OpenManage Enterprise Boosts Data Center Staff Productivity
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Summary
Many necessary tasks performed by IT Admins aren’t complex, but are repetitive, time-consuming, and can deflect attention from other, long-term initiatives. The Dell EMC OpenManage Enterprise systems management console delivers powerful automation capabilities that simplify the workflow of the IT Administrator, saving valuable time and reducing the potential for error and downtime. This tech note summarizes the results of recent testing to prove out the benefits of OpenManage Enterprise, and points interested users to a no-charge trial copy.
Introduction
Dell EMC OpenManage Enterprise (OME) is an intuitive infrastructure management console that allows IT staff to discover, deploy, update, and monitor Dell EMC PowerEdge™ servers. It also enables IT administrators to view and make changes to other equipment in the data center infrastructure, including chassis, storage, and network switches on the enterprise network. OME helps users to:
- Simplify: OpenManage Enterprise brings the ability to handle a wide range of IT administration tasks into a single, intuitive systems management solution, thereby greatly reducing complexity.
- Unify: OME is a one-to-many systems management console, built to scale: With a single instance of OME, IT Administrators can manage up to 8,000 devices regardless of form factors, such as Dell EMC PowerEdge rack-, tower-, or modular servers, or PowerVault MD and ME storage systems, or third-party devices. Have more than 8,000 devices in your infrastructure? Just add additional instances of OME.
- Automate: OME helps to boost IT Admin productivity by automating tasks throughout the server lifecycle. For example, OME can speed server discovery and deployment; streamline BIOS and firmware update processes; and produce customized reports.
- Secure: Security is a top priority with Dell EMC OpenManage solutions, including the OpenManage Enterprise console. For example, OME can detect drift from a user-defined configuration template, alert users, and remediate misconfigurations based on pre- setup policies.
Measuring Benefits
With the recent release of OpenManage Enterprise v3.4, we were interested in measuring just how much OME capabilities can benefit IT Administrators, easing demands on their scarce time and freeing up energies for higher priority and strategic tasks. To do the evaluation, we engaged with Principled Technologies, an independent testing and evaluation organization. (Readers can learn more about Principled Technologies at www.principledtechnologies.com). Testing and evaluation were performed in May/June 2020.
At our request, Principled Technologies evaluated several systems management tasks, and documented their findings in a summary report, “Boost data center staff productivity with OpenManage Enterprise”, which readers can find at http://facts.pt/sq2w04k. In each test, Principled Technologies measured the time and effort required to complete each task using OpenManage Enterprise and compared those results to completing the same tasks manually. In this brief tech note, I’ll call out just one of the results, and encourage readers to go to the report at the link above for a longer discussion.
Firmware Update
Since updating firmware is a critical, recurring IT Admin task, and one which can consume a good deal of time, we were interested in what benefit OME could deliver here. Principled Technologies testing showed that, updating a single server using OME was 8 seconds faster than performing the update manually, or 20% faster. Saving 8 seconds doesn’t sound like a big deal, and it’s not, if all the IT Admin has to do is update one server. But again, the power of OpenManage Enterprise comes in when scaling the capability and applying the same task to large numbers of servers. Using OpenManage Enterprise, an IT Admin needs only the same amount of time and effort for multiple servers as they did for a single server.
By contrast, the administrator would require more time and effort, over and over and over again, with each additional server when using the manual method (i.e. time scales linearly when using the manual method). Thus, as shown in the Principled Technologies report, for a data center with 1,000 servers, updating firmware using OME eliminates 2,996 steps and performs the task 99% faster, saving 11 hours 6 minutes 8 seconds off the clock (i.e. saves more than one full work day, just to perform one of the many tasks that fall on an IT Admin). Since a single instance of OpenManage Enterprise supports eight times as many servers as in this test case (8,000 vs. 1,000), one can see that the potential time savings are enormous.
Figure 1: When applying firmware updates to a server infrastructure of 1,000 servers, OpenManage Enterprise can save IT Administrators over 11 hours of their time, compared to performing the same task manually.
Additional Capabilities
Other systems management tasks evaluated in the study include: initial deployment of servers; repurposing server hardware; reconfiguring hardware and deploying servers; and completing urgent data center recovery. Readers are encouraged to view the Principled Technologies report at the link above or in the Notes section below, for the results of those tests. Beyond those tasks, OpenManage Enterprise delivers even more capabilities that benefit users:
With multi-homing, administrators can connect OpenManage Enterprise to public and out-of-band networks simultaneously, enabling them to concurrently manage test and production servers without needing to switch networks. This feature is available for OpenManage Enterprise versions 3.3 and higher and setting it up is quite straightforward: It takes only 18 steps and 4 minutes 5 seconds to implement. Readers can see the aforementioned Principled Technologies report for details.
New to OpenManage Enterprise 3.4 is server-initiated discovery. Dell EMC provides the option for new servers to ship with unique login credentials for enhanced security. Server-initiated discovery in OpenManage Enterprise 3.4 provides a method to discover these servers without needing to scan the network for each new server using complex, unique management credentials. As the testing at Principled Technologies showed, it takes only 5 steps and 15 seconds to set up this capability, yet it could potentially save large amounts of deployment time, while also reducing potential for human error (which could lead to downtime).
OpenManage Enterprise 3.4 also delivers thermal event detection capabilities, which allow IT Administrators to set power policies for thermal budgeting. Every 15 minutes, OpenManage Enterprise checks each target server in the thermal-managed group. If it detects servers running an abnormally high temperature, it can use event triggering to place those servers in a low-power state to cool them down, which could prevent damage to critical internal components. Setting this up is a one-time event, which takes only 16 steps and 1 minute 37 seconds.
Trial Copy
Use of Dell OpenManage Enterprise to monitor devices is free. Use of advanced features requires that the OpenManage Enterprise Advanced license is installed on the target server. Users interested in experiencing these advanced features in their own data centers can download a no-charge, 30-day trial copy. The free download is available on the OpenManage Enterprise support site: https://www.dell.com/support/article/en- us/sln310714/support-for-openmanage-enterprise?lang=en
At that site, scroll down a bit to the section entitled, “Evaluate, Purchase and Download of the OpenManage Enterprise Advanced license”.
In Conclusion
As data centers of all sizes continue to grow and transform, more and more demands are placed on the scarce time of IT Administrators. Many of the tasks performed by Admins are simple, but are tedious and time- consuming, and can deflect attention from other initiatives that are more important in the long run. The OpenManage Enterprise systems management console delivers powerful automation capabilities that can be applied to those repetitive, time-consuming tasks, thereby simplifying the workflow of the IT Administrator, saving valuable time, and reducing the potential for error and downtime.
Notes:
- Comprehensive information about OpenManage Enterprise can be found here: https://www.delltechnologies.com/en-us/solutions/openmanage/enterprise.htm
- A brief, 3-minute video summarizing the results of testing performed at Principled Technologies is available here: http://facts.pt/0jwglja
- This crisp, 3-minute video describes how the OpenManage Enterprise console simplifies management by providing powerful automation capabilities, enabling IT Administrators to extend their span of control and use of time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXu5j7wVwp4&feature=youtu.be
- A brief, animated video about OpenManage Enterprise is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=RDCMUClWVI6vuTSuGO5OtOgG_UEw&v=xd0dt-0SctI&feature=emb_rel_end