Accessing the Power Control Features of Dell Servers with DS for Dell 2.0
Many users are familiar with the right-click power control menu that is available from the DS console. However, this feature only works when the system is connected to the DS server. Deployment Solution for Dell servers 2.0 and later provides a way to expand the right-click power control menu and add power control features that utilize Dell Remote Access Card (DRAC) add-on cards and Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) interfaces. This article explains how to enable this functionality.
This article presumes you have already installed Deployment Solution 6.5 SP1 or later, and the add-on Deployment Solution for Dell Servers 2.0 or later. Also, your DRAC and IPMI interfaces will already have to be configured with unique IP addresses, and are accessible over the network from your DS server.
Dell Power table
To enable the power control features in the DS console, you need to add an entry for the system in the dell_power table. Systems in the dell_power table have an expanded Power Control tab on the right-click menu from the DS console. Enabling this feature can be accomplished in one of two ways: discovery, or manually.
Discovery
The discovery process is quite simple. You can use the configuration utility to discover the available DRAC and IPMI interfaces on the network. If you haven't upgraded from Deployment Solution for Dell Servers 2.0 to Deployment Solution for Dell Servers 2.0 SP1, you will need to obtain the utility ipmish.exe from an IT Assistant (ITA) installation (ITA is available from Dell) in order to enable the IPMI functionality. Deployment Solution for Dell Servers 2.0 SP1 is IPMI ready out of the box.
To do a discovery do the following:
- Open the configuration utility from the DS console by clicking Tools > Dell Tools > Configuration Utility
- Click the Power Control tab
- Specify a discovery method (DRAC or IPMI)
- Enter a starting and ending IP address
- Enter a valid user name and password
- Click discover, you will get a warning telling you how long the discover will take, click Ok
During the discovery you won't be able to interact with the Configuration Utility. Once it is done it will output the results of the discovery in the status window at the bottom of the page. You can click the Log File link to show a larger view. There are generally four possible outcomes:
- No response -- No response was received, or the timeout value was reached before the query completed. If you are certain an interface exists that wasn't discovered, try increasing the "Timout for Authentication" value.
- Entry not found -- An interface was found, but a matching system was not found in the DS database, no entries were added to the dell_power table.
- Creating Entry -- An interface was found and a matching system was found, a new entry was added to the dell_power table. Now you can access power control features for the discovered system.
- Updating existing entry -- An interface was found, and the matching system has been discovered before, the dell_power table was updated according to the precedence specified in the power control options (more on this later).
The systems that were found now have expanded power control functionality. To access it right-click a system in the DS console, click Power Control, and notice the new Dell power control features. These features are available regardless of whether the system is powered on, off, is connected to the DS server or not. It doesn't matter. As long as your DS server can talk to the DRAC or IPMI interface you can use these features. This is especially helpful when a system is in an unmanaged state and you need to reboot it remotely.
The 1855/1955 DRAC can't be found with a discover. Since there is one DRAC for the entire blade chassis, the DRAC can't be associated with a particular system. The power control features can only be used through IPMI. You can still manually add the 1855/1955 DRAC and associate it with a system, but the only available option on the expanded power control menu will be "Launch Interface." If you want to use the power control features with 1855s or 1955s, you will need to do so using IPMI. This problem does not affect the 1655 blades, since it enumerates all the blades in the chassis during a discover, and allows power control commands.
Manually
If you don't want to do a discovery, you can manually add your systems to the dell_power table. By clicking the add button you will get the Manually Add Server screen.
In order to manually add a server you will need to know the DS computer ID for the system you want to add. You can find this on the computer properties menu (double click a computer in the DS console).
Fill in the required information including: computer ID, IP address, type, chassis position (1655 only), user name, and password. The system specified will be added to the dell_power table.
The precedence order still applies, even for manual additions. Thus if you manually add an IPMI entry for a system with a DRAC entry, and DRAC has higher precedence, the IPMI entry will not be added. Also, manual additions are not validated. This means if you enter any of the required information wrong the expanded power control options will be available, but they won't have the desired affect.
Power control options
The Power Control Options link allows you to customize how the power control features work. You'll notice there are two power control methods (DRAC and IPMI), yet only one power control menu option for Dell servers from the DS console. So how do you know if you are using DRAC or IPMI? Using this menu you can specify which method you want to use. By changing the power control precedence you can specify which method takes priority. This is where the "updating existing entry" response comes from. When a system that has already been discovered is found again, the precedence is checked. If the precedence for the method used for the first discovery is lower than the precedence for the current method, then the entry in the dell_power table is replaced with an entry for the new method. Thus each system can only use DRAC or IPMI at any give time, they can't use both.
Note: The precedence only affects the discovery and manual add processes. If an addition is attempted (either through discovery or manual addition) and the system is already in the dell_power table with a method of higher precedence the new entry is discarded. This means if you change the precedence you will have to do a new discovery, or manually add the affected system(s) in order to use the new method. Simply changing the precedence does not change the method used by the power control menu.
Speeding up discovery
Lets say you have a large IP range and want to do a discovery. The current method of discovery waits 30 seconds per groups of 15 addresses. In other words, it queries 15 addresses at a time in parallel, and waits no more than 30 seconds for the query to fail. If you have a large range, this discovery would take hours, maybe even days. There is a way to speed things up. If you edit the file DellConfig.xml located in the [Deployment share]\Dell\atools folder you can change the number of addresses that are done in parallel. Look for the entry "PowerControlDiscoveryBreadth". This is 15 by default to avoid overloading the server. If you are confident your server can handle more than 15 outgoing connections, with one executable running per connection, feel free to increase this number. In practice I haven't had any problems with as many as 100. Do whatever you feel comfortable with, I take no responsibility if you cause problems with your server.
Verify button
The verify button allows you to clean up the dell_power table. The entries in the dell_power table remain even if a system is removed from the DS console, or you change the IP address for an interface (unless you do another discover and the entry is updated). When you use the verify button the entire dell_power table will be cleared and each entry that was in the table will be queried. If the query is successful then the entry will be added back into the table.
That's all you need to know to enable to power control features of Deployment Solution for Dell Servers 2.0. Once you've added your systems to the dell_power table you can take full advantage of the power control features of the DRAC and IPMI interfaces.
Power Control Speedup
Thanks for making Power Control so simple. I have used the Power Control Speedup with 130 simutaneous connections with out any problem.
Just as a time saving tip for everyone else that plans on trying it, remember to close the configuration utility before editing the xml file. If you don't, your changes will be overwritten when the Configuration utility is opened again.
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