The Dell™ Remote Access Card III (DRAC III) is an optional systems management card designed to provide remote management capabilities for Dell PowerEdge™ systems. The DRAC III allows you to remotely manage and monitor the system through a network, optional modem, or optional serial connection, even when the system is down.
The DRAC III offers a complete hardware and software solution for remote systems management. The DRAC III provides remote access to an inoperable system, allowing you to get the system up and running as quickly as possible. The DRAC III provides alert notification when the system is down and allows you to remotely restart the system. In addition, the DRAC III logs the probable cause of system crashes and saves the most recent crash screen.
The DRAC III is a 33-MHz PCI card with its own microprocessor and memory. Under normal operating conditions, the card is powered by the system in which it is installed. However, when the system loses power, the DRAC III can operate indefinitely from an external power adapter or for up to 30 minutes from the DRAC III onboard backup battery.
The DRAC III provides alerts if a problem is detected, possibly preventing a system crash. By communicating with the system's ESM, the DRAC III reports warnings or errors related to voltages, temperatures, and fan speeds.
NOTE: Throughout the remainder of this document, the system in which the DRAC III is
installed is referred to as the managed system. The remote system that accesses the DRAC III is
referred to as the management station. The term system console refers to a system's keyboard,
mouse, and monitor.
The DRAC III offers the following features:
In-band configuration and out-of-band management capabilities.
In-band refers to communication with the DRAC III or the managed system through the managed system's NIC connection or system console. Out-of-band refers to communication with the DRAC III or the managed system through the DRAC III remote access ports, which include: Ethernet (embedded NIC), modem (optional), and VT-100 serial (optional).
Ability to perform a console redirection for text or graphics, including redirection of monitor, keyboard, and mouse both before and after boot (but not during). During console redirection, the management station is connected to the DRAC III through one of the out-of-band access ports.
Integration with other Dell OpenManage™ software products.
Access to the SEL and POST logs.
Ability to deliver alerts by dialing out to a management station and sending either an e-mail message, a message to a numeric or alphanumeric pager, or an SNMP trap through the integrated NIC.
Embedded Web server that supports Microsoft® Internet Explorer 5.x or later and Netscape Navigator 6.x or later.
Monitoring of the managed system's health, including voltages, temperatures, and cooling fan status (the DRAC III obtains this information from the managed system's ESM).
Ability to operate from PCI power, external AC power using the power adapter, and/or battery power.
NOTE: If a power failure occurs, the DRAC III can operate from battery power for up to
30 minutes.
Support for DHCP assignment of the DRAC III IP address.
Ability to remotely update the DRAC III firmware using the racadm fwupdate command, which is a subcommand of the racadm command-line utility. For more information on this command and the racadm utility, see "fwupdate."
Ability to configure the DRAC III using the racadm command-line utility. For additional information on using the individual racadm subcommands, see "racadm Subcommand Man Pages." For the syntax of the DRAC III configuration file that can be distributed to multiple DRAC IIIs, see "DRAC III Configuration File (racadm.cfg)."
Ability to perform a boot path analysis, which provides troubleshooting information from the managed system's boot log in the event of a boot failure.
Ability to perform a remote floppy boot (RFB), which allows you to boot the managed system remotely from a diskette. Typically, the boot image is downloaded from a TFTP server to the DRAC III. This feature is supported on 32-bit systems only.
IPMI 1.0 compliance.
Ability to perform power management functions, such as shutdown and reset, from a remote management console.
The DRAC III currently supports the following operating systems:
Microsoft Windows NT® 4.0 Server
NOTE: If a management station and a managed system are both running Windows NT and
are part of a cluster configuration, they must both have the same service pack installed.
Microsoft Windows NT 4.0, Enterprise Edition
Microsoft Windows® 2000 Server
Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server
Microsoft Windows Advanced Server Limited Edition
Novell® NetWare® 5.x and NetWare 6.x
NOTE: If NetWare is running on the managed system, console redirection is displayed as
text only.
