Installing Dell OpenManage IT Assistant

Lately, I have been experimenting with various software packages to find a way to monitor Dell servers and do things like update their firmware, etc. Dell has a lot of different software available through their OpenManage product line. One of the important issues for me was to be able to manage firmware updates, but I also wanted to explore what else is possible with the OpenManage suite. This post is about installing Dell IT Assistant (ITA).

Downloads

• Dell IT Assistant – OpenManage downloads page.

Installing ITA

I installed on a newly deployed VM with Windows Server 2008 R2. After downloading, there are numerous things that need to be done such as installing SQL, enabling SNMP, etc. The install package does a good job of walking you through this process.

Installing Prerequisites

1. Launch “Setup,” this runs a prerequisite check before installing ITA.
2. Look at any error messages, I needed to install Visual Studio, .NET 3.5, SQL Express, and SNMP.
3. For visual studio click the install link in the error message, which worked fine for me.
4. For .NET and SNMP, the link won’t work for Win Server 2008 or later, you need to use the Role Manager:
1. Navigate to “administration tools” in the start menu, choose “server manager”.
2. Choose “Features” on sidebar.
3. Click “Add Features”.
4. Select .Net 3.5.1 and SNMP Services, you do not need WCF activation so I recommend not installing it as it can be a security risk if misconfigured.
5. Install SQL Express – I recommend windowsmasher‘s instructions for this. Use the default instance name.
6. Once installing all requirements, click “rescan dependencies”.
7. If there are no more error messages, you can choose “IT Assistant” to proceed to installation.
8. From here, just agree with terms and conditions and the install should finish up smoothly.

Once installed, the ITA icon launches a web browser. Depending on the browser, you may have to click “proceed to the website…” because of the security certificate. The application uses Java (you will have to install Java if it isn’t already installed), which can cause ITA to not launch if IPv6 is enabled on your system:

I tried editing the Java Runtime Parameters like the dialogue box suggests, but it didn’t work. Therefore, I decided to just turn IPv6 off.

Turning Off IPv6

1. Navigate to Network and Sharing Center under control panel.
2. Choose “Change adapter settings”.
3. Right click on your network card, select “properties”.
4. Remove check from IPv6 check box.

This is a necessary step but does not turn IPv6 off completely. After doing this you have to edit the registry to completely disable IPv6 for all services.

1. Click “Start”, “Run” or search for “regedit” in Windows start menu
2. In the left side pane, navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\tcpip6\Parameters\
3. Right click on the right pane and select “New” > “DWORD”.
4. Name the new item “DisabledComponents” (case sensitive).
5. Set the value to “FFFFFFFF”.
6. Reboot the system.

IPv6 is now turned completely off, which should enable ITA to launch without any IPv6 related errors. Click next/install on any dialogue boxes when ITA is first launched. The home page looks like this: 

Adding a Computer to ITA Devices List

Once ITA is up and running:

1. Navigate to “Discovery and Monitoring” tab.
2. Select “Ranges”.
3. Right click on “Include Ranges,” select “New Include Range”.
4. You can enter the IP address or host name of a DRAC or other system (if OpenManage software is installed) to discover it and perform inventory.

   Devices list shows that device has been discovered

You can discover with SNMP, CIM, IPMI, and a couple other protocols I didn’t look in to (the protocol used will vary depending on the device). Once you discover your system, it will appear in the “Devices,” found in the “View” tab.

Wrap Up

ITA has lot of capabilities, but they vary depending on what connection protocol you use and what device you are connecting to. In my next couple of posts I will look at connecting to ITA with VMWare ESXi and the Dell Remote Access Controller (DRAC).

References

1. Disabling IPv6 - ENIAC KB.
2. Dell ITA documentation
3. SQL Install - windowsmasher.