We have been playing with Dell iDRACs (6 &7), OME 1.3, and Support Assist on a test server. Our initial goals are failed hardware alerting (to us and Dell), inventory reporting, and possibly console access to replace our existing KVM-over-IP solution.
Currently we setup a few iDRACs on ESXi boxes The iDRACs use their own VLAN. The discovery range has ICMP, SNMP, and WS-Man setup and seems to work OK. One Windows server we have tested within the discovery range doesn't show as much information. The docs do say that WinRM must be setup to get the same results (Service tag, model, hw info, etc) as ESXi when using WS-Man. The docs also seem to indicate the Open Manage client (OMSA) can provide the same information and much more if installed.
If possible we would like to know how others have setup and configured their OME systems, what they like, what they dislike, etc.
- iDRAC connectivity - Use a dedicated VLAN or put on an existing VLAN
- OMSA - Is OMSA really required? It looks like maybe you can live without it if you have iDRAC v7.
- OMSA connectivity - OMSA can only use the networks seen by the OS. Do you bind the client to a dedicated NIC or a NIC already used for production or backups?
- Discovery Ranges - with all of the various options how do you setup your DRs?
- Discovery Range Groups - DRGs seem very similar to DRs. Not sure of the intended use.
Thank you.
