Dell OPENMANAGE 7.6 User manual

www.dell.com | support.dell.com
Dell™ OpenManage™
Client Instrumentation Version 7.6
User’s Guide

Notes and Notices
NOTE: A NOTE indicates important information that helps you make better use of
your computer.
NOTICE: A NOTICE indicates either potential damage to hardware or loss of data
and tells you how to avoid the problem.
____________________
Information in this document is subject to change without notice.
© 2008 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.
Reproduction of these materials in any manner whatsoever without the written permission of Dell Inc.
is strictly forbidden.
Trademarksusedin this text:Dell,the DELL logo, OpenManage,Latitude,OptiPlex, andDell Precision
are trademarks of Dell Inc.; Intel is a trademark of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and other countries;
Altiris is a registered trademark of Altiris Inc.; Microsoft, Windows, and Windows Vista are either
trademarksorregisteredtrademarksofMicrosoftCorporationintheUnitedStatesand/orothercountries.
Other trademarks and trade names may be used in this document to refer to either the entities claiming
the marks and names or their products. Dell Inc. disclaims any proprietary interest in trademarks and
trade names other than its own.
June 2008

Contents 3
Contents
1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
CIM Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
WMI Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Data Sources Used by OMCI. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
OMCI Architecture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
CIM 2.6 Schema Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Dell LegacySelect 2.0 Support . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Remote Boot Device Select . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
WMI Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Event Reporting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Remote Shutdown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Remote Wake-Up Configurability. . . . . . . . . . 13
WfM Version 2.0 Compliance. . . . . . . . . . . . 13
What's New . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Supported Operating Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Latest Updates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Other Dell Documents You Might Need . . . . . . . . . 15
Other Resources Which Might Be Of Interest. . . . . . 15
Obtaining Technical Assistance . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

4Contents
2 Installing Dell™ OpenManage™
Client Instrumentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
User Account Control in Windows Vista . . . . . . . . 18
Local Installation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Installing the Client . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Uninstalling the Client. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Silent Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Installing the Client in the Silent Mode . . . . . . . 21
Performing a Complete Installation in
Silent Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Performing a Custom Installation in
Silent Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Upgrading the Client in Silent Mode . . . . . . . . 22
Uninstalling the Client in Silent Mode . . . . . . . 22
Administrative Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
3 Windows Management
Instrumentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
WMI Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
WMI Security. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Retrieving Dell Information With SMS 2.0. . . . . . . . 26
WMI Scripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Contents 5
4Alerts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
ASF Alerting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
WMI Alerting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
5 Component Descriptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
6 Troubleshooting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Wakeup on LAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Remote Connection to WMI and Remote
BIOS Update . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Installation Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
A Sample Scripts and BIOS Settings . . . . . 49
WMI Sample Scripts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Clear Chassis Intrusion Status . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Disable Desktop Messages for All Alerts . . . . . 51
Remote System Shutdown . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Remote System Restart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Remote BIOS Update . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Enabling PXE Boot on the Next Reboot . . . . . . 61
Enabling Wakeup on LAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Retrieving Service Tag, Asset Tag, and
BIOS Revision. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Changing BIOS Password . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
BIOS Settings Supported in OMCI 7.6 . . . . . . . . . . 70

6Contents
Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

Introduction 7
Introduction
The Dell™ OpenManage™ Client Instrumentation (OMCI) software enables
remote management application programs to access client system information,
monitor the client system status, or change the state of the client system; such
as shutting it down remotely. Through standard interfaces, OMCI exposes key
system parameters allowing administrators to manage inventory, monitor
system health, and gather information on deployed Dell client systems.
OMCI enables Dell client systems to be managed using the Common
Information Model (CIM) standard. CIM reduces your total cost of
ownership, improves security, and provides a holistic approach to managing
all devices in the enterprise, including clients, servers, storage, network, and
software devices.
CIM Overview
The CIM, created by the Desktop Management Task Force (DMTF) as part
of the Web-based Enterprise Management (WBEM) initiative, provides a
unified view of physical and logical objects in the managed environment.
CIM is a systems management protocol defined by industry standards.
The following are important CIM details:
• CIM is an object - oriented data model for describing management
information. CIM describes the way the data is organized, not necessarily
the transport model used to transport the data. The most prevalent
transport method is the Microsoft
®
Windows
®
Management
Instrumentation (WMI).
•CIM
- capable management applications gather information from a variety
of CIM objects and devices, including client and server systems, network
infrastructure devices, and applications.
• The CIM specification details mapping techniques for improved
compatibility with other management protocols.