The DRAC III comes with software components that provide a set of services for each supported operating system. The services interface with the DRAC III hardware to allow in-band configuration, out-of-band access, and console redirection to the out-of-band connection. Table1-1 summarizes the software components for the DRAC III.
The DRAC III firmware executes on the DRAC III independently of the managed system's operating system. It also includes networking utilities, an embedded Web server, and an embedded file system. It provides software interfaces to all the embedded systems management functions provided by the BMC, out-of-band event handling, and DRAC III configuration, and supports preboot console redirection.
Managed system software
The DRAC III managed system software includes the software that executes on the managed system under various operating systems and interfaces the DRAC III software with other managed system software. It includes device drivers, agents, libraries, and installation programs that provide an in-band communications path so that IT Assistant can configure the DRAC III and read hardware sensors, and a service that provides graphical console redirection screens when the system is running.
Management station software
The DRAC III management station software provides discovery of the DRAC III address book and correlation of DRAC IIIs with managed system addresses, a launching point for the Web-based interface, dial-up connection from IT Assistant to the DRAC III, and reception of asynchronous events delivered to IT Assistant.
DRAC III Web-based interface
The DRAC III Web-based user interface consists of Java applets executing in a remote web browser that communicates with the DRAC III firmware. The Java applets are loaded into the browser from the embedded Web server in the DRAC III firmware. The browser connects directly to the DRAC III when you enter the DRAC III IP address.
A systems management console program installed on the management station that can be used to configure the DRAC III and provides monitoring and management for systems on the network (one-to-many).
Server Administrator
A set of services that are installed on the managed system to monitor the health of the system and notify the console when a problem arises (one-to-one).
NOTE: Server Administrator is supported only on 32-bit systems.
It is possible to access the DRAC III in-band through the managed system's NIC connection or out-of-band by directly connecting to one of the remote access ports on the card. In-band interfaces are used for configuring the DRAC III. Out-of-band interfaces are used for remote access to the managed system. Out-of-band access is particularly important when the managed system is down and in-band access is unavailable. Separate user interfaces are available for both of types of connections, which include the following:
In-band interfaces
Server Administrator: Server Administrator provides a comprehensive, one-to-one systems management solution from an integrated, Web browser-based GUI (the Server Administrator home page), and from a command line interface (CLI) through the operating system. Server Administrator is designed for system administrators to both locally and remotely manage systems on a network.
IT Assistant: IT Assistant is installed on the management station and is used to configure the DRAC III. IT Assistant provides a one-to-many systems management solution. Server Administrator must be installed on the managed system in order to capture events.
NOTE: An address book system, which is used by IT Assistant, resides on the management
station and contains the IP address and telephone number of the DRAC III. This module is
supported under Windows NT and Windows 2000.
DRAC III command-line interface (racadm utility): This interface runs on the managed system and allows you to configure the DRAC III outside the IT Assistant environment. For more information, see "racadm Utility."
DRAC III Web-based interface: Using the DRAC III Ethernet port or the optional modem, this interface allows you to remotely access and manage the system, and is supported on Internet Explorer 5.x or later, or on Netscape Navigator 6.x or later. For more information, see "Using the DRAC III."
VT-100 text menu interface: This application, which resides on the DRAC III firmware, allows you to access the DRAC III using the VT-100 terminal hardware or terminal emulation software.
An important feature of the DRAC III is its ability to notify you when a system fails. To do this, the DRAC III sends an alert using one or more of its out-of-band connections. The DRAC III can send an alphanumeric page, numeric page, e-mail, or SNMP trap to preconfigured destinations.
Because the DRAC III firmware has an embedded web server, you can connect to a DRAC III from a management station and receive events that occur on the system where the DRAC III resides without installing any software on the management station (other than a supported Web browser).
