newbie Qs setup and open manage

[umbletech]

Hi All

Shamefully haven't used Dell servers before just HP and IBM. Now most vendors have a setup CD like SmartStart - can somebody give me a link.

Normally eg. HP SIM you have a config server and monitored servers. Do I need two server to play with OpenManager?

OpenManager Download Link please- obviously the free version like proliant essentials.

The boxes I have to run up are a bladeserver 1955 and a couple of 2950s. I was going to buy a couple of second hand 2600s with lots of drives or something similar just to play with the setup. Is this going to be a worthwhile exercise?

 

[NickFerrar]

Justput your server tag numbers in the Dell support site and go to downloads.

As for Dell OpenManage, its part configuration tool part monitoring tool. It works on a per-server basis with Dell IT Assistant being a central SNMP-based console that you can monitor multiple servers from that have OpenManage installed. Personally I never found IT Assistant reliable enough to use so we just rely on connecting to local OpenManage installs (until we finally get something like OpenView or Patrol deployed).

 

[umbletech]

Thanks Nick it all helps - is this a worthwhile exercise or is the blade setup quite different?

 

[NickFerrar]

OpenManage itself I've found useful for seeing the health of individual servers but I never liked IT Assistant (although it was a couple of years ago I tried it). Personally I think you're better off looking at something like Microsoft MOM with the Dell plug-ins (we'll be going down the IBM Netcool or BMC Patrol route ourselves soon). The point being if you have enough servers it's not pracitical to hop on to each one to check it then you should get a proper server monitoring tool not use a OEM's under-developed effort.

 

[umbletech]

Agreed unfortunately the client hasn't budgetted for MOM - I was going to just put all the server urls on a page and maybe also monitor exchange application services with the built-in stuff and maybe big brother. Any better free options?