Deploying Dell™ PowerEdge™ Servers in

existing HP® RDP Environments

Enterprise Product Group (EPG)

Dell White Paper

By Puneet Arora and Hector Valenzuela

March 2005 Page 1 Dell Enterprise Product Group

Contents  

 

 

Abstract .............................................................................................................................. 3

Introduction........................................................................................................................ 4

What is HP® RDP?............................................................................................................. 5

Altiris Deployment Solution for Dell Servers and Dell Deployment Pack ....................... 7

Features of Altiris Deployment Solution for Dell Servers................................................. 9

Licensing, Support and Summary.................................................................................... 11

Authors............................................................................................................................. 12

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Section 1

Abstract This paper helps customers utilize HP Rapid Deployment Pack (RDP) to manage Dell Power Edge Servers.  This solution eliminates the need for RDP customers to learn new vendor‐specific management tools and/or design/deploy a completely new management infrastructure when introducing Dell PowerEdge Servers 

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Section 2

Introduction

Introduction With all the ongoing challenges of running a Data Center, it is difficult for IT professionals to take on the task of introducing servers from a new vendor into an existing deployment infrastructure without having to establish another vendor specific framework. Integrating new solutions can be problematic for a variety of reasons including:

• Will take a lot of “time and resources” • Overall “cost” will be high • Will be a “steep learning curve”

Dell recognizes these challenges. We seek ways to help our customers with minimal disruption of existing processes. This article explains the tools available today that enable IT professionals to integrate, deploy and manage Dell PowerEdge Servers using their existing RDP environment. These tools enable them to do this as seamlessly as possible

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Section 3

What is HP’s RDP?

HP’s RDP is an aggregation of Altiris Deployment Solution (DS) 6.1, ProLiant Integration module for Deployment Server and ProLiant Integration Module for NFS Server (see Figure 1). Though the product is based on the Altiris framework, HP actually develops, sells and supports RDP. Figure 1: Rapid Deployment Pack

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Contents of RDP: As mentioned above, RDP contains 3 separate components:

1. It uses Altiris® DS as an underlying engine to remotely deploy and manage ProLiant Servers.

2. ProLiant Integration Module is an add-on pack that can be installed into the Altiris DS Console. During install, it populates pre-defined jobs into the DS Console for a variety of Proliant servers. It also copies all the necessary SmartStart Scripting tools and scripts for HW Configuration and deployment (see Figure 2).

3. ProLiant Integration Module for NFS Server is a module that can be executed on a Linux® system. It prepares the Linux system with an NFS share and copies supported Linux Operating System files (provided by the end users).

Figure 2: HP’s RDP with ProLiant Integration Installed

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Section 4

What is Altiris Deployment Solution for Dell Servers and Dell Deployment Pack? Altiris Deployment Solution for Dell Servers is an aggregation of Altiris Deployment Server 6.1 and the Dell Deployment add-on pack. The Dell add-on pack is a free download from Altiris to any licensed user of Altiris Deployment Solution. Customers already using RDP can install the Dell Add-on pack into their existing installation of Altiris Deployment Solution. The RDP infrastructure including the console, engine, database and agent all remain identical – the add-on pack simply adds prebuilt, Dell-specific jobs to the RDP console. Integration is straight forward, intuitive, and very easy (see Figure 3). Figure 3: Installation

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The Dell Deployment add-on pack is provided as an executable that can simply be downloaded to the RDP server and double-clicked to begin the installation. The setup will automatically:

• Populate the RDP Console, with pre-defined, Dell-specific jobs • Copy all necessary scripts and Dell’s OpenManage Deployment Toolkit into the

Altiris DS eXpress directory • Start the Dell Configuration Wizard. The Wizard allows you to perform many

tasks such as: add-in different Dell PowerEdge server models, add-in Dell PowerEdge server specific files, copy OS installation files and other tasks. This wizard can also be executed after installation from the Altiris DS Console by selecting Tools -> Dell Tools -> Dell Configuration wizard (see figure 4)

