in Figure 2. There are several dozen pieces of
information that may be set for each server that are associated with asset
information. For example, the usage information can be recorded in the System
Information screen. On this screen it is possible to record system location and
primary user name and phone number. Other categories of information that can
be recorded include warranty, maintenance, and support information.

Figure 2: Reviewing and Recording Asset Information

February 2002

Page 7

Dell Enterprise Systems Group

For example 2, temperature and other thresholds can be administered by Server

Administrator. Thresholds are used by Server Administrator to monitor the
health of various server components such as the backplane. If a component gets
too hot, it could fail. Dell presets default minimum and maximum temperature
thresholds, but a user may decide to increase or lower a threshold. Temperature
thresholds can be accessed on the Temperature sub-tree in the Main System
Chassis tree in the GUI as shown in Figure 3. The screen will indicate the current
temperature and the default thresholds, which can be reset through this screen.
Note that the current overall system health is also shown on the initial Server
Administrator screen. If temperatures are out of bounds, then the system health
will reflect this condition and the Server Administrator GUI can be used to drill
down into the problem.

Figure 3: Reviewing and Modifying Temperature Thresholds

February 2002

Page 8

Dell Enterprise Systems Group

Comparing and Managing Multiple Servers

The Server Administrator interface can only be used to access one individual
server at a time. However, multiple servers can easily be compared and managed
by Server Administrator. When setting up or configuring servers it is common to
compare one servers configuration with another server. This is done by bringing
up two web browser instances and pointing each browser to Server
Administrator on the independent servers. An example of this is shown in
Figure 4. In this example, the two Server Administrator instances can be brought
up in two web browser instances by typing https://poweredge_A:1311 and
https://poweredge_B:1311 respectively.

Figure 4: Comparing Two Servers Configurations

Figure 4 shows the configurations of two servers being compared in two web
browsers, both running the Server Administrator GUI. This can be done to
compare a known good configuration on one server A to a configuration of a
second server B which might have a different configuration, or may be having
problems. While comparing the two servers, both software and hardware status
and configuration can be compared by toggling between different screens in the
two instances of the Server Administrator GUI.
Only one server at a time can be configured using the Server Administrator GUI.
The GUI portion of the product is not intended for simultaneous use on multiple
target servers.
To configure multiple servers simultaneously, Server
Administrator provides a command line interface (CLI), which can be used to
access or configure multiple servers in conjunction with an enterprise console.
The CLI is discussed further in the Command Line Interface (CLI) part of the
User Interfaces section.

February 2002

Page 9

Dell Enterprise Systems Group

Alerting and Error Notification

If a temperature fluctuates outside the safe preset range, Server Administrator
can generate an alert with the appropriate information. Server Administrator can
be configured to automatically send alerts via SNMP. While reviewing a servers
configuration, system administrators can manually email copies of individual
Server Administrator pages to other system administrators or Dell technical
support for review and consultation. It is fairly easy to set up emailing of pages
through the GUI as shown in Figure 5. The target email address
(test@alert.com) is used as a sample target email ID. The content of the
message is very flexible. The subject line and the textual content of the message
may be modified. Additionally, there are two default attachments that can be
optionally attached, or it is possible to configure an attachment to be sent with
the email (i.e., test_attach.doc).

Figure 5: Configuring an Email Alert/Notification

If there is a central management console such as Dells IT Assistant or a 3 rd party
console (HP OpenView, C.A.Unicenter, etc.), then Server Administrator can be set
up to generate and forward SNMP traps (software alerts). Server Administrator
can be configured to send alerts to a central management console to indicate
various types of warnings. This set up is represented in Figure 1. For example, if
there is concern with servers potentially overheating, it is possible to set up
Server Administrator on each server to monitor various temperatures in that
server. If the temperature goes over a preset threshold (set by the administrator),
the product will send out a trap (alert) to the IT Assistant console (or another
enterprise console).

