Dell EMC Nutanix Management Pack Deployment on XC Series

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Dell EMC Nutanix Management Pack Features on XC Series

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Nutanix SCOM MP for Dell EMC XC Series

Co-Authored. Nutanix SCOM Management Pack lets you monitor Dell EMC XC Series clusters from a single console. Administrators can gain rapid insight into the state of the XC Series cluster environment using various views that show state, health, and performance information, as well as alerts generated for availability and performance. Nutanix SCOM alerts and thresholds are synchronized with alerts and thresholds in the Nutanix PRISM Web Console.

Getting SNMP Alerts in SCOM for Dell Servers

There are 2 ways to get SNMP Alerts in OpsMgr for Dell Servers.  The way you choose depends on whether you are using Agent-Based Monitoring or Agent-Free Monitoring with the Dell Server Management Pack Suite.

Agent-Based means that your target server is a Windows server, has OMSA installed, and has the SCOM agent installed.  The way this works is that OMSA DSM Event Manager service will write the event to the System Event log (Syslog).  Then the SCOM agent will groom the Syslog and will report back to the SCOM server.  Unfortunately, the SNMP Test trap button in OMSA will not work to test these traps because it only generates an SNMP trap, but in no way writes to the Syslog.  But there is another way to test.

I'm not going to cover setting up Agent-Based or Agent-Free Monitoring in this.  Those are in other posts.

Agent-Based SNMP instructions: (steps 1, 3-7 are done on the target machine)

1. Install OMSA on the Windows target.
2. Setup Agent-Based monitoring for that Windows target (done on the SCOM server).
3. Make sure the DSM SA Event Manager service is running in Services.msc.

4. The SNMP Service and SNMP Trap services are not needed for this.  I tested this by disabling these services.  The SNMP Service is not installed by default.  I had installed it for testing various situations.

5. Open OMSA on the target server and go to System\Main System Chassis\Temperatures.  Click on System Board Ambient Temp.

6. Click on Set to Values and change the Minimum value to something over the current temp, which is Reading temp, and under the Maximum Failure Threshold.  I choose 35.  Then click on Apply.

7. That will create a warning event in the Syslog from Server Administrator, category will be Instrumentation Service.

8.  Now go check SCOM.  Under Monitoring either in Active Alerts or under Dell\Alert Views\Server and Rack Workstation Alerts, you should see the Dell OMSA Temperature sensor detected a warning value.

Agent-Free Monitoring means that either your server is not Windows or that it is Windows but you do not want OMSA and/or the SCOM agent installed on it.  The way this works is that the iDrac is discovered as a Network Device in SCOM using SNMP.  Then all alerts will come directly into SCOM from the iDrac.  No other agents are required.

For Agent-Free instructions please view sections 1.1, 1.2, 1.7, and 1.9 on my other post "Dell Server Management Pack with Agent-Free and SNMP Monitoring".

And if you need to set this up for multiple iDracs, "How to setup all of your iDracs for SNMP alerting".

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.

Theoretical Limits for Dell In-Band & Out-of-Band Monitoring with SCOM

Although I work for Dell at the time of publishing, this post is not official Dell documentation.

Dell has SCOM management packs (MPs) that allow In-Band and Out-of-Band monitoring of Dell hardware.  There are some possible limits I want to make you aware of before you begin your testing and implementation of these solutions.  We will start with the background and describe the different options.

First, there are 2 primary MPs for monitoring Dell server hardware.

• In-Band: This requires the installation of OMSA and the SCOM agent on the systems that you want to monitor.  Processing of data is done on the monitored system by the SCOM agent.  This is also much easier to setup.
• Out-of-Band: This does not require OMSA or the SCOM agent, but does require setting up SMASH discovery through the iDrac, a license from Dell, and the Dell Connections License Manager.  Processing of data is done on the SCOM Management Server.  I have another post on how to set this up in a single SCOM management server environment.

Inside each of those MPs are 2 monitoring levels.