Figure 4: Dell Configuration Wizard

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Section 5

Features of Altiris Deployment Solution for Dell Servers Pre-defined jobs and scripts included in this solution enable IT professionals to configure Dell PowerEdge server components such as BIOS, BMC, RAID and DRAC in Pre-OS environment. It also includes pre-defined jobs for unattended or image-based Windows and Linux OS installations. Additionally you can update drivers and Firmware after the OS is installed. The included Pre-Defined jobs in this solution are task oriented and intelligent enough to detect the different Dell PowerEdge Servers that they are being executed on. In other words, you can run the same job on multiple servers and the job will execute model-specific tasks based on the script. You can choose to individually run these jobs separately to perform its specific task or you can run a single job that can “do-it-all.” The Pre-Defined jobs are logically divided in 4 separate folders (see Figure 5): Figure 5: Pre-Defined Jobs

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Pre OS-Deployment Jobs folder: This folder contains pre-defined jobs to:

• Capture Hardware configuration out to a file • Configure Hardware using pre-captured settings as input • Create Hard disk partitioning, including Dell Utility and OS partitions.

OS Deployment Jobs folder: This folder contains pre-defined jobs to perform:

• Unattended installation of Windows® and Red Hat® Operating Systems • Image capturing and deployment of Windows and Red Hat Operating Systems • Bare Metal to Operating System Deployment

Post OS-Deployment Jobs: This folder contains pre-defined jobs to:

• Apply Dell Update Packages to automatically update BIOS, ESM Firmware, RAID Firmware, RAID Drivers, DRAC Firmware and BMC Firmware.

• Install Dell OpenManage Server Administrator

Dell Samples Folder: This folder contains sample jobs for miscellaneous tasks such as get RAID information and get systems information.

These pre-defined jobs provide a consistent way to build your environment from bare metal to OS deployment as well as update drivers and Firmware after the OS is installed. They also help reduce the time to deploy Dell PowerEdge servers and minimize potential human error.

Section 6

Licensing, Support and Summary

Licensing As mentioned earlier, any licensed user of Altiris Deployment Solution can download and install the Dell Add-on pack for free. The add-on pack comes bundled in the installation of the Altiris Deployment Solution for Dell Servers product and is available separately for current users of Altiris Deployment Solution. Both the bundled installation and the add-on pack are available for download at www.altiris.com/products/delldeploy. Note that RDP licenses can only be used to manage HP servers. If a customer has excess RDP licenses the RDP EULA does not allow those licenses to be used to manage the Dell servers. In this event, the customer would have to buy additional Altiris Deployment Solution licenses and register them in the RDP console to manage the Dell servers. Both RDP licenses and standard Altiris Deployment Solution licenses can be registered in the same console. Customers can purchase Altiris Deployment Solution licenses from Dell, from Altiris directly, or from any Altiris partner. If you have any specific licensing questions, please contact either your local Altiris or Dell representative.

Support for Altiris Deployment Solution for Dell PowerEdge Servers Dell develops and supports the OpenManage Deployment Toolkit (OMDTK). Altiris uses the OMDTK to build the jobs provided in the Dell Add-on pack. Altiris is the first line of support for this solution. If Altiris support determines the problem is in the Dell OMDTK they will engage Altiris PM and the Dell OMDTK development team. Summary Both solutions, HP’s RDP and the Dell Deployment add-on pack, are based on the same Altiris Deployment Solution framework. Customers can integrate the Dell add-on pack into existing Altiris Deployment Solution installation, including HP’s RDP. Customers will instantly recognize the provided Dell jobs and intuitively understand how to use them. This solution requires no additional customer training and no changes to the current deployment framework. March 2005 Page 11 Dell Enterprise Product Group

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Authors: Puneet Arora works in Custom Solutions Engineering group at Dell as solutions architect. He has completed many projects around deployments requiring integration and deployment of Dell PowerEdge Servers in many different customer environments including HP’s RDP. Hector Valenzuela works in Custom Solutions Engineering group at Dell as a solutions architect. He has worked on multiple deployment, change management and SAN projects. 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 is a trademark of Dell Inc. Dell Inc. disclaims any proprietary interest in trademarks and names other than its own. ©2005 Dell Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of Dell Inc. is strictly forbidden.