February 2002

Page 10

Dell Enterprise Systems Group

Upgrading Dell OpenManage Agents to Server Administrator

Current users of OpenManage may be using Dells HIP or OpenManage Server
Agent (OMA) products on each server to provide SNMP or WMI services and
alerts. Further, IT Assistant may be installed on each server in order to make
systems management changes (i.e., fan threshold settings) on each server. Server
Administrator is a direct upgrade for the Dell Hardware Instrumentation
Package (HIP) 3.5 and Dell OpenManage Server Agent (OMA) 4.0. An upgrade
install is included with the Server Administrator package. Server Administrator
provides a full replacement set of features for all those features in IT Assistant
that specifically apply to a single server. For example, all single server-specific
reports found in IT Assistant can be found in Server Administrator, along with
some new reports.
Server Administrator also provides all the options found in IT Assistant that
allow the changing of configurations on an individual server. Examples include
changing thresholds, specifying SNMP alert targets, and turning off alerts. It is
also possible to reboot a server either locally or remotely. To gain the new
features, it is necessary to upgrade each server to Server Administrator. (The
new features are listed in Section 2 of this paper.) Server Administrator may be
upgraded through the GUI one server at a time. The upgrade can also be driven
unattended from a script to target multiple servers.
For example, an administrator may want to setup diagnostics to run against each
Dell server on a periodic basis as a proactive way of monitoring system health.
In this case it is necessary to install Server Administrator since Server
Administrator contains a diagnostic service that can be scheduled through the
GUI or scripted through the new Command Line Interface (CLI). The CLI would
allow the administrator to create and run a diagnostic script on each Dell server.
The script must be visible to each server for it to run. It can be made visible
through a shared network drive or by using a distribution tool like SMS or ShipIt
to place the script locally on each server. Server Administrator is the sole
upgrade path to the new features. Server Administrator also supports the legacy
agent interfaces that have always been part of OpenManage.

February 2002

Page 11

Dell Enterprise Systems Group

Section

Architecture Overview and Feature

Highlights
Server Administrator Design Advantages
Server Administrator was designed to provide an extensible architecture for
OpenManage, and to provide new features that can be leveraged across
OpenManage applications. For systems administrators, the architecture delivers
the benefit of a single consolidated OpenManage agent. The strategy behind the
extendable architecture is to provide a coherent agent infrastructure that can be
extended in the future to provide new features and support additional services.
The Server Administrator architecture and its features are discussed in this
section. The discussion references Figure 6 extensively. At the bottom of Figure 6
is the products architecture, moving upward to the top interfaces. The objective
of this section is to highlight the product benefits, and to show which features
can be used to exploit various systems management services.

Server Administrator Common Infrastructure and Services

The general architecture is shown in Figure 6. At the bottom of the figure are the
provided services, as follow:
1.

2.

3.

4.

February 2002

Instrumentation
Accesses hardware, BIOS, firmware, and low-level O.S., and supports SNMP
and WMI (CIM). Previously, this service was delivered independently as
OpenManage HIP 3.5 or OMA 4.0 products. One feature of this service is the
ability to generate SNMP traps based on detection of hardware or other
component deviations from the norm.
Remote Access
Provides access to baseboard and remote management. One feature of this
service is the ability to remotely reboot the system.
Update Service
Provides the ability to update software and firmware on the server. One
feature of this is the ability to flash the firmware on the motherboard and
chassis.
Diagnostic Service
Provides the ability to run diagnostics on the server while the server is up
and running. A full range of diagnostic tests is provided to task and
proactively diagnose all the parts of Dell servers.

Page 12

Dell Enterprise Systems Group

5.

Disk Management
Allows RAID and disk reporting. Currently, RAID configuration is
completed using Dells Array Manager product. In a future release the Disk
Management service feature is expected to provide the ability to configure
RAID hardware.

The new Server Administrator architecture is important because its design

provides improved usability and performance. In the past, Dell delivered
multiple independent agents, which provided management interfaces to various
components in each server. This earlier set of multiple agents, or bag of parts,
required users to be familiar with which agents were required for different
hardware components. As shown in Figure 6, the new approach has been
simplified to a single Server Administrator agent package with supporting
services. The services still provide the same features as in the past, but they are
now sharing a common infrastructure. More importantly, administrators may
install Server Administrator as a single package without worrying about which
services are required for each server. This ability to install a single server
management package is a key usability feature.

