Good, Better, Best Automation of Bare Metal Server Deployment using OpenManage Enterprise
Download PDFWed, 01 Nov 2023 15:01:08 -0000
|Read Time: 0 minutes
Introduction
Customers looking for a simple method to automate Dell PowerEdge server deployment at scale need to review the use of Dell OpenManage Enterprise (OME). During a typical server deployment, customers need to configure firmware settings such as boot order, RAID storage configuration details, iDRAC settings, and security standards, in addition to loading a server operating system. All these manual tasks can be repetitive and time-consuming.
Customers can save a substantial amount of administration time by leveraging automated deployment mechanisms. Dell offers many deployment solutions the choice of which depend on customer requirements and elements such as network environment and server operating system. OME offers its own solution and can also integrate into many popular third-party tools such as Ansible, Terraform, Microsoft System Center, or VMware vCenter.
This Direct from Development (DfD) tech note describes the capabilities and results that customers can expect when using OME to deploy bare metal servers. This document covers the deployment features and how to streamline server deployment when using OpenManage Enterprise orchestration controlling the iDRAC that is built into each Dell PowerEdge server.
OpenManage Enterprise – bare metal deployment
OpenManage Enterprise (OME) is Dell's on-premises server lifecycle management console. Its capabilities include discovery, monitoring, updating firmware, reporting, and of course configuration/deployment. During deployment, OME can discover a bare metal server and install both a firmware configuration setting and an operating system.
There are two typical approaches:
- The first: A previously discovered server gets a configuration template manually pushed from OME.
- The second is more automated: OME is configured with a list of tag numbers of arriving servers. OME then regularly examines an IP address range. When OME identifies a new server by its unique service tag, OME pushes the template to the new server's iDRAC for deployment. The customer can either obtain a list of service tag numbers associated with an order from Dell by email at the time of shipping, or collect the service tag numbers from external labels on the packaging or from the actual servers as they are being physically installed.
Each method supports an optional delivery of a bootable ISO file. This is an industry standard image file that contains all the required the files and configuration information to install an operating system. To automate the OS install, the operating system ISO is configured for an automated unattended install. All these features require no PXE boot support and no additional DNS/DHCP customization.
Server template
Let’s look at configuration settings first. This is based on iDRAC’s “server configuration profile” concept. A template encapsulates the server’s BIOS, iDRAC, and components’ firmware configuration settings as a machine-readable file. A template can consist of hundreds of firmware configuration values including iDRAC, BIOS, PERC RAID, NICs, and FC HBA settings. OME can create a template by obtaining these settings from a reference server. A customer can also clone and edit a template for simple updates, or OME can import a template exported from another OME instance.
Testing and results
To understand the profound impact of the automation of this process, we have tested it against a manual process for 1, 10*, and 100* servers[1]. Based on the testing of the OME auto deploy approach for a customer with 100* servers, we found significant differences between automation and the manual process. The following graph illustrates the considerable time savings when using automation.
In internal testing at the Dell TME server lab, we found that manually importing the server configuration profile (SCP or deployment template), and then starting the unattended OS install ISO using virtual media in the iDRAC GUI, took 9 minutes 31 seconds. However, creating an auto deployment and importing a list of target server(s) took only 13 steps in 2 minutes 11 seconds. In addition, whether creating an auto deployment job for 1, 10, or 100 servers, this task took the same amount of time. However, when using the manual process, each additional server added a further 9 minutes 31 seconds.
Testing overview
To demonstrate both the ease of use and the impact of automation, we tested two different approaches: manual versus automated. Both methods used a template approach to configure firmware settings using previously collected data. The testing was conducted using a PowerEdge R540 server with an iDRAC 9 as the target server and OME 3.10 as a deployment solution. Testing results do not include any pre-work such as exporting the server SCP server configuration profile from the iDRAC, creating file shares, collecting Dell Service Tag information, setting the initial IP address on the iDRAC, or installing OME.
Steps for a manual approach to server deployment using SCP and ISO
Included are all installation steps until the server is booting from the OS ISO that contains the OS unattended installation information.
