Deploying Dell Remote Access Controllers (DRACs)

for a large number of systems can be a time-

consuming and cumbersome task—the type of

routine job that can be critical to perform quickly and effi-

ciently in enterprise environments. The Dell OpenManage

Deployment Toolkit (DTK) is designed to simplify and auto-

mate BIOS, baseboard management controller (BMC), DRAC,

and RAID deployment and management on Dell PowerEdge

servers through a set of utilities, sample scripts, drivers, and

configuration files. Administrators can use the DTK to perform

these tasks on multiple systems simultaneously, helping

ensure consistency and standardization across systems man-

agement processes.

This article focuses on the syscfg utility and the syscap,

sysrep, and tkenvset sample scripts typically required for DRAC

deployment and management. Although typically the default

script information can be left unchanged, administrators may

need to modify these scripts to meet particular needs.

Installing the Dell OpenManage Deployment Toolkit Unlike other Dell OpenManage software (such as Dell

OpenManage Server Administrator), the DTK is not included on

the Dell OpenManage CD stack that ships with PowerEdge serv-

ers; instead, it is available for download from support.dell.com

as a self-extracting zip file for the Microsoft Windows

Preinstallation Environment (WinPE) and as an ISO image for

embedded Linux. Extracting the zip package or booting the

CD created from the ISO image creates a Toolkit folder (in

X:\Dell for Windows, or /opt/dell for Linux) that contains the

necessary files to perform deployment tasks (see Figures 1

and 2). The Tools (or bin, for Linux) subdirectory of this folder

contains utilities such as syscfg and racadm, which

Related Categories:

Dell OpenManage

Dell PowerEdge servers

Dell Remote Access Controller (DRAC)

Remote management

Systems management

Visit www.dell.com/powersolutions

for the complete category index.

The Dell OpenManage™ Deployment Toolkit includes utilities for the Microsoft® Windows® Preinstallation Environment and Linux® OS to help administrators deploy and manage Dell™ Remote Access Controllers (DRACs) on supported Dell PowerEdge™ servers. This article discusses how administrators can use this toolkit and scripts to simplify DRAC 5 configuration and deployment.

By Zain KaZim

alan Daughetee

Workstation Source system target system

networked volume (Z:\)

Dell

toolkit

Docs

Systems

template

Configs

scripts

tools

Drivers

DRmK

Figure 1. Dell OpenManage Deployment Toolkit directory structure for the Microsoft Windows Preinstallation Environment

Importcorner art

here

systems management

DELL POWER SOLUTIONS | august 20071

Simplifying DRAC 5 Deployment with the Dell OpenManage Deployment Toolkit

Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, august 2007. Copyright © 2007 Dell inc. all rights reserved.

administrators can use as stand-alone tools for configuring individual

components or integrate into scripts as part of a comprehensive one-to-

many scripted deployment. The template subdirectory contains sample

batch or shell scripts and configuration files required for one-to-many

deployments. The Systems subdirectory serves as a placeholder for

platform-specific information such as configuration capture files and

answer files for specific PowerEdge servers. For details about other direc-

tories and information related to creating WinPE images, see the Dell

OpenManage Deployment Toolkit User’s Guide.

Using the syscfg utilityThe syscfg utility enables administrators to configure a system’s BIOS, BMC,

and DRAC 5 and generate system reports. It abstracts hardware differences

that may exist between different generations of PowerEdge servers to allow

administrators to use standardized command-line interface (CLI) commands

across supported servers. Although the DRAC 5 is configured through the

syscfg utility, previous-generation DRACs (the DRAC III and DRAC 4) are still

supported through the racadm utility provided within the DTK framework.

Administrators can apply many of the concepts for DRAC 5 deployment dis-

cussed in this article to the DRAC III and DRAC 4 as well.

