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Dell Unity was developed with the intention of making management operations simple and accessible. To accomplish this, Dell Unity offers three methods to manage your system: Unisphere, Unisphere CLI, and REST API. Each of these access methods offers full functionality for provisioning storage, managing hosts, monitoring performance, performing service actions, and more.
Unisphere is the Dell Unity web-based user interface that is used to manage and provision storage on the Dell Unity system. Unisphere is built on an HTML5 platform, making it compatible with most modern browsers without the need for additional plug-ins. System status and performance information can also be displayed in Unisphere, with a graphical representation of the Dell Unity system provided and highlighted for areas of interest – drive faults, network link failures, and so forth. Within Unisphere are several options for support, including Unisphere Online Help and the Support page where FAQs, videos, white papers, chat sessions, and more can be accessed.
In Dell Unity OE Version 4.3, TLS enhancements were introduced. TLS 1.2 support was added on Dell Unity, and TLS 1.0 can be disabled. In OE version 5.1 TLS 1.1 can also be disabled. This complies with security regulations being introduced in different industries. The /sys/security set Unisphere CLI command is used to specify the lowest version of the TLS protocol the system supports for SSL communications. If the TLS mode is set to TLSv1.0, connections to Dell Unity will be allowed from TLS 1.0, TLS 1.1, and TLS 1.2. If the TLS mode is set to TLSv1.1, connections to Dell Unity will be restricted to TLS 1.1 and TLS 1.2 only. See the Unisphere Command Line Interface User Guide on Dell Support for more detail on disabling TLS 1.0 or TLS 1.1.
Disabling TLS 1.0 may impact existing client applications which are not compatible with TLS 1.1 or TLS 1.2 protocols. In this case, TLS 1.0 support should remain enabled. The following functionality will not work when TLS 1.0 is disabled: Technical advisories, software upgrade notifications, drive firmware upgrade notifications, language pack upgrade notifications, and replication from Dell Unity OE versions earlier than 4.3 to Dell Unity OE versions 4.3 or later. Replication is supported between Dell Unity OE versions earlier than 4.3 to Dell Unity OE versions 4.3 or later, but only if TLS 1.0 is enabled.
For additional information about Unisphere, see the Dell Unity: Unisphere Overview white paper.
Unisphere CLI (UEMCLI) is a command-line interface for managing a Dell Unity system. UEMCLI may be run directly from the Dell Unity system, by establishing an SSH session to the system. Alternatively, UEMCLI may be run from a Windows or Linux host after installing the Unisphere CLI client. Use the UEMCLI client to quickly run commands across multiple Dell Unity systems. UEMCLI may also be used in the creation of scripts to automate portions of the management process. In Dell Unity OE Version 4.3 and later, UEMCLI will accept references to objects by their friendly name in addition to their ID. This improves usability and allows for easier scripting and management of multiple or net-new systems. See the UEMCLI guide for a complete list of the objects that can be referenced by their friendly name.
For more information about UEMCLI along with descriptions and syntax of available commands, see the Unisphere Command Line Interface User Guide on Dell Support.
Another method of performing management operations on the Dell Unity system is over REST API. REST API is an industry-recognized communication architecture that is used in the development of and interaction with web services. Dell Unity support of REST API makes it easy for environments with an existing REST API orchestration layer to adapt applications and services to Dell Unity. A full list of API calls, and a Programmer’s Guide, is available on the Dell Unity system. In Dell Unity OE Version 4.3 and later, REST accepts references to all objects by their friendly name in addition to their ID. This improves usability and allows for easier scripting and management of multiple or net-new systems.
For more information about REST API for Dell Unity, see the Unisphere Management REST API Programmer’s Guide on Dell Support. The REST API Programmer's Guide explains REST and JSON concepts and how to make REST requests to the Unisphere Management Rest API. This guide can also be accessed using the management IP of your Dell Unity system by browsing to https://<Management_IP>/apidocs/programmers-guide/index.html.
A second reference is the REST API Reference Guide which describes the resource types, operations, attributes, and arguments in the REST API, along with other information, such as datatypes and enumerations. This guide can also be accessed using the management IP of your Dell Unity system by browsing to https://<Management_IP>/apidocs/index.html.