Current Revision posted to TechCenter Chats - Wiki by DELL-Deepak K on 11/23/2016 12:40:50 PM
This chat will focus on scripting OMCI. After installing OMCI, you can programmatically manage properties of OMCI. For example, you can change the BIOS admin password, change the boot order, disable desktop message alerts, and more.
The Dell OpenManage Client Instrumentation (OMCI) software enables remote management application programs to access information about the client system, monitor the status of the client system, or change the state of the system, such as shutting it down remotely. OMCI exposes, through standard interfaces, key system parameters that allow administrators to manage, inventory, monitor the system health of, and gather information on deployed Dell client systems.
Technical Community - Background Reading
- Review all OMCI documentation (including VBScript examples) and obtain the latