Note that for easy transfer from client site to client site, it’s probably best to set the mailserver parameter to be the mx record of your mail server (assuming you allow smtp out from client machines) – this way it’s one less thing to change when deploying at client sites.

For more information check out the OMSA configuration section of this blog although the main post with instructions is at Dell Open Manage Server Administrator OMSA Alert Setup Updated.

Download the Configure OMSA Batch File zip file here

OMSA configuration files – finally posted. was originally posted at Absoblogginlutely!

I uploaded the OneNote notebook that I made whilst upgrading my Dell Mini10v a couple of weeks to triple boot XP, OSX and Windows7 and was pleased with how things have turned out. I’ll be using this functionality to create an upcoming blog post on how to do the triple boot – having the notebook on the web means I can update and work on the blog post from any computer – I’m not tied to my home desktop which hosted the original notebook.

Note that you do need to “share” the notebook by going to the File/ New/ Web or going to File/Share/ Web as appropriate.  Keeping the document in your personal folder means it is kept private – as long as nobody  else finds the url.

Thanks to The Office Blog for the heads up and see an Introduction to OneNote Web App for more details.

OneNote 2010 webapp now live. was originally posted at Absoblogginlutely!

The reason I pipe to 1.txt and then display in notepad is that the formatting looks all messed up in a dos prompt due to line wrapping but looks ok in notepad. The BIOS version and service tag will be displayed (among other things).
This beats my previous preferred method when doing remote support of going to Dell’s support site, going to warranty information and then loading their activex component to detect the hardware information.
Update: You do need to have admin rights to run this command.

Quick way to get BIOS information without rebooting was originally posted at Absoblogginlutely!

Dellalert.bat should now contain the following lines.

@echo off
::Dell alert program
::v1.21a
::Set variables below as appropriate
::needs blat downloaded (http://tinyurl.com/2qdxea) Put blat.exe in the system path
::No longer needs blat installed as configuration is set in the environment variables.

@echo on
setlocal
set log=c:\jobs\dell.txt
set pager=destinationpageraddress@company.com
set mail=destinationemailaddress@company.com
set company=Companyname
set server=%computername%
set mailserver=mailservername
set alertfrom=fromemailaddress@company.com

date /t >%log%
time /t >>%log%
echo %* >>%log%
if {%1}=={p} blat %log% -to %pager% -server %mailserver% -f %alertfrom% -subject “%company% %server% alert – %*”
if not {%1}=={} blat %log% -to %mail% -server %mailserver% -f %alertfrom% -subject “%company% %server% alert – %*”
endlocal

The commands to specify the call to dellalert.bat are below. Note that you need to specify cmd.exe and then the batch file. As the batch file has parameters with quotes, the quotes need to escaped with backslashes (as per the information below). I highly recommend you save these commands to a batch file called conf.bat and then run the batch file – a lot easier to manage, recall and implement on multiple servers. Each line starts with omconfig – you will probably find your web browser has wrapped the lines, but if you copy/paste the content into notepad your lines should be correct.

