Upgrading To OpenManage Enterprise 4.0
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Upgrading To OpenManage Enterprise 4.0
Authors: Mark Maclean, PowerEdge Technical Marketing Engineering / Manoj Malhotra, Product Manager, OME
Summary
Dell OpenManage Enterprise is an infrastructure management console for Dell PowerEdge Servers offering a full lifecycle management solution plus many other features. Since its initial release OpenManage Enterprise (often abbreviated to OME) has continued to develop adding new features every release. Customers on older versions of OME 3.x can migrate to OME 4.0 to leverage the new features, such as iDRAC credentials rotation and multi-faction authentication with RSA SecurID.
Migation
Overview
Unlike earlier versions, OME 4.0 does not offer an in-place upgrade, rather a transfer of existing data to a new instance of the appliance.
The upgrade is achieved through:
- Deploy a new instance of OME 4.0 virtual appliance
- Migrate data from OME 3.10.x to OME 4.0
- Decommission old OME 3.10.x virtual appliance
The migration is only required when you need to upgrade from OME 3.10.x (CentOS-based) to OME 4.0 (SLES-based). In the future, when upgrading (for example, from OME 4.0 to OME 4.1) the in-place upgrade will be supported.
This transfer of existing OME data such as discovered servers, deployment templates, policies, logs and credentials is achieved via the migration feature built in to OME. This migration wizard is step-based to export data from the OME 3.10.x appliance and import into a fresh OME 4.0 appliance. In order to migrate, customers must have OME 4.0 installed and configured with a new IP address and administrator account. Also, the existing OME 3.10.x and new OME 4.0 instances must be able to communicate with each other over the network.
Figure 1 Possible upgrade paths to OME 4.0
This migration feature is only supported when going from OME 3.10.x to OME 4.0. Customers on early versions must apply in-place upgrades to reach OME 3.10.x before migrating to OME 4.0, see figure 1.
Enablement
As with previous versions, OME 4.0 is delivered as a virtual appliance. The virtual appliance is offered in three formats to be deployed on VMware or Microsoft Hyper-V or KMV. Once commissioned the OME appliance will manage any Dell PowerEdge host regardless of operating system. All three versions of the appliance can be downloaded from the Dell support site and detailed installation instructions for the virtual appliances are included in chapter 2 of the OME user guide. See link to the OME support page at the bottom of this document. Migration should run in a maintenance window period or a quiet time to lower the risk of critical alerts bring missed.
Once a new OpenManage Enterprise version 4.0 virtual appliance has been installed and the basic configuration has been applied, migration can begin. The logical steps are shown in figure 2. Starting with the existing source host, that needs to be OME version 3.10.x. The migration overseer needs local administrator/backup administrator rights to access backup/restore menu. From the drop-down backup/restore menu the migration wizard can be started. The steps include: checking SSL certificate match using the default Dell or customer supplied certificate for secure access, checking network access to the new OME 4.0 virtual appliance, supplying a passphrase to secure the backed-up data, checking for the completion of or stopping non-migration tasks. Backup encryption passphrase needs to be a minimum of 8 charters, certain characters such as commas full stops/periods and several other characters are not supported as special characters. At the end of the process the 3.10.x appliance will then automatically transition in to “maintenance mode pending” status.
Note: For customer supplied certificate client and server authentication are required from issuing CA.
Figure 2 OME high level migration step
Then on the new OME 4.0 appliance, the first time an administrator logs into OME, an initial onboarding wizard starts automatically. There is no need to install any plugins, because the automation built into the migration tool handles this task. As part of this onboarding wizard, the migration feature can be selected to be run.
Note: This migration feature can also be run from the drop-down backup/restore menu post completion of the initial wizard if required, see figure 3.
Figure 3 Initial OME onboarding wizard – Migration step
The “migrate-in” steps to import data are as follows: once communications have been established via the supplied IP address and credentials, the migration engine automatically checks the plugin status and appliance status. If all is ready, then the backup passphrase used during “migrate-out” is re-entered and the “migrate-in” task is started via the import button, see figure 4.
Figure 4 Migrate in wizard showing import steps
The wizard displays migration status and the various steps as they run and complete, see figure 5. These steps are also recorded in the migration log and can be viewed post-migration. As the IP address of the OME 3.10 appliance is not migrated across, post successful migration the OME 4.0 appliance executes a task to configure all the known iDRAC that have SNMP enabled with the IP details of the new management console as a trap destination.
Figure 5 Log displaying successful migration
If necessary, the administrator can cancel the migration at the source using the Cancel migration hyperlink in the wizard. This will take the source appliance out of maintenance mode and back into working mode.
At the end of a successful migration, the source migrate-out appliance automatically enters the Decommission Ready status. The login GUI color changes to burgundy and text is modified to warn that the appliance is decommissioned.
NOTE: Only an admin can login to the console.
Instead of the dashboard, a message is displayed declaring that the appliance is ready to be decommissioned. At this point, the administrator recommended action is to power down and archive the virtual appliance. The admin can bring the appliance back to the running state however, this is highly discouraged, see figure 6. Finally, it is recommended to take a backup of the newly commissioned OME 4.0 appliance post migration before any further operations.
Figure 6 Example of a decommissioned OME 3.10.x login screen
Migration will move data such as application settings, device inventory, and plugin data, see table 1 for more details. For example, the Site ID details used by the OME CloudIQ plugin is migrated across to ensure continuation of server management traffic movement and the historic power data held by power manager is also transferred. Only one backup, restore or migrate process is supported at a time. Running more than one backup/restore process at a time can lead to unexpected system behavior.
Table 1 Data Considered During Migrate Jobs
Item | Description |
Database
|
|
Configuration files
|
|
Auto install plugins |
|
Plugin data restore |
|
Conclusion
Using the built in migration feature, customers can upgrade to OME 4.0 quickly and easily. Using the step-based wizard with integrated pre-transfer checks, and automated data streaming makes migration simple and hassle free. For more details, see chapter 18 of the OpenManage Enterprise 4.0 User's Guide.
References
- OpenManage Enterprise migration video : https://youtu.be/uckcVIKr3xo?si=ZuMgsm_XHgZJgzsv
- OpenManage Enterprise white papers / videos / links Support page
- OpenManage Enterprise Documentation User Guide, API Guide and support matrix etc
- OpenManage Enterprise API Dell Technologies Developer
- OpenManage Ansible Modules and example API scripts GitHub Dell OpenManage Ansible Modules
- Dell System Management Info Hub Tech notes, videos, infographics