Well, it’s the annual upgrade season, I have finally performed all the firmware updates on our server and storage, it’s kind of a nightmare (another article follow up shortly). Every time I upgrade the firmware on Poweredge, Powervault, PowerConnect or Equaulogic, it’s a “Press and Pray” session, YAKE!!!

So the old rule of thumb applies, if there is nothing happen to your machine or you don’t need that particular feature, DON’T DO IT!

Anyway, during the way performing all kinds of upgrade, I found Dell has quietly released two new tools.

Dell OpenManage Essentials and Dell Power Center (allows you to measure data center power usage, and it’s not free, but has 60 days trial), from what it described, Dell OpenManage Essentials is the next generation of monitoring and management tool, so you don’t need that crappy DMC (oh…dead after only 2 revisions as expected), well IT Assistant is fine though (long live, still using it, latest version is v8.9).

In additional, it seemed you can also integrate Repository Manager with OME to update firmware on ESX, so why do we pay for Dell Management Plug-in for vCenter after all? Well, you may argue it’s unified solution that you can do everything without leaving vCenter and looking cool, but who cares, as long as we get the jobs done, whatever is cost effective comes first in my theory!

Btw, why does Dell have so many system management tools for the same goal and over lapping each other? There is an Overview if you are interested. It took me almost forever to really get familiar with each of them, OpenMange, iDrac, Life Cycle Controller, F10 USC, Repository Manager, DMC, IT Assistant, DMP for VC, and now Dell OpenManage Essentials, can’t Dell produce one for all? I really do hope OME is the final one that has everything integrated and WORKED (Hopefully that is).

Dell Hardware Management Products
•Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller (iDRAC) with Lifecycle Controller (LC)
•Dell Chassis Management Controller (CMC) for blade servers
•Dell OpenManage Server Administrator (OMSA)
•Dell OpenManage Client Instrumentation (OMCI)
•Basic management utilities with IPMI

Dell Consoles
•Dell OpenManage Essentials (OME)
•Dell Management Console (DMC)
•Dell IT Assistant (ITA)
•Dell Remote Access Configuration Tool (DRACT)
•Dell OpenManage Power Center (OM PC)

Dell Services
•Managed Services
•Professional Services
•SaaS Management

Dell Tools and Utilities
•Update Utilities
–Dell Repository Manager (DRM)
–Dell OpenManage Server Update Utility (SUU)
–Dell OpenManage Systems Build and Update Utility (SBUU)
–Dell Update Packages (DUP)
–Dell Client Configuration Toolkit (CCTK)

•Customer Scripts and Processes
–Dell OpenManage Deployment Toolkit (DTK)
–RACADM
–IPMI

ToolIntegration With Third Party Consoles
•Microsoft System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) Server Management Pack Suite
•Dell Lifecycle Controller Integration (DLCI) pack for Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (ConfigMgr)
•Dell Server PRO Management Pack for Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM)
•Dell Management Plug-in for VMware vCenter
•BMC Software

Connections With Third Party Consoles
•Dell OpenManage Connection for Computer Associates Network and Systems Management (CA NSM)
•Dell Smart Plug-in (SPI) for HP Operations Manager for Windows
•Dell OpenManage Connection for IBM Tivoli Netcool/OMNIBus
•Dell OpenManage Connection for HP OpenView NNM
•Dell OpenManage Connection for Tivoli Enterprise Console