8Introduction
• The CIM data model abstracts and describes all elements in a network
environment. The CIM schema provides the actual data model
descriptions and arranges the network into a series of managed objects,
all interrelated and broadly classified.
• The CIM schema is defined by the Managed Object Format (MOF) file,
which provides a standardized model for describing management
information between clients in a management system. The MOF file is not
bound to a particular implementation, and it allows the interchange of
management information between many different management systems
and clients.
WMI Overview
WMI is Microsoft's implementation of CIM instrumentation. WMI supports
CIM and Microsoft-specific CIM extensions. The WMI management
infrastructure also includes the CIM Object Manager (CIMOM), which is
the interface and manipulation point for CIM objects and information.
It acts as a facilitator in gathering information and manipulating object
properties. OMCI provides data to WMI, which is the common interface
to WMI management applications. For more information, see "Windows
Management Instrumentation."
Data Sources Used by OMCI
OMCI contains the underlying driver set that collects system information from a
number of different sources on the client system, including the BIOS, CMOS,
System Management BIOS (SMBIOS), System Management Interface (SMI),
operating system, Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), Dynamic Link
Libraries (DLLs), and registry settings. OMCI exposes that information through
the CIMOM interface of the WMI stack and enables IT administrators to
remotely collect asset information, modify CMOS settings, receive proactive
notification of potential fault conditions, and be alerted to potential security
breaches.

Introduction 9
OMCI uses a variety of data sources resident on the client system which
includes:
• Microsoft Win32 WMI providers
•SMBIOS
• Device drivers
• Operating system registry
• Operating system Application Programming Interfaces (APIs)
• WMI repository
OMCI Architecture
The OMCI architecture is based on a layered model that is tightly integrated
with the Microsoft WMI stack as shown in Figure 1-1.
• WMI application layer — C onsists of management applications such as
Dell Client Manager, Dell OpenManage Client Administrator (OMCA),
and other standards-based management tools and WMI applications
such as Microsoft SMS, LANDesk, and so on. This layer is not a part of
OMCI and the applications are consumers of systems management data
supplied from the client by OMCI. These applications request client
information and receive client alerts through the CIMOM.
• Dell WMI provider — Lies beneath the CIMOM and contains two CIM
providers which register with the CIMOM. When the CIMOM receives
a request for information, it routes the request to the appropriate
provider. Both Dell and Microsoft providers exist in this layer, and they
provide information on system devices. The providers
send management
application requests from the CIMOM to the data router.
•
Data router — C ollects information from system components in the
data provider layer and passes the information up to the Dell WMI
provider layer,
which then presents it to the CIMOM.
•
Data provider — Provides data to the data router. When it receives a
request from the data router, the data provider queries the client system's
hardware, drivers, and operating system to determine the available
instrumentation. It then applies all platform and customer overrides to the
data before returning it to the data router.

10 Introduction
For example, a management console in the WMI application layer requests
the available free space on the client system hard drive. The WMI application
layer makes the request over the network to the CIMOM (in the Dell WMI
provider layer) on the client system. The CIMOM routes the request to the
appropriate WMI provider, which, in turn, routes the request through the
data router layer to the disk data provider in the data provider layer. The
information is then returned (through the same path in reverse) to the
management console.
NOTE: OMCI 7.6 and later versions will not be supported by Dell OpenManage
IT Assistant (ITA) 8.x.
Figure 1-1. Dell OpenManage Client Instrumentation Architecture

Introduction 11
Features
The following are key features of OMCI:
• CIM 2.6 Schema Support
• Dell LegacySelect 2.0 Support
• Remote Boot Device Select
• WMI Security
• Event Reporting
• Remote Shutdown
• Remote Wake-Up Configurability
• WfM Version 2.0 Compliance
CIM 2.6 Schema Support
CIM is a standard that describes management data that can be used by many
management application programs. OMCI conforms to the CIM 2.6 Schema,
and includes two WMI providers: Dell WMI Indication Provider/Polling
Agent and Dell WMI Instance/Method Provider.
Dell LegacySelect 2.0 Support
LegacySelect allows a network administrator to selectively enable or disable
legacy components in a Dell system. It is a BIOS-level interface which lets
you control the level of legacy technology your varied workgroups require.
LegacySelect 2.0 supports the ability to enable or disable ports, including
USB, PCI slots, and disk drives.
The LegacySelect 2.0 specification supports the following components:
• Serial port
• Parallel port
• Diskette drive controller
• Personal System/2 (PS/2) mouse port
• Integrated audio controller
• Integrated network interface controller (NIC)
• Universal Serial Bus (USB) controller
• Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) slot

12 Introduction
A network administrator can change the settings of these components either
through the computer's system setup or by using a WMI management
application.
NOTICE: Changing LegacySelect attributes such as Integrated Drive Electronics
(IDE) Controller may cause a computer system to become unusable. If this occurs,
enter system setup on the client system and change the applicable setting.
Remote Boot Device Select
Remote Boot Device Select allows a network administrator to remotely
configure the order of devices from which the system attempts to boot.
It consists of two groups: Hard Disk Drive Sequence and Boot Device
Sequence.Hard Disk Drive Sequence is used to set the order of the hard
drives, and Boot Device Sequence is used to set the order of the type of boot
device, such as hard drive, NIC, CD-ROM drive, and diskette drive.
WMI Security
WMI provides for user authentication before granting access to CIM data
and methods. Access privileges are enforced by distributed component object
model (DCOM) security and the CIMOM.
Event Reporting
OMCI detects events on Dell systems and can alert the local user and
network administrator to potential failures, configuration changes, and
chassis intrusions. These events are displayed by a system management
application program such as IT Assistant.
OMCI allows you to set polling intervals for a client Dell computer's Self-
Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology (SMART) hard drive,
environmental monitors, chassis intrusion, hard drive threshold, or error
checking and correction (ECC) code single-bit memory error events.
A polling interval defines how often the instrumentation code checks the
device status. Polling intervals are important because they determine how
often OMCI checks for an alert state on the system, and therefore, how often
it generates an alert. If the polling intervals are set too high, you may miss an
alert. For example, systems that support a thermal probe also have a
maximum temperature where the system will shut down regardless of other

Introduction 13
processes that may be running. If the temperature increases too quickly and
OMCI does not poll the system in time, it will not generate a shutdown
message and the system will not shut down cleanly.
OMCI also contains a start delay for the polling intervals. This determines how
long after the operating system loads, OMCI starts checking for the alert status.
An alert may be missed if the start delay is set too high.
For instructions on setting polling intervals and enabling or disabling alerts
for these devices, see the documentation for your systems management
application program.
Remote Shutdown
OMCI supports remote system shutdown and restart.
Remote Wake-Up Configurability
OMCI supports configuration of remote wake-up settings. Remote wake-up is
a function of the client system and NIC.
WfM Version 2.0 Compliance
OMCI is compliant with the Intel®Wired for Management (WfM) 2.0
standard. For more information on this standard and its specifications, see the
Intel website at www.intel.com.
What's New
The following are new updates to OMCI 7.6:
• Support for new platforms: Support for new Dell Latitude ™ ,
Dell OptiPlex
™, and Dell Precision ™ systems to be released in FY09.
•
Disable boot from an USB device: Use the USB " No Boot " option
available in the USBPorts property of the Dell_SMBIOSSettings class to
turn off the ability to boot from an USB device.
•
Additional PCI Device Information: Earlier releases of OMCI enabled
you to get limited information about PCI devices such as only the IDs of
systems, subsystems, vendors, and subvendors. OMCI 7.6 provides more
information such as the PCI device manufacturer name and the model
name in the client system.

14 Introduction
• Additional Display Device Information: Earlier OMCI releases provided
limited display device information. OMCI 7.6 also provides the
manufacture date in <yyyy Week ww> format; y-year, w-week number
(for example, 2008 Week 16) and the possible sleep states of the monitor.
•
Additional Physical Memory Information: Previous OMCI releases
retrieved the value of the memory capacity property in the Dell_
PhysicalMemory class. OMCI 7.6 also retrieves the Manufacturer, Memory
Type, and Speed property values of the Dell_ PhysicalMemory class.
•
Additional Logical Disk Information: Previous OMCI releases contained
logical disk information in the Dell_Logicaldisk class such as size,
description, free space, path, and so on. OMCI 7.6 also retrieves the
Compressed (indicates whether or not the logical volume exists as a single
compressed entity) and FileSystem(indicates the file system on the logical
disk) property values of Dell_Logicaldisk class in the WMI inventory of
the client system.
NOTE: NTFS file system compression is not supported. If NTFS file based
compression is supported, the Compressed property is FALSE.
• Added support for BIOS settings: BIOS settings listed in "BIOS Settings
Supported in OMCI 7.6" and marked with an asterisk (*) are added in
OMCI 7.6.
Supported Operating Systems
The following operating systems are supported for installing OMCI:
• Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional SP4
• Microsoft Windows XP Professional SP2 or later x86 (32-bit) and x64
(64-bit) versions
• Microsoft Windows Vista
®
Business x86 (32-bit) and x64 (64-bit) versions
• Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate x86 (32-bit) and x64 (64-bit) versions
• Microsoft Windows Vista Enterprise x86 (32-bit) and x64 (64-bit) versions
Latest Updates
For the latest update information about OMCI, see the readme file located in
the installation directory. The default installation path for a typical
installation of OMCI is C:\Program Files\Dell\OpenManage\Client.

Introduction 15
Other Dell Documents You Might Need
In addition to this User's Guide, you can find the following guides either on
the Dell Support website or on the Systems Management Tools and
Documentation DVD:
• The Dell OpenManage Client Instrumentation Reference Guide provides
detailed information on all OMCI classes, properties, and their
descriptions.
• The
Dell OpenManage Client Connector User’s Guide provides
information on how to view and configure OMCI properties and perform
remote management functions.
• The
Dell Client Configuration Utility User’s Guide provides information
on how to obtain or configure BIOS settings. You can restart or shut down
the system or flash the BIOS with Dell Client Configuration Utility. The
utility creates an executable that can be run as a standalone package or
used with software deployment tools to execute remotely across an
enterprise.
Other Resources Which Might Be Of Interest
• The Dell OpenManage Client Administrator (OMCA), an integrated suite
of client management applications developed in partnership with Altiris
®
,
to provide optimized client system management, can be downloaded from
the Altiris website.
• Dell Client Manager (DCM) which includes Dell
- specific hardware and
BIOS inventory information, helps configure and update BIOS, supports
remote shutdown and remote wakeup, and provides hardware health
monitoring.
Obtaining Technical Assistance
If at any time you do not understand a procedure described in this guide, or
if your product does not perform as expected, different types of help are
available. For more information see "Getting Help" in your system's Setup Guide.
Additionally, Dell Enterprise Training and Certification is available; see
www.dell.com/training for more information. This service may not be offered
in all locations.

16 Introduction

Installing Dell™ OpenManage™ Client Instrumentation17
Installing Dell™ OpenManage™
Client Instrumentation
Dell OpenManage Client Instrumentation (OMCI) can be installed locally
using the OMCI installation wizard, or remotely through a silent or
administrative installation.
Local Installation: The OMCI installation wizard allows you to install the
complete package or to do a custom installation of specific components
required for a particular environment. OMCI can also be modified, repaired,
or removed through the Add/Remove Programs dialog in the
Microsoft®Windows®operating system environment.
Silent Installation: OMCI provides a series of command-line switches for
silent installation. This allows you to remotely install the product using an
electronic software distribution tool with no end-user interaction.
Administrative Installation: You can use a server image to deploy OMCI to
client computers on a network by using a login script, Windows system
policies, or other methods.
A default OMCI uninstallation does not uninstall the driver files and the
associated DLL files and they remain on the system. A command line
property (UNINSTALL_DRIVER=1) has to be specified on the command
line for a command line product uninstall, which will uninstall OMCI as well
as the driver files.
For example, the following command uninstalls the product as well as the
driver files:
msiexec.exe /X{09ADA709-10D2-4C38-807C-7B84F696F6CE}
/qn UNINSTALL_DRIVER=1
NOTE: To install OMCI, you must have administrative rights on the client system.
This means that you must be authenticated on the client system as a user who is a
member of the Administrators group, typically the Administrator. The target system
must be a Dell system with SMBIOS version 2.3 or later. Otherwise, the OMCI 7.6
installer will exit without installing OMCI.

