Non-Dell Server Support in OpenManage Enterprise Power Manager
Download PDFTue, 21 May 2024 16:44:11 -0000
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Summary
The monitoring and management of power consumed by servers has become a priority for many organizations, whether due to cost of energy, carbon emission reduction commitments, or facility limitations. In January 2023, Dell released OpenManage Enterprise Power Manager version 3.1. One major feature of this release was the addition of support for a limited number of non-Dell servers. This Direct from Development tech note describes the new capabilities that customers can access to support HPE iLO5 and Lenovo XCC enabled servers.
Market positioning
OpenManage Enterprise is Dell’s server lifecycle management console, with the ability to discover, deploy, monitor, update, manage, and report. Power Manager is a plug-in that adds additional power and thermal capabilities to the core management console. The Dell Product Group recognizes that not all customers have a 100 percent PowerEdge fleet and so need to monitor more than just Dell servers.
Discovery and reporting
Non-Dell servers are discovered through their baseboard management controllers—iLO5 or XCC. An IP address and login credentials are all that is required. All non-Dell servers discovered in OpenManage Enterprise are automatically listed under the Non-Dell Servers group, as shown here:
Figure 1. Example of the Non-Dell Servers group showing HPE ProLiant DL and Lenovo ThinkSystem servers
Once the servers are discovered, Power Manager can monitor the power and thermal telemetry. This data is processed and then displayed through “applets,” as shown in Figure 2 and Figure 3. A RESTful API enables customers to build additional automation and report tools if required. Sample code is posted by Dell on GitHub.
Figure 2. Example of power and thermal metrics for a non-Dell server
There are numerous prebuilt reports that now include this non-Dell server data, such as maximum power (watts). This data is also available in the custom report builder. These reports can be run ad hoc or scheduled to be emailed on a regular basis. These reports support export in HTML, CSV, PDF, and XLS formats.
Figure 3. Example of alert thresholds for non-Dell servers
References
- Power Manager documentation: Support for Dell OpenManage Enterprise Power Manager
- Interactive API explorer: Dell API Catalog Guide
- Manage non-Dell Servers using OpenManage Enterprise Power Manager