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Overview | |
Manageability Features |
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Hardware Features | |
ENERGY STAR® Compliance |
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Software Features |
Dell OptiPlex GX115 Managed PC systems are high-speed, expandable personal computers designed around the Intel® Pentium® III and Celeron™ microprocessors. Each computer system uses a high-performance Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) design that allows you to configure the computer system to your initial requirements and then add Dell-supported upgrades as necessary.
Your system offers the following features:
Hard-disk drives shipped with OptiPlex GX115 systems are SMART II-compliant.
Remote Wake Up capability also allows remote computer setup, software downloading and installation, file updates, and asset tracking after business hours and on weekends when network traffic is at a minimum.
For additional hardware features, see "Technical Specifications."
The following software is included with your Dell computer system.
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NOTE: Backup copies of all drivers for your system are included on the Dell ResourceCD. If you need to reinstall any of these drivers, see the online help on the Dell ResourceCD. |
Your Dell OptiPlex GX115 Managed PC system is designed for out-of-the-box manageability. To make managing your system as easy as possible, the system is shipped with the DMI agent enabled and active, which allows a remote administrator to access and change system settings. However, without the proper precautions, a system with an active DMI agent is vulnerable to unauthorized changes. For this reason, Dell strongly recommends that you enable and use the Setup Password to prevent unauthorized changes to system settings.
The following subsections describe the hardware and software manageability features available for your system:
The Dell OpenManage IT Assistant program (which is available as a download from the Dell Web site at http://www.dell.com or as a Dell-installed option on your hard-disk drive) is the Dell software-management application interface for DMI. It allows you to manage system-level information, such as system configuration information and MIF database values. It supports industry standards, including CIM and
Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP).Fault management features of the Dell OpenManage IT Assistant include the following:
Configuration management features of the Dell OpenManage IT Assistant program include the following:
Network administrators can automate inventory to occur every day, week, or month at a certain hour, on the hour or enable inventory as needed. The Dell OpenManage IT Assistant program creates a text file for the group(s) and saves it to a user-defined directory.
Asset management features of the Dell OpenManage IT Assistant include the following:
Security management features of the Dell OpenManage IT Assistant include password security that enables network administrators to maintain standard attribute values for the local and remote systems in a Dell OpenManage network.
For more information about the Dell OpenManage IT Assistant, see the online Dell OpenManage IT Assistant documentation included with the software.
The 3Com® managed boot agent (MBA) supports multiple preboot environments and allows network administrators to boot the system from a network server.
See "Network Interface Controller" for more information about MBA.
Remote Wake Up allows you to remotely turn on a Managed PC system that is either in a sleep state or soft-off state. The ability to turn on Managed PC systems remotely allows you to perform remote computer setup, software downloads and installation, file updates, and asset tracking at any time.
To use the Remote Wake Up feature, each Managed PC system must contain a NIC (or other comparable peripheral) that supports Remote Wake Up. You must also enable the Remote Wake Up option in System Setup.
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NOTE: This feature does not work if the system is shut off using a power strip or surge protector. |
The following are other important points regarding implementation and behavior of the Remote Wake Up feature:
With the advent of ACPI technology, Microsoft implemented a new wake-up method called pattern byte matching (PBM). When PBM is enabled, there is the potential for a local area network (LAN) user to wake up another system that is in suspend mode. The following information explains wake-up technology and its functionality on your Dell system under various operating systems (OS).
Remote Wake Up, also known as Wakeup On LAN, allows a network administrator to start a system remotely using a LAN signal from a server management console. This capability provides for remote computer access after hours and on weekends when LAN traffic is typically at a minimum.
Wakeup On LAN originally used a technology known as Magic Packet, which sends a data packet directly to a system. This packet consists of data that has 16 repetitions of the system's media access control (MAC) layer address. The MAC address is unique to the network adapter in the system so that the Magic Packet wakes only the system targeted for start-up. When the network adapter receives and decodes this packet, it sends a power management event (PME) signal to the system that brings it back to full power and boots the system.
PBM provides the wake-up packet for systems that support ACPI. The system downloads a series of patterns to the network adapter, and the network adapter monitors for the arrival of these patterns in a packet. If it finds these patterns, the network adapter generates a PME signal to wake up the system.
PBM wake-up technology is very different from Magic Packet wake-up technology. A Magic Packet is not a regular network data packet. Magic Packet technology starts a system when a network administrator sends the data packet from a management station.
Wake from Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) and Wake from NetBIOS name lookup patterns are available in the PBM method currently provided in Windows 98 Second Edition (SE). ARP or NetBIOS lookup packets are standard features of network activity and can wake up suspended systems without action from an administrator. For example, several systems may share hard-disk drives in a standard work group scenario. If a system is in suspend mode when someone on the network searches for that system using Network Neighborhood or clicks the system icon, it can generate an ARP or a NetBIOS name lookup packet that wakes up the target system.