Enterprise
Management
Consoles (HP,
Tivoli, etc)

Dell
OpenManage
IT Assistant

2
Managed
Server

SNMP
& CIM

Dell
OpenManage
Array Manager

3
I.E. or Netscape
Browser

Commands

HTML
Web Server &
HTML GUI Engine

Remote
Access
Service

Update
Service

New
Interfaces

Commands
Command Line
Interface Engine

Services & Logic Layer

Instrumentation
Service

Existing
Consoles

Diagnostic
Service

Storage
Management
Service

Server
Administrator
Common
Infrastructure
Server
Administrator
Services

Figure 6: Server Administrator Architectural Overview

Each service now leverages common components. The long-term model in this
architecture leads to an extendable agent infrastructure Dell can add new
services and new features to the single agent infrastructure. For users, this
results in better performance because infrastructure is not duplicated across
agents. For example, a single mini-web server is provided for all the services
instead of multiple mini-web servers for the individual subagents. Since there is
only one mini-web server, the performance of Server Administrator is high
because of this efficient architecture. Another benefit from this model is that
users will continue to be insulated from new services that are delivered. This

February 2002

Page 13

Dell Enterprise Systems Group

benefit allows administrators to focus on Server Administrator as an individual

server management application, which provides numerous features as Dells
server models evolve over time.

Web Server
A mini-web server is included with Server Administrator as part of the common
infrastructure as shown in Figure 6. It is used to stream HTML between the
server and the client browser. The primary design goal in this model is to deliver
a mini-web server that does not interfere with other web servers such as
Microsofts IIS or Apache. An additional benefit is that the Server Administrator
web server can be further leveraged by future OpenManage services. The web
server is configured to only support SSL. Users may only access Server
Administrator through a web browser in a secure fashion over SSL.
The web server comes pre-configured to run at port 1311. But this port number
can be changed to a port number that is consistent with a users network
applications. The change can be accomplished through the Server Administrator
GUI or the command line interface. Dell recommends that if a port number is
changed, that all the servers be changed to maintain a consistent configuration, as
this will ease integration efforts. The 1311 port number was reserved by Dell to
specifically avoid conflict with other web servers.
For example, Server
Administrator can easily coexist on a server that has IIS or Apache installed. In
this case the web servers are simply applications that respond to different port
numbers, and there is no conflict.

User Interfaces
There are a number of interfaces provided with Server Administrator. These
interfaces are outlined further in this section, and are labeled as #1 - #4 in the top
two layers in Figure 6.

Legacy and Enterprise Console Support

Server Administrator extends Dells previous server management agent services.
Server Administrator provides a package that includes Dells core code for
previous management agents (HIP and OMA). The Instrumentation Service the
lower left subagent in Figure 6 represents this core code. This subagent
provides full SNMP and WMI (CIM) support.
With its support for standard interfaces, Server Administrator provides direct
support for enterprise consoles as represented by the #1 label in Figure 6. This
interface allows users to set up Server Administrator on each server to monitor
the health of the server and send SNMP alerts to enterprise consoles like Tivoli,
HP, Microsoft, C.A., BMC, NetIQ, etc. Currently Dells IT Assistant management
console also uses SNMP to communicate directly with Server Administrator on
each server. One use of this standards interface is to monitor the temperature of
each server. If Server Administrator detects a fluctuation in temperature, it can
be pre-configured to send out an SNMP alert to either IT Assistant or an
enterprise console to warn of the fluctuation.

February 2002

Page 14

Dell Enterprise Systems Group

Lightweight User Interface

Server Administrator provides a new HTML GUI interface as indicated by label
#2 in Figure 6. There are several advantages associated with this, as follows:
A web-enabled GUI allows users to manage and inspect a server over a
network in a standard web browser (I.E. or Netscape) without any additional
plug-ins required. Previous versions of OpenManage agents did not support
this type of interface. Alternatively, Server Administrator can be launched
locally through a web browser directly on the server that is being managed.
The HTML GUI is extremely lightweight. While there is some JavaScript
associated with the GUI, in general the HTML content delivers extremely fast
performance (as fast as 5 seconds response time). Usage over a standard
dial-up 56kpbs modem is supported and encouraged for remote
management of a server while at a remote location. There is very little lag
time between the managed server and the client since the GUI is primarily
HTML-based.
Server Administrator is a reporting AND a management tool. The
HTML (or command line) interface allows users to directly interact with the
server. For example, an administrator can set the threshold of a fan speed
alert, and can configure other thresholds and alerts similarly. Since Server
Administrator contains base instrumentation, users also have the ability to
remotely reboot a server from within Server Administrator. If a DRACII card
is installed, a remote reboot command can also be sent through the DRAC
interface to the target server when the server is unresponsive or hung.
Server Administrator cannot be used to reboot servers that are hung if a
DRACII card is not installed. And in some cases, the native DRACII GUI will
have to be used to reboot an unresponsive server.
Server Administrator includes a new user interface, which will be implemented
in OpenManage products moving forward. The Dell development team worked
with a leading GUI designer to create the new look and feel and develop a GUI
style guide, and all of the services that plug into Server Administrator use the
new GUI. The strategy with this approach is to share the GUI style guide within
Dell to develop a consistent look and feel associated with OpenManage.
For those users who are visually impaired, the Server Administrator style guide
and the Server Administrator product GUI also conform to section 508 of the GUI
compliance document from the Americans with Disabilities Act (A.D.A.). A
dropdown menu on the GUI allows dynamic selection of a style that is consistent
with the A.D.A.