Starting from the iDRAC home page after signing in:
- Select configuration from the main tabs
- Select server configuration profile sub-tab
- Select import
- Select network share
- Enter XML SCP file name
- Enter IP address of file share
- Enter share name of file share
- Enter user account / password
- Select All for Import Components
- Select Off for Power state after import
- Click Import
- Click Job to watch configuration task running
- Wait for status to be completed (100%)
- Select Virtual Media sub tab
- Scroll down the page to remote file share
- Enter Image File Path for the file share for the ISO file
- Enter user account / password
- Click Connect
- Once connected click OK
- Select Dashboard from the main tabs
- Select Start the Virtual Console
- Click boot
- From the boot controls menu click Virtual CD/DVD/ISO
- Click Yes to confirm boot action
- Click Power
- Click Power on System
- Confirm Power action
Steps for an automated approach to server delopyment using OME
Starting from the iDRAC home page after signing in:
- From Configuration drop down menu select Auto Deploy
- Click Create
- In the auto deploy template wizard select the required server template
- Select Import CSV
- Click Import CSV
- Select required CSV file contain list of new server tag numbers
- Select Target Group Information
- Select Boot to Network ISO
- Enter ISO path and file name
- Enter IP address of file share
- Enter user account / password
- For target IP setting leave as Don’t change IP settings
- For Target attributes leave unchanged
Test results data
Table 1. Results of testing
Number of servers
| OpenManage Enterprise auto deploy | Manual Config Using iDRAC |
1 | 2 Min 11 Sec | 9 mins 31 secs |
10 | 2 Min 11 Sec | 1 hour 35 mins 10 secs* |
100 | 2 Min 11 Sec | 15 hours 51 mins 40 secs* |
*Projected outcomes based on analysis of results of 1. Customer results may vary.
Advanced features
In addition to the template and ISO deployment, OME offers many advanced features, such as Server-initiated discovery in which new servers are automatically registered with OME through a DNS entry. This negates the need for OME to have a discovery job running to search for new bare metal servers. OME also offers support for stateless servers with the concept of a pool of MAC and WWN addresses that can be allocated and moved as required. This means that zoning and any storage LUN allocation done using MAC addresses and address related based rules becomes mobile between physical servers.
To support the demand for further automation and integration, OpenManage Enterprise provides a RESTful API.
This fully documented API supports all features found on the GUI. Dell also maintains a collection of example PowerShell and Python scripts in the Dell repository on GitHub.
One size does not fit all
Given Dell Technologies’ open approach to servers and the large number of PowerEdge customers, Dell has developed other methods to streamline server configuration, such as:
- Deeper VMware deployment customization available from the OME plugin OpenManage integration with VMware vCenter (OMEVV)
- OME plugin for Microsoft System Center and Config Manager
- Zero touch provisioning built into iDRAC that uses DHCP provisioning options 43 and 60. This method uses an iDRAC SCP xml file that can include OS unattended installation information.
- Integration for ServiceNow, Terraform, and Ansible
- PXE support
- A Dell embedded lifecycle management GUI is included with iDRAC for 1-to1 deployments
A word about unattended OS installs
Using OME to install an OS on the target server(s) requires a level of OS installation automation. This is commonly referred to as an unattended OS installation. For example, Windows Server requires including a bootable ISO image with the unattended installation information contained in an autounattend.xml file to automate the installation. Microsoft’s Windows System Image Manager (WSIM), part of Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit ADK, can be used to create this answer file. A fresh bootable ISO is then created with the answer file in the root and OS install files copied from a standard Microsoft ISO image. You can use the OSCDIMG command line utility, which is shipped as part of ADK, to create a new customized bootable Windows OS unattended installation ISO. OME controls and automates the mounting and booting of this ISO on the target servers’ iDRACs during the deployment task.
Summary
Customers can realize the benefits of the deployment automation built into OpenManage Enterprise with ease. These benefits multiply as the number of servers you are deploying increases. Taking the 100-server example, it takes over 15 hours of administrator time to complete the task manually, but only 2 minutes 11 seconds of administrator time to perform the deployment using OME. Our testing showed that using automation brought major benefits, not only in administration time saved but also in accuracy, repeatability, predictability, and of course, efficiency.
References
- Support page for Dell OpenManage Enterprise
- List of OME Documentation including User Guide, API Guide, and Support Matrix
- Support Page for OpenManage Enterprise Integration for VMware vCenter (OMEVV)
- Support page for Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller 9 (iDRAC9)
- GitHub Dell OpenManage Ansible Modules
- Dell Technologies Developer
- Zero-Touch Bare-metal-Server Provisioning Using iDRAC9 with Auto Config
- Dell iDRAC9 v4 SCP OS deployment (video)
[1] Based on internal testing at the Dell TME server lab, October 2023.