Contents

Dell VxFlex R740xd Solution Managing Guide PDF

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Summary of Content for Dell VxFlex R740xd Solution Managing Guide PDF

Managing Dell EMC VxFlex Ready Node using Dell EMC OpenManage Enterprise

May 2022 Rev. 06

Notes, cautions, and warnings

NOTE: A NOTE indicates important information that helps you make better use of your product.

CAUTION: A CAUTION indicates either potential damage to hardware or loss of data and tells you how to avoid

the problem.

WARNING: A WARNING indicates a potential for property damage, personal injury, or death.

2022 Dell Inc. or its subsidiaries. All rights reserved. Dell Technologies, Dell, and other trademarks are trademarks of Dell Inc. or its subsidiaries. Other trademarks may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Chapter 1: Introduction................................................................................................................. 4 Audience................................................................................................................................................................................ 4 Scope......................................................................................................................................................................................4 Infrastructure components................................................................................................................................................4 PowerFlex..............................................................................................................................................................................5

Chapter 2: Revision history........................................................................................................... 7

Chapter 3: VxFlex Ready Node.......................................................................................................8

Chapter 4: OpenManage Enterprise...............................................................................................9 Component Versions...........................................................................................................................................................9

Chapter 5: Managment and monitoring of VxFlex Ready Node......................................................10 Discovery and inventory of VxFlex Ready Node........................................................................................................ 10

Creating a custom device group............................................................................................................................... 11 Firmware updates and compliance on a VxFlex Ready Node..................................................................................12 Meet prerequisites for maintenance............................................................................................................................. 13

Two-layer configuration..............................................................................................................................................13 Gracefully shut down the node on a Linux-based server................................................................................... 13 Power down the ESXi host .......................................................................................................................................15 Return a Linux-based node to operation................................................................................................................ 16 Return an ESXi-based compute-only node to operation.................................................................................... 16 Obtain the firmware catalog for VxFlex Ready Nodes........................................................................................17 Create a baseline for the catalog............................................................................................................................. 17 Verify SDS connectivity and PowerFlex cluster state........................................................................................ 18

Enforce device compliance on a VxFlex Ready Node............................................................................................... 19 Configure the Deployment File Share.....................................................................................................................20

Create a compliance baseline template from deployment template.....................................................................20 Create a compliance baseline template from reference device.............................................................................20 Create a compliance baseline by importing from a file............................................................................................ 20 Create compliance baseline............................................................................................................................................. 21 Remediate non-compliant device...................................................................................................................................21 Discover missing drive labels...........................................................................................................................................21 Alert policies........................................................................................................................................................................ 21

Monitor health of VxFlex Ready Node server...................................................................................................... 22 VxFlex Ready Node server lockdown........................................................................................................................... 23 Monitor health of VxFlex Ready Node server............................................................................................................ 23

Acknowledge alerts.....................................................................................................................................................25 Unacknowledged alerts..............................................................................................................................................25 Ignore alerts..................................................................................................................................................................25 Delete alerts..................................................................................................................................................................25 Alert Definitions........................................................................................................................................................... 25

Contents

Contents 3

Introduction The benefits of node virtualization are well understood in the modern data center.

Dell EMC PowerFlex SDS applies the virtualization principles of abstraction, pooling, and automation to local storage in standard x86 nodes, creating a high-performance shared storage service without the need for conventional storage arrays.

The Dell EMC VxFlex Ready Node is the pre-validated, tested, and optimized building block for a software-defined block storage system that combines Dell EMC PowerEdge servers with VxFlex software. This solution reduces the time IT organizations spend in planning and deploying a new infrastructure that is scalable and flexible.

However, IT administrators managing the VxFlex Ready Node environment face several challenges such as managing system updates, tracking qualified versions of BIOS/firmware, and ensuring correct system configuration settings.

This guide addresses these challenges and describes the procedure to update VxFlex Ready Node to a qualified BIOS/firmware version. It also discusses how to enforce device compliance by using a configuration baseline within the Dell EMC VxFlex Ready Node environment using OpenManage Enterprise.

Audience The audience for this guide includes sales engineers, field consultants, IT administrators, customers and anyone else interested in configuring and using OpenManage Enterprise to manage and monitor Dell EMC VxFlex Ready Node.

Readers are expected to have an understanding and working knowledge of PowerFlex, VMware, Linux, OpenManage Enterprise, and iDRAC.

Scope PowerFlex supports multiple operating systems and hypervisors including Windows, Linux, ESXi, Hyper-V, and KVM.

This guide provides guidance for VxFlex Ready Node based on VMware vSphere environment in hyper-converged configuration and Linux in two-layer configuration. BIOS/ firmware update using OpenManage Enterprise is applicable only for non-AMS VxFlex Ready Node deployments.

This guide does not intend to provide detailed information about the PowerFlex architecture.

For more information about PowerFlex architecture, see the Dell EMC PowerFlex Basic Architecture Documentation listed in the reference section. The document does not provide deployment guidelines for VxFlex Ready Node, VMware vCenter, Linux, and OpenManage Enterprise.

The procedures mentioned in this guide are applicable to VxFlex Ready Node R650, R6525, and R750 systems.

Infrastructure components PowerFlex can be implemented in a hyper-converged or two-layer configuration.

