Comments (3)

By admin, April 18, 2011 2:06 pm

This is probably one of the most exciting news from Microsoft for virtualization community in recent years! It’s a bad news for many others who offering the similar products for high cost like StarWind, SANMelody, etc. and it’s even a sad news for those who purchased W2K8R2 storage servers from OEMs like Dell, HP and IBM a year ago.

On Apr 8 Microsoft has made it’s iSCSI Target software (original it’s WinTarget) for FREE! So go grab it and use it in your VMware ESX. Sure, it doen’t have many fancy features comparing to Equallogic, but it’s FREE and it supports ESX and Hyper-V as well as Xen and comes with schedule snapshots, so there is really nothing to complain.

Setup is very simple, just make sure you DE-SELECT the non-iSCSI NIC interfaces and leave only the iSCSI ones or you may risk to open your iSCSI SAN to the world and please double check the firewall setting disabled Public access, note after the default installation, somehow it enables Public access to iSCSI Target, huh? Ouch!

I got ESX 4.1 to connect to the MS iSCSI Target without any problem, and also went as far as changing the multipathing policy to EQL_PSP_EQL_ROUTED, haha…guess what, it did work apparently as all paths showing Active (I/O), but obviously it won’t work as later I found out there is no disk to mount under Storage, well it was expected. This leaves Round Robin (VMware) the best choice for MPIO setting and finally I loaded IOmeter, MPIO did shoot up to 60-80Mbps as I have two active links, not bad consider the underlying RAID-5 has only 4 disks on PERC H700 and the good news is the CPU loading of WinTarget.exe is very low, almost close to 0%.

FAQ
Q: The Microsoft iSCSI Software Target is now free. Is it supported in a production environment?
A: Yes. The Microsoft iSCSI Software Target is supported in a production environment. The Hyper-V team regularly tests with the MS iSCSI Software Target and it works great with Hyper-V.

Q: On what operating systems is the Microsoft iSCSI Software Target supported?
A: The Microsoft iSCSI Software Target is supported for Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard, Enterprise and Datacenter Editions with or without SP1 (in fact, that’s what is recommended), and it can only be installed on Windows Server 2008 R2 Full install, but not Core Install.

The Microsoft iSCSI Software Target 3.3, is provided in only in an x64 (64-bit) version.

Q: Can the free Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 use the free Microsoft iSCSI Software Target?
A: Yes and No. Yes, Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 can act as a client to access virtual machines via iSCSI. The way to do that is to type iscsicpl.exe at the command prompt to bring up the Microsoft iSCSI Initiator (client) and configure it to access an iSCSI Target (server). However, you can’t install the Microsoft iSCSI Software Target on a Microsoft Hyper-V Server. The Microsoft iSCSI Software Target requires Windows Server 2008 R2.

Q: Can I use the Microsoft iSCSI Software Target 3.3 as shared storage for a Windows Server Failover Cluster?
A: Yes. That is one of its most common uses.

Download the Microsoft iSCSI Software Target 3.3 for Windows Server 2008 R2, go to http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=45105d7f-8c6c-4666-a305-c8189062a0d0 and download a single file called “iSCSITargetDLC.EXE”.

Finally, make sure you read and understand the Scalability Limits!

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By admin, April 15, 2011 2:36 pm

1. After login, change to root:
su –

2. Install SNMP package using YUM:
yum install net-snmp

3. Configure SNMP parameter
echo rocommunity community_string mrtg.yourhost.com > /etc/snmp/snmpd.conf

4. Turn on the default SNMP service on system reboot
chkconfig snmpd on

5. Start SNMP service
service snmpd start

Finally, of course, you will need to open UDP Port 161 on the firewall in order to get SNMP working.

Comments (0)

By admin, April 11, 2011 10:19 pm

I got the Barracuda Spam & Virus Firewall Vx virtual appliance working in less than 30 minutes, it’s really easy to setup and use, there is almost no learning curve if your job involving managing email server daily.

In fact, I almost got a Barracuda 300 back in 2008, but the performance back then wasn’t good, now with the VM version, it’s lightening fast, thanks to latest CPU and Equallogic SAN, so I may eventually purchase one of these nice stuff for my clients this month.