Command Line Interface (CLI)

Server Administrator provides a new Command Line Interface (CLI) as indicated
by Label #3 in Figure 6. The new interface supports a scriptable interface to Dell
systems management.

February 2002

Page 15

Dell Enterprise Systems Group

For users with existing enterprise consoles (i.e., Tivoli, HP, etc.), the CLI can be a
scriptable interface to the pool of servers in their organization. Scripts can be
created and executed against each server in a batch method. For example, with
an enterprise console it is possible set up a script to run full or partial Server
Administrator diagnostics on a server. The diagnostics can be executed on a
server while it is up and running. Since some diagnostics are fairly intrusive, this
diagnostic script could be set up to run at 2:00 a.m. from an enterprise console on
selected servers in the enterprise.
The results of the diagnostics can be captured and reported back to the enterprise
console. The results are available in several different formats, including semicolon separated fields. This allows post-processing to be accomplished to mine
information from the results. For example, if a disk diagnostic is executed
against a pool of servers, post processing can be used to determine how many
(and which) servers had either minor or severe disk problems. A summary
report can be automatically prepared daily or weekly as desired.
Essentially, Server Administrator can be used in conjunction with enterprise
consoles to proactively monitor and diagnose servers in an enterprise (or office or
small business). Since the CLI provides access to all the services associated with
Server Administrator, a variety of other functions can also be accomplished. This
includes selective firmware updates through the Server Administrator Update
Service, and setting thresholds for SNMP alerts on the various components in
each server.
The CLI can also be used directly in an interactive mode with Server
Administrator either directly on the server, or remotely through a telnet interface.
A user may want to access the CLI manually, including when web services may
not be available (which can occur because one installation scenario for Server
Administrator includes Server Administrator without the web server). This
scenario is supported for administrators who do not want to access the product
from a web browser. (This set of installation steps is covered in the Installation
Methods section of this paper). In this scenario there are two ways to access the
Server Administrator: through the CLI, or through standards-based interfaces
such as SNMP and WMI. The standards-based interfaces have limited
functionality, however, including that they cannot run diagnostics. Therefore,
customers may wish to access a server through the CLI dynamically to perform a
specific task like remotely rebooting the server or running memory diagnostics.

Storage Management
Another user interface is indicated in Figure 6 as label #4. Server Administrator
includes the Array Manager subagent and Array Manager GUI. The Array
Manager product performs RAID array management and reporting. There are
two potential install scenarios with Server Administrator and RAID management
that Dell supports:

February 2002

Page 16

Dell Enterprise Systems Group

1) A user may decide to install Server Administrator and include RAID

management through the default install. In this case, the Array Manager
subagent and GUI get installed on the server.
2) A user may want to install Array Manager separately from Server
Administrator. In this instance, Server Administrator may already be
installed, but the administrator wants the newest version of Array Manager.
Server Administrator and Array Manager support these different install
techniques further demonstrating OpenManage flexibility.
Note: The initial installation of Array Manager must be done through the Server
Administrator installer to set up the Server Administrator / Array Manager interface. If
Array Manager is initially installed outside of Server Administrator, this data is not
available in Server Administrator.

Install and Uninstall

Installation and Uninstall Flexibility
Dell has designed Server Administrator with ease of install, upgrade install, and
uninstall as a primary objective. Upgrade installs follow the same procedure as a
clean install, but Server Administrator automatically detects previous product
versions and upgrades the necessary components. Configuration settings are
saved as part of the upgrade process.
Several install/uninstall methods are provided as indicated in Figure 7. One
option is to install through the GUI and associated wizard interfaces. The
product can also be installed through an unattended install script. A third
method allows uninstall through the operating system-driven interface on
Microsoft operating systems. The installation methods allow you to use the
defaults or to custom install associated components. Server Administrator uninstallation can also be accomplished through the GUI or through a script. Both
the GUI and scripting options are considered in more detail in this section.
Server Administrator installs can be accomplished using the Install/Uninstall
program on the OpenManage Applications CD.