Figure 1 and Figure 2 show various components of a hyper-converged and two-layer VxFlex Ready Node deployment. OpenManage Enterprise and PowerFlex GUI are installed on a Windows virtual machine hosted on the management node/ cluster along with the PowerFlex Gateway VM. In hyper-converged configuration, vCSA is also hosted on the management node/cluster. The following subsections provide a high-level overview of the key components.

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4 Introduction

Figure 1. Hyperconverged configuration based on VMware vSphere environment

Figure 2. Two-layer configuration based on Linux

PowerFlex PowerFlex is a software solution that uses existing node storage in application nodes to create a node-based storage area network (SAN).

This SDS environment gives all member nodes access to the unused storage in the environment, regardless of which node the storage is on. PowerFlex combines different types of storage (hard disk drives, solid-state disks and other persistent storage devices) to create a shared block storage. It is hardware agnostic and supports installation on dedicated physical and/or virtual

Introduction 5

application nodes. Since PowerFlex does not require any dedicated SAN fabric or switch, it reduces the cost and complexity involved in using a traditional SAN.

PowerFlex consists of three main components: Storage Data Client (SDC): The SDC is a lightweight, block device-driver that presents PowerFlex shared block volumes

to applications. The SDC runs on the same node as the application. This enables the SDC to fulfill IO requests issued by the application regardless of where the particular data blocks physically reside.

Storage Data Node (SDS): The SDS manages the local storage that contributes to the PowerFlex storage pools. The SDS runs on each of the nodes that contribute storage to the PowerFlex system. The SDS performs the back-end operations that SDCs request. For ESXi environments, the SDS driver is installed on the Storage Virtual Machine (SVM) that runs on the local storage on each host.

MetaData Manager (MDM): The MDM configures and monitors the PowerFlex components. It contains all the metadata required for PowerFlex operations. For ESXi environments, MDM is installed on the SVM that runs on the local storage on each host.

6 Introduction

Revision history Table 1. Revision history

Date Document revision Description of changes

April 2022 05 Added workaround for displaying HDD and SSD drive labels in the firmware and driver compliance report

February 2020 04 updates moving to OpenManage Enterprise.

January 2019 03 Updated OpenManage Enterprise 2.4 to OpenManage Enterprise 3. 2

March 2018 02 Updated OpenManage Enterprise 2.3 to OpenManage Enterprise 3.2

Added Two-layer RHEL/CentOS based configuration Appendix

November 2017 01 Initial release

2

Revision history 7

VxFlex Ready Node Dell EMC VxFlex Ready Node combine Dell EMC PowerEdge servers and PowerFlex to create a reliable, quick, and easy-to- deploy building block for software-defined storage solution.

Customers can take advantage of the scalability of PowerFlex on a rack-optimized PowerEdge server designed to reduce the time spent in planning and deploying new infrastructure. VxFlex Ready Node are tested and validated. Therefore, customers deploying a hyper-converged or two-layer system can depend on this optimized building block to provide the resiliency and availability for their business demands.

Dell EMC VxFlex Ready Node are tuned and optimized for PowerFlex. This includes checking that all components follow Dell-approved manufacturers lists (AMLs) for firmware, BIOS versions, hardware compatibility list (HCL) lookup, and driver downloads.

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8 VxFlex Ready Node

OpenManage Enterprise OpenManage Enterprise is a lightweight, web-based, one-to-many console that provides a comprehensive view of Dell EMC systems, devices and its components in an enterprise network.

It simplifies hardware management through the ease of use and automation. OpenManage Enterprise is interoperable with other Dell EMC tools and services like Dell Repository Manager (DRM). It is a single point for stack management and supports several third-party integrations including VMware vCenter.

Designed for easy installation and use, OpenManage Enterprise also monitors the health status of both Dell EMC and multi-vendor hardware environmentsincluding anytime, anywhere access to status and alerts through OpenManage Mobile- equipped handheld devices. OpenManage Enterprise also makes it simple and quick to discover, provision, deploy, configure and monitor PowerEdge servers and its components.

In addition, OpenManage Enterprise performs extensive asset reporting. It tracks contract warranty and expiration information for discovered assets, which can be viewed through predefined reports. Field-replaceable unit and service-tag reporting are also included. The OpenManage Enterprise dashboard, automated alerts, and asset reporting functionality are designed to provide administrators with relevant and actionable information about their Dell EMC hardware assets.

NOTE: For VxFlex Ready Node customers using OpenManage Enterprise, Dell EMC recommends the purchase of iDRAC

Enterprise with OpenManage Enterprise Node Configuration Management license. The OpenManage Enterprise Node

Configuration Management license is required for complete node configuration management capabilities.

For information about how to install OpenManage Enterprise, refer to the documentation Installing Dell EMC OpenManage Enterprise listed in the reference section.

Component Versions The following table lists the versions of software components used in this solution. For guidance on newer versions of this document, see the following link: https://support.emc.com/products/42215_VxFlex-ReadyNode-Series/Documentation/

Table 2. Software components

Software Version

PowerFlex 3.6.0.2 and 3.5.1.3

OpenManage Enterprise 3.2

VMware vSphere ESXi 6.5u1

VMware vCenter Node Appliance 6.0u3

HEL/CentOS 7.4

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OpenManage Enterprise 9

Managment and monitoring of VxFlex Ready Node

You can use OpenManage Enterprise to perform the following operational aspects of managing and monitoring the VxFlex Ready Node.

