Unattended Installation of OpenManage Server Administrator ...



Unattended Installation of Dell OpenManage™ Server Administrator on Microsoft® Windows®

Dell OpenManage™

Systems Management

Dell White Paper

By Kit Lou and David Wang

kit_lou@

david_wang@

Contents

Executive Summary 3

Introduction 4

Dell OpenManage Server Administrator 5

Microsoft Windows Installation Systems Requirements 6

Creating the Unattended Installation Package 7

Entire Package 7

Custom Package 7

Distributing the Unattended Installation Package 11

Unattended Uninstallation 12

Conclusions 13

Figures

Figure 1: Choosing a Destination Directory for the Unattended Package 8

Figure 2: Software Selection 9

Tables

Table 1: Setup.exe Options 13

Section 1

Executive Summary

This paper describes the unattended installation of Dell OpenManage™ Server Administrator on Microsoft® Windows®. Unattended installation allows an administrator to remotely install Server Administrator on systems without having to touch each computer. This is a more desirable method of installing Server Administrator when compared to visiting hundreds or even thousands of systems and going through an interactive installation process for each.

Section 2

Introduction

Dell OpenManage Server Administrator, when installed on Dell server systems, provides a collection of hardware monitoring, configuration, diagnostic, and management tools. These tools are accessible via a secured web-based interface or a command line interface. For installation on multiple systems, inserting the Dell OpenManage Systems Management CD into a system, installing Server Administrator interactively, ejecting the CD, and moving to the next system – repetitively executing the same installation sequence – is a time consuming and low productivity installation method. Creating a remote multiple deployment of Server Administrator from a shared repository eliminates the repetitive installation sequence, enhancing the installation process with improved productivity and convenience.

The following sections introduce Open Manage Server Administrator, its system and installation requirements, method to create unattended installation packages and its remote deployment. Unattended uninstallation is also described.

Section 3

Dell OpenManage Server Administrator

Dell OpenManage Server Administrator provides tools to perform essential systems management tasks. Server Administrator monitors and configures system hardware and software health conditions, provides online diagnostics to troubleshoot problems, updates firmware and BIOS, provides detailed system asset and disk array information, supports remote shutdown and reboot, and allows remote management via the Dell Remote Access Card III (DRAC III) or the Embedded Remote Access Controller. Note that remote management is a new feature added to Server Administrator version 1.0.1. These tools run on each individual server system installed with Server Administrator and are accessible via a standard Web browser or through a command line interface from any location, including the system itself.

Open Manage Server Administrator version 1.0 supports three operating systems: Red Hat( Linux( 7.1 and above, Microsoft( Windows NT( Server 4/Microsoft Windows( 2000 Server family, and Novell® Netware® 5.1 and later versions.

The Dell OpenManage CD Kit

The Dell OpenManage CD Kit ships with all the Dell PowerEdge servers. It includes three CDs: the Server Assistant CD to help in the setup of supported operating systems, the Systems Management CD to install Server Administrator and other associated Dell systems management software, and the Documentation CD to provide system manuals and software user guides. The OpenManage Systems Management software suite on the Systems Management CD can be downloaded from . The entire CD Kit is also available from the Dell OpenManage Subscription Service. An annual subscription includes a minimum of four updates to these CDs every year. For more information please refer to

Microsoft Windows Installation Systems Requirements

Following is a list of system and installation requirements for OpenManage Server Administrator:

• A supported operating system: Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 (Service Pack 5 or later) or the Microsoft Windows 2000 Server Family (includes Windows 2000 Server, Windows 2000 Advanced Server, and Windows Small Business Server [SBS] 2000). Use of the Dell OpenManage Server Assistant CD is recommended in the initial setup of a server with one of these Windows operating systems.

• A minimum of 64 MB of RAM.

• A minimum of 256 MB of free disk space.

• Administrator rights.

• A TCP/IP connection on the monitored system and the remote system to facilitate remote server management.

• An installed supported systems management protocol standard: Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) or Common Information Model (CIM).

• Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.x or later, or Netscape Navigator 6.01 or later to manage a system locally from the Server Administrator home page.

• The Server Administrator Storage Management Service requires that Dell OpenManage Array Manager version 3.1.1 or later is installed on the system to be managed. Note: Array Manager is installed via the unattended installation of Server Administrator, provided it is chosen and that all the Array Manager installation prerequisites are met.

• The Server Administrator Remote Management Service requires that a DRAC III card be installed or an Embedded Remote Access Controller be activated on the system to be managed. Note: The Remote Access Controller software is installed via the unattended installation of Server Administrator, provided it is chosen and that all the Remote Access Controller installation prerequisites are met. This is a new service beginning with Server Administrator version 1.0.1.

Section 3

Creating the Unattended Installation Package

The first step to distributing Server Administrator to multiple remote target systems is to prepare an unattended installation package. It is possible to create an installation package with all the software on the Systems Management CD or selectively customize the software in the unattended installation package. For example, it is possible to choose to not include the storage management service of Server Administrator in the installation package. This will remove the Array Manager software and reduce the amount of disk space needed for the unattended installation package.

Entire Package

Copy the entire contents of the Systems Management CD to a directory on your system’s hard drive – this could be a remote hard drive that you have write access. Alternatively, you could share the Systems Management CD directly to the target systems.