Current wake-up patterns allowed by the Network Device Class Power Management Specification are the following:
— Wake from ARP
— Wake from NetBIOS name lookup
— Directed wake packet
The specification also defines Magic Packet as a wake-up method. Wake-up technology that uses PBM is controlled by the Microsoft Windows OS because the OS programs the patterns. Therefore, PBM works only in systems that use the Windows OS with ACPI enabled. For more information on PBM, please refer to the Network Device Class Power Management Specification.
To change Remote Wake Up options, enter System Setup by pressing <F2> during the start-up boot sequence.
Depending on your operating system, different options will be available. Tables 1 and 2 define remote wake-up functions for each Windows operating system and system power state combination.
Table 1. Network Driver Interface Specification (NDIS) 4.0 Driver
| System Setup—Remote Wake Up On | Windows 95 OS | Windows NT® 4.0 OS |
| Wake from Off—Magic Packet | Yes | Yes |
| Wake from Off—PBM | No | No |
| Wake from Suspend | No | No |
| NOTES: When Remote Wake
Up is set to Off, all wake-up events are disabled. Wake from NetBIOS name lookup is not available in the Windows 95 or Windows NT 4.0 operating systems. |
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Table 2. NDIS 5.0 Driver With ACPI Enabled
| System Setup— Remote Wake Up Off |
Windows 98 OS | Windows 98 SE OS | Windows 2000 OS |
| Wake from standby (S1, S4)—Magic Packet | No | Yes | Yes |
| Wake from standby (S1, S4)—PBM | No | Yes | Yes |
| Wake from shutdown (S5)—Magic Packet | No | No | No |
| Wake from shutdown (S5)—PBM | No | No | No |
| System Setup— Remote Wake Up On |
Windows 98 OS | Windows 98 SE OS | Windows 2000 OS |
| Wake from standby (S1, S4)—Magic Packet | No | Yes | Yes |
| Wake from standby (S1, S4)—PBM | No | Yes | Yes |
| Wake from shutdown (S5)—Magic Packet | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Wake from shutdown (S5)—PBM | No | No | No |
Remote System Alert allows the system to send to a remote management console certain predetermined messages about its operating condition prior to system start-up (system boot). For example, the system can transmit an alert if the computer cover is removed.
To use the Remote System Alert feature, each Managed PC system contains an integrated NIC that supports Remote System Alert.
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NOTE: This feature does not work if the system is shut off using a power strip or surge protector. |
Auto Power On enables you to turn on the computer system automatically on certain days of the week at a preset time. You can set Auto Power On to turn on the system either every day or every Monday through Friday.
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NOTE: This feature does not work if the system is shut off using a power strip or surge protector. |
Chassis intrusion alerts notify you if a local or remote system's chassis has been opened.
CIM allows you to access system management information if your system is running Microsoft Windows 98 or any other Windows operating system that includes the Web-Based Enterprise Management (WBEM) core components. For information about the WBEM core components and how to install them, see the Microsoft World Wide Web site at http://www.microsoft.com.
For more information about CIM support, see the Dell OpenManage Client Instrumentation User's Guide installed in the Dell Documents folder on your hard-disk drive.
Configuration change alerts generate warning messages if a local or remote system has a change in hardware configuration.
Asset Info uses the nonproprietary DMI standard to allow you to record and track costs related to your system. The cost-related information is stored in the cost of ownership Management Information Format (coo.mif) file on your system's hard-disk drive. For more information about Asset Info and the COO MIF standard, see the online Dell OpenManage Client Instrumentation User's Guide.
Remote flash BIOS allows a network administrator to perform remote BIOS upgrades to systems on a network using Dell OpenManage IT Assistant.
Remote system configuration features allow remote changes to the system asset tag, boot sequence, property ownership tag, and System Setup settings and remote updates to the system BIOS. These features are protected by the system setup password, if enabled.
Prefailure alerts generate warning messages about potential failures by the system SMART II integrated drive electronics (IDE) hard-disk drives.
Certain configurations of Dell computer systems comply with the requirements set forth by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for energy-efficient computers. If the front panel of your computer bears the ENERGY STAR® Emblem (see Figure 1), your original configuration complies with these requirements and all ENERGY STAR® power management features of the computer are enabled.
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NOTES: As an ENERGY STAR® Partner, Dell has
determined that this product meets the ENERGY STAR® guidelines for energy efficiency.
Any Dell computer bearing the ENERGY STAR® Emblem is certified to comply with EPA ENERGY STAR® requirements as configured when shipped by Dell. Any changes you make to this configuration (such as installing additional expansion cards or drives) may increase the system's power consumption beyond the limits set by the EPA's ENERGY STAR® Computers program. |
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The EPA's ENERGY STAR® Computers program is a joint effort between the EPA and computer manufacturers to reduce air pollution by promoting energy-efficient computer products. The EPA estimates that use of ENERGY STAR® computer products can save computer users up to two billion dollars annually in electricity costs. In turn, this reduction in electricity usage can reduce emissions of carbon dioxide, the gas primarily responsible for the greenhouse effect, and sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, which are the two primary causes of acid rain.
Computer users can also help to reduce electricity usage and its side effects by turning off their computer systems when they are not in use for extended periods of time—particularly at night and on weekends.