Discovery and inventory of VxFlex Ready Node: VxFlex Ready Node can be discovered and inventoried using OpenManage Enterprise. After VxFlex Ready Nodes are discovered and inventoried in a PowerFlex cluster, complete hardware configuration information (including disk information) and BIOS and firmware versions of all the nodes are available from a single OpenManage Enterprise console.

Firmware updates and compliance on a VxFlex Ready Node: OpenManage Enterprise can be used to simplify firmware updates of all the VxFlex Ready Node. Using a catalog, all the VxFlex Ready Node can be updated seamlessly to a qualified set of BIOS/firmware.

Device compliance on a VxFlex Ready Node: OpenManage Enterprise can be used to track BIOS and other system configuration. A system configuration baseline can be first established that saves all the system configuration. Whenever the configuration needs to be updated, the baseline is updated and OpenManage Enterprise can be used to apply this update to all the nodes in the PowerFlex cluster.

Configure system alerts and notifications: VxFlex Ready Nodes generate SNMP alerts for hardware events. OpenManage Enterprise can be used to monitor these alerts from all the VxFlex Ready Nodes. Administrator can then configure actions to specific alerts such as generating email notifications upon disk failures.

System lockdown: System lockdown is a new capability introduced in PowerEdge 14th generation nodes that prevents unauthorized or unintentional modification of the system configuration. You can put a VxFlex Ready Node under System Lockdown so that any updates to BIOS/iDRAC configuration settings and firmware updates are blocked.

Monitor health of VxFlex Ready Nodes: OpenManage Enterprise can be used to monitor the health status of all the nodes in a PowerFlex cluster, including hardware health information.

The following subsections describe each task in detail.

Discovery and inventory of VxFlex Ready Node OpenManage Enterprise supports agentless discovery and inventory of VxFlex Ready Nodes by communicating directly with nodes integrated Dell Remote Access Controller (iDRAC) using WS-MAN protocol. Once discovered, the VxFlex Ready Node is inventoried automatically and provides detailed information about the VxFlex Ready Node and all of its components such as processor, memory, NIC, hard disks, BIOS version, controller firmware version and so on.

About this task

The following steps can be used to discover and inventory VxFlex Ready Node using OpenManage Enterprise:

Steps

1. To launchOpenManage Enterprise console, open a browser window and type in the IP address of the OpenManage Enterprise appliance VM.

2. Click Initial Settings to set the Time Configuration and Proxy Configuration if applicable.

3. Click Discover Devices to create a Discovery Job.

a. Click the down arrow in the box below Device Type > Server > Dell iDRAC > OK. b. In the IP/Hostname/Range box, provide a discovery IP range. Sample IP range:

192.168.100.10-192.168.100.20 c. You can exclude an IP range by clicking on Global Exclude. d. In the Services API Credentials section, provide the iDRAC credentials. e. In the Schedule Discovery Job section, select Run Now and then click Finish.

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10 Managment and monitoring of VxFlex Ready Node

Results

After discovering the nodes, create a custom group and VxFlex Ready Node devices should be added to that group.

Creating a custom device group

Creating a custom device group

Prerequisites

About this task

Steps

1. Devices > All Devices

2. Check all of the discovered nodes and click Add to Group > Add to New Group

Figure 3. Add new group in OpenManage Enterprise

3. Specify a desired name (for example, VxFlex Ready Nodes) and description for the group, and click Finish.

Once the group is created, it is displayed in Static Groups section of the Custom Groups. Clicking on a name of a node brings up the node information page as shown in the following screenshot:

Managment and monitoring of VxFlex Ready Node 11

Figure 4. Node information page

Firmware updates and compliance on a VxFlex Ready Node OpenManage Enterprise can be used to perform firmware updates on VxFlex Ready Nodes. The following are the high-level steps for updating the firmware version on a VxFlex Ready Node:

Figure 5. Workflow demonstrating firmware update process on VxFlex Ready Node

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The following subsections explain the preceding steps in detail. Note that each step needs to be executed manually for each VxFlex Ready Node in the cluster.

Meet prerequisites for maintenance

Two-layer configuration

The following prerequisites should be met for Linux based two-layer configuration. Administrator must verify in the PowerFlex GUI that:

No SDS is disconnected. No other Fault Unit (standalone SDS) is in maintenance mode. There must be adequate space on other SDSs for additional backup. No rebuild or rebalance is running in the background. No degraded capacity exists. No SDS device is in error state. MDM cluster is not in degraded mode. If the node that is going to be updated is a master MDM, MDM ownership is switched to a slave (Use the same scli

commands given in the above section).

The above steps ensure that all the requirements are met and there are no faults before placing a VxFlex Ready Node into Maintenance Mode.

Gracefully shut down the node on a Linux-based server

Prepare a Linux-based VxFlex Ready Node server for part replacement by entering the node into maintenance mode and shutting down the node in a graceful fashion.

Prerequisites

CAUTION: Dell EMC recommends that you place the node into maintenance mode immediately before shutting

down the node and replacing the part.

Ensure that you have the following credentials (available from the administrator):

PowerFlex presentation server IP address or hostname, used for accessing the PowerFlex GUI. Admin rights for accessing the PowerFlex GUI. If necessary, the customer can give you the credentials.