omconfig system alertaction event=batterywarn execappath=”cmd /c \”c:\jobs\dellalert p battery probe warning\”"
omconfig system alertaction event=batteryfail execappath=”cmd /c \”c:\jobs\dellalert p battery probe failure\”"
omconfig system alertaction event=fanwarn execappath=”cmd /c \”c:\jobs\dellalert fan probe warning\”"
omconfig system alertaction event=fanfail execappath=”cmd /c \”c:\jobs\dellalert p fan probe failure\”"
omconfig system alertaction event=hardwarelogwarn execappath=”cmd /c \”c:\jobs\dellalert hardware log warning\”"
omconfig system alertaction event=hardwarelogfull execappath=”cmd /c \”c:\jobs\dellalert p hardware log failure\”"
omconfig system alertaction event=intrusion execappath=”cmd /c \”c:\jobs\dellalert chassis intrusion detected\”"
omconfig system alertaction event=memprefail execappath=”cmd /c \”c:\jobs\dellalert p memory prefailure\”"
omconfig system alertaction event=memfail execappath=”cmd /c \”c:\jobs\dellalert p memory failure\”"
omconfig system alertaction event=systempowerwarn execappath=”cmd /c \”c:\jobs\dellalert p system power warning\”"
omconfig system alertaction event=systempowerfail execappath=”cmd /c \”c:\jobs\dellalert p system power warning\”"
omconfig system alertaction event=powersupply execappath=”cmd /c \”c:\jobs\dellalert p psu critical\”"
omconfig system alertaction event=powersupplywarn execappath=”cmd /c \”c:\jobs\dellalert p psu warning\”"
omconfig system alertaction event=processorwarn execappath=”cmd /c \”c:\jobs\dellalert p processor warning\”"
omconfig system alertaction event=processorfail execappath=”cmd /c \”c:\jobs\dellalert p processor failure\”"
omconfig system alertaction event=redundegrad execappath=”cmd /c \”c:\jobs\dellalert p redundancy degraded\”"
omconfig system alertaction event=redunlost execappath=”cmd /c \”c:\jobs\dellalert p redundancy lost\”"
omconfig system alertaction event=tempwarn execappath=”cmd /c \”c:\jobs\dellalert p temp probe warning\”"
omconfig system alertaction event=tempfail execappath=”cmd /c \”c:\jobs\dellalert p temp probe failure\”"
omconfig system alertaction event=voltwarn execappath=”cmd /c \”c:\jobs\dellalert voltage probe warning\”"
omconfig system alertaction event=voltfail execappath=”cmd /c \”c:\jobs\dellalert p voltage probe failure\”"
omconfig system alertaction event=watchdogasr execappath=”cmd /c \”c:\jobs\dellalert Watchdog ASR\”"
omconfig system alertaction event=storagesyswarn execappath=”cmd /c \”c:\jobs\dellalert p storage system warning\”"
omconfig system alertaction event=storagesysfail execappath=”cmd /c \”c:\jobs\dellalert p storage system failure\”"
omconfig system alertaction event=storagectrlwarn execappath=”cmd /c \”c:\jobs\dellalert p storage controller warning\”"
omconfig system alertaction event=storagectrlfail execappath=”cmd /c \”c:\jobs\dellalert p storage controller failure\”"
omconfig system alertaction event=pdiskwarn execappath=”cmd /c \”c:\jobs\dellalert p physical disk warning\”"
omconfig system alertaction event=pdiskfail execappath=”cmd /c \”c:\jobs\dellalert p physical disk failure\”"
omconfig system alertaction event=vdiskwarn execappath=”cmd /c \”c:\jobs\dellalert p virtual disk warning\”"
omconfig system alertaction event=vdiskfail execappath=”cmd /c \”c:\jobs\dellalert p virtual disk failure\”"
omconfig system alertaction event=enclosurewarn execappath=”cmd /c \”c:\jobs\dellalert p enclosure warning\”"
omconfig system alertaction event=enclosurefail execappath=”cmd /c \”c:\jobs\dellalert p enclosure failure\”"
omconfig system alertaction event=currentwarn execappath=”cmd /c \”c:\jobs\dellalert p current probe warning\”"
omconfig system alertaction event=currentfail execappath=”cmd /c \”c:\jobs\dellalert p current probe failure\”"
omconfig system alertaction event=storagectrlbatterywarn execappath=”cmd /c \”c:\jobs\dellalert storage controller battery warning\”"
omconfig system alertaction event=storagectrlbatteryfail execappath=”cmd /c \”c:\jobs\dellalert p storage controller battery failure\”"

So now the implementation steps are as follows.

• Install OMSA on the server
• Download blat, copy dellalert.bat and conf.bat from above.
• Edit dellalert.bat to have your specific information. The variables are pretty obvious
• Extract blat to your windows directory
• Double click conf.bat to configure OMSA
• Run Server administrator to check the settings have been implemented correctly (see previous post for examples)
• Test – normally a safe way to do this is to unplug one of the redundant power supplies. I would recommend you also set up the alerts to display a popup for this event so you know the alert has been triggered. Then unplug the power. Wait about 20-30 seconds for the alert to popup on screen and then wait for your email/pager to activate.

Any updates will be posted to this blog and to the OMSA category – so check there if this page is old.

Update – I’ve now made the OMSA Batch Files available for download
Update 2010.08.07 – Batch files updated with corrections to dellalert.bat and additions to conf.bat. The dellalert.bat in the body of this post was correct – the version available to download was not. Thanks to Martin Wiesner for the information.

Dell Open Manage Server Administrator (OMSA) alert setup – updated was originally posted at Absoblogginlutely!

Dell’s omclean to remove Open Manage remnants was originally posted at Absoblogginlutely!

Out of the box it looks pretty nice – the case has white sides and a silver front top – I’m used to the dell machines being black boxes so this is a pleasant change.  On boot up I’ve confirmed that my Norwood Micro monitor IS weird – it doesn’t like to stay switched on when a machine is booted up and switches itself off either at POST or at the actual reboot stage which means that I rarely get to see the POST screen and the F1 to continue buttons. This happened on the previous machine but I had never really had a chance to try it on another machine to see if it was the monitor or the computer – it’s definitely the monitor!

Anyway, the machine booted up into XP (at a poor 800*600 default) and it was time to remove America Online, AOL Coach, AOL Connectivity Services, Browser Address Error Redirector, Earthlink Setup Files, Google Desktop, Google Toolbar, Internet Service Offers Launcher, MusicMatch, NetZeroInstallers, Realplayer Basic, SearchAssist and finally Viewpoint Media Player. Note that I wasn’t given the option to optout of this preinstall – I’d already declined Works and trial versions of Symantec Antivirus. First stop was PCDecrapifier to remove most of these and the rest were manually removed. Then it was time to run Windows Updates – all 39 of them. Come on Dell – you really should have a machine that is patched *reasonably* up to date before it shipping it to customers.