The syscfg utility provides DRAC management switches and param-

eters to configure Platform Event Filters (PEFs), Platform Event Traps

(PETs), Serial Over LAN (SOL) Proxy, DRAC and BMC users, user access

settings for LAN channels, read and write policies, stripe sizes, failover,

and so on. Because the DRAC 5 takes over stand-alone BMC capabilities

such as system event log (SEL) display when installed, configuration

changes to such features are reflected through the BMC even when a

DRAC 5 is not installed.

The syscfg utility can do the following:

• Display help and usage information

• Read configuration options from CLI parameters

• Report BMC and DRAC session information

• Clear BMC and DRAC SELs

• Restore BMC and DRAC factory settings

• Configure the nonmaskable interrupt (NMI) and power buttons

• Log activity to a given file name

• Return specific error codes and messages

Figure 3 lists a representative set of syscfg options and arguments.

For a complete list, see the Dell OpenManage Deployment Toolkit

Command Line Interface Reference Guide.

Using the syscap, sysrep, and tkenvset sample scriptsThe Tools subdirectory contains the executable utilities and sys.ini file,

which the syscfg utility uses to determine system type, and the

template/scripts subdirectory includes the .bat or .sh scripts (in WinPE

or Linux, respectively) needed for scripted BMC and DRAC management.

After specifying DRAC settings with the syscfg utility, administrators

can use the syscap sample script to output BIOS, BMC, and DRAC infor-

mation into a configuration file, syscfg.ini. They can use an optional

CLI parameter to specify the location for the syscfg.ini file; if they do

not specify a location, the script uses the environment variables pro-

vided in the tkenvset script to determine its location. The syscap script

uses the -o switch with the syscfg utility to output the information into

the syscfg.ini file.

After outputting this information to the syscfg.ini file, administrators

can use the sysrep sample script to apply these settings to target systems.

The sysrep script uses the -i parameter with the syscfg utility to read and

apply the settings in the syscfg.ini file. Administrator input may not be

necessary to run this script, depending on its variable settings. If admin-

istrators do not use the -i parameter, the sysrep script uses the default

value in the tkenvset script for the syscfg.ini location to read from.

Administrators can use the tkenvset script to define the execution

environment. Figures 4 and 5 show the default tkenvset script settings in

WinPE and Linux, respectively. Typically administrators can keep these

default settings unless they are using a network share to access the DTK

directory structure, in which case they should set the DT_DRIVE variable

to the network drive letter (in WinPE) or the shared directory mount point

(in Linux). When administrators are performing installations from a CD

that contains the boot environment integrated with the DTK directory

structure, the utilities reside on the CD drive; in this case, WinPE sets the

target system

dell

toolkit

systems

template

configs

scripts

libdrmk

srvadmn

/lib

/bin

/sbin

/opt

bin

writable

/var

/tmp

/usr

Figure 2. Dell OpenManage Deployment Toolkit directory structure for embedded Linux

2www.dell.com/powersolutionsReprinted from Dell Power Solutions, august 2007. Copyright © 2007 Dell inc. all rights reserved.

www.dell.com/powersolutions

%systemdrive% environment variable to this drive by default, so admin-

istrators do not need to change the environment file.

Modifying configuration files for scripted managementIn addition to modifying the tkenvset script if necessary, administrators

may want to configure the boot OS (WinPE or embedded Linux) to auto-

matically execute the sysrep script when booting from a network share.

For Windows installations, after creating a WinPE CD, administrators can

use the winbom.ini or startnet.cmd file to map the network drive and

execute the sysrep batch file—for example, they can add the following

lines to the startnet.cmd file (where X is the drive letter):

Net use z: \\hostname\sharename /user:username

password

X: sysrep.bat syscfg.ini_file_name log_file_name

For Linux deployments using a Dell-provided ISO image, administra-

tors must copy the contents of the ISO image to a holding directory and

edit the /isolinux/isolinux.cfg file before burning the contents to CD; this

file is called during the DTK startup phase to mount the share where the

DTK contents are located. The isolinux.cfg file has several example uses

and need only be edited to include the appropriate names. For example,

to configure the Linux image to map a Windows share and execute the

syscfg script on the share, administrators should change the default

Figure 4. Tkenvset script settings in WinPE

set DT_DRIVE=%systemdrive%

set DT_PATH=%DT_DRIVE%\Dell\Toolkit

:: * Please leave the trailing \ alone for

:: * DT_TOOLS, the code using the environment

:: * variable does not account for this.

set DT_TOOLS=%DT_PATH%\Tools\

set DT_SYSTEMS=%DT_PATH%\Systems

set DT_SCRIPTS=%DT_PATH%\Template\Scripts

set DT_STOP_ON_ERROR=FALSE

set DT_DRMK_PATH=%DT_DRIVE%\Dell\DRMK

Figure 5. Tkenvset script settings in Linux

export DT_PATH=/opt/dell/toolkit

export DT_TOOLS=$DT_PATH/bin

export DT_SYSTEMS=$DT_PATH/systems

export DT_SCRIPTS=$DT_PATH/template/scripts

export DT_DRMK_PATH=/opt/dell/drmk

Option sub-options arguments Description

--clearsel n/a n/a Clears the Sel

lanchannelaccess or lca --pefalerting enable, disable Sets or displays lan channel access settings such as alerting and user privilege limits

--ipmioverlan disable, alwaysavail

--channelprivlmt user, operator, administrator

lanchannelinfo or lci --mediumtype n/a Displays media and protocol information about the channel

--prottype

--ssnsupport

--activessncount

--nmibutton n/a enable, disable enables or disables the nmi button

passwordaction --userid setpassword, testpassword Configures and displays passwords associated with user iDs

--action user ID (2–16 for DRaC 5)

--password password

useraction --userid user ID (2–16 for DRaC 5) enables and disables user iDs for the serialchannelaccess and lanchannelaccess options

--action enable, disable

Figure 3. Representative options and arguments for the syscfg utility

systems management

DELL POWER SOLUTIONS | august 20073 Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, august 2007. Copyright © 2007 Dell inc. all rights reserved.

line to default network-smbfs. They should then modify the line

following network-smbfs that begins with the append keyword: editing

share_location to set the IP address of the target system and the

share name, modifying share_script to be the relative path to the

script to be executed (that is, /opt/dell/toolkit/raidcfg.sh),

and editing share_options to contain username=username,

password=password. Finally, administrators should save the

isolinux.cfg file and create a new CD using the directory the ISO contents

were copied to along with the edited isolinux.cfg file.

For additional information about creating CDs, see the Dell

OpenManage Deployment Toolkit User’s Guide. Once the respective files

for the WinPE and Linux images are modified, booting the CD on the target

platform automatically executes the sysrep script to configure the BMC

and DRAC parameters. If the syscfg.ini file and the system being deployed

do not have the same memory redundancy mode, administrators are

prompted to reboot the system and rerun the script.

Enabling efficient deployments using the Dell OpenManage Deployment Toolkit The Dell OpenManage Deployment Toolkit enables administrators to deploy

multiple DRACs on supported Dell PowerEdge servers both efficiently and

quickly to help increase server availability and minimize downtime. The

DTK is both expandable and scalable, and is designed to integrate easily

into existing deployment frameworks. As the need for automated deploy-

ment processes in enterprise environments continues to increase, the DTK

can help administrators continue to meet the challenge.

Zain Kazim is a test engineer in the Dell OpenManage Product Test

organization. His responsibilities include quality assurance of Dell

enterprise products. Zain has a B.S. in Computer Science from Michigan

State University and is currently pursuing an M.B.A. from the University

of Texas at Austin.

Alan Daughetee is an engineering technician specialist in the Dell

Enterprise System Test organization. He has more than four years of test

experience with Dell enterprise products.

QUICK LINK

Dell OpenManage Deployment Toolkit User’s Guide: support.dell.com/support/edocs/software/dtk

4www.dell.com/powersolutionsReprinted from Dell Power Solutions, august 2007. Copyright © 2007 Dell inc. all rights reserved.

www.dell.com/powersolutions