Remote
At a time when CIOs are
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[ C u t t i n g E d g e ] Remote control
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Remote control [ C u t t i n g E d g e ]
oday’s enterprises operate in a
distributed world. Long gone are
the days when IT assets resided in
a closet down the hall. Today,
assets are spread across the globe, and without comprehensive remote
management, these systems cost your business more time and money
than they should.
Why? Because managing distributed systems entails numerous
mission-critical tasks. These systems run your business, and they
must remain up and running at all times—no exceptions. An IT infra-
structure needs to protect the integrity of business information, yet
make it available to users when they demand it. When a company
implements a new technology, IT must be able to upgrade systems
with almost no downtime or service interruption.
Some industries have more pressing availability demands than
others. For a large bank with customers around the world, a single
hiccup in the availability of online transaction processing (OLTP)
applications can put a barrier between millions of customers and
their money. Even downtime of internal systems—such as customer
relationship management (CRM) and supply chain management (SCM)—
can cause expensive delays.
The need for high availability and systems management tools
transcends industry lines. In fact, any enterprise with distributed
locations or complex supply chains—from banks to restaurant chains
to automobile manufacturers—needs a cost-effective way to manage
complex infrastructures. Enterprise IT shops need efficient tools to
administer distributed critical systems in a way that reduces expenses.
Greater than the sum of its parts
Systems management refers to a set of tools, processes, and proce-
dures that help organizations support IT infrastructure hardware and
software throughout a system’s life cycle. It helps IT resources to be
as productive as possible and consume the least amount of adminis-
trative and support costs and avoid costly downtime.
“The ability to remotely manage computing devices plays a key
role in several enterprise-management trends,” says Pete Morowski,
vice president of software for the Dell™ Enterprise Systems Group.
“For example, the continued push for consolidated systems dispersed
across wide geographies requires IT professionals to monitor and
manage numerous devices in multiple locations.”
At the same time, enterprises are rediscovering the merits of the data
center, where server consolidation and clustering present new manage-
ment challenges. Server clusters and storage area networks (SANs)
comprise hardware, software, networks, and storage—components often
considered to be separate pieces. But the focus today is on comprehen-
sive systems management, including the ability to remotely manage
O C T O B E R 2 0 0 2 D E L L I N S I G H T 2 9
t
econtrol
pressed to do more with less,remote systems management tools can helpdeliver cost savings and higher productivity
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By Cathy Luo
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these architectures as complete systems, not just individual compo-
nents. By corralling distributed systems and simplifying administration,
remote management tools streamline several IT processes—resulting in a
smaller IT staff that accomplishes more and costs less without causing
interruptions to daily business.
FASTER DEPLOYMENT AND INSTALL ATION
Centralized and remote systems management helps new systems
contribute to the bottom line as quickly as possible and without
interruption. These solutions allow administrators to install, config-
ure, update, and proactively manage a large number of systems over
a network without leaving their desks. Productivity increases when
they can perform an operation once from virtually anywhere and
have it automatically apply to many remote systems. For example, a
large manufacturer with factories around the world can use remote
management to save the time and money previously spent traveling
to distant locations, administering multiple servers.
RAPID RESOLUTION OF PROBLEMS AND HIGHER AVAIL ABILIT Y
Remote management also enables enterprises to catch potential
service outages before they negatively affect the business. Using
event management capabilities, administrators can receive instant
alerts at the moment a problem occurs—often before the problem
causes costly downtime. This immediate notification would enable
administrators at a large bank to dispatch repair technicians to
remedy problems quickly—or prevent them without disrupting
network uptime for millions of customers.
The right tools for the job
From the edges of an enterprise to the heart of a data center, the
fundamental proposition behind systems management remains
the same: IT professionals must reduce infrastructure complexity,
maintain availability of mission-critical systems, and monitor
systems within the enterprise.
The Dell Intelligent IT approach to systems management is a
holistic treatment of all network components in the enterprise. “Dell
Intelligent IT comprises a collection of tools that enable complete life
cycle management—giving customers the ability to rapidly deploy
our systems, manage them on a day-to-day basis, and service them,”
says Jeff Jilg, an enterprise software architect at Dell.
The Intelligent IT approach is designed to facilitate remote
management throughout the many stages of a system’s life cycle, a
few of which include:
» Deployment: Installing, configuring, and deploying the
operating system, management agents, and management
applications
» Operations: Monitoring, managing, and reporting the
systems’ health
» Service: Diagnosing and quickly repairing a problem
Dell has taken a cross-platform approach to developing Intelligent IT
tools. As a result, the tools can support Linux®, Microsoft® Windows®,
and Novell® NetWare® operating systems. Dell OpenManage™ software
also supports pure Linux-based, Windows-based, or mixed environ-
ments, and both the Netscape® Navigator® and Microsoft Internet
Explorer browsers. Intelligent IT products provide management for
hardware including Dell Latitude™ notebooks, Dell Precision™ work-
stations, Dell OptiPlex™ desktops, Dell PowerEdge™ servers, Dell
PowerVault™ storage systems, and Dell PowerConnect™ switches.
