Dell OpenManage Server Assistant (DSA) is a com-

ponent of the Dell OpenManage suite that

administrators can use to install operating sys-

tems on Dell PowerEdge servers. Incorporating an easy-

to-use wizard, DSA is designed to simplify OS installation

and provide essential drivers for PowerEdge server com-

ponents not typically present on OS CDs. The bootable

DSA CD is included with PowerEdge servers, and its con-

tents are also available for download from support.dell.com

as part of the Dell PowerEdge Installation and Server

Management CD.

DSA supports all operating systems that PowerEdge

servers support: Microsoft® Windows® and Windows Server®,

Red Hat® Enterprise Linux®, and Novell® SUSE® Linux

Enterprise Server operating systems. The OS installation

process using DSA is as follows:

1. The administrator boots from the DSA CD.

2. The administrator chooses an OS, then selects either the

express or the advanced wizard.

3. DSA copies the appropriate drivers to the server based

on the OS and hardware configuration.

4. DSA prompts the administrator for the OS CDs, then

copies their contents to the server.

5. After a reboot, the server begins an unattended OS instal-

lation, after which it should be ready for deployment.

Enterprises using custom server deployment systems

for OS installations—such as a wizard that uses unattended

installation mechanisms or a custom bootable image sup-

porting PowerEdge hardware controllers—do not typically

use DSA to install operating systems on their PowerEdge

servers. The problem faced by these enterprises is that they

need the drivers on the DSA CD, but typically have not had

a quick, straightforward way to either download the appro-

priate drivers from the Dell Web site or extract them from

the DSA CD and integrate them into their custom framework.

The DSA Driver Extraction Utility provides a solution, allow-

ing administrators to easily extract drivers for a specific OS

and PowerEdge server model into a folder structure that

custom systems can then use to recognize and deploy the

necessary drivers.

Accessing the Dell OpenManage Server Assistant Driver Extraction UtilityTo access the Driver Extraction Utility, administrators should

first insert the DSA CD into a Windows- or Linux-based system.

In Windows, they should open a DOS command prompt and

navigate to X:\server_assistant\driver_tool\bin, where X is

the CD drive letter. The utility, make_driver_dir.exe, is a

Windows executable with a command-line interface.

Administrators can run this executable from the CD or copy it

to the hard disk and run it on supported operating systems.

Related Categories:

Dell OpenManage

Dell PowerEdge servers

Remote management

Systems management

Visit www.dell.com/powersolutions

for the complete category index.

SimplifyingOSDeploymentwith the Dell OpenManage Server Assistant Driver Extraction UtilityThe Dell OpenManage™ Server Assistant (DSA) Driver Extraction Utility enables administrators to easily copy drivers for Dell™ PowerEdge™ servers from the DSA CD to a straightforward folder structure on a hard disk. Enterprises using custom OS deployment processes can take advantage of this utility to integrate the required drivers into those deployments.

By Pritesh PraBhu

JosePh razo

reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, May 2007. Copyright © 2007 Dell inc. all rights reserved.

systems management

DELL POWER SOLUTIONS | May 20071

In Linux, administrators should mount the

DSA CD to an appropriate location (for example,

/mnt/cdrom) and navigate to the sub-folder

server_assistant/driver_tool/src. The Linux util-

ity is a Python script called make_driver_dir.py;

using it requires that Python interpreter version

2.2 or later be installed and in the user path.

Using the command-line interfaceThe Driver Extraction Utility command-line

interface is the same on Windows and Linux

platforms, and follows the GNU Portable

Operating System Interface for UNIX® (POSIX)

guidelines. Administrators can use the --help

option to view the utility options and syntax (see

Figure 1). The long options (which follow two

dashes) can be abbreviated, as long as the

abbreviation still uniquely identifies the option.

Some long options have short-option equiva-

lents (which follow a single dash). The interface

also follows these rules:

• The --help option has the highest priority;

when it is specified, all other options are

ignored.

• The --input_dir option is required except

when --help is used.

• The --info option is assumed if

--extract is not specified.

• The --dest_dir option is required if

--extract is specified.

• The --dest_dir and --hardlink options

are ignored if --extract is not specified.

• If invalid option combinations are specified

(such as --verbose and --quiet, or

--extract and --info), the utility reports

an error along with the invalid combination.

The utility also reports an error if unrecog-

nized parameters are used.

• If the arguments provided for --platform

and --os do not match the supported servers

and/or operating systems, no errors are

reported. Administrators should use --info

to find valid server and OS codes for use as

arguments. Arguments are case sensitive.

Before extracting drivers using this utility,

administrators should ensure they have enough

disk space available at the destination direc-

tory for all drivers being extracted. The total

space required depends on the number of

servers and operating systems specified for

extraction.

Figure 2 provides some example commands

administrators could use to extract drivers in

different ways; in each case, the Windows com-

mand is shown first, followed by the Linux com-

mand. The Windows examples assume the D:\

drive is the CD drive running the DSA CD, and

the Linux examples assume the DSA CD is

mounted at /mnt/cdrom.

