The following features are new in this release of IT Assistant:
Performance Monitoring
Performance Monitoring helps you monitor the performance of a group of supported Microsoft® Windows® or Linux systems in your network environment over a specified period of time. Performance is monitored with the help of performance counters available for each component. You can select and monitor the performance counters. You can also configure threshold alerts to flag and notify you of under- or over-utilized systems on your network. For more information, see "Performance Monitoring."
IT Assistant discovers systems equipped with baseboard management controllers (BMC) that support Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) versions 1.5 or later. IT Assistant communicates with the BMC directly or through the Windows IPMI Provider on a Microsoft Windows Server® 2003 R2 system.
IT Assistant discovers and classifies the BMC of the discovered system through IPMI. However, if the Dell agent is installed on this system, IT Assistant will correlate the information with the discovered system through the service tag.
Software Deployment
You can use this feature to deploy Dell OpenManage Server Administrator on Dell systems that do not have Server Administrator installed. Server Administrator assists in discovering, classifying, inventorying, monitoring systems, and updating software on your network.
Using this feature, you can also update Server Administrator to a newer version.
Digital Signature Verification
IT Assistant checks the authenticity and integrity of the update packages and MSI files using digital signature verification.
Digital signature verification of each Dell™ Update
Package (DUP) will happen when you manually import the packages from the Dell Server Update Utility CD or a repository on a network share.
IT Assistant also supports signature verification for the Server Administrator MSI package.
Custom Bundles
With IT Assistant, you can create a custom System Update Set or bundle.
You can create custom bundles that contain only the packages you want. For example, you can create a custom bundle out of an existing Dell custom bundle that will enable you to update just the device drivers on a given set of target devices.
This custom bundle can be subsequently used to drive system compliance reports and do custom updates.
Favorite Application Launch
IT Assistant supports launching user-configured applications for multiple devices or a group of devices, such as printers and switches. For more information, see the IT Assistant Online Help.
Storage Integration
IT Assistant discovers Dell|EMC arrays in your storage environment and displays them in the Dell/EMC Arrays category present in the Storage Devices group.
For more information, see the IT Assistant Online Help.
Printer Integration
IT Assistant version 8.0 supports discovery of Dell network-enabled printers and classifies them under the Printers category in the Device tree.
IT Assistant uses SNMP to communicate with the printer devices. Dell printers have implemented a standard Printer MIB, enabling standardized access to important information.
NOTE: You can also use this feature of IT Assistant to discover non-Dell printers in your network environment.
For more information, see the IT Assistant Online Help.
Tape Integration
IT Assistant version 8.0 supports discovery of those Dell tape library devices that have an out-of-band management port. IT Assistant classifies them under the Tape Devices category under the Storage Devices tree. For more information, see the IT Assistant Online Help.
FRU Support
With IT Assistant version 8.0, you can view the field replaceable units (FRU) information for a managed system. IT Assistant retrieves FRU information from Dell OpenManage Server Administrator during an inventory cycle and stores it in the database.
For more information, see the IT Assistant Online Help.
Power Control Tasks
Starting with IT Assistant 8.0, before trying SNMP power control tasks, IT Assistant will try the omremote command on the managed system. This applies only if the managed system has Dell OpenManage version 4.3 or later installed.
NOTE: For Dell OpenManage versions earlier than 4.3, the Power Control tasks remain unchanged.
NOTE: The omremote command uses the operating system credentials for authentication.
IT Assistant version 8.0 supports performing remote power control operations and alert processing for Alert Standard Format (ASF) 2.0 compliant devices.
NOTE: See the system documentation for enabling remote power control through ASF.
NOTE: IT Assistant uses the in-band Broadcom Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) provider to verify if
a device has ASF capabilities.
