DELL POWER SOLUTIONS Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, November 2005. Copyright © 2005 Dell Inc. All rights reserved. November 2005102

SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT

Dell OpenManage IT Assistant (ITA) supports a wide

variety of advanced systems management tasks such

as device discovery, software inventory, software updates,

device control, reporting, event management, and system

health monitoring. ITA provides these capabilities by inter-

operating with Dell OpenManage Server Administrator

(OMSA), which is installed on each managed node.

To install OMSA on each managed node, IT adminis-

trators can remotely deploy the agent software from the

central IT Assistant console using Windows Management

Instrumentation (WMI) scripts and tasks. This method

can also be used to deploy standard Microsoft® Windows® ®

OS–based software or service packs that are packaged as

a Microsoft Windows Installer (MSI) package or an MSI

patch (MSP) from the central ITA console.

Creating a WMI installation script The first step in deploying Dell OpenManage Server

Administrator is to develop a WMI script that installs

the Dell OpenManage agent MSI package. For example,

Figure 1 shows a generic WMI script—written in Visual

Basic Script (VBScript)—that can run a given process

on a system with the proper credentials.

The script shown in Figure 1 accepts four input

arguments. The first argument is the host name or

IP address of the remote node on which the pro-

cess must be executed. The second argument is the

process that is to be executed remotely. The third and

fourth arguments correspond to the credentials to

be used to spawn the process. This script either out-

puts the process ID of the remote process upon suc-

cessful execution, or it returns an error code. In the

example scenario discussed in this article, this script

is used to silently install the MSI package for the Dell

OpenManage agent.

Note: This script assumes that the Dell OpenManage

agent installation files (the MSI package and the cabi-

net file contents of the Dell OpenManage Installation

BY THE DELL OPENMANAGE ENGINEERING TEAM

Deploying

Dell OpenManage Server Administrator from Dell OpenManage IT Assistant 7

Dell™ OpenManage™ IT Assistant (ITA) is a central management console that can

be used to monitor and manage networked systems. ITA communicates with Dell

OpenManage Server Administrator (OMSA) agents installed on individual managed

nodes. Hence, the first step in setting up a centralized IT Assistant management

environment is the installation of these OMSA agents. IT administrators can remotely

deploy the agent software from the central ITA console using Windows Management

Instrumentation scripts and tasks.

Related Categories:

Command-line interface (CLI)

Dell OpenManage

Dell PowerEdge servers

Microsoft Windows

Scripting

Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI)

Visit www.dell.com/powersolutions

for the complete category index.

SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT

www.dell.com/powersolutions Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, November 2005. Copyright © 2005 Dell Inc. All rights reserved. DELL POWER SOLUTIONS 103

and Server Management CD) already exist on the target system

in the directory C:\tmp. If administrators need to copy the files

onto the target system, they should refer to the “Copying the

MSI package onto the target node” section in this article before

proceeding further.

Creating a generic CLI task to runtthe WMI installation script The next step for IT administrators is to execute the script shown in

Figure 1 on a remote node by creating a task in IT Assistant. They

must create a generic command-line interface (CLI) task to execute

this script with the appropriate parameters. ITA provides the Task

Creation Wizard to guide administrators through the process of

creating a task, which involves the following steps.

Step 1. Enter a name for the task, select “Generic Command

Line” as the task type, and provide a brief description of the task

(see Figure 2).

Step 2. Enter the name of the executable as well as the name

and location of the script to be executed, followed by the arguments

to the script. In the example scenario, the executable is cscript,

strComputer = WScript.Arguments.Item(0)

strCommand = WScript.Arguments.Item(1)

strUserName = WSCript.Arguments.Item(2)

strPassword = WScript.Arguments.Item(3)

Set objSWbemLocator = CreateObject(“WbemScripting.SWbemLocator”)

Set objSwbemServices = objSWbemLocator.ConnectServer(strComputer, “root\cimv2”, strUserName, strPassword)

Set objSWbemObject = objSWbemServices.Get(“win32_Process”)

errReturn = objSWbemObject.Create(strCommand,null,null,intProcessID)

if errReturn = 0 Then

Wscript.Echo strCommand & “ was started with a process ID of “ _

& intProcessID & “.”