SIMPLIFIED INSTALL ATION
Intelligent IT deployment products are designed to simplify software
installation and uninstallation processes, which are critical capabili-
ties for large enterprises in nearly any industry.
S E T T I N G U P I N D I V I D U A L S E R V E R S
Intelligent IT includes products that allow enterprises to set up
and configure PowerEdge servers and system components. A CD
kit simplifies the operating system installation process and requires
minimal technical experience. It provides a smart installation option,
which installs only the necessary components and performs unat-
tended installation of supported operating systems. The CD kit also
contains an application that offers one-button installation of the
management agents and software.
C L O N I N G S Y S T E M S O F T W A R E O N M U L T I P L E R E M O T E S Y S T E M S
As an alternative to inefficient conventional installation, Dell has intro-
duced image-based deployment software called Dell OpenManage
Remote Install, which helps quickly clone operating system software,
applications, and configuration information over the network onto
multiple remote Dell blade servers. Using OpenManage Remote Install,
administrators can control the deployment from a central console. The
remote servers do not need attention from an operator at any time after
power-up, nor do they require any console peripherals (keyboard,
mouse, or monitor) attached to them.
The ability to remotely manage computing devices plays a key role in several enterprise-management trends
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GROUP MANAGEMENT
An enterprise can incorporate a wide variety of IT environments,
from a small group of servers in a centralized location to hundreds of
heterogeneous servers located globally. The complexity of the network
determines the level of server management required: individual server
management, group management, or enterprise management.
A D M I N I S T E R I N G I N D I V I D U A L S E R V E R S
By using Dell OpenManage Server Administrator, administrators
can manage individual servers from virtually anywhere at any time.
Server Administrator, which runs as an agent on a managed server,
lets administrators monitor system status, report on asset and array
information, view an audit trail of system changes, provide version
control for firmware and BIOS, and execute online diagnostics for
preventive maintenance or troubleshooting. Administrators can access
Server Administrator through an industry-standard Web browser so
they can manage a server locally or remotely.
M O N I T O R I N G G R O U P S O F S E R V E R S F R O M A C E N T R A L I Z E D L O C A T I O N
Dell OpenManage IT Assistant, on the other hand, provides central-
ized management for groups of networked servers, desktops, porta-
bles, and workstations. Administrators can access this enterprise
console through a Web browser from anywhere in an intranet.
IT Assistant automatically detects all networked Dell systems and
supplies current health and status information for each system and its
components, including memory, processors, network interface cards,
and attached storage.
I N T E G R A T I N G S E R V E R S W I T H I N A N E N T E R P R I S E
M A N A G E M E N T F R A M E W O R K
Organizations that have geographically dispersed data centers
containing hundreds of heterogeneous servers often require advanced
management capabilities. Some organizations use enterprise manage-
ment console frameworks such as Computer Associates™ Unicenter®
Solutions, Tivoli Enterprise Console, HP™ OpenView® Network Node
Manager, and BMC Software PATROL® Console. Dell OpenManage
Connections software allows Dell hardware-specific information to
be forwarded to these frameworks.
F I X I N G T H E B R E A K B E F O R E I T H A P P E N S
When a server in a remote location refuses to boot, a system admin-
istrator may need to travel off-site to fix it, or chase down someone
at the remote site and explain the problem. A more efficient method
is to provide administrators with remote-access capabilities that
allow them to fix remote systems without ever leaving their desks.
Using Dell hardware and Intelligent IT tools, administrators can
remotely access networked servers for control, troubleshooting,
and maintenance.
Using OpenManage Server Administrator, administrators can
remotely apply diagnostics to analyze and predict problems before
they disrupt operations. The software allows administrators to inter-
actively run diagnostics, immediately receive and review the results,
and take constructive, preventive measures based on the review.
Enterprise-wide coverage
Today, remote management is more critical than ever for IT professionals
tasked with minimizing costs and maximizing availability. Dell focuses
its expertise on developing tools that allow IT professionals to manage
their enterprise systems remotely without sacrificing security, availabil-
ity, and usability—all leading toward the low total cost of ownership
that CFOs demand.
“Going forward, a key tenet for Dell is that our management system
must be easy to upgrade, and rollouts of subsequent Intelligent IT
components should provide that capability,” Morowski says. “Today’s
IT professionals need to manage everything across the enterprise from
desktops to servers to SANs, and Dell has the unique opportunity to
provide its customers with a total solution to meet that challenge.”
For more information about Dell Intelligent IT solutions, please visit
www.dell.com/intelligentit.
About the author: Cathy Luo is a contributing writer for Dell Insight.
Remote control [ C u t t i n g E d g e ]
O C T O B E R 2 0 0 2 D E L L I N S I G H T 3 1
controToday's IT professionals need to manage everything across the enterprise…
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