CAUTION: This procedure causes a rebalance process to start, during which time the system uses resources to

transfer data from the faulty node to currently unallocated space. If the node fails or is powered off due to the

fault, a rebuild process will start. If another fault occurs before the rebuild process is complete, data loss may

occur. While the likelihood of this happening is rare, it is recommended to plan this procedure for a scheduled

maintenance window.

Steps

1. When shutting down a node that is a Master MDM, recommended that you manually switch MDM ownership to a different node. If the node is not a Master MDM, skip to step 2.

a. Connect to the Master MDM using SSH, and log in to the PowerFlex CLI (SCLI):

NOTE: The SCLI is installed as part of the MDM component and can be found in the following path:

scli

To log in, run:

scli --login --username --password

Managment and monitoring of VxFlex Ready Node 13

b. View the IP addresses for the PowerFlex cluster:

scli --query_cluster

Output similar to the following should appear, with the relevant node configuration and IP addresses for your deployment:

Cluster: Mode: 5_node, State: Normal, Active: 5/5, Replicas: 3/3 Virtual IP Addresses: 9.20.10.100, 9.20.110.100 Master MDM: Name: MDM1, ID: 0x775afb2a65ef1f02 IP Addresses: 9.20.10.104, 9.20.110.104, Management IP Addresses: 10.136.215.239, Port: 9011, Virtual IP interfaces: sio_d_1, sio_d_2 Version: 3.x.x Slave MDMs: Name: MDM2, ID: 0x5b2e9f273b7af9b0 IP Addresses: 9.20.10.105, 9.20.110.105, Management IP Addresses: 10.136.215.223, Port: 9011, Virtual IP interfaces: sio_d_1, sio_d_2 Status: Normal, Version: 3.x.x Name: MDM3, ID: 0x5828f65b15e778f1 IP Addresses: 9.20.10.102, 9.20.110.102, Management IP Addresses: 10.136.215.232, Port: 9011, Virtual IP interfaces: sio_d_1, sio_d_2 Status: Normal, Version: 3.x.x Tie-Breakers: Name: TB1, ID: 0x6618e0b804644ca4 IP Addresses: 9.20.10.101, 9.20.110.101, Port: 9011 Status: Normal, Version: 3.x.x Name: TB2, ID: 0x12534ccb3d28fee3 IP Addresses: 9.20.10.103, 9.20.110.103, Port: 9011 Status: Normal, Version: 3.x.x

In the example output, the Master MDM IP addresses are:

IP Addresses: 9.20.10.104, 9.20.110.104, Management IP Addresses: 10.136.215.239

The Slave IP addresses are:

IP Addresses: 9.20.10.105, 9.20.110.105, Management IP Addresses: 10.136.215.223 IP Addresses: 9.20.10.102, 9.20.110.102, Management IP Addresses: 10.136.215.232

c. Switch MDM ownership to a different node:

scli --switch_mdm_ownership (--new_master_mdm_id | --new_master_mdm_ip | --new_master_mdm_name )

For example, to switch MDM ownership to MDM2, above:

scli --switch_mdm_ownership --new_master_mdm_name MDM2

or, to switch ownership using one of the new master MDM's IP addresses:

scli --switch_mdm_ownership --new_master_mdm_ip 9.20.110.105

The faulty node remains in the cluster. The cluster will be in degraded mode after it is powered off, until the faulty component in the node is fixed and the node is powered back on.

d. Verify the switch-over in the cluster status:

scli --query_cluster

The output should show that the faulty node is not the Master MDM anymore.

2. Ask the customer for assistance in moving applications from the node.

3. In your web browser, enter the PowerFlex presentation server IP address and log in to the PowerFlex GUI as an admin user.

If a certificate notice is displayed, review and accept the certificate.

4. If an SDR is configured on the node, place the SDR into maintenance mode. Otherwise, skip to the next step.

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a. PowerFlex 3.6 and later: In the left pane, click Protection > SDRs.

PowerFlex 3.5.x: In the left pane, click Replication > SDRs.

b. In the right pane, select the check box for the relevant SDR, and then in the upper-right menu click More > Enter Maintenance Mode.

c. In the Enter SDR to Maintenance Mode dialog box, click Enter Maintenance Mode. d. Wait until the SDR's state displays as Maintenance. e. In the pop-up dialog box, click Dismiss.

5. Place the SDS into maintenance mode:

a. In the left pane, click Configuration > SDSs. b. In the right pane, select the check box for the relevant SDS, and then in the upper-right menu click More > Enter

Maintenance Mode. c. In the Enter SDS into Maintenance Mode dialog box, select one of the following options:

Instant Protected

If you plan to place a node in maintenance mode for longer than 30 minutes, Dell EMC recommends you use Protected Maintenance Mode (PMM). When PMM is used, the entire data of the SDS is backed up before the SDS actually goes into maintenance mode. This requires more storage capacity from the cluster (the equivalent to one fault set per single node size).

d. Click Enter Maintenance Mode. e. Wait until the SDS's state displays as Maintenance. f. In the pop-up dialog box, click Dismiss.

6. In the left pane, click Dashboard, and then in the right pane wait for the rebalance operation to complete. Verify that no errors occurred.

7. Obtain customer permission to shut down the node.

8. Log in to the Linux console and gracefully shut down the server.

NOTE: No checks are required for a graceful shutdown after entering the SDS into maintenance mode.