Else

Wscript.Echo strCommand & “ could not be started due to error “ & errReturn & “.”

End If

Figure 1. Example WMI script

Windows Management Instrumentation provides a consistent way to access comprehensive systems management informa-tion. It does so by using WMI infrastructure, which consists ofthe WMI providers, the WMI service, the WMI repository, and the WMI consumers.

The WMI providers act as intermediary between the WMI service (Common Information Model Object Manager, or CIMOM) and a managed resource. They request information from and send instructions to WMI-managed resources on behalf of consumerapplications and scripts. The WMI service handles the inter action between the WMI consumers and the WMI providers. The WMI repository stores the schema that defines the management infor-mation exposed by WMI. The WMI consumers are scripts andapplications that access and control management informationavailable through the WMI infrastructure.

A WMI class exists to encapsulate the properties and the actions that WMI can perform to manage each manageable resource. The managed resource that is accessed in the example installation script in this article is the win32_Process class, which encapsulates properties and actions that can be performed on a process in a Microsoft Windows OS.

WINDOWS MANAGEMENT INSTRUMENTATION

Figure 2. Entering task name and type in IT Assistant Task Creation Wizard

SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT

DELL POWER SOLUTIONS Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, November 2005. Copyright © 2005 Dell Inc. All rights reserved. November 2005104

and it executes the WMI-based remoteexec.vbs script located in

C:\scripts. The WMI script takes the following four arguments:

• Target device: The first argument is the host name or IP

address of the target system on which the Dell OpenManage

agent must be installed. Administrators can use $IP or $NAME

to select devices from the device selection pane. • MSI installation command: The second argument is the

silent installation command for the SysMgmt.msi package

located in C:/tmp on the target device. The silent instal-

lation command—msiexec.exe /i c:\tmp\SysMgmt.msi

/l*v “C:\install.log” /qn—installs the complete MSI

package and writes the log to the C:\install.log file. Admin-

istrators can pass options to install specific components of

the MSI package.1

• Username: The third argument specifies the name of the

user running the WMI script on the remote node. • Password: The fourth argument is the password of the user

running the WMI script. Administrators can use $USERNAME

and $PASSWORD to pass the credentials securely using the

ITA authentication pane.

Step 3. Select the target device by either choosing from the

Devices tree or running a query.

Note: Administrators can select more than one target device

for the task. In this case, the script will be executed on each of the

target nodes with the same parameters except for the first argument,

which will change depending on the device. Also, the MSI should

be placed in the same location on all target devices, and the same

credentials should apply.

Step 4. Select the time at which the task should run.

Step 5. Enter the credentials—username and password—with

which the task needs to be run on the remote node.

Step 6. Review the summary of the task and click the Finish

button if no changes are required (see Figure 3).

Task execution resultsOnce the task executes, administrators can view the execution

results by selecting the Execution Log tab. This screen displays the

standard output and the standard error of the process that executed

the task on the remote node. Figure 4 shows the Execution Log

screen after a task was successfully executed.

Verifying the installationThe output of the task reveals only whether the installation started

successfully—it does not provide information about how and when

the installation completed. Because the task is asynchronous, it

spawns only the MSI installation and does not wait for the process

to complete. To verify whether the installation ended successfully,

The task management component in Dell OpenManage IT Assistant is designed to provide a feature-rich, robust, and secure systems management interface that can be used by system administrators to efficiently manage systems in their enterprise. IT Assistant sup-ports execution of various types of tasks, which can be classifiedbased on their functionality. These task types include:

• Generic command line: Executes generic remote command-line tasks that are not specific to any agent.

• Remote Server Administrator command line:Executes Dell OpenManage Server Administrator CLI commands remotely.

• IPMI command line: Executes Intelligent Management Platform Interface (IPMI) CLI commands remotely.