Creating the driver folder structure The Driver Extraction Utility extracts the drivers

to the destination directory specified by the

--dest_dir parameter, and creates a top-

level folder for every server specified by the

--platform option. If the --platform

option is not provided, it creates a top-level

folder for each server supported by the CD.

Figure 3 shows part of the folder structure

for a Dell PowerEdge 2950 server. Within each

server folder, the utility creates a sub-folder for

every OS version supported by that server; if the

administrator specified only one OS using the

Figure 1. Options and syntax shown by the --help option in Linux for the Dell OpenManage Server Assistant Driver Extraction Utility

[user@host user] $ ./make_driver_dir.py --help

make_driver_dir:

usage:

-h | --help prints this message

-d | --dest_dir <dir> destination directory to extract drivers to

-i | --input_dir <dir> source Server Assistant CD

-p | --platform <plat> limits the drivers extracted to the

specified platform

-o | --os <os name> extracts drivers for specified operating

system only

-v | --verbose enable verbose output

-q | --quiet suppress verbose output

--extract extract drivers

--info provides information about platform/

operating system support (default)

--hardlink hardlink all destination files (saves

space, only works if operating system

supports hardlinks)

Action to take is a required parameter. Specify one of: [--extract

| --info]

--Required parameters are denoted by an asterisk (*)

Example Syntax:

$ ./make_driver_dir.py -i /media/cdrom -d ~/drivers/ -p pe1855

-o rh40 --extract

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*

www.dell.com/powersolutions

--os option, the utility only creates a sub-folder

for that OS. When extracting Windows drivers

on a Windows computer, the utility also creates

a Plug and Play path in the pnpdriverpath.txt

file located in the OS folder.

Within each OS folder, the utility then cre-

ates sub-folders for every device type that the

DSA CD has drivers for, and within each device

folder, the utility creates a sub-folder for each

driver release for that device. Each driver release

folder—typically named with a unique number

preceded by the letter r—contains all the files

required to install the driver.

Simplifying driver installation for Dell PowerEdge serversThe DSA Driver Extraction Utility enables admin-

istrators to easily extract drivers for Dell

PowerEdge servers from the DSA CD into a

straightforward folder structure that custom

server deployment systems can recognize and

use. By using this utility in conjunction with

these custom systems, administrators can help

simplify the integration of driver installation

with OS deployment processes.

Pritesh Prabhu is a software engineer in the Dell

OpenManage Software Development Group. He

has an M.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering

from the University of Texas at Austin.

Joseph Razo is a software engineer in the Dell

OpenManage Software Development Group.

Figure 2. Example commands for Microsoft Windows and Linux to extract drivers with the Dell OpenManage Server Assistant Driver Extraction Utility

Figure 3. Folder structure for extracted drivers for a Dell PowerEdge 2950 server

ListallsupportedserversandoperatingsystemsC:\>make_driver_dir.exe --input_dir d:\ --info

$ ./make_driver_dir.py --input_dir /mnt/cdrom --info

ExtractdriversforallsupportedserversandoperatingsystemsC:\>make_driver_dir.exe --input_dir d:\ --dest_dir c:\drv --extract

$ ./make_driver_dir.py --input_dir /mnt/cdrom --dest_dir ~/drivers/

--extract

ExtractdriversforonesupportedserverandallsupportedoperatingsystemsC:\>make_driver_dir.exe --input_dir d:\ --dest_dir c:\drv

--platform pe1855 --extract

$ ./make_driver_dir.py --input_dir /mnt/cdrom –dest_dir ~/drivers/

--platform pe1855 --extract

ExtractdriversforonesupportedserverandonesupportedOSC:\>make_driver_dir.exe --input_dir d:\ --dest_dir c:\drv

--platform pe1855 --os w2003 --extract

$ ./make_driver_dir.py --input_dir /mnt/cdrom --dest_dir ~/drivers/

--platform pe1855 --os rh50 --extract

ExtractdriversforonesupportedOSC:\>make_driver_dir.exe --input_dir d:\ --dest_dir c:\drv --os

w2003 --extract

$ ./make_driver_dir.py --input_dir /mnt/cdrom --dest_dir ~/drivers/

--os rh50 --extract

ExtractdriversforsomesupportedserversandsomesupportedoperatingsystemsC:\> make_driver_dir.exe --input_dir d:\ --dest_dir c:\drv --os

w2003 --os w2003sbs --platform pe1850 --platform pe1855 --extract

$ ./make_driver_dir.py --input_dir /mnt/cdrom --dest_dir ~/drivers/

--os rh40 --os w2003sbs --platform pe1850 --platform pe1855

--extract

reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, May 2007. Copyright © 2007 Dell inc. all rights reserved.

systems management

DELL POWER SOLUTIONS | May 20073