Get started with Dell OpenManage Enterprise: deploy, discover and monitor servers

Dell OpenManage Enterprise (OME) is, in Dell's words, a one-to-many systems management and monitoring web application delivered as a virtual appliance. You run it as a VM, point it at the iDRACs of your PowerEdge servers, and get one console for health, alerts, inventory, firmware compliance and warranty. This guide takes you from download to a working first setup. Menu names below come from the 4.3.x and 4.6 user's guides; small differences between 4.x releases are noted.

Licensing in brief

The licensing section of the guide states that installing and using OME does not need an OME licence. Optional licences add features:

Advanced and Advanced+ are perpetual licences bound to the Service Tag of one server at a time. Some features, such as Virtual Console access, also depend on the iDRAC licence of the target server.

Step 1 — Deploy the appliance

Download the OME image from the Dell support site. For VMware the guide describes this flow:

1. Extract openmanage_enterprise_ovf_format.zip to a local drive the vSphere Client can reach (installing from a network location can take much longer).
2. On Virtual Machines, click Create/Register VM, choose Deploy a virtual machine from an OVF file and click Next.
3. On Select OVF and VMDK files, name the VM and add all three extracted files.
4. On Select storage, pick a datastore with enough free space.
5. On Deployment options, set Disk provisioning to Thick, then Finish. The VM boots when the job completes.

Dell notes that a standalone ESXi host must be disconnected from vCenter for this method; for a vCenter-managed host, deploy through vCenter. For Hyper-V the 4.3.x guide uses openmanage_enterprise_vhdx_format.zip and Actions > Import Virtual Machine; set processors and memory before first power-on. For KVM it uses openmanage_enterprise_kvm_format.zip with virt-install, attaching both QCOW2 disks on the SATA bus.

Step 2 — Complete the first setup in the TUI

Open the VM console. On first boot the TUI asks you to accept the EULA and change the administrator password, then configure the network. Use the arrow keys or Tab to move, Enter to select and Space to toggle a checkbox. The main options are:

• Change the Admin Password — required the first time.
• Set Networking Parameters — IPv4/IPv6, DHCP or static address, DNS servers.
• Set Appliance Hostname — use the FQDN if DNS is set statically.
• Select Primary Network Interface — the interface used for the default route when you add more NICs.
• Display Current Appliance Status — shows the web URL and the status of internal services.

Step 3 — First login and onboarding

1. Browse to the appliance IP address. The default user name is admin.
2. In the Initial onboarding dialog (OME 4.1 and later), decide on Enable Internal iDRAC credential management. It creates a local service account on supported iDRACs after discovery. Dell cautions not to enable it if a Password Strength Policy is set on your iDRACs, and the choice cannot be changed later without redeploying the appliance.
3. Accept or decline the default plug-in agreements, then click Finish.
4. In the Welcome to OpenManage Enterprise dialog, set the time zone and NTP servers, and a proxy if the appliance reaches the internet through one.

Step 4 — Configure email for alerts

Go to Application Settings > Alerts and expand Email Configuration. Enter the SMTP server, enable authentication if needed, check the port (25 by default) and the Connection Encryption (STARTTLS or SSL/TLS), send a test email, then click Apply. The same page holds SNMP and Syslog forwarding.

Step 5 — Discover servers through iDRAC

1. Click Monitor > Discovery > Create.
2. Set Device Type to Server and choose Dell iDRAC (other choices include Host OS and non-Dell servers).
3. In IP/Hostname/Range, enter the iDRAC addresses. Prefer one range over many single-IP jobs, and do not enter networks larger than the device count your version supports.
4. Under Settings, enter the iDRAC user name and password.
5. Select the alert or trap reception option so iDRACs send alerts to OME. In 4.3.x it is Enable trap reception from discovered iDRAC servers and MX7000 chassis; in 4.6 it is Enable alert reception from discovered devices.
6. Run now or schedule, then click Finish and follow the job on the job details screen.

Afterwards, check the onboarding status in All Devices: Managed means administrator credentials were accepted, Monitored means lower-privilege credentials were used. iDRAC-side alert settings are covered in iDRAC9 alerts: email, SNMP and syslog.

Step 6 — Create an alert policy

1. Open Alerts > Alerts Policies and click Create.
2. Enter a name and description, then pick alert Category or specific Message ID values (not both).
3. Under Target, select devices or groups.
4. Optionally set a date range, time interval and days.
5. Under Severity, choose for example Critical and Warning.
6. Under Actions, choose Email (other actions include SNMP trap forwarding, Syslog, Power Control and Remote Script Execution), review the summary and click Finish.

Step 7 — Check firmware compliance against a catalog

1. Go to Configuration > Firmware/Driver Compliance and click Create Baseline.
2. In the Catalog drop-down, select a catalog, or click Add to create one. For the source choose Latest component versions on Dell.com (or a network path prepared with Dell Repository Manager) and set Update Catalog to manually or automatically.
3. Name the baseline, click Next and select the target devices or groups, then click Finish.
4. Select the baseline and click Check Compliance, then View Report.

OME does not update non-compliant devices automatically. Dell recommends running updates during maintenance windows, and notes that rollback is not supported for drivers.

Step 8 — View warranty status

Click Monitor > Warranty to see each device's warranty state, service level and days remaining. A system job refreshes warranty data once a week; click Refresh Warranty to run it now. Set the expiry warning period under Application Settings > Warranty (default 90 days). The built-in report Monitor > Reports > Warranties Expiring in Next 30 days is handy for renewal planning. See also check server warranty for Dell and HPE.

Checklist

• Hypervisor matches the host requirements of your OME version; VM boots with EFI.
• TUI done: EULA accepted, admin password changed and stored, network and hostname set.
• Internal iDRAC credential management decision made with your iDRAC password policy in mind.
• NTP and SMTP configured; test email received.
• iDRAC discovery job finished; servers show as Managed.
• Alert policy created and tested.
• Catalog and baseline created; compliance report reviewed; updates planned for a maintenance window.
• Warranty view checked and expiry warning period set.

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