44 2012 Issue 01 | dell.com/powersolutions

Gear up with intelligent data center infrastructure

End users in organizations across

industries as diverse as aerospace,

communications, defense, health

care, manufacturing, and retail

often depend on platforms tailored to meet

the needs of specialized applications. They

often use these customized platforms—such

as workstations, kiosks, and appliances—

for applications involving high-volume

transactions, information access, order entry,

and other compute-intensive processes.

Solution providers that build and

provision products using rebranded

platforms can utilize 12th-generation Dell

PowerEdge servers as the foundation for

running customized applications. The

servers also can be leveraged to deliver

fresh technologies and capabilities that

enhance staff productivity and the end-user

experience. To accelerate time to market,

these providers require broad rebranding,

advanced server customization, and rapid

release capabilities in an efficient, unified,

and consistent model designed to support

these systems throughout their life cycles.

Dell OEM Solutions helps simplify the

delivery of advanced branding, customization,

and configuration capabilities to solution

providers through the Dell PowerEdge Identity

Module, which includes customizing the

existing LCD controller display. This module

is designed to offer a standardized framework

for customizing PowerEdge servers that are

housed in OEM-configured platforms. The

module framework augments the Dell supply

chain of products, warranties, and services

necessary for the building block on which

solution providers can develop rebranded

workstations, kiosks, and appliances.

Streamlining custom server configurations for specialized applications

Platforms customized by solution providers can be

enhanced with 12th-generation Dell™ PowerEdge™

servers, and Dell OEM Solutions offers an innovative

identity module framework for maintaining these

platforms efficiently during their life cycles.

By Franklin Flint and Donnie Gerhart

Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 1. Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.

dell.com/powersolutions | 2012 Issue 01 45

Gear up with intelligent data center infrastructure

It allows OEMs to provision individualized

customizations while maintaining the same

high level of support for the organizations

that procure these tailored platforms. This

framework approach automatically supports

ongoing system component upgrades,

including upgrades for the system BIOS,

Unified Server Configurator (USC),

Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller

(iDRAC), network card, and PowerEdge

Expandable RAID controller (PERC).

The framework not only offers solution

providers additional options, but it also

enables them to expand their management

capabilities, starting with simple local tools and

then later continuing with comprehensive,

remote management technologies as end-

user needs grow. Utilizing the identity module

framework can free provider resources to

help improve individualized customization.

The PowerEdge Identity Module enables

solution providers to utilize Dell Enterprise

update tools designed to deliver simplified

deployment of software upgrades and help

reduce complexity. These tools benefit

both the solution providers and end users in

organizations that procure OEM-provisioned

platforms. Timely updates help ensure the

system runs optimally across its lifespan.

Administering innovative

customization

The Dell PowerEdge Identity Module

provides an underlying framework to help

simplify the process solution providers

engage in to rebrand, customize, and

maintain Dell PowerEdge servers housed

in tailored platforms. The framework is

manifested in a table of attributes that is

stored outside the system BIOS. Upon a

subsystem—for example, BIOS, USC, iDRAC,

or system software—boot, all components

in the system reference this table to obtain

the system configuration (see Figure 1). The

module centralizes the control points of

multiple server features, enabling providers

to efficiently customize the servers. In

addition, the framework provides enhanced

access to available upgrades by leveraging a

standard platform for customization.

By offering solution providers a single

point of rebranding and tailoring options

and coupling the menu with standard

upgrades for customized components

in the system, Dell enhances life-cycle

efficiency of the PowerEdge server in OEM-

provisioned platforms. These single-source

options enable organizations utilizing OEM-

class workstations, kiosks, or appliances to

help improve the end-user experience.

Streamlining server maintenance

Dell OEM Solutions leverages the standard

framework in the Dell PowerEdge Identity

Module to help solution providers enhance

rebranding and quickly provision, build,

and deploy tailored platforms utilizing

PowerEdge servers. Enhanced opportunities

for branding and customization enable

providers to provision a range of features

and work with Dell to adjust the framework

to accommodate specific requirements.

These customizations are delivered in a

digitally signed, compressed file available

only to Dell and the provider, resulting in

rapid deployment and release that benefits

both the organization utilizing the appliance

and the provider that supports it.

Solution providers can benefit from

the PowerEdge Identity Module from initial

system setup throughout the life cycle of

the PowerEdge server. Because the identity

module sits outside the system BIOS, USC,

iDRAC, and PERC, solution providers are

able to utilize standard software updates to

help ensure the PowerEdge server system

software is up to date. In addition to helping

reduce the time it takes for a provider to

receive an upgrade tailored to meet specific

customization requirements, Dell provides

commonly requested features with its standard

upgrade capability. Utilizing regular updates

helps ensure tailored PowerEdge server–based

platforms continue to run optimally and

keep end users happy and productive.

Figure 1. A standard framework for customizing PowerEdge servers in OEM-tailored platforms

Dell OEM Solutions blog

Dell offers many avenues for supporting solution providers that provision customized platforms for specialized applications. Visit the Dell First Article site to read blogs posted by the Dell OEM Solutions team.

blog.delloem.com

Learn more

Dell OEM Solutions:

dell.com/oem

Authors

Franklin Flint is a global enterprise technology

evangelist for OEM Solutions at Dell. Follow

Franklin on Twitter @franklinatdell.

Donnie Gerhart is a software architect in the

Dell Product Group, with dual roles in systems

management and OEM Solutions at Dell.

Brandinformation

Microsoft®

Windows®

OS

Brand andOS license Configuration System behavior

Thermal algorithm

LCD control panel takeoverPartial framework example

Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 1. Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.