One major drawback is the lack of comprehensive reporting capability even after almost 10 years of it’s product life. It can’t even provide simple things like list the top 100 domain name with most email usage and size for a specific day or time, list the top user who used the most email bandwidth, etc. Without this kind of reporting capability, I would say Barracuda can never make to the real ISP enterprise market, it’s good for SMB though.

PS. I just found out Barracuda Networks introduced the Barracuda Reputation Block List (b.barracudacentral.org) for free! Of course, you need to register your DNS server first in order to use it.

Comments (0)

By admin, April 11, 2011 5:10 pm

Then I found this thread on VMTN which explained everything.

This is not a BUG. However, is the way we understand the HA Settings and Functionality. When in “HA Settings” you specify the “Failover Capacity” as “1″ and you have a 2 NODE Cluster, you are simply telling the HA that in any given instance it will have “At least 1″ spare HOST. Now, when you Manually or Using Update Manager try to put a HOST in Maintenance Mode, HA Failover Capacity is “Violated” because while the HOST is in Maintenance Mode, there is “NO Spare HOST” for HA. Meaning in an event the Second Node goes down, everything goes down and HA will never work. This a Straight Violation to the “Failover Capacity” that you have specified.

Hence, by all means in a 2 NODE Cluster you have to “Allow VMs to Power On even if they violate the availability constrains” if you want them to be Automatically Migrated when you put HOST on Maintenance Mode or use Update Manager. If you don’t want to change this setting and still use this feature you need to add another HOST to the Cluster while keeping the Failover Capacity at 1.

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By admin, April 11, 2011 4:12 pm

• The good thing, it’s FREE with ESX Advance/Enterprise/Enterprise Plus version.
• Yes, it’s simply a transparent firewall utilizing VMsafe API, so there is no need to change the default public IP on VMs, vShield Zone (ie, firewall) comes with limited functions comparing to real stuff like Netscreen, but it does get the job done by limiting ports, source, destination, direction on L2/L3 and L4 layer, one extra nice thing is vShield Zone comes with a bunch of dynamic ports based application such as FTP, DNS, etc.
• In version 4.1, there is no more separate OVF for vShield agent, it’s been renamed to vShield Zone, and deployment of vShield Zone is simply by clicking the Install link on the menu, it’s so much simpler to install a firewall on each ESX host with v4.1, no need to create any template for vShield Zone like in the old days as well. In additional, A new vSwitch, called vmservice-vswitch, is also created. It has no physical NICs assigned to it and has a VMkernel interface with a 169. IP address. This vSwitch should not be modified. It’s used exclusively by the Zones firewall VM, which has two vNICs connected to it. Through the vNICs , the Zones VM communicates with the LKM in the VMkernel. One vNIC is used forcontrol, and the other is for data path communication.
• The original version of vShield operated in bridged mode and sat inline between vSwitches so that all traffic to the protected zones passed through it. The new method of monitoring traffic at the vNIC, instead of the vSwitch, eliminates the vSwitch reconfiguration that previously occurred, and it provides better protection. In bridged mode, VMs in a protected zone had no protection from other VMs in the protected zone, but now that vShield Zones operates at the vNIC level, every VM is totally protected.
• So if something happens to the Zones virtual firewall VM (e.g., it’s powered off), the networking on a host will go down, because nothing can route without the virtual firewall VM. If you migrate a VM from a Zones-protected host to an unprotected one, vCenter Server automatically removes the filter, so a VM won’t lose network connectivity on its new host.
• Also in the new version of 4.1, VM Flow is gone (it was available free in is previous version), you need to upgrade to VShield App get have it back again. For my environment, I use PRTG’s packet analyzer on switch mirror ports, so such feature is not required.
• In this new version 4.1, committed firewall policy is applied in real time, there is no need to login to console and issue validate sessions anymore.
• vShield Zone firewall can apply to 3 levels, Data Center, Cluster and Port Groups (?), I usually deploy it at Cluster level due to DRS.
• If you have a cluster, then it’s highly recommended to install vShield Zone on all ESX hosts as VMs may got vMotioned between ESX hosts in the cluster and they will still be protected by vShield Zone (ie, firewall).
• Install vShield Zone process does not need to reboot the ESX host, but uninstall vShield Zone does require reboot the ESX host, after the reboot, often you will find the originally configured vShield Zone switch is not removed, so you need to remove it manually.
• It’s nice to see the extra tab in vCenter interface, but I still prefer to manage vShield using the web interface.
• You can always get more features by upgrading to other advanced vShield Products like vShield Edge as those will provide features like VPN, routing, load balancing, etc.
• Under Maintenance Mode, vShield Zone for a particular ESX host SHOULD NEVER NOT be vmotioned away although vShield Manage can. You will need to manually shut it down (by using CLI shutdown) after DRS automatically migrates all other VMs on the host and reboot the host. I am still trying to figure out how to set maintenance mode DRS recommendation for vShield VM, if you know, please do let me know, thanks.

