Installing Dell OpenManage with Ubuntu and Red Hat Linux

Dell OpenManage Server Administrator is a program for managing Dell machines. Dell provides support for Windows, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES), and Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL).

There is, however, no support for Ubuntu whatsoever and no support for a Red Hat Yum Repository. Both of these failings are somewhat rectified by kind people working for Dell. Instructions from Dell regarding the Ubuntu APT repository and the Red Hat Yum Repository are available. The Dell wiki has more details on the Red Hat repository as well.

Over at Keith’s Code there is a fantastic tutorial on how to get Dell OMSA running on Ubuntu.

To get the yum repository loaded into Red Hat Enterprise Linux, just pull this file from the web and execute it:

wget -q -O - http://linux.dell.com/repo/hardware/latest/bootstrap.cgi | bash

Note that these directions come from Dell’s repository page and the file itself comes from linux.dell.com. It pulls in some RPMs that load the repository and update the cache with the available files. This is what the execution looked like for me:

Downloading GPG key: http://linux.dell.com/repo/hardware/latest/RPM-GPG-KEY-dell
    Key already exists in RPM, skipping
Downloading GPG key: http://linux.dell.com/repo/hardware/latest/RPM-GPG-KEY-libsmbios
    Importing key into RPM.
Write repository configuration
Downloading repository RPM
Installing repository rpm: http://linux.dell.com/repo/hardware/latest/platform_independent/rh50_64/prereq/dell-omsa-repository-2-5.noarch.rpm
Installing yum plugins for system id
Loaded plugins: rhnplugin, security
This system is not subscribed to any channels.
RHN channel support will be disabled.
dell-omsa-indep                                                                                                                       | 1.9 kB     00:00
dell-omsa-indep/primary                                                                                                               |  87 kB     00:00
dell-omsa-indep                                                                                                                                      655/655
dell-omsa-specific                                                                                                                    | 1.9 kB     00:00
dell-omsa-specific/primary                                                                                                            |  87 kB     00:00
dell-omsa-specific                                                                                                                                   655/655
Setting up Install Process
Resolving Dependencies
--> Running transaction check
---> Package yum-dellsysid.x86_64 0:2.2.26-6.2.el5 set to be updated
--> Processing Dependency: smbios-utils-python >= 2.2.0 for package: yum-dellsysid
--> Running transaction check
---> Package smbios-utils-python.x86_64 0:2.2.26-6.2.el5 set to be updated
--> Processing Dependency: python-smbios = 2.2.26-6.2.el5 for package: smbios-utils-python
--> Running transaction check
---> Package python-smbios.x86_64 0:2.2.26-6.2.el5 set to be updated
--> Processing Dependency: libsmbios = 2.2.26-6.2.el5 for package: python-smbios
--> Processing Dependency: python-ctypes for package: python-smbios
--> Running transaction check
---> Package libsmbios.x86_64 0:2.2.26-6.2.el5 set to be updated
---> Package python-ctypes.x86_64 0:1.0.2-1.1.el5 set to be updated
--> Finished Dependency Resolution
 
Dependencies Resolved
 
=============================================================================================================================================================
Package                                   Arch                         Version                               Repository                                Size
=============================================================================================================================================================
Installing:
 yum-dellsysid                             x86_64                       2.2.26-6.2.el5                        dell-omsa-indep                           16 k
Installing for dependencies:
 libsmbios                                 x86_64                       2.2.26-6.2.el5                        dell-omsa-specific                       1.5 M
 python-ctypes                             x86_64                       1.0.2-1.1.el5                         dell-omsa-specific                       215 k
 python-smbios                             x86_64                       2.2.26-6.2.el5                        dell-omsa-specific                        71 k
 smbios-utils-python                       x86_64                       2.2.26-6.2.el5                        dell-omsa-specific                        63 k
 
Transaction Summary
=============================================================================================================================================================
Install      5 Package(s)
Update       0 Package(s)
Remove       0 Package(s)
 
Total download size: 1.9 M
Downloading Packages:
(1/5): yum-dellsysid-2.2.26-6.2.el5.x86_64.rpm                                                                                        |  16 kB     00:00
(2/5): smbios-utils-python-2.2.26-6.2.el5.x86_64.rpm                                                                                  |  63 kB     00:00
(3/5): python-smbios-2.2.26-6.2.el5.x86_64.rpm                                                                                        |  71 kB     00:00
(4/5): python-ctypes-1.0.2-1.1.el5.x86_64.rpm                                                                                         | 215 kB     00:00
(5/5): libsmbios-2.2.26-6.2.el5.x86_64.rpm                                                                                            | 1.5 MB     00:06
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total                                                                                                                        222 kB/s | 1.9 MB     00:08
Running rpm_check_debug
Running Transaction Test
Finished Transaction Test
Transaction Test Succeeded
Running Transaction
  Installing     : python-ctypes                                                                                                                         1/5
  Installing     : libsmbios                                                                                                                             2/5
  Installing     : python-smbios                                                                                                                         3/5
  Installing     : smbios-utils-python                                                                                                                   4/5
  Installing     : yum-dellsysid                                                                                                                         5/5
 
Installed:
  yum-dellsysid.x86_64 0:2.2.26-6.2.el5
 
Dependency Installed:
  libsmbios.x86_64 0:2.2.26-6.2.el5 python-ctypes.x86_64 0:1.0.2-1.1.el5 python-smbios.x86_64 0:2.2.26-6.2.el5 smbios-utils-python.x86_64 0:2.2.26-6.2.el5
 
Complete!
Loaded plugins: dellsysid, security
Cleaning up Everything
Done!

Activating the APT repository on an Ubuntu system is even easier; add this file to /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ and do an apt-get update:

# Get latest Dell OpenManage software
deb http://linux.dell.com/repo/community/deb/latest /


Dell’s OMSA works with SNMP traps and with IPMI, so make sure that these are fully supported and enabled. There is a good introduction to IPMI from Intel that is often referenced, but is missing: it is available here (and is referenced as 25133701.pdf in links elsewhere). There’s also a good quick overview of IPMI from Terry Gleidt.