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Introduction: ASF Administrator's Guide for Dell Portable Computers

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Introduction

ASF Administrator's Guide for Dell Portable Computers

Overview

System Requirements

ASF Capabilities

Overview

The Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF) has released the Alert Standard Format (ASF) 1.03 specification, which defines alerting interfaces that enable management of networked computers when their operating system is absent. This includes a networked computer with an inactive or inoperable operating system, or in a low-power system sleep state. Dells ASF Alerting software, when combined with an integrated ASF-enabled network interface controller (NIC) and system sensors, gives an IT manager the ability to remotely monitor networked computers, independent of the operating system, using industry-standard remote management protocols and programs such as Dell OpenManage™ IT Assistant.

There are two basic types of alerting: local alerting to the current computer user and remote alerting to a management application. ASF provides for remote alerting of key environmental events that are detected by sensors, such as BIOS password failure, failure to boot to BIOS, and chassis-intrusion sensors. ASF also incorporates additional alerting in the operating-system-absent environment, including invalid password, system heartbeats, and failure-to-boot indications. ASF sends out a Platform Event Trap (PET) when an event occurs. Finally, ASF provides system query capabilities. For more information, see the DMTF ASF specification available at www.dmtf.org.

This document is intended for IT administrators to use with Dell portable computers that support ASF, and describes Dells ASF implementation, how to uninstall and reinstall this feature, and how to configure and deploy ASF. Troubleshooting information is also provided for problems related to ASF.

System Requirements

Dell's ASF solution for portable computers requires a Dell portable computer with a Broadcom NIC that supports ASF. Tables 1 and 2 describe the required and recommended software.

Table 1. Required Software

Software	Description
Broadcom® NetXtreme® Network Driver Interface Specification (NDIS) Network Adapter Driver	Version 3.30 or higher.
Microsoft® Windows® Management Instrumentation (WMI) Provider Core	Version 1.5 or higher is included with the Microsoft Windows XP Professional and Windows 2000 operating systems.
Broadcom ASF Management Application	Broadcom ASF Management Application for configuring and disabling ASF.

Table 2. Recommended Software

Software	Description
Dell OpenManage Client Instrumentation Version 7.0	Client instrumentation software that provides local reporting of ASF events and local and remote reporting of non-ASF management events. Supports Windows 2000 and Windows XP Professional.
Dell OpenManage IT Assistant Version 6.3	Server management console software for remotely managing departmental and enterprise systems.

ASF Capabilities

Alerting

Dell's ASF software provides system health information and generates error notification in low-power and operating-system-absent states, as well as during normal operation. Table 3 describes the superset of PETs that may be available. For information on which alerts a specific model of Dell computer supports, see the computer User's Guide.

Table 3. Supported ASF PETs*

Alert	Description
Chassis: Chassis Intrusion Physical Security Violation/Chassis Intrusion Physical Security Violation Event Cleared	Desktop computers: System chassis has been opened./System chassis intrusion alert has been cleared. Portable computers: Docking device has been opened and the PCI slot has been compromised.
Boot: Failure to Boot to BIOS	The system BIOS did not complete loading upon initiation.
Password: System Password Violation	System password is invalid (after three failed attempts).
CPU: CPU DOA Alert/CPU DOA Alert Cleared	The CPU is not functioning.
Heartbeats: Entity Presence	Periodic heartbeats transmitted to verify system presence.
Temperature: Generic Critical Temperature Problem/Generic Critical Temperature Problem Cleared	System temperature is out of limits./The system temperature problem has been cleared.
Voltage: Generic Critical Voltage Problem/Generic Critical Voltage Problem Cleared	The voltage from onboard voltage regulators is out of limits./The voltage problem has been cleared.
Power Supply: Critical Power Supply Problem/Critical Power Supply Problem Cleared	System power supply voltage is out of limits./System power supply voltage problem has been resolved.
Cooling Device: Generic Critical Fan Failure/Generic Critical Fan Failure Cleared	Fan speed/rpm is out of limits./Fan speed/rpm problem has been resolved.
Connectivity: Ethernet Connectivity Enabled/Ethernet Connectivity Disabled	Ethernet connectivity is enabled./Connectivity is disabled.
*Not all PETs are supported for all computers.

Remote Control

Remote management programs can query an ASF-enabled client for capabilities and system presence or state information. On request, a client system will return the ASF feature set of the requested system. This includes alerting and remote control capabilities. Due to security risks, Dell does not presently implement the remote-control power on and power off feature. Table 4 details the ASF remote-control features.

Table 4. Remote Control Features

Control Capability	Description
Get System State	Returns the current system status.
Get Client Capabilities	Returns client ASF configuration per the DMTF ASF specification.
Presence Ping	Similar to Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) ping utility; responds with pong to verify the system presence.

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