Part of the above were quoted from Eric Siebert’s newly revised Installing VMware vShield Zones for a virtual firewall and don’t forget to review his article on “Top 10 VMware security tips for vShield users”

Update: Oct 30, 2011

I found the solution to my last question in how to avoid vShield Zone VM to be moved away during Maintenance Mode by DRS, the answer is at the end of the Install vShield Zone PDF (Page 13, can’t believe I missed this extremely important piece of information). Basically, you need to set vShield Zone VM Restart Priority to Disable under HA and Automation Level to Disabled under DRS.

To prove it’s working  I did a test, I put the host in to Maintenance Mode, DRS was able to vmotion away everything to other available nodes except the vShield Zone VM, then it shuts it down nicely, everything is done automatically.

Bravo!

Comments (0)

By admin, April 9, 2011 9:55 pm

No more guessing, I finally got it working and performed the firmware updates on ESX. So now it’s time for Dell to make its vCenter Plugin product for FREE?

So the following is what I did today, btw, many thanks for local Dell Pro-Support as well:

1. Download the latest version of Dell Repository Manager (v1.2.158) and install it with all the default options.

2. Start DRM in Server Mode (Client Mode is for desktop and notebook).

3. Create a new inventory, select the options with care and according to your requirement ONLY, this wil greatly reduce the total update package size, like Rack, R710, Windows Package Only.

* IMPORTANT: You will ONLY NEED TO DOWNLOAD the LATEST Windows Package, no need to download any Linux Package as USC or Life Cycle Controller 1.4 or above will only support SUU ISO/USB with Windows Package anyway, so using Windows DUP (Dell Update Package) to update Powerdge server firmware even with ESX installed is perfectly O.K.!

4. Export the whole update to ISO, select Export as Server Update Utility (SUU) ISO.

5. Reboot your ESX server (of course migrate your VM away to another ESX host first) and then use iDRAC console to enter USC (ie, F10), select firmware update, mount virtual media with the DRM  SUU ISO created in the above step. Soon you will encounter “Catalog file not authenticated correctly”, Don’t Worry! Just ignore it and continue the ISO export because the exported SUU is simply NOT digitally signed.

6. Select firmwares need to be updated and then reboot, system will return to USC by default, go to firmware update again, and compare the update result with DRM ISO if needed.

Finally, the catalog.xml on dell.ftp.com is always a few months behind the latest update. This is where Dell RM does the magic that you can simply Add the latest firmware to an existing inventory and customize to whatever you want it to be, just remember to download those latest firmware first to any folder, Dell RM will copy it over again to root of the RM’s inventory folder, then save it and export a new SUU ISO again.

PS. I just found another great article “The Easiest Way To Update A Dell Server’s Firmware

Update Jul-19-2011

After reading page 77-79 of the latest Dell vCenter Plugin 1.0.1 User Guide, I found DVP still requires a manual creation of a Fimrware Repository like the above (and requires CIFS or NFS). So this step really renders DVP obsolete as we can achieve the same result using Dell Repository Manager with even better control and management.

In that sense, I strongly believe Dell will make its Dell vCenter Plugin for Free within the next 12-24 months.

Update Nov-26-2011

The following improvements have been made in Repository Manager v1.3 which was released in July 2011:

• Support for Dell PowerEdge maintenance driver packs and Dell Unified Server Configurator (USC) driver pack management
• Repository Manager now displays the size of bundles and components
• New plugin management support for Server Update Utility (SUU) and Deployment media plug-ins
• Tool tips in the Export Bundles/Components wizards to explain the various options
• Enhanced performance and reliability for downloading files from ftp.dell.com
• Runtime logs now enabled to capture error, warning, and information
• Improved Success / Failure feedback after each process with reasons for failure if any + recommendations to remedy.
• Report dialog box displayed upon completion of tasks such as repository creation and component downloads
• Cancellation functionality added for time-consuming tasks
• Compare button easier to find, with wizards to guide you through the process.
• Added ability to download, store, and run SUU & DTK plugins locally 
• Improved user interaction for time-consuming tasks

Comments (0)

By admin, April 8, 2011 10:40 pm

I am starting to put different capping policies on VM resources such as CPU, Memory, Storage and Network this week.