• Remote client instrumentation: Executes Dell OpenManage Client Connector CLI commands remotely.

• Shut down device: Performs a shutdown operation on a selected device.

• Wake up device: Wakes up a selected device via the user-specified port number. This task works by sending a “magic packet” to the target device.

• Software update: Performs a software update on one or more remote devices.

TYPES OF TASKS IN DELL OPENMANAGE IT ASSISTANT

1 For more information about other silent installation options, refer to the Dell OpenManage Server Administrator User’s Guide at support.dell.com/support/edocs/software/svradmin.e

Figure 3. Task summary information from IT Assistant Task Creation Wizard

SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT

www.dell.com/powersolutions Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, November 2005. Copyright © 2005 Dell Inc. All rights reserved. DELL POWER SOLUTIONS 105

administrators can wait for the installation to complete and then

perform an inventory of the target node or the range that includes

the target node.

Once the inventory task has been performed, the target node is

moved to the Servers group in the Devices tree of the ITA console,

indicating successful installation of Dell OMSA on the remote node.

If the remote node does not appear in the Servers group, it is likely

that the installation failed. Common reasons for installation failure

include the following:

• Invalid credentials: The credentials passed to the WMI script

are invalid or do not have the sufficient privileges to run the

intended WMI task of installing the Dell OpenManage agent

software. • Remote WMI problem: The WMI service on the target

device has not started or is not configured properly.

(The default WMI configuration is sufficient for the Dell

OpenManage agent installation script to work.) • Connectivity issues: The management station is unable to

communicate with the target node because of networking

problems. Running the ping connectivity test from the trou-

bleshooting tool can help identify and resolve such issues. • MSI errors: MSI errors were generated while the SysMgmt.msi

package was being installed. Such errors are written to the

installation log file when administrators use the /l option

in the silent installation command. Administrators can

diagnose the failure by obtaining information about the MSI

error code that is written to the installation log file on the

target machine. • Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) configura-

tion problems: If SNMP is not configured properly on the

target node, the node will not be identified as a server even

if the installation is successful. Administrators can run the

SNMP connectivity test from the troubleshooting tool to

check whether SNMP is configured properly on the target

node. They can adjust SNMP settings on the target node

remotely from the management station by using a WMI

script. Visit www.dell.com/powersolutions for an example

script that configures SNMP settings on a target node by

changing the appropriate registry keys.

Copying the MSI package onto the target nodeIn the installation scenario discussed in this article, the instal-

lation files exist locally on the managed node. If this is not the

case in a real-world deployment, administrators need to copy the

installation files from the management station (a local system)

onto the remote managed node. This step is mandatory because

the MSI installer may run into problems while installing a remote

package. Administrators can run a WMI script that copies files

onto the remote system. Visit www.dell.com/powersolutions for

an example WMI script that can be used to copy files from the

local system to a remote node.

This type of WMI script can also be run from ITA using a

generic CLI task as shown in the “Creating a generic CLI task to

run the WMI installation script” section in this article. The script

takes the IP address of the target node as the single argument,

which must be entered as $IP in the arguments section. Next,

administrators should select the target remote node and then

enter credentials corresponding to the user who has file-copying

rights on the remote system. Typically, the credentials supplied are

those of a domain user who has appropriate privileges on both

the source and the target nodes.

Note: The WMI script discussed in the preceding example uses

WMI impersonation and thus can be run only from IT Assistant 7.1

or later. If systems are running IT Assistant 7, best practices recom-

mend running the copy script from the command prompt.

Deploying Dell OpenManage across the enterpriseDell OpenManage IT Assistant can be used to execute a wide

variety of systems management tasks such as software installa-

tion and upgrade, status monitoring, and event management. By

enabling standards such as WMI, IT Assistant can help provide a

viable and comprehensive systems management environment for

enterprise data centers.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Dell OpenManage:www.dell.com/openmanage

Figure 4. Execution Log screen in IT Assistant showing task execution results