GUI
Driven

Scripted

O.S. GUI
Driven

Default
Install

Yes

Yes

Yes*

Custom
Install

Yes

Yes

Yes*

Figure 7: Server Administrator Install/Uninstall Options

*Microsoft operating systems only

February 2002

Page 17

Dell Enterprise Systems Group

Installation Methods
The GUI install interface allows for the use of a default or a custom install. The
default install does automatic detection and corresponding installation of
associated components. The custom option allows administrators to de-select
components from the install. The GUI install process for local installation on a
single server is designed as a simple method for setting up individual servers.
The scriptable install interface is provided to set up unattended local or remote
installs. Although it is possible to do local installs through this interface, many
users may be more interested in creating unattended scripts to install Server
Administrator on multiple servers over a network.
Custom Install

With either method (GUI or scripted) comes the choice of deselecting sub-agents
from the install process. For example, a user may not want to access Server
Administrator through the GUI interface locally or remotely through a web
browser. Some users may only want to get to the management utilities via
command lines or scripts. If this is the case, deselect the web server component
from the choices provided in the custom installation wizard. The product is then
installed without the included mini-web server, and the web-enabled GUI
interface is effectively disabled. After being installed in this way, the only means
to access Server Administrator is through the command line utility.
Unattended installs assume that there is a mechanism of delivering the install
package to each target server that is to be installed. There are a variety of
software vendors who provide distribution packages to support this scenario.
Alternatively, it is possible to use the network to manually push the package to
individual machines, or use local media directly on the machine.

Unattended Installs
To set up unattended installs, proceed as follows:
1) With a 3rd party software distribution tool, configure that tool to accept and
distribute the Server Administrator install package and install script.
2) Set up an unattended install package that contains the desired Server
Administrator installation components, and a script to accompany the package.
Run the prepunat.exe program and use the associated GUI wizard to select
which components to install on each target server. Choose a default that includes
all the components associated with Server Administrator. Also, select a target
directory on the local machine, which the prepunat program uses to store the
unattended package files. The result of this step is that a set of installation
package files and an associated install script are created and stored in the
specified target directory.
3) The last step is to distribute and install Server Administrator on one or more
target servers. Again, this can be done in several ways:
With a 3rd party tool
By using local media on the target server(s)
By using the network to manually copy and apply the files to one or
more servers

February 2002

Page 18

Dell Enterprise Systems Group

Uninstall Methods
Uninstalls can be accomplished using the same tools used for installation. One
method is to use the Install/Uninstall program on the OpenManage
Applications CD. A GUI is provided that enables users to selectively uninstall
the managed node components associated with Server Administrator.
Optionally, in Windows, it is also possible to use the Add/Remove Programs
application to remove Server Administrator components.
A 3rd option is to set up an unattended uninstall script, similar to the unattended
install method that was described above. While similar to the install method, for
the uninstall script it is necessary to run the rununins.exe program and apply the
resulting script to the target servers.

February 2002

Page 19

Dell Enterprise Systems Group

Section

Conclusion
Server Administrator is a new software product from Dell that provides a
comprehensive management application to manage an individual server. Server
Administrator is positioned to supplement existing management consoles since
Server Administrator can be used to manage or configure an individual server
when a problem is identified by Dells OpenManage IT Assistant or an enterprise
console.
This paper discussed several usage cases and demonstrated how Server
Administrator can be used in an existing enterprise infrastructure to solve
problems with an individual Dell server. Server Administrators architecture was
discussed to highlight the new interfaces that Dell provides with this new
hardware agent. The last part of the paper discussed several different installation
and un-installation methods that Dell included with this product to increase its
adoption in the enterprise. Server Administrator is provided at no additional
charge to Dell server customers. It can be downloaded over the web at
http://www.dell.com/. Further information on Server Administrator can be found
on Dells OpenManage website http://www.dell.com/openmanage.

Author Biography
Jeff Jilg, Ph.D., is a Senior Architect in the Dell OpenManage Group working on
Server Administrator and systems management. His past work in both operating
system and applications design and development complement his current
assignment at Dell.
Jeff earned his PhD in Computer Science from Texas A&M University and an MS
in Computer Science from the University of Texas at El Paso.

February 2002

Page 20

Dell Enterprise Systems Group