The concept is very simple, but implementation takes a lot more thinking and planning than the followings:

High: 2000 vCPU, 20 VM RAM
Normal: 1000 vCPU, 10 VM RAM
Low: 500 vCPU, 5 VM RAM

High:Normal:Low = 4:2:1

For example, a VM with 1 vCPU and 1GB (1024MB) RAM Shares = NORMAL

So CPU Shares will show 1000 and Memory Shares wil show 10240.

In fact, after the capping starts to kick in, I begin to fall in love with VMware’s Resources Managment!

Comments (2)

By admin, April 6, 2011 12:57 pm

Xangati for ESX (Free Edition) is always ranked as one of the top 10 Free ESX Appliances. I finally got time to test it although not very successful, the following is my findings. 

• Xangati called its product a management tool for ESX, in fact, it is really a packet sniffer built on Linux CentOS like Wireshark or Ethereal and on top it combines the ESX monitoring capability like Veeam Monitor or Vizioncore’s vfoglight.
• Documentation for Xangati for ESX (Free Edition) is too simple, although you will find two video on Youtube that showing how to setup Xangati, but there is FAQ or community help (There is a community, but it’s really an one way Xangati board)
• Importing OVF into ESX is straight forward, but after starting up the VM, I encountered a problem that the screen showing blank with only X cursor moving, hence, I have no way to open GUI and continue to installation. There was a error in VM event showing my video ram is not big enough, so I’ve increased it to 16MB and the problem continues, quitting the session, I found VM console was showing some kind of JAVA error, I guess there is something wrong with JAVA that prevents the GUI (or JAVA) console to be shown. Finally, I’ve also tried to re-deploy the OVF as thick as thin format may cause the reason, but it still showing blank screen anyway
• After google a bit, again I was lucky to find a PDF that showing a bit more details for the installation, although it’s for Xangati Dashboard, within I was able to locate the username “setupip”, but where is the password? So I used the same username as password, ok, I got in and successfully configured my Network, DNS, Time Zone, etc. Btw, I’ve sent an email to support@xangati.com regarding the blank screen originally, but still got no reply after 24 hours.
• After connected to the configured Xangati appliance via browser and login as admin, I was able to pull some traffic across my internal ESX host and management IP range. Then I figured out the Free Version can only support 10 IP devices and most importantly, it doesn’t support vCenter, but only 1 ESX Host although I’ve already configured my vCenter IP and tested the connection is valid (no warning in that step), so I’ve changed the vCenter IP to a ESX Host IP and removed all the discovered devices and let the appliance run for 5 minutes, later it just show the traffic for the ESX host and not the VM within, so what’s the point after all?
• The biggest draw back is there is no where mentioning in that 4 page quick installation guide which network portgroup should we connect Xangati VM to. To my instinct, I just use the Service Console portgroup network segment, as it’s where most these kind of monitoring tools works, like Veeam Monitor and Vizoncore vfoglight. However, why there is no VM showing up? I don’t know.
• Veeam Monitor and Vizoncore vfoglight are not appliance based, but application based software instead but they can also provide almost exactly the same feature for showing exactly what’s going on each ESX Host as well as individual VM. Yes, they do not provide any insight into traffic pattern, such as how much WWW is going though at the moment, as well as Email traffic etc. However since I am using PRTG’s packet monitoring that can directly connect into the external switch’s mirror port and monitor all the incoming/outgoing traffic from there, so I don’t really need this feature with Xangati. Last time, this great feature allows me to quickly identify a server IP that’s sending 100Mbps outgoing DDOS via UDP protocol using an encrypted PHP script, which was uploaded by hacker to a client’s web site through it’s ASP upload security hole.
• Finally, the UI of Xangati is not eye catching and easy to use as the Veeam Monitor or Vizoncore vfoglight, combining with installation and the rest, I think it’s potentially a great product, but still has a long way to catch up.