Update Interestingly the “500gb” drive ends up as 453 usable by the time you take the Mb marketing rounding, 39mb FAT partition for the Diagnostics tools and 3.3gb for the system image partition.

After two reboots the Dell support center software came up and asked me if I wanted to periodically sendmy data to Dell – I don’t think so! However this led to a page to download various drivers and updates etc. I was pleased to see that the BIOS didn’t need updating – mine was shipped with 1.0.12 (that came out on 3/17/2008). At a quick glance it doesn’t look like anything else needs updating – however about 20 minutes later the Dell alerts gave me tips about turning on the firewall (already was), deleting the temp files etc etc. One of the links was the Vista Readiness test. This machine failed due to the graphics – it only has the built in graphics card so no surprises there really.

At this point I installed synergy so I only had to use one mouse and keyboard to update the computer and post this blog entry

The Flash player was next to be updated, again this was prompted in the Dell alerts, but no alerts about the old version of Quicktime or Adobe Reader that was preinstalled.

Inspiron has arrived. was originally posted at Absoblogginlutely!

Virtual Server for home use. was originally posted at Absoblogginlutely!

As mentioned in a previous post, we have several Dell servers that have Open Manage Server Administrator (OMSA) setup and one of the features of this software is the ability to setup alerts whenever an issue is detected by the built in monitoring system.  In the new version, 5.3, even more alerts have been enabled – mainly in the area of storage management.  To edit this setup you typically go to the website hosting the Server Administrator, log in and then set up all the alerts. Each alert is setup individually and takes several mouse clicks. One to open up the alert, one to select the alert process’s, another to click apply and then another to click the Go Back to Alert Settings.  This is really inefficient and obviously takes a very long time to set this up on multiple servers. The process described in the extended entry below describes how you can set this up, quickly and efficiently by importing the same settings to your servers each time they are set up. Little customization needs to be done on each server but full instructions are provided.

Note- this post is slightly out of date – please see my updated Configuring Open Manage Server Administrator (OMSA) page.

First, ensure that you are running the latest version of OMSA. At time of writing this is version 5.3. I recommend you download it as part of the Dell Systems Management: Dell DVD ISO as this DVD can also be used to install the latest firmware patches.

Secondly, it is highly recommended that a batch file (or exe file) is used to do the alerts. By passing parameters from the OMSA application this stub batch file can do all the alerting for you. In this document I recommend you create a batch file called dellalert.bat, stored in c:\jobs on the server that includes the following lines. Blat must be downloaded and installed as per the instructions in the file. You need to specify your smtp mail server and the email address that you wish your alerts to come from. This batch file creates a log file and sends alerts to an email address (the mail parameter) and optionally to a pager/sms/on call email address if the first parameter passed to the batch file is the letter p (in lower case).

The companyname is specified in the script file so that the email alert message contains the company name in the subject of the email – useful for distinguishing servers if you monitor several companies each with a server called server01!

@echo off
::Dell alert program
::Set variables below as appropriate
::needs blat downloaded (http://tinyurl.com/2qdxea) and setup to mail to the local server. Put blat.exe in the system path
::use “blat -install smtpservername fromalertemailaddress@company.com” to set this up
@echo on
setlocal
set log=c:\jobs\dell.txt
set pager=destinationpageraddress@company.com
set mail=destinationemailaddress@company.com
set company=Companyname
set server=%hostname%
date /t >%log%
time /t >>%log%
echo %* >>%log%
if {%1}=={p} blat %log% -to %pager% -subject “%company% %server% alert – %*”
if not {%1}=={} blat %log% -to %mail% -subject “%company% %server% alert – %*”
endlocal

The program works by creating a log file with the current date and time. The details passed in the OMSA screen are then fed into the log file. The log file is then sent via blat to the pager if the first parameter of the batch file is a lower case p. The log file is then also sent via email as long as there is a parameter passed. This is a failsafe trick to prevent an error if the batch file is double clicked by accident.

Thirdly OMSA needs to be configured to send alerts as required. You could use the web page, but we are trying to automate this. Check that OMSA is installed on the server and functioning correctly by typing “omconfig” at a dos prompt. As long as this returns a syntax statement, the next set of lines can be entered.

Note that these lines are suitable for *my* environment. You may wish to miss some of these lines out or edit them as you wish. The segment below includes all of the alertactions that are currently available in OMSA 5.3. I also do not use the Broadcast event or the message on the console as I do not want to panic the users and there is nobody at the console 99.9% of the time. However these options could be added by extra lines added to the group. The broadcast line would be similar to “omconfig system alertaction event=powersupply broadcast=true” – see the omconfig online manual for more details.