After receiving an alert, you can view the event log to determine the nature of the problem. The Web browser connects to the DRAC III using the 10- or 100-Mbps Ethernet NIC on a LAN/WAN or the optional PCMCIA modem, both of which are located on the DRAC III.
The DRAC III also captures the system console screen in the event of a system crash to assist you in analyzing the cause of the failure. To get the system up and running again, you can perform a remote reset or power cycle and view the boot process through the DRAC III Web-based interface.
The DRAC III firmware constantly monitors the IPMI SEL to determine when to generate an out-of-band event. Two basic types of out-of-band events exist:
User events (sent to a specified user)
Numeric paging
Alphanumeric paging
E-mail
NOTE: For paging events to be sent, the DRAC III must have the PCMCIA modem installed.
NOTE: The e-mail event is sent to a specified e-mail address on an SMTP server.
SNMP trap events (sent to a specified IP address)
You can configure the DRAC III to notify different users of different events. When the DRAC III detects a new event, the firmware tests the event against each user's event filter and sends an event notification to the appropriate users. For instructions on configuring alert notifications, see "Installing and Configuring the Software."
You can also configure the DRAC III firmware to determine which events should generate SNMP traps. After it is configured, the DRAC III sends the SNMP traps through dial-up networking and the LAN to the IP address specified in the DRAC III configuration data. The telephone number, user name, password, and the IP address to which the dial-out trap is sent are all specified by the DRAC III configuration data.
DRAC III supports encrypted password authentication for NIC connections using TCP/IP and through the optional modem connection using PPP dial-in. The encryption method used within the PPP connection is CHAP.
The DRAC III provides VT-100 connection capabilities. Password encryption is not used for this type of connection because the VT-100 connection is a direct-connect terminal emulation, and as such, does not warrant encryption. Terminal security is provided by nonencrypted authentication of the user name and password. The firmware prevents display of the password on the terminal. System power management features (such as reset and power cycle) and text console redirection are provided through the VT-100 interface. Access to a graphical operating system is not available.
Because data transmitted between the DRAC III and the Web browser is not encrypted, it is recommended that you establish a network connection between a remote management console and your intranet behind the firewall using a tunneling protocol with encryption. After a remote console has dialed in to the LAN, it can access the DRAC III and perform management functions as if it were actually on the LAN.
The DRAC III Web-based interface browser content is proprietary and provides no direct access to the managed system's operating system. Typically out-of-band access to the DRAC III is used when no administrator is locally logged into the managed system. If an administrator does log on locally, operating system access is protected by standard operating system security measures. Users accessing the DRAC III remotely through PPP dial-in use CHAP and do not use the operating system security. When a remote user accesses a DRAC III and performs a console redirection, a pop-up notification box appears at the system console stating that remote console redirection is occurring. Click OK to close the notification box.
The DRAC III Web-based interface requires a valid log in. When establishing a remote connection to a DRAC III, the user enters a user name and password at the remote console. The password is then encrypted and sent to the DRAC III. The DRAC III receives the user name and encrypted password and begins authentication. The password saved by the DRAC III for this user name is also encrypted. It is then compared with the encrypted password received from the remote user. If there is a match, the user is validated and access to the DRAC III is granted. No other commands are recognized until validation occurs (except for online help).
After you enter your name and password, all additional information is transmitted without encryption.
It is possible to connect to either a single DRAC III or to multiple DRAC IIIs from a management station. Any PC or UNIX® workstation with a Web browser can connect directly to the DRAC III without using management station software as long as you have the IP address of the DRAC III. The following sections provide sample configurations to be used as a guideline for deploying single or multiple DRAC IIIs in your network environment.
When you connect to a DRAC III using a NIC or a modem, you use the management station's Web browser to view the DRAC III Web-based interface. When you connect using the VT-100, you have a limited set of viewing and systems management capabilities. Figure1-1 illustrates three possible out-of-band connections to a single DRAC III.