Comments (0)

By admin, April 4, 2011 10:21 pm

Recently, I tried to configure vSphere VLAN 802.1q VST Mode with external Netgear switch. On Netgear side, VLAN (ID=10) was set correctly on ports by using Tagged Port (ie, 802.1q), the same VLAN ID is also assigned to ESX Portgroup, but the connected VMs couldn’t visit the outside Internet.

I did a simple test by giving a private IP 10.0.18.10 to VM1 on ESX Host 1 which is on vlan 10, then I did the same for VM2 on ESX Host 2 which is also on vlan 10.

Guess what? They can ping each other!

To future prove my original Netgear VLAN setting is correct, I did the following tests as well:

Test 1. Change vlan 10 to vlan 20 on ESX Host 1, now VM1 cannot ping VM2, so original VLAN tagging or 802.1q is working!

Test 2. Change Netgear Port 11 & Port 12 (both on ESX Host 1) to Untag, now VM1 cannot ping VM2, so original VLAN tagging or 802.1q is working indeed!

After researching for several days, I found the following, BINGO!

For example, consider the organization whose servers plug into distribution layer switches. These distribution layer switches then connect to a core switch. If the connections between the core switch and the distribution switch are not already configured as VLAN trunks, i.e., are capable of carrying multiple VLANs simultaneously, then using VST is impossible. Each of the distribution switches only carries a single VLAN and is only capable of carrying a single VLAN.

I thought I don’t need to get my Netgear to talk to data center’s core switch in order to have ESX VST working, this is exactly I was wrong! After talking to my data center, I got it working finally, but I still decided not to use VLAN (VST mode) on public IP addresses as it doesn’t provide real benefits and ESX Portgroup won’t allow traffic sniffer anyway, so it’s pretty secure, rather I found a private or local 802.1q VLAN is more useful say to configure a Private LAN between VMs (sometimes, you need a private LAN for backup)

Comments (0)

By admin, March 23, 2011 12:59 pm

Basically, there are 3 methods to get instant email alert via email by using VMware vCenter, Dell iDRAC and Dell IT Assistant (ITA) which I will focus the most, 2 of them are specific to Dell Poweredge Serer and ITA solution.

Method 1: How to get hardware failure alert with vCenter

This is the easiest but you do need to have vCenter, so it may not be a viable solution for those using free ESXi (there are scripts to get alert for free ESXi, but it’s not the content of today’s topic).

From the top of the hierarchy in vCenter, click Alarms, then New Alarm, give it a name say “Host Hardware Health Monitor”, in Triggers, Add, select “Hardware Health Changed” under Event and “Warning” for Status, Add another one with the same parameter except “Alert” for Status. Finally, for Actions, choose “Send a notification email” under Action and put your email address there.

Of course, you need to configure SMTP setting in vCenter Server Settings first.

Method 2: How to get hardware failure alert with Dell iDRAC

This is probably is even more simple than the above, but it does not report all of the hardware failure in ESX Host, so far I can say it doesn’t report harddisk failure which is very critical for many, so I would call this is a half working or a handicapped solution.

Login to iDRAC, under Alerts, setup Email Alerts and SMTP server, you will need to setup a SMTP server on your dedicated DRAC network to receive such alerts and forward those email alert to your main email server on external. Under Platform Events, you need to CHECK Enable Platform Events Filter Alerts and leave all the default as it is. As you have probably found out already and scratching your head now, how come Dell didn’t include Storage Wanring/Critical Assert Filter? For that question, you need to ask Michael Dell directly.

Btw, I am using iDRAC6, so not sure if your firmware contains such feature.

Method 3: How to get hardware failure alert with Dell IT Assistant (ITA)

This is actually today’s main topic I would like to focus on, it is the proper way to implement host alert via SNMP and SNMP Trap and it does provide a complete solution, but quite time-consuming and a bit difficult to setup. I tried to consolidate all the difficult part, eliminated all the unnecessary steps and use as much GUI as possible without going into CLI.