• Scalable: Inventory and monitoring of component groups and also displays the presence of the iDrac. For Reports, only OpenManage Windows Event log is available.
• Detailed: Detailed inventory and monitoring of the following components: memory, processors, network interfaces, storage controllers, disks, volume, power, temperature, and BIOS information.  For Reports, availability of BIOS configuration, firmware and driver versions, and RAID configuration reports.

    ***Note: More details on these in the Dell SCOM MP User Guide.

There are other factors that can blur or move these theoretical limits up or down.  Factors including whether the SCOM management servers are physical or virtual, specs of those physical/virtual machines, how much other monitoring is being done and the load on the SCOM servers, bandwidth, etc.

Please remember that these are not hard limits and are not official Dell documentation.

# of Dell servers supported per SCOM Management Server

	Scalable	Detailed
In-Band (Agent-Based)	1500	500
Out-of-Band (Agent-Free)	150	50

Your mileage may vary.  Please test before rolling out into production.

Walk-Through: Monitoring Dell Server Out-of-Band with SCOM 2012

Want to monitor Dell server hardware without installing OpenManage Server Administrator, or maybe you can't install OMSA.  This walk-through gives you the steps to get this to work.

This walk-through assumes you already have SCOM running and are familiar with it.  If you don't have SCOM 2012 running, check out Kevin Holman's quick start guide: http://blogs.technet.com/b/kevinholman/archive/2011/07/26/deploying-opsmgr-2012-a-quick-start-guide.aspx

Links for reference.
Dell Server Management Pack Suite (download and docs), 5.2 is the latest as of this post:
http://en.community.dell.com/techcenter/systems-management/w/wiki/4118.dell-server-management-pack-suite.aspx

Dell Connections License Manager, 1.1 is the latest as of this post:
This is where DCLM should be but this page has not been updated to include 1.1 yet.
http://en.community.dell.com/techcenter/systems-management/w/wiki/4921.dell-connections-license-manager.aspx
So use this one for DCLM 1.1: http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/Drivers/DriversDetails?driverid=987Y6

License Management in Dell OpenManage Products using Dell Connections License Manager.  This PDF tells you how to get the licenses needed for Out-of-Band management.
http://en.community.dell.com/techcenter/extras/m/white_papers/20437073.aspx

Dell Connections License Manager Version 1.1 Installation Guide:
http://topics-cdn.dell.com/pdf/dell-connections-license-manager-v1.1_Setup%20Guide_en-us.pdf

Dell Connections License Manager Version 1.1 User's Guide:
ftp://ftp.dell.com/Manuals/all-products/esuprt_software/esuprt_ent_sys_mgmt/esuprt_ent_sys_mgmt_connections_license_mngr/dell-connections-license-manager-v1.1_User's%20Guide_en-us.pdf

System Center Monitoring Pack for WS-Management and SMASH Device Discovery:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=29266

Now for the actual walk-through.  And the first rule of SCOM is if you think you have waited long enough for something to happen, double your wait time unless you know how to set the overrides to make things happen quicker.

1. Get your licenses for SCOM Out-of-Band management through your sales rep at Dell if you don't already have them.
2. Get DCLM installed. Right click and Run As Admin. This can be local on the SCOM box or a remote box.  It has a very small footprint but if SCOM is heavily used, DCLM might be better on another machine.  I'm not going to walk through the install of DCLM.  The Install guide above does a nice job of that.  Things to point out include:

• Firewall ports 8543 and 8544 have to be opened.
• Add the DCLM site to your Trusted Sites list on the SCOM server, and DCLM server if it is remote.
• DCLM wants to create 3 groups in your Active Directory Users OU.  If you cannot install DCLM as a domain user that has necessary permissions to create those groups, you will have to create them manually. http://bradsjumpbag.blogspot.com/2014/06/dell-connections-license-manager-1011.html
• Add your AD account that you use for administering SCOM to the Dell Connections License Administrators group.
• Import your licenses into DCLM.  For Out-of-Band monitoring, the license should read "Dell Server Management Pack Suite for System Center Operations Manager.  This license is for monitoring X server via out of band."