Custom Package

To help customize the software and services of Server Administrator to remotely deploy on target systems, Dell provides an option to create an unattended installation package in a directory on your system’s hard drive. Perform the following steps to create the customized unattended installation package:

1. Run the setup.exe /p program from the Systems Management CD on a system that is similar to the target systems you want to distribute Server Administrator.

The Welcome to Dell OpenManage Applications Installation screen appears.

2. Click Install/Update/Uninstall Systems Management Software.

A software license agreement screen appears.

3. Click Accept to agree.

A window appears that allows you to assign destination preferences for the unattended installation package. See Figure 1.

4. To accept the default destination directory path for the creation of the unattended installation package, click Next. Otherwise, click Browse, navigate to the directory where you want to create the unattended installation package, close the navigation window, and then click Next.

[pic]

Figure 1: Choosing a Destination Directory for the Unattended Package

The Managed System Software screen appears. See Figure 2.

[pic]

Figure 2: Software Selection

Note: A button to the right of each component name provides information or configuration options for the component.

The Settings button indicates that you can configure the component, and the More Info button indicates that you can get more information about it.

Buttons that appear in gray do not provide information or configuration options.

5. When you have selected each managed system software component that you want to include in the unattended installation package, click Next.

The Dell OpenManage Components window appears.

While the package is being created, the following message is displayed:

Setup is creating unattended installation package for Managed Node services, please wait.

When the script is complete, the Setup Complete windows appear. The following message is displayed:

Unattended installation setup completed.

6. Click Finish

The directory specified or created in Step 4 now contains the custom unattended installation package that you can use to distribute the Server Administrator software to target systems.

Section 3

Distributing the Unattended Installation Package

The unattended installation package created is distributed to the remote systems using a software distribution tool from an independent software vendor (ISV) such as Microsoft( SMS, Computer Associates™ ShipIT™, or Tivoli® Software Distribution. When the package is distributed, the installation script executes to install the software. Perform the following steps to distribute the unattended installation package:

1. Create an installation script that maps a drive from the remote system(s) to the shared drive where the installation package resides.

2. Configure your ISV distribution software to execute the setup.exe /i program on the mapped drive.

3. Reboot each remote target system to enable and deploy Server Administrator.

If Server Administrator exists on the target remote system, an express upgrade is performed via the execution of the unattended setup.exe /i program.

The setup.exe /i command provides unattended deployment of the Server Administrator installation process. It is designed to provide an effortless mechanism for single command non-interactive installs. The installation process includes upgrading Server Administrator, if a previous version of Server Administrator exists on the target system.

The unattended installation process performs the following steps:

• System discovery to ensure the system is a supported Dell server.

• Operating system detection to ensure it is running on a supported Windows operating system.

• Hardware discovery of PCI peripherals as software components may have dependency on hardware.

• Software discovery of SNMP services, if applicable, and other required software dependency checks for each applicable component.

• Install/upgrade each software component where the hardware/software dependency checks are met.

Unattended Uninstallation

The Systems Management CD provides support for unattended uninstallation as well as installation. This allows you to uninstall Server Administrator from multiple systems simultaneously without the need to visit each system individually.

To run the unattended uninstallation feature, perform the following steps:

1. Configure your ISV software distribution software to execute the setup.exe /u program after the unattended uninstallation package has been distributed

2. Use your ISV software distribution software to distribute the unattended uninstallation package to the remote systems. The setup.exe /u program executes to uninstall Server Administrator on each remote system.

3. Reboot each remote system to complete the uninstallation process.

Section 4

Conclusions

This article describes unattended installation of OpenManage Server Administrator under Microsoft Windows. Administrators who need to remotely install Server Administrator onto multiple systems can reference this information. Proper usage of the unattended installation features saves the need to run through the interactive installation of OpenManage Server Administrator on each individual target system, which can help reduce the installation time considerably. Unattended uninstallation is also described in Section 3. Table 1 summarizes the options available via the setup.exe program to perform unattended related tasks.

|Setup.exe |Runs interactive install of Server Administrator |

|Setup.exe /p |Runs program to allow customization of software components for |

| |unattended install |

|Setup.exe /i |Runs unattended install |

|Setup.exe /u |Runs unattended uninstall |

Table 1: Setup.exe Options

Kit Lou (Kit_Lou@) is a Senior Software Engineer in the Software Development Installation Group at Dell. Kit has a M.S. degree in Computer Science from the University of Texas at Austin.

David Wang (David_Wang@ ) is a Senior Software Engineer in the Software Development Installation Group at Dell. David has a M.S. degree in Computer Science from Oklahoma State University.

THIS WHITE PAPER IS FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY, AND MAY CONTAIN TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS AND TECHNICAL INACCURACIES. THE CONTENT IS PROVIDED AS IS, WITHOUT EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND.

Dell, PowerEdge, and Dell OpenManage are trademarks of Dell Computer Corporation. Microsoft, Window, and Windows NT are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Other trademarks and trade names may be used in this document to refer to either the entities claiming the marks and names or their products. Dell disclaims proprietary interest in the marks and names of others.

©Copyright 2002 Dell Computer Corporation. All rights reserved. Reproduction in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of Dell Computer Corporation is strictly forbidden. For more information, contact Dell.

Information in this document is subject to change without notice.

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download