Dell Management Console Best Practices Dell Technical White Paper Dell Product Group - Enterprise
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Contents 1. 1. DMC BEST PRACTICES... 4 1.1 RUN DISCOVERY DAILY... 4 1.2 INSTALL ALTIRIS AGENTS... 4 1.3 PATCHING... 4 1.4 INVENTORY COLLECTION... 4 1.5 IMPORT TASK... 4 1.6 AGENT LESS INVENTORY... 4 2. 2. APPENDIX... 5 2.1 DMC DISCOVERY... 5 2.2 INSTALL ALTIRIS AGENT ON DISCOVERED DELL SERVER... 9 2.3 SCHEDULE DETERMINE WINDOWS PATCHABLE AND LINUX DELL SERVER JOB ONCE A WEEK... 13 2.4 SCHEDULE A DELL INVENTORY COLLECTOR... 16 2.5 RUN DELL DUP CATALOG IMPORT TASK... 18 2.6 SCHEDULE INVENTORY TASK... 20
1. DMC Best Practices The below are the best practices for the Dell Management console. 1.1 Run Discovery Daily Run the discovery operations daily on DMC. The discovery operation can be scheduled to run daily. 1.2 Install Altiris Agents Schedule to install Altiris agent automatically on discovered dell servers. Schedule this to run daily after discovery tasks 1.3 Patching For patching, Schedule determine windows patchable windows and Linux dell server job. This should be scheduled once a week. 1.4 Inventory Collection Schedule a Dell Inventory Collector once a month. 1.5 Import Task Run Dell DUP Catalog Import task to run once in a month and select download if modified option 1.6 Agent less Inventory Run Agent less inventory once a week Make sure it runs after discovery. Ideally, we should have minimum 2 or more hours of gap between discovery and inventory.
2. Appendix 2.1 DMC Discovery The discovery task can be scheduled to run daily. Below are the steps for scheduling discovery task in the DMC system to run daily. 1. Go to Discovery Wizard as Home -> Discovery and Inventory -> Network Discovery 2. On Left side on Menu bar, click on the Launch Discovery Wizard link shown on left hand side of the console.
3. Select the method for discovery device from following options as required: a. Targeted network scan (Ping). b. Scan network devices (ARP). 4. Press Next button. Step 2 for the discovery menu options will be displayed
5. In Step 2, Enter the IP Ranges for search discovery. 6. following option for including/excluding IP ranges can be set: a. Include (IP Subnet, IP Range, IP Address, Host Name, Custom Range) b. Exclude (IP Subnet, IP Range, IP Address, Host Name, Custom Range) c. Import a Text file with IP range. A sample import file is attached. 7. Include/Exclude the IP ranges for discovery and Press Enter. 8. Wizard Step 3 will be displayed; here device connection profile needs to be entered.
9. In Step 3, user can select already saved connection profile or add a new profile by clicking on + button 10. After selecting a profile, click Next button. 11. Step 4 for Wizard is opened, enter name for the discovery task 12. Click Next button, Step 5 for wizard will be opened. 13. Set the task scheduler (Date/Time, Repetition frequency) Or Select now to run task immediately. 14. Click on Finish to complete the procedure.
2.2 Install Altiris Agent on Discovered Dell Server Schedule a task to install Altiris agents on the dell servers discovered in the system. Follow below steps to schedule a task for installing Altiris agents on servers. 1. Go to Action -> Agents/Plug-ins -> Push Symantec Management Agent. 2. In the section Schedule Push to Computers, turn switch from Off to On.
3. Press Apply To button and select Resources 4. Resource selection wizard will be opened. 5. The rule can be set to select the resource under different categories like. a. exclude resources not in b. Filter c. All Computer 6. Click Add Rule button to apply one or multiple filers for resource selection.
7. Click on Save as button to save the filter rule then click OK button.
8. Now in When to Schedule tab select schedule at Date/time. 9. Remember to keep the scheduler to push the Altiris agent later than to that of discovery scheduler. 10. After this click on the Save Changes button.
2.3 Schedule determine windows patchable and Linux dell server job once a week 1. Go to Manage -> jobs and tasks 2. Expand the software folder, Patch Management for Dell Servers and then the client folder. 3. Click on the Determine Windows Patchable Dell Servers Job
4. Click on new schedule and schedule it to run once a week 5. Click on the Determine Linux Patchable Dell Servers Job
6. Click on new schedule and schedule it to run once a week
2.4 Schedule a Dell Inventory Collector 1. Go to Home -> Patch management for Dell Servers Home 2. Click on the Download Inventory Collector link on the left hand side of the console.
3. In the Task Status tab click on New Schedule and schedule it to run once in a month (i.e. 4 weeks).
2.5 Run Dell DUP Catalog Import task 1. Go to Home -> Patch management for Dell Servers Home. Click on the Download Updates Catalog link on the left hand side of the console.
2. In the Task Status tab click on New Schedule and schedule it to run once in a month (i.e. 4 weeks).
2.6 Schedule Inventory Task 1. Go to Inventory Wizard (Home -> Discovery and Inventory -> Agentless Inventory) 2. Click on Run Inventory wizard link on left hand side of console.
3. In Step 1:- Two option are available which are a. Choose devices radio button. b. Individual device. Select the First option and click Next Button.
4. In Step 2:- Provide Inventory task name.
5. In Step 3:- Set the task scheduler (Date/Time, Repetition frequency) Or Select now to run task immediately. 6. Click Finish button. Please note that scheduler for Inventory task should be set later (than 1 hour or more) to that of the Discovery Task scheduler. 7. Now, Task can be viewed in the Agentless Inventory page.