Power down the ESXi host

For an ESXi-based compute-only node, prepare the ESXi host for part replacement by migrating the virtual machines (VMs) to another ESXi host and then powering off the host.

Prerequisites

Ensure that you have the ESXi host login credentials (to be provided by the customer)

Steps

1. Obtain customer permission to shut down the node.

2. Log in to vCenter via the vSphere Web Client, and locate the relevant ESXi host.

3. Migrate the VMs associated with this ESXi host to another ESXi host.

NOTE: To view the VMs associated with the ESXi host, select the ESXi host, and then click VMs.

4. Right-click the ESXi host and select Maintenance Mode > Enter Maintenance Mode.

5. Click OK to confirm.

6. Right-click the ESXi host, and select Actions > Power > Shut down to shut down the host.

7. Click OK to confirm.

Managment and monitoring of VxFlex Ready Node 15

Return a Linux-based node to operation

For a Linux-based node, perform the following steps to return the node to operation:

Prerequisites

Ensure that you have the following credentials (available from the administrator):

PowerFlex presentation server IP address or hostname, used for accessing the PowerFlex GUI. Admin rights for accessing the PowerFlex GUI.

Steps

1. Power on the node, if you haven't already done so in a previous task.

The operating system will boot up and all PowerFlex processes will start up automatically.

2. After the node is up, from your internet browser, log back in to the PowerFlex GUI as an admin user.

3. Perform the following checks:

a. In the left pane, click Alerts, and then in the right pane confirm that no SDS disconnect message appears. b. In the left pane, click SDCs, and then in the right pane confirm that the SDC's connected status is Yes.

4. Remove the SDS from maintenance mode:

a. In the left pane, click Configuration > SDSs. b. In the right pane, select the check box for the relevant SDS, and then in the upper menu click More > Exit

Maintenance Mode. c. In the Exit SDS from Maintenance Mode dialog box, click Exit Maintenance Mode. d. Wait until the SDS's state displays as Healthy. e. In the pop-up window, click Dismiss.

5. If an SDR is configured on the node (storage-only nodes), remove the SDR from maintenance mode.

a. PowerFlex 3.6 and later: In the left pane, click Protection > SDRs.

PowerFlex 3.5.x: In the left pane, click Replication > SDRs.

b. In the right pane, select the check box for the relevant SDR, and then in the upper menu click More > Exit Maintenance Mode.

c. In the Exit SDR from Maintenance Mode dialog box, click Exit Maintenance Mode. d. Wait until the SDR's state displays as Healthy. e. In the pop-up window, click Dismiss.

6. In the left pane, click Dashboard, and then wait for the rebalance operations to finish and all counters to return to 0. The node is now operational and application I/O can be started on the node. You can migrate the VMs back to the node.

Next steps

Ask the customer for assistance in migrating all applications back to the node.

Return an ESXi-based compute-only node to operation

Perform the following steps to return an ESXi-based compute-only node to operation:

Prerequisites

Ensure that you have the following credentials (available from the administrator):

PowerFlex presentation server IP address or hostname, used for accessing the PowerFlex GUI. Admin rights for accessing the PowerFlex GUI.

Steps

1. Power on the node, if you haven't already done so.

2. Log in to vCenter via the vSphere Web Client, and ensure that the ESXi host is displayed as on and connected in Hosts and Clusters view.

3. Right-click the node and select Maintenance Mode > Exit Maintenance Mode.

4. Expand the host and select the relevant VM. If the VM does not power on automatically, power it on manually.

16 Managment and monitoring of VxFlex Ready Node

5. After the node is up, from your internet browser, log in to the PowerFlex GUI as an admin user.

6. Perform the following checks:

a. In the left pane, click Alerts, and then in the right pane confirm that no SDS disconnect message appears. b. In the left pane, click SDCs, and then in the right pane confirm that the SDC's connected status is Yes. c. In the left pane, click Dashboard, and validate that the system is in optimal state.

Results

The node is now operational and application I/O can be started on the node. You can migrate the VMs back to the node.

Obtain the firmware catalog for VxFlex Ready Nodes

For VxFlex Ready Node the recommended option is to use a PowerFlex-specific custom catalog for a qualified set of firmware.

About this task

The catalog containing all the qualified firmware is available as a ZIP file and can be downloaded from https://www.dell.com/ support/home/en-il/products.

Once downloaded, extract the ZIP file to a CIFS or NFS share that is accessible by the OpenManage Enterprise VM.

NOTE: OpenManage Enterprise 3.2 supports multiple catalogs. Catalogs can be associated only to parent device groups.

Perform the following steps to associate the catalog to OpenManage Enterprise:

Steps

1. From OpenManage Enterprise, click Configuration > Firmware Compliance, then click Catalog Management.

2. In the Catalog Management screen, click Add.

3. In the Add Firmware Catalog dialog box, provide a name for the catalog and select Network Path.

4. For Share Type, select the share that is being used and provide the details for the share as follows:

NFS

a. In the Share Address box, enter the IP address of the system where the catalog is stored on the network. b. In the Catalog File Path box, enter the full path of the catalog location. Example path: nfsshare\catalog.xml c. Click Finish.

