March 29, 2014

Install Dell OpenManage Server Administrator on VMware ESXi 5.x

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Dell OpenManage Server Administrator or OMSA  allows you to see detailed information regarding your Dell hardware. It also allows you to perform operations such as specifying hot spares, configure RAID arrays and setup hardware monitoring and alerts.

Download the OMSA Offline Bundle from the Dell Website

Visit http://support.dell.com, enter your servers ‘service tag’ then browse to ‘Drivers and Downloads’. Under ‘Operating System’ select the version of VMware ESXi you are using, e.g. VMware ESXi 5.5 then under the “Systems Management” download the “Dell OpenManageServer Administrator vSphere Installation Bundle (VIB) for ESXi X.X.X” where X.X.X is your version.

Enable SSH on your VMware Server

In order to upload the OMSA Offline Bundle and install it you will need to enable SSH access to your VMware server as follows:

Use the vSphere Client to enable local and remote access to the ESXi Shell:

  1. Log into a vCenter Server system using the vSphere Client.
  2. Select the host in the inventory panel.
  3. Click the Configuration tab and click Security Profile.
  4. In the Services section, click Properties.
  5. Select ESXi Shell from this list:
    ESXi Shell
    SSH
    Direct Console UI
  6. Click Options and select Start and stop manually.Note: When you select Start and stop manually, the service does not start when you reboot the host. If you want the service to start when you reboot the host, select Start and stop with host.
  7. Click Start to enable the service.
  8. Click OK.

Once you have enabled SSH download a copy of Putty and test making a connection to your VMware server. Login using your VMware root account and/or AD integrated account (varying on your authentication setup).

Upload OM-SrvAdmin Package to VMware ESXi Server

There are several ways to upload the OM-SrvAdmin-Dell-Web-X.X.X-XX.VIB-ESXXi_A00 package to your server.

  1. Using WinSCP or Filezilla
  2. Upload to the Data Store using the VMware ESXi Client

Whichever way you choose, make sure you upload the ZIP “as-is” to the /tmp folder on the ESXi server. If you use the VMware ESXi Client to upload to the data store you will need to copy it, using SSH, to /tmp/ before installing.

Install the OM-SrvAdmin Package on the VMware ESXi Server

SSH into your VMware ESXi server then install the package using the following command:

# esxcli software vib install -d /tmp/OM-SrvAdmin-Dell-Web-X.X.X-XXX.VIB-ESXXX_A00.zip

Make sure to replace the ZIP file name with the version you downloaded.

Once the install is complete you a message will be displayed advising you that the install was successful but the VMware Host needs to be rebooted. Proceed in powering off any VMware guests on the server then reboot the host.

Connect to Dell OpenManage Server Administrator on VMware

The OMSA package for VMware does not include the web server on the VMware host, rather you are required to use an existing Dell OpenManage installation on another server OR to install Dell OMSA on a workstation.

This the time of this blog post I have been deploying OM-SrvAdmin-Dell-Web-WINX64-7.4.0-866_A00.exe which can be used to manage OMSA 7.4 and prior installs.

From an server which already has Dell OpenManage installed you can simply open Internet Explorer and browse to:

http://server-name:1311/servlet/OMSALogin?manageDWS=false

Be sure to change ‘server-name’ to the name of server you are on. By setting the manageDWS parameter in the URL to false it will permit you to enter the IP address or DNS server name of the ESXi box. You will enter the ESXi host’s hostname, username and password.  You will most likely need to check the Ignore certificate warnings checkbox.

You will now be logged in and able to manage your VMware ESXi server lifecycle using Dell OpenManage!

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