The DRAC III is integrated with other Dell OpenManage software products to allow easier management of large numbers of systems from a single management station. Figure1-2 illustrates a network configuration using multiple DRAC IIIs and a combination of in-band and out-of-band connections.
Figure 1-2. Connecting to Multiple DRAC IIIs
You can use a Web browser to connect to the primary console screen for IT Assistant, and use IT Assistant to connect to the DRAC III console for any system recognized by IT Assistant. When IT Assistant discovers a managed system on the intranet, it executes special queries to the managed system to determine if it contains a DRAC III. If a DRAC III is present, its IP address (and telephone number, if any) is saved in IT Assistant's database, and the discovery function verifies that a DRAC III is connected at the IP address returned by the managed system. Telephone numbers are not verified at the time of discovery.
Using the IT Assistant interface, you can look at the address book for all managed systems to determine if a managed system has a DRAC III, and whether it is accessible by LAN, dial-up, or both. By double-clicking on the proper address book screen icon or field, you can then launch a connection to the DRAC III through the LAN or by dial-up.
For dial-out connections, the DRAC III software, which is integrated with IT Assistant on the IT Assistant host system, executes the dial-out, connects to the DRAC III with PPP, and creates a network bridge between the PPP connection and the internal services host system network. This process allows any management station to use IT Assistant to connect to a DRAC III using dial-up networking.
The IT Assistant services also provide a common place for DRAC IIIs to send SNMP traps, alerting you of serious system conditions. IT Assistant processes traps received from a DRAC III out-of-band event notification in the same manner as it does in-band traps received from managed systems. The DRAC III supports dial-in from a remote management station using a modem and PPP networking. A DRAC III that is configured to send dial-out events executes a dial-out, establishes a PPP networking connection to the IT Assistant services host system, and sends an SNMP trap to the configured IP address. The trap IP address does not have to be the services host system.
In addition to this User's Guide, the following documents are available on your documentation CD or on a product-specific CD (if the applicable CD supports your language), or at the Dell | Support website at support.dell.com.
DRAC III documents:
The DRAC III online help provides information on using the DRAC III Web-based interface.
The Dell Remote Access Card VT-100 Cable — Information Update included with your optional VT-100 cable kit.
PowerEdge documents:
The User's Guide provides information about system features, instructions for installing and configuring drivers and utilities, information on the System Setup program and the system's Resource Configuration Utility, and instructions for attaching devices to the connectors on your system's back panel.
The Installation and Troubleshooting Guide provides information and instructions for installing your system, running system diagnostics, and troubleshooting system components.
The System Information document provides important safety and regulatory information. Warranty information might be included within that document or as a separate document.
The Dell OpenManage IT Assistant User's Guide provides information on using the IT Assistant systems management console application program.
The Dell OpenManage Server Administrator User's Guide describes the installation and use of Server Administrator. Server Administrator is a suite of management agents, installed on the managed system, that provide fault management information, prefailure information, and asset and inventory information to management console applications such as IT Assistant.
The Server Administrator online help provides information on configuring your DRAC III in a Dell OpenManage environment.
The Dell OpenManage Server Administrator SNMP Reference Guide provides formatted information drawn primarily from the MIB file written for the Server Administrator SNMP subagent.
The Dell OpenManage Array Manager User's Guide provides information on configuring and managing local and remote storage using the Dell OpenManage Array Manager software.
You may also have one or more of the following documents included with your system:
Documentation updates, which are sometimes included with your system to describe changes to your system or software. Always read these updates before consulting any other documentation because the updates often contain the latest information.
Operating system documentation, which is included if your operating system was preinstalled on your system.
Documentation included with any options you purchase separately from your system. This documentation includes information that you need to configure and install these options in your system. This documentation may be included on your documentation CD or a product-specific CD.
If at any time you do not understand a procedure described in this guide or if your product does not perform as expected, a number of tools are provided to assist you. For more information on these help tools, see "Getting Help" in your PowerEdge Installation and Troubleshooting Guide.