CIFS

a. In the Share Address box, enter the IP address of the system where the catalog is stored on the network. b. In the Catalog File Path box, enter the full path of the catalog location. Example path: /catalog/SystemUpdate/

Catalog/Catalog.xml NOTE: Ensure to use forward slashes as shown in the example path.

c. In the Domain box, enter the domain name of the device. d. In the User Name box, enter the user name of the device where the catalog is stored. e. In the Password box, enter the password of the device to access the share. Type the username and password of the

shared folder where the catalog.xml is stored. f. Click Test Now to test the connection to the catalog.xml file.

5. Click Finish.

Create a baseline for the catalog

Perform steps to associate the catalog to a baseline.

Steps

1. Click Configuration > Firmware Compliance then click Create Baseline.

2. In the Create Firmware Baseline dialog box, select the catalog and provide a name for the baseline and click Next.

3. Choose Select Groups then click the Select Groups box.

4. Check the device group that was created in step 3.1 and click OK then Finish.

Managment and monitoring of VxFlex Ready Node 17

Verify SDS connectivity and PowerFlex cluster state

Perform steps to associate the catalog to a baseline.

About this task

NOTE: Validation steps provided in this section are applicable to both hyperconverged and two-layer configuration.

Steps

1. Verify connectivity to MDM virtual IPs.

2. Check the SDS state using the following command and verify the states (membership-state, connection-state and SDS- state) of all devices. Replace [SDS Name] with the name of a corresponding SDS:

scli --query_sds --sds_name [SDS Name]

Figure 6. Command and example output that show SDS connection and device state

3. Query all SDS connectivity status within a Protection Domain with the following command and ensure that all SDSs are connected. Replace [Protection Domain Name] with the name of a corresponding protection domain.

scli --query_sds_connectivity_status --protection_domain_name [Protection Domain Name]

Figure 7. Command and example output that shows SDS connectivity status

4. Query the cluster to verify that the cluster state is normal by using the following command: scli --query_cluster

18 Managment and monitoring of VxFlex Ready Node

Figure 8. Command and example output showing PowerFlex cluster state

Enforce device compliance on a VxFlex Ready Node OpenManage Enterprise can be used to track BIOS, iDRAC and other system configuration. A device configuration baseline can be first established, and the VxFlex Ready Node servers can be updated to meet that configuration baseline.

The following are the high-level steps for enforcing device compliance on a VxFlex Ready Node:

Figure 9. Workflow demonstrating the steps for enforcing device compliance on a VxFlex Ready Node

The following subsections explain the preceding steps in detail.

Managment and monitoring of VxFlex Ready Node 19

Configure the Deployment File Share

Use compliance template to create compliance baselines and then periodically check the configuration compliance status of devices that are associated with the baseline. You can create baseline templates by using deployment template, reference device or importing from a file.

Create a compliance baseline template from deployment template Perform steps to associate the catalog to a baseline.

Steps

1. Click Configuration > Configuration Compliance > Template Management > Create > From Deploy Template.

2. In the Clone Deployment Template dialog box, from the Template drop-down menu, select a template that must be used as the baseline for the new template.

3. Enter a name and description for the baseline compliance template.

4. Click Finish. A compliance template is created and listed in the list of configuration compliance baselines.

Create a compliance baseline template from reference device To use the configuration properties of a device as a template for creating configuration baseline, the device must be already onboarded.

Steps

1. Click Configuration > Configuration Compliance > Template Management > Create > From Reference Device.

2. In the Create Compliance Template dialog box, enter a name and description for the baseline compliance template.

3. Select the options to create the template by cloning properties of either a node or chassis.

4. Click Next.

5. In the Reference Device section, select the device that must be used as the master for creating the template. See Select target devices and device groups. a If you select 'node' as the master, also select the node configuration properties that must be cloned.

6. Click Finish. A template creation job is created and run. The newly created compliance baseline template is listed on the Compliance Templates page.

Create a compliance baseline by importing from a file Create a compliance baseline by importing from a file.

Steps

1. Click Configuration > Configuration Compliance > Template Management > Create > Import from File..

2. In the Import Compliance Template dialog box, enter a name for the baseline compliance template.

3. Select either the node or chassis template type, and then click Select a file to browse through to the file and select.

4. Click Finish. The configuration compliance baseline is created and listed

20 Managment and monitoring of VxFlex Ready Node

Create compliance baseline Create compliance baseline

Steps

1. Click Configuration > Configuration Compliance.

2. Click Create Baseline.

3. Select the template that was created in step 3.3.2 and provide a name in the Baseline Name field and click Next.

4. Select Devices or Groups and click Finish.

Remediate non-compliant device Perform the following steps to remediate the VxFlex Ready Node server that are not compliant with the associated device configuration baseline:

Steps

1. From the Home portal, click Configuration > Configuration Compliance.

2. Select the compliance baseline that was created in Step 3.3.3 and click View Report.

3. Select a non-compliant node and click Make Compliant.

4. In the Make Devices Compliant dialog box, select Apply Configuration changes now and click Finish.

Discover missing drive labels When running a firmware and driver compliance report based on the OpenManage Enterprise catalog, the HDDs and SSDs installed on the server enumerate in the report without the label displaying the description of the drive. Use the following steps to match the drives enumerated in the report with their drive labels.

Steps

1. On the menu bar, click Devices.

2. Under Custom Groups select the group the server is located in, and then in the list on the right find the relevant server in the Name column and click the link.

