Dell OpenManage Documentation
Dell’s Systems Management platform has been around for quite awhile. It has recently been getting more and more usable and comprehensive. While attempting to test and implement it in our achitecture, I have scrolled through pages and pages of documentation, forum threads, and configuration pages. Here are the pages that have been the most useful for me:
Dell OpneManage Client Instrumentation User’s Guide
Client Instrumentation Documentation
Dell OpenManage Server Administrator User’s Guide
Server Administrator Documentation
Dell OpenManage Client Connector User’s Guide
Client Connector Documentation
Dell OpenManage IT Assistant 7.2 User’s Guide
Here’s the platform in a nutshell: The Client Instrumentation (or Server Administrator for servers) is installed on the managed system and interfaces with the system’s data providers (BIOS, Disks, Chassis, etc), and makes this data accessible through the standard WMI interface. On the Management Station (usually a server set aside for Systems Management), the IT Assistant and Client Connector allow administrators to access and manage the systems and their configurations through the WMI Interface. IT Assistant is the main management application (one to many) that provides an overall view of system health and status and Client Connector (one to one) can be launched from IT Assistant to manage an individual client. Server Administrator can also be launched from within IT Assistant for individual Server Management, though it runs on the managed server rather than on the management station.
Some nutshell eh?
TechCrunch
I recently stumbled across TechCrunch, suprisingly enough, Digg.com had nothing to do with it. It’s an awesome Web 2.0 blog / commentary, but it’s not like your average “Hey lookie! It’s BETA!” junkfood. They actually do a great job of evaluating and providing insight into some of the more interesting services and products out there. Happy browsing!
Pandora – Social Music Genome
http://www.pandora.com/ - wow.
Like Last.fm, it’s a social music service, but it seems so fluid and intuitive that your initial response might be like mine – “Hmmm. Why didn’t I hear about this before?” – the reason: the Distributed Human Technology Mind Link (DHTML) is ever-changing and dynamic. Welcome, Web 2.x; welcome.
MyITForum.com – Awesome SMS 2003 Resource
Over the last few weeks I’ve been trying to get a deeper understanding of SMS 2003. Unfortunately, the more I learn about SMS, the more I realize that it’s going to continue to broaden it’s scope of management. From the enhanced post-SP1 patch and update management features to the Operating System Deployment Feature Pack and beyond. Luckily, MyITForum.com has got more information than I could possibly ever read, tons of tools, downloads and an active forum of knowledgable experts. Expect to see plenty of links to these folks as I discover more of their content.
Force Infrastructure Operations Master Role seizure
After raising the domain and forest functional level to Windows 2003, one of our Global Catalog Servers upon reboot started complaining that it should not be the Infrastructure Operations Master as well. It was also for some sites the only configured DNS server. Even after seizing the role from another server, the original server claimed to have the role of IOM. We removed the Global Catalog role, and then forced the original server to seize the IOM role successfully and all was well again.
This fixed it.