1. Install ITA latest version which is 8.8 (while 8.9 is coming, but still not available for download). One thing you need to take care is to put the ITA network within the same management network of ESX Hosts or add a NIC that connects to the server network that need to be monitored.
2. Install OSMA 6.3 or above (6.5 is on the way) on ESX 4.1 Hosts, as I found OSMA version 6.3 is already configured with some important necessary steps like SNMP trap setting to be used later.
3. Edit the SNMP conf file under /etc/snmp/snmpd.conf, replace public with your own community_stringe.g. com2sec notConfigUser  default       public
4. Restart the SNMPD service by /sbin/service snmpd restart.
5. Enable SNMP Server under Security Profile using vSphere Client GUI, that will enable UPD Port 161 for receiving and UPD Port 162 for sending out SNMP Traps.
6. Start to discover and inventory in ITA, you will find ESX hosts are added to Server Section. This completes the Pull side (ie, ITA Pull stuff from ESX Hosts), next we need to setup the Push side (ie, ESX Hosts Push alerts to ITA)
7. Done? Not Yet, in order for ESX host to send snmp trap to ITA , you will need to specify the communities and trap targets with the command using VMware PowerCLI.

   vicfg-snmp.pl –server <hostname> –username <username> –password <password> -t <target hostname>@<port>/<community>

   For example, to send SNMP traps from the host esx_host_ip to port 162 on ita_ip using the ita_community_string, use the command:

   vicfg-snmp.pl –server esx_host_ip –username root –password password -t ita_ip@162/ita_community_string

   for multiple targets, use , to seperate the rest trap targets:

   vicfg-snmp.pl –server esx_host_ip –username root –password password -t ita_ip@162/ita_community_string, ita_ip2@162/ita_community_string

   To show and test if it’s working
   vicfg-snmp.pl –server esx_host_ip –username root –password password — show
   vicfg-snmp.pl –server esx_host_ip –username root –password password — test

8. Remove all VM related alerts from Alert Categories under ITA, leaving ONLY vmwEnvHardwareEvent as I only want ITA to report EXS Host Server Hardware related warning or critical alerts. The reason is I found ESX sometimes generate many useless false alarms (e.g., “Virtual machine detects a loss in guest heartbeat”) regarding VM’s heardbeat which is related to VMTools installed in the VM.

Remember to enable UPD Port 162 on ITA server firewall. Simply treat ITA as a software device to receive SNMP Trap sent from various monitoring hosts.

Another thing is for Windows hosts to send out SNMP Trap, you will also need to go to SNMP Service under the Traps tab, configure the snmp trap ita_community_string and the IP address of the trap destination which should be the same as ita_ip.

So I did a test by pulling one of the Power Supply on ESX Host, and I get the following alert results in my inbox.

From ITA:
Device:sXXX ip address, Service Tag: XXXXXXX, Asset Tag:, Date:03/22/11, Time:23:18:38:000, Severity:Warning, Message:Name: System Board 1 PS Redundancy 0 Status: Redundancy

From iDRAC:
Message: iDRAC Alert (s002)
Event: PS 2 Status: Power Supply sensor for PS 2, input lost was deasserted
Date/Time: Tue Mar 22 2011 23:26:18
Severity: Normal
Model: PowerEdge RXXX
Service Tag: XXXXXXX
BIOS version: 2.1.15
Hostname: sXXX
OS Name: VMware ESX 4.1.0 build-XXXXXXXX
iDrac version: 1.54

From vCenter:
Target: xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx Previous Status: Gray New Status: Yellow Alarm Definition: ([Event alarm expression: Hardware Health Changed; Status = Yellow] OR [Event alarm expression: Hardware Health Changed; Status = Red]) Event details: Health of Power changed from green to red.

What’s More

Actually there is Method 4 which uses Veeam Monitor (free version) to send email, but I haven’t got time to check that out, if you know how to do it, please drop me a line, thanks.

Finally, I would strongly suggest Dell to implement a trigger that will send out email alert directly from OpenManage itself, it’s simple and works for most of the SMB ESX Host scenario that contains less than 10 hosts in general, you can say this is Method Number 5.

Update Mar-24:
I got ITA working for PowerConnect switch as well, so my PowerConnect can now send SNMP trap back to ITA and generate an email if there is warning/critical issue, it’s really simple to setup PowerConnect’s SNMP community and SNMP trap setting, and I start to like ITA now, glad I am not longer struggling with DMC 2.0.

Finally, there is a very good document about setting up SNMP and SNMP Traps from Dell.

Update Aug-24:
If you are only interested to know if any of your server harddisk failed, then you can install LSI Megaraid Storage Manager which has the build-in email alert capability.