The Server inventory page appears.

3. On the menu bar, click Hardware.

4. Click Array Disk.

Information is displayed for all drives located on the selected server.

5. Note the revision (firmware version), size, and model number for each drive.

6. Click Firmware/Drivers.

7. Match the current firmware versions of the drives displayed in the Firmware/Drivers page with the information displayed previously on the Array Disk page to determine the drive label.

Alert policies PowerEdge servers generate alert for hardware events through iDRAC. These alerts can be filtered and viewed through OpenManage Enterprise. OpenManage Enterprise can be configured to automatically trigger actions based on the input from an alert. The alerts can be sent to email address, phone, SNMP traps, and perform device power control actions such as turning on or turning off a device when an alert of a predefined category is generated.

Managment and monitoring of VxFlex Ready Node 21

Monitor health of VxFlex Ready Node server

How to monitor the health of the VxFlex Ready Node server.

About this task

After VxFlex Ready Node server are discovered, administrators can monitor the health of the VxFlex Ready Node server through OpenManage Enterprise dashboard. The dashboard provides an at-a-glance view and a scoreboard displaying the health of the PowerFlex infrastructure.

OpenManage Enterprise polls the status of all VxFlex Ready Node server at regular intervals and reflects the status in the device tree. Status polling performs a health and power check for all discovered nodes.

By default, the Hardware Health section displays a donut chart that indicates the current health of all the devices monitored by OpenManage Enterprise. Click sections of the donut chart to view information about devices with respective health statuses.

A donut in the Alerts section lists the alerts received by devices in the selected device groups. See "Monitoring device alerts". To view alerts under each category, click the respective color bands. In the Alerts dialog box, the Critical section lists the alerts in critical status. To view all the generated alerts, click All. The SOURCE NAME column indicates the device that generated the alert. Click the name to view and configure device properties. See "Viewing and configuring devices". To filter data, click Advanced Filters. Export data into Excel, CSV, HTML, or PDF format. See Export all or Selected data.

Figure 10. Example status summary of VxFlex Ready Node server

To view alert logs and alert definitions, perform the following steps:

Steps

1. To view the alert log, from the Home portal, click Alerts > Alert Log.

2. To view alert definitions, click Alerts > Alert Definitions.

3. Click OpenManage Enterprise > Configuration > Alerts > Alert Log. A list of alerts is displayed. The severity of alerts, time when generated, source device that generated the alert, alert category, and alert message are displayed.

SEVERITY indicates the severity of an alert. ACKNOWLEDGE displays a tick mark when an alert is viewed and acknowledged. The total number of alerts generated

is also displayed in the header of OpenManage Enterprise. See "OpenManage Enterprise Graphical User Interface overview".

Click the hyper-linked device name under SOURCE NAME to view and configure device properties that generated the alert. See "Viewing and configuring devices".

22 Managment and monitoring of VxFlex Ready Node

On this page, you can acknowledge, unacknowledged, ignore, export, delete, and archive alert data. For more information about archiving alerts, see "View archived alerts". Sample screenshot of data center location information.

VxFlex Ready Node server lockdown The system lockdown feature is available only for VxFlex Ready Node server

About this task

The Dell EMC VxFlex Ready Node server offer a new capability called System Lockdown mode. After the initial deployment/ update is complete and the VxFlex cluster is functional,Dell EMC recommends locking down the system configuration so that any updates to BIOS/iDRAC configuration settings and firmware updates are blocked. This ensures that the system configuration stays compliant to a validated baseline.

In this mode, system configuration cannot be changed from any of the out-of-band or inband interfaces that are supported. This does not prevent the system from running routine monitoring and maintenance tasks such as power operations, power budget and profiles, identifying operations such as blinking drive LEDs, and running diagnostics.

Note that the system lock down feature will be effective only when non-root or non-admin users are configured on iDRAC to perform the activities allowed during system lockdown mode.

Perform the following steps to enforce system lockdown mode by using RACADM command line task:

Steps

1. From the Home portal, click Devices > All Devices.

2. Select a node and click View Details on the right.

3. Click Remote Command Line > RACADM CLI.

4. Enter the command: set idrac.lockdown.systemlockdownmode enabled.

Figure 11. Screenshot showing command line task to enable system lockdown mode

5. Click Send and view the remote command results.

6. Click Finish.

Monitor health of VxFlex Ready Node server How to monitor the health of the VxFlex Ready Node server.

About this task

After VxFlex Ready Node server are discovered, administrators can monitor the health of the VxFlex Ready Node server through OpenManage Enterprise dashboard. The dashboard provides an at-a-glance view and a scoreboard displaying the health of the PowerFlex infrastructure.

Managment and monitoring of VxFlex Ready Node 23

OpenManage Enterprise polls the status of all VxFlex Ready Node server at regular intervals and reflects the status in the device tree. Status polling performs a health and power check for all discovered nodes.

By default, the Hardware Health section displays a donut chart that indicates the current health of all the devices monitored by OpenManage Enterprise. Click sections of the donut chart to view information about devices with respective health statuses.

A donut in the Alerts section lists the alerts received by devices in the selected device groups. See "Monitoring device alerts". To view alerts under each category, click the respective color bands. In the Alerts dialog box, the Critical section lists the alerts in critical status. To view all the generated alerts, click All. The SOURCE NAME column indicates the device that generated the alert. Click the name to view and configure device properties. See "Viewing and configuring devices". To filter data, click Advanced Filters. Export data into Excel, CSV, HTML, or PDF format. See Export all or Selected data.