3. Next, you need to install the Dell Server Management Pack Suite 5.2 to your SCOM 2012 server.  Right click and Run As Admin. The install will ask for credentials for the Dell Device Helper COM+ Object.  This account should most probably be a domain account that is also added as a local admin on the SCOM box.  After the MP is installed, the Dell Feature Management Dashboard will most likely be blank.  Leave it be for a while and continue with the next steps.

4. Download and install the System Center Monitoring Pack for WS-Management and SMASH Device Discovery from the link above.  After running the package, you may still have to go to Administration, Management Packs, and Import it.  Once that is done you should see 'WS-Management and SMASH Device Discovery" under Authoring, Management Pack Templates.

5. Setup SNMP on your iDracs.  Go to each iDrac and make sure the SNMP community string is exactly the same.  Capitalization matters.  "Public" and "public" are two different community strings, but "Public" and "Public" are the same.
There are two places to check.  iDrac Settings\Network\Services under SNMP Agent, and then Overview\Server\Alerts\SNMP and Email Settings. Under SNMP and Email Settings, you also need to enter the Alert Destination IP of your SCOM server and hit the Apply button in that same IP Destination List table.

6. Create a Community String account in SCOM using the community string you set on all iDracs. It doesn't matter, but I set this to More secure and distribute it to my SCOM management servers.  Less secure works too.  Then under profiles, open the SNMP Monitoring Account and on the Run As Accounts screen add the Community String account you created. Select "A selected class, group, or object, hit the Select button.  In the Look for field change to SNMP Community and hit Search.  Pick the SNMPCommunity_GUID that comes up and Add it.  Press OK and Save.

7. After the Feature Management State populates, you will activate features you want to use.  For the OOB we will be using the Server (Out-of-band) Monitoring.  Click on it to highlight and then in the lower right corner click on Set to Server (OOB) either Scalable or Detailed Feature.  The Detailed feature will give much more info including memory, processors, nics, storage controllers, disks and volumes, and BIOS info.  Let this process complete before closing the task window and scroll to the bottom of that window to make sure it completed successfully.

8. Next, you need to configure the connection from SCOM to DCLM.  On the Feature Management Dashboard, on the lower right under Tasks, look for and click on "Configure License Server".  Click the Override button.  Expand out the window and columns so you can see the full default value.  Copy that for the License Web UI URL and License Web Service URL but enter your IP or FQDN to your DCLM server.  For example: http://10.10.100.7:8544 and http://10.10.100.7:8543.  Press the Override button at the bottom and then Run.  Let this run and make sure it completes successfully.

You can verify that it should work by clicking the link to Launch Dell Connection License Manager in the tasks area and being able to browse and see your licenses.

After several more minutes, you should see number of licenses you have in DCLM show up under the Total Node Licenses column in the Dell Feature Management Dashboard.

Now we will use the Dell Server MP Suite 5.2 for SCOM User Guide for configuring the WS-Management Monitor.  I'm just going to copy the steps and past them here with some of my own notes added.

To discover a Dell server using the Dell Server (Out-of-band) monitoring feature:
1. Log on to OpsMgr 2012 as an administrator for the OpsMgr Management group.
2. On the OpsMgr console, click Authoring.
3. At the bottom of the navigation pane, click Add Monitoring Wizard.
The Add Monitoring Wizard screen appears.
4. On the Select Monitoring Type screen, select WS-Management and SMASH Device Discovery and
click Next.
5. On the General Properties screen, in the Name field provide a name for the wizard.
6. Under Management pack, click New.
The Create a Management Pack screen appears.
7. Provide a name for the management pack in the Name field and click Next.
For information on creating a management pack, see the OpsMgr documentation at
technet.microsoft.com.
8. Click Create.
The management pack you created is selected in the Management pack drop-down box.
9. Click Next.
10. On the Specify the target drop-down menu, select a resource pool for monitoring out-of-band
devices and click Next.
11. On the Specify the account to be used to run discovery screen, click New and create a Simple
Authentication Run As Account.  This Simple Authentication Run As Account will be the credentials used to access the iDrac.  I have added the steps to manually create the account and associate it to the SMASH profile below.