From a dos prompt, enter the following lines, edited as you see fit. If you do customize these lines I strongly recommend you save the settings to a batch file that can be run on all server setups – this will enforce consistency across your servers.

omconfig system alertaction event=batterywarn execappath=”c:\jobs\dellalert p battery probe warning”
omconfig system alertaction event=batteryfail execappath=”c:\jobs\dellalert p battery probe failure”
omconfig system alertaction event=fanwarn execappath=”c:\jobs\dellalert fan probe warning”
omconfig system alertaction event=fanfail execappath=”c:\jobs\dellalert p fan probe failure”
omconfig system alertaction event=hardwarelogwarn execappath=”c:\jobs\dellalert hardware log warning”
omconfig system alertaction event=hardwarelogfull execappath=”c:\jobs\dellalert p hardware log failure”
omconfig system alertaction event=intrusion execappath=”c:\jobs\dellalert chassis intrusion detected”
omconfig system alertaction event=memprefail execappath=”c:\jobs\dellalert p memory prefailure”
omconfig system alertaction event=memfail execappath=”c:\jobs\dellalert p memory failure”
omconfig system alertaction event=systempowerwarn execappath=”c:\jobs\dellalert p  system power warning”
omconfig system alertaction event=systempowerfail execappath=”c:\jobs\dellalert p   system power warning”
omconfig system alertaction event=powersupply execappath=”c:\jobs\dellalert p psu critical”
omconfig system alertaction event=powersupplywarn execappath=”c:\jobs\dellalert  p psu warning”
omconfig system alertaction event=processorwarn execappath=”c:\jobs\dellalert p processor warning”
omconfig system alertaction event=processorfail execappath=”c:\jobs\dellalert p processor failure”
omconfig system alertaction event=redundegrad execappath=”c:\jobs\dellalert p redundancy degraded”
omconfig system alertaction event=redunlost execappath=”c:\jobs\dellalert p redundancy lost”
omconfig system alertaction event=tempwarn execappath=”c:\jobs\dellalert p temp probe warning”
omconfig system alertaction event=tempfail execappath=”c:\jobs\dellalert p temp probe failure”
omconfig system alertaction event=voltwarn execappath=”c:\jobs\dellalert voltage probe warning”
omconfig system alertaction event=voltfail execappath=”c:\jobs\dellalert p voltage probe failure”
omconfig system alertaction event=watchdogasr execappath=”c:\jobs\dellalert Watchdog ASR”
omconfig system alertaction event=storagesyswarn execappath=”c:\jobs\dellalert p storage system warning”
omconfig system alertaction event=storagesysfail execappath=”c:\jobs\dellalert p storage system failure”
omconfig system alertaction event=storagectrlwarn execappath=”c:\jobs\dellalert p storage controller warning”
omconfig system alertaction event=storagectrlfail execappath=”c:\jobs\dellalert p storage controller failure”
omconfig system alertaction event=pdiskwarn execappath=”c:\jobs\dellalert p physical disk warning”
omconfig system alertaction event=pdiskfail execappath=”c:\jobs\dellalert p physical disk failure”
omconfig system alertaction event=vdiskwarn execappath=”c:\jobs\dellalert p virtual disk warning”
omconfig system alertaction event=vdiskfail execappath=”c:\jobs\dellalert p virtual disk failure”
omconfig system alertaction event=enclosurewarn execappath=”c:\jobs\dellalert p enclosure warning”
omconfig system alertaction event=enclosurefail execappath=”c:\jobs\dellalert p enclosure failure”
omconfig system alertaction event=storagectrlbatterywarn execappath=”c:\jobs\dellalert p storage ctrl battery warning”
omconfig system alertaction event=storagectrlbatteryfail execappath=”c:\jobs\dellalert p storage ctrl battery failure”

Once this is complete, double check the OMSA Console. The Alert Management interface should show all the alerts with a tick in the Execute Application column as below.

Click on one of the names, such as Watchdog ASR to check that the batch command is correct as in the screenshot below

Hopefully this tutorial has made life easier and enables you to setup your Dell server in a consistent manner and quickly.  Note that I am not responsible for any loss or damage that may result from you using this tutorial. I do not have time to support the setup of OMSA, if you have issues then contact Dell support however I will try to help on this blog post if at all possible.

Dell Open Manage Server Administrator (OMSA) alert setup was originally posted at Absoblogginlutely!

I know IBM do a similar service as I used to use it when installing Netfinity servers and I assume HP does too.

Incidentally I found out about this by subscribing to the Dell Technical Update Subscriptions

Dell Firmware and software update DVD was originally posted at Absoblogginlutely!

Dell OpenManage failing to start was originally posted at Absoblogginlutely!