Figure 12. Example status summary of VxFlex Ready Node server

To view alert logs and alert definitions, perform the following steps:

Steps

1. To view the alert log, from the Home portal, click Alerts > Alert Log.

2. To view alert definitions, click Alerts > Alert Definitions.

3. Click OpenManage Enterprise > Configuration > Alerts > Alert Log. A list of alerts is displayed. The severity of alerts, time when generated, source device that generated the alert, alert category, and alert message are displayed.

SEVERITY indicates the severity of an alert. ACKNOWLEDGE displays a tick mark when an alert is viewed and acknowledged. The total number of alerts generated

is also displayed in the header of OpenManage Enterprise. See "OpenManage Enterprise Graphical User Interface overview".

Click the hyper-linked device name under SOURCE NAME to view and configure device properties that generated the alert. See "Viewing and configuring devices".

On this page, you can acknowledge, unacknowledged, ignore, export, delete, and archive alert data. For more information about archiving alerts, see "View archived alerts". Sample screenshot of data center location information.

24 Managment and monitoring of VxFlex Ready Node

Acknowledge alerts

After you view an alert and understand its contents, you can acknowledge that you have read through the alert message. To acknowledge, select the check box corresponding to the alert, and then click Acknowledge. A tick mark is displayed in the ACKNOWLEDGE column.

Unacknowledged alerts

You can unacknowledge an alert if incorrect or repeated. Select the check box corresponding to the alert, and then click Unacknowledge. The tick mark is removed corresponding to the alert in the ACKNOWLEDGE column. Else, you can click the tick mark to unacknowledge an already acknowledged alert message.

Ignore alerts

Ignoring an alert creates an alert policy, which is enabled, and discards all future occurrences of that alert. Select the check box corresponding to the alert, and then click Ignore. A message is displayed that a job is being created to ignore the selected alert. The total number of alerts displayed in the header row of OpenManage Enterprise is decremented.

Delete alerts

You can delete an alert to permanently remove that occurrence of the alert from the console. To prevent future occurrences of the alert from being displayed on OpenManage Enterprise, ignore the alert. See Ignore alerts.

Steps

1. Select the check box corresponding to the alert, and then click Delete. A message is displayed prompting you to confirm the deletion process.

2. Click YES. The alert is deleted.

Results

The total number of alerts displayed in the header row of OpenManage Enterprise is decremented.

Alert Definitions

By clicking OpenManage Enterprise > Alerts > Alert Definitions, you can view alerts that are generated for errors or informational purposes. These messages are:

Called as Event and Error messages. Displayed on the Graphical User Interface (GUI), and Command Line Interface (CLI) for RACADM and WS-Man. Saved in the log files for information purpose only. Numbered and clearly defined to enable you implement corrective and preventive actions effectively.

An Error and Event message has: MESSAGE ID: Messages are classified based on components such as BIOS, power source (PSU), storage (STR), log data

(LOG), and Chassis Management Controller (CMC). MESSAGE: The actual cause of an event. Events are triggered for information purpose only, or when there is an error in

performing tasks. CATEGORY: Class to which the error message belongs to. For information about categories, see the Event and Error

Message Reference Guide for Dell EMC PowerEdge Servers available on the support site. Recommended Action: Resolution to the error by using GUI, RACADM, or WS-Man commands. Where necessary, you are

recommended to refer to documents on the support site or Tech Center for more information. Detailed Description: More information about an issue for easy and fast resolution.

You can view more information about an alert by using filters such as message ID, message text, category, and Subcategory. To view the alert definitions: 1. From the OpenManage Enterprise menu, under Alerts, click Alert Definitions. Under Alert Definitions, a list of all the standard

alert messages is displayed.

Managment and monitoring of VxFlex Ready Node 25

2. To quickly se

Manualsnet FAQs

If you want to find out how the R740xd Dell works, you can view and download the Dell VxFlex R740xd Solution Managing Guide on the Manualsnet website.

Yes, we have the Managing Guide for Dell R740xd as well as other Dell manuals. All you need to do is to use our search bar and find the user manual that you are looking for.

The Managing Guide should include all the details that are needed to use a Dell R740xd. Full manuals and user guide PDFs can be downloaded from Manualsnet.com.

The best way to navigate the Dell VxFlex R740xd Solution Managing Guide is by checking the Table of Contents at the top of the page where available. This allows you to navigate a manual by jumping to the section you are looking for.

This Dell VxFlex R740xd Solution Managing Guide consists of sections like Table of Contents, to name a few. For easier navigation, use the Table of Contents in the upper left corner.

You can download Dell VxFlex R740xd Solution Managing Guide free of charge simply by clicking the “download” button in the upper right corner of any manuals page. This feature allows you to download any manual in a couple of seconds and is generally in PDF format. You can also save a manual for later by adding it to your saved documents in the user profile.

To be able to print Dell VxFlex R740xd Solution Managing Guide, simply download the document to your computer. Once downloaded, open the PDF file and print the Dell VxFlex R740xd Solution Managing Guide as you would any other document. This can usually be achieved by clicking on “File” and then “Print” from the menu bar.