12. Select the Run As Account you created from the Run As Account drop-down menu and click Next.
13. Click Add.

14. On the Add Devices screen specify the iDRAC IP address of the systems you want to monitor using 

the Server (out-of-band) monitoring feature. You can specify the iDRAC IP address of the systems by:

• Scanning the IP Subnet that you provided.

• Scanning a specified IP Range.

• Importing a text file containing the list of iDRAC IP addresses.

15. Click Advanced Options, select the Skip CA Check and Skip CN Check option and click OK.

16. Click Scan for Devices to search for Dell PowerEdge 12G systems on your network.

The IP addresses are listed under Available Devices.

17. Click Add to add the list of IP addresses you want to monitor and click OK.

18. On the Specify the devices you want to monitor screen, click Create.

19. Click Close.

The scanned Dell servers initially appear in Monitoring → WS-Management and SMASH Monitoring 

→ WS-Management Device State screen. After the automatically triggered SMASH discovery is 

completed by the OpsMgr, the Dell servers appear in Monitoring → WS-Management and SMASH 

Monitoring → SMASH Device State screen.

This is the end unless you need to manually configure the Simple Authentication account and/or associate it with the SMASH profile.

Creating A Simple Authentication Run As Account
1. Log on to OpsMgr 2012 as an administrator for the OpsMgr Management Group.
2. On the OpsMgr console, click Administration.
3. Right-click Accounts, and then click Create Run As Account.
The Create Run As Account Wizard screen is displayed.
4. Click Next.
5. From the Run As Account type drop-down menu, select Simple Authentication.
6. Provide a display name in the Display Name text box.
7. Provide a brief description in the Description text box and click Next.
8. On the Credentials screen provide the iDRAC login credentials for the systems you want to discover
using the Server (Out-Of-Band) monitoring feature.
9. Click Next.
10. Select the Less secure or More secure option as appropriate.
For more information, see the OpsMgr documentation at technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/
hh321655.aspx.
NOTE: If the iDRAC login credentials are different for each of the systems, create a separate
Run As Account for each of them.
11. Click Create.
12. After the Run As Account has been created, click Close.

Associating Run As Account For Monitoring A Dell Server Using The Server (Out-Of-Band) Monitoring Feature
For monitoring the Dell server, the Run As account used to discover it must be associated with the Dell
server in the SMASH Device Monitoring Profile. The management pack performs the association
automatically. But in some cases, you have to manually associate the Run As account.
To manually associate the Run As account in the SMASH Device Monitoring Profile:
1. Launch OpsMgr 2012, and click Administration.
2. In the Administration pane, browse to Run As Configuration → Profiles.
3. From the list of available profiles, right-click SMASH Device Monitoring Profile and click Properties.
The Introduction screen is displayed.
4. Click Next.
The Specify the Run As profile's general properties screen is displayed.
5. Click Next.
The Run As accounts screen is displayed.

6. Click Add.

The Add a Run As account screen is displayed.

7. Select the run as account used to discover the Dell server from the Run As account drop-down list.

NOTE: If you are using multiple Run As accounts to discover devices, associate each device 

with its associated Run As account.

8. Click A selected class, group, or object and add the association for the server in the SMASH 

Monitoring Profile.

• Click Select → Class option, use Dell server as the selection.

• Click Select → Group option, use the group containing the Dell server objects as the selection.

• Click Select → Object option, use the individual Dell server object as the selection.

9. Click OK.

10. Click Save and Close.

NOTE: If the Run As Account association is not done, the alert Dell OM: Server and its component 

health computation failed is displayed under Monitoring → Alerts View → Server Alerts on the 

console.