Monday, February 1, 2016

Dell SCOM Management Pack 6.2 Released

The Dell SCOM Management Pack version 6.2 has been released.  Downloadable here: http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/04/Drivers/DriversDetails?driverId=X95GK

Once downloaded and extracted, there is a Readme file that has more info including supported firmware versions and known issues.  Here are the listed fixes and enhancements and a little more info to know.

Fixes & Enhancements
Fixes :
1. If OMSA is not installed, the server's hostname may be reported incorrectly in DRAC inventory. 
2. NIC and TEAMED NIC association (Intel) are reported incorrectly.

Enhancements:
1. Simplified discovery and monitoring; Chassis Detailed discovery and Slot discovery do not require RACADM utility. 
2. Support for monitoring Dell-branded OEM Servers and Dell OEM-Ready servers.


More info to know
Server Monitoring (Agent-based):
---------------------------------

* The Attribute "Enable Correlation" for "Dell Windows Server Physical and
  Teamed Relationship Discovery Rule" is set to "False" for all Teamed Network
  Interface (Enriched) in the Dell Windows Server (Detailed Edition)
  Management Pack. Set the attribute value to "True", to see the relationships
  between Physical and Teamed Network Interfaces in the "Complete Diagram View",
  "Modular Systems Diagram View" and "Monolithic Servers Diagram View"

* The Performance Rules "Total Transmitted Packets", "Received Bytes",
  "Total Received Packets" and "Transmitted Bytes" are disabled by default for 
  all Physical Network Interface (Enriched) in the Dell Windows Server
  (Detailed Edition) Management Pack. Enable these rules to generate 
  performance statistics for the Physical Network Interfaces.
    
* The Performance Rules "Total Transmitted Packets", "Received Bytes",
  "Total Received Packets" and "Transmitted Bytes" are disabled by default for 
  all Teamed Network Interface (Enriched) in the Dell Windows Server
  (Detailed Edition) Management Pack. Enable these rules to generate
  performance statistics for the Teamed Network Interfaces.

* The Dependency Monitor "Dell Server Availability Rollup (from iDRAC)"
  is disabled by default for all Dell Servers in the Dell Scalable management 
  pack.  Enable this monitor to rollup the iDRAC network interface health to 
  the Dell Server health.

  * The Performance Rule "Dell Server (Agent-based) Physical Disk (SSD) 
  Performance", is disabled by default for all Physical Disks and is a part of 
  the Dell Windows Server (Detailed Edition) Management Pack. Enable this rule 
  to generate performance statistics for the Remaining Rated Endurance Level of
  the SSDs (Solid State Drives).


Server Monitoring (Agent-free):
---------------------------------

* To use the Server Agent-free features, download the Microsoft WS-Management
  template from the Microsoft download location mentioned in the Dell Server 
  Management Pack Suite Version 6.2 User’s Guide.
  
* Performance rules are disabled by default.  Enable "Dell Server Performance
  rule" to view the Server performance data (temperature, power and Network 
  Interface Card (NIC)and CPU, Memory, IO and CUPS).
  
* Performance Unit Monitors are disabled by default. Enable the performance 
  unit monitors to get performance health status.

* Health Monitoring for components under Software RAID controllers is not 
  supported. Data required for health monitoring not available from the device 
  for such components.

* Network Link status for PowerEdge FX2/FX2s shows internal NIC connectivity; 
  network cable removal does not affect Network Link status for PowerEdge 
  FX2/FX2s.

Remote Access Monitoring:
---------------------------------

* The Unit Monitor "Device Status Check" is disabled for all Dell Remote Access 
  Controllers in the Dell Remote Access Controller Management Pack for 
  SCOM 2007 R2.

Chassis Monitoring:
---------------------------------

* In Slot Discovery, the slot name for the slots containing FD332 Storage block,  
  will be shown as SLOT-(Slot Number).
  
* Slot names displayed by CMC Slot Discovery may differ from the slot names 
  shown by the CMC web console.
  
* The Discovery Rule "Dell Chassis Detailed Discovery" in the Dell Chassis 
 (Detailed Edition) Management Pack discovers and monitors the Chassis 
  components (Storage, Fans, Chassis Management controllers, PCIe devices etc.)
  This discovery requires the creation of Run As accounts for the Dell Chassis 
  in your network and have them associated with the "Dell CMC Login Account". 
  For more information on configuring Run As Accounts refer to the User’s Guide.
  This discovery also uses RACADM to connect to the Dell Chassis. The racadm 
  uses Internet Explorer Proxy Settings of SCOM Health Service user account to 
  connect to the CMC Devices.  Ensure that Internet Explorer Proxy Settings of 
  the SCOM Health Service user account is configured such that CMC devices are 
  reachable. For instructions on modifying the Internet Explorer settings, see 
  Microsoft KB article 135982.

* The Discovery Rule "Dell CMC Slot Discovery" is disabled for all Dell Chassis 
  Management Controllers in the Dell Chassis Management Controller Management 
  Pack. Enable this rule to discover server modules and free slots for Dell 
  Chassis Management Controllers after you have created Run As Accounts for the 
  CMC devices in your network and associated them with the "Dell CMC Login 
  Account".  For more information on configuring Run As Accounts refer to the 
  User’s Guide.

* The Unit Monitor "Device Status Check" is disabled for all Dell Chassis 
  Management Controllers in the Dell Chassis Management Controller Management 
  Pack for SCOM 2007 R2.

* To monitor the health of Chassis devices, associate the community string Run 
  As account with the SNMP Monitoring Account with the target as Dell Modular 
  Chassis class or respective Chassis object (if you have different Run As 
  accounts for different Chassis devices.)

Recent issues found in both Dell SCOM MP and Nutanix MP

Here are two issues we recently found in these Management Packs.

1. This is not a bug, but rather something to be aware of.  The Dell SCOM Management Pack uses PowerShell for many of the scripts.  That means that if you have any PowerShell protected characters in your iDrac credentials or possibly SNMP community names, the scripts may not work.

2. Nutanix Management Pack v1.3 has a possible bug that has been submitted to be looked at.  If you have a dash "-" in your Nutanix SNMP name, the dash can cause the SNMP service to crash on the CVM.