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What are the processes to be able to inventory a DRAC in FNMS for a Dell server?  I have a need to mange hardware asset details and the DRAC is not coming in via FNMS agent inventory.

 

Is the SubAsset field in FNMS the right place to document DRACS?

I need to have the relationship between the chassis and the drac.  Also I need to have the IP addresses for both.

(5) Replies
mfranz
By Level 17 Champion
Level 17 Champion

Hi,

"Dell Remote Access Controller" (DRAC) is basically a computer within a computer. It accesses the system bus and I doubt that it registers with the base machine. Therefore I guess it is not tranparent to the OS, hence the agent cannot see it.

If I am wrong and the controller can be seen, for example in Windows, you may just extend the wmitrack.ini (assuming the device does have a WMI class respresenting it).

Best regards,

Markward

This is consistent with what I was expecting.  I was hoping for a way to automate the documentation though.

I have Linux based servers as well, so the wmi option does not quite get me there if the agent doesn't have a way to interrogate the chassis.

Will discovery be able to figure out what it is?

 

Once I have the details about a drac, would this be considered a Sub-Asset?

Doubtful, I see 2 issues:

  • I guess these cards will be in destinct management network segments. So it's questionable if you can see them at all.
  • Discovery is basically just a ping. I am not sure if you're able to distingish them from other devices.

The same type of issue is in other vendors. HP had iLO, IBM has Insight and Cisco has UCS manager. While HP is built on the motherboard and requires a license to activate, IBM has a removable board with separate licensing, and UCS is a whole different asset but not discoverable by FNMS since it is an appliance. I would view Dell, HP and IBM as components or accessories. Cisco is a straight up specialized switch. If they are on your regular network segments the reply to ping will require you to account for it in an audit but alas no way to assign it to the inventory (for non-Cisco) since it is not part of the OS features. How Flexera plans to account for the licensing of these usually non-transferable licenses and help IT manage the spend on it , is something I would like to hear. 

While there is clearly software involved, this looks more like Hardware Asset Management (HAM). I seriously doubt that this fits the scope of FNMS.

On the other hand, if you had a structured source for such devices (CMDB?) you can easily create a Business Import and for example allocate machines with such devices.