18 Installing Dell™ OpenManage™ Client Instrumentation
NOTE: You cannot upgrade from OMCI 6.xto OMCI 7.6 using the OMCI 7.6 installer
if the target system has OMCI 6.xon it. Ensure that you uninstall OMCI 6.xbefore
installing OMCI 7.6. OMCI version 7.2 and later can be installed only on Dell systems
running the Windows operating systems listed in the "Supported Operating
Systems" section.
NOTE: You can upgrade to OMCI 7.6 from OMCI versions 7.4 A00, 7.5 A00, 7.5 A01,
7.5 A02, and 7.5 A03. If the upgrade path includes an operating system upgrade to
Windows Vista, then you must upgrade OMCI to 7.6 first, and then upgrade the
operating system to Windows Vista; vice versa is not supported.
NOTE: Separate installation programs exist for Windows 32- and 64-bit Edition
operating systems, and are available for download from the Dell Support website at
support.dell.com.
User Account Control in Windows Vista
In previous versions of Windows, user accounts were often members of the
local Administrators group and had administrator privileges. Members of the
local Administrators group could install, update, and run software since an
administrator account had system-wide access. When a user was added to the
local Administrators group, that user was automatically granted every
Windows privilege because administrator privileges provide access to all
operating system resources. User accounts with administrator privileges posed
a security risk by providing access to operating system resources that can be
exploited by malicious software (or malware).
In Windows Vista, there are two types of user accounts: standard user
accounts and administrator accounts. Additionally, Windows Vista provides
User Account Control (UAC) to improve system security by limiting the
operating system access available to standard user accounts and requiring
members of the Administrators group (except the Administrator account) to
acknowledge the elevation of privileges when performing certain actions. The
primary difference between a standard user and an administrator in Windows
Vista is the level of access the user has over core, protected areas of the
computer. With UAC enabled, Windows Vista either prompts for consent to
elevate privileges (in the case of a user in the Administrators group) or for
administrator credentials to elevate privileges (in the case of all other users)
before launching a program or task that requires full administrator access.
UAC prompts members in the Administrators group (except the
Administrator account) to click Continue, if they need to elevate privileges,

Installing Dell™ OpenManage™ Client Instrumentation 19
or to click Cancel when performing functions that may entail a security risk.
With UAC, you can run most applications, components and processes with a
limited privilege, but have elevation potential for specific administrative tasks
and application functions.
During OMCI installation or uninstallation, depending upon the access level
of the user, Windows Vista prompts the user for administrator authorization.
You must provide the administrator password for installing or uninstalling
OMCI if you have standard account privileges, since OMCI installation and
uninstallation need administrative privileges. Even when you are logged in as
a member of the Administrators group (except the Administrator account),
UAC requires you to give your consent to allow the installation or
uninstallation.
NOTE: Since the user experience is configurable with the Security Policy Manager
snap-in (secpol.msc) and with Group Policy, there are multiple UAC user
experiences. The configuration choices made in your environment will affect the
prompts and dialogs seen by standard users, administrators, or both. The specific
behavior of the UAC elevation prompt is dependent upon the Security Policy setting.
Local Installation
Installing the Client
1 Click Download Now to download the installation file (for example,
r118302_a00.exe ) from the Dell Support website at support.dell.com .
When the
File Download window appears, save the file.
The installation file contains the components for the following languages:
English, French, German, Spanish, Simplified Chinese, and Japanese.
It can be installed only on systems running the Windows operating systems
listed in the
" Supported Operating Systems " section.
2 Double-click the downloaded installation file. The Systems Management
dialog box is displayed with information on the software version,
supported systems, supported operating systems, and supported languages.
3 In the Systems Management dialog box, click Continue . Specify the folder
where you want to unzip the installation file and click
OK . A confirmation
message appears after the file is successfully unzipped. Click
OK .
4 Double - click the extracted installation executable file, setup.exe . The
Choose Setup Language dialog box appears. Select a language and click OK .

20 Installing Dell™ OpenManage™ Client Instrumentation
5 When the InstallShield Wizard window displays the Welcome message,
click
Next .
The
InstallShield Wizard window displays the message Setup Type .
6 Choose the installation type by clicking one of the following options:
•
Complete — Installs all modules and WMI support to a default
directory.
•
Custom — Enables you to install specific program features and
specify the installation directory.
7 Select the Complete option and click Next . The InstallShield Wizard
window displays the message
Ready to Install the Program .
If the option
Custom is selected, the Custom Setup window is displayed,
allowing you to install specific program features and also specify the
directory in which you want to install OMCI. Click
Next .
8 Click Install to begin the installation.
If OMCI version 6.
x is installed on the system, the installation program
prompts you to uninstall it and then run the installation program again.
The
InstallShield Wizard window displays the message Installing
OMCI
. A progress bar indicates the installation status. When the
installation is completed, the message changes to
InstallShield
Wizard Completed
.
9 Click Finish to end the installation.
Uninstalling the Client
To remove the client instrumentation using the Add/Remove Programs icon
on the Control Panel, perform the following steps:
1
Click the Start button, select Settings , and click Control Panel .
2 Select Add/Remove Programs .
3 From the Add/Remove Programs dialog box, select OMCI and click
Remove .
4 Follow the instructions on the screen.
NOTE: In Windows Vista, use the Programs and Features icon on the Control Panel
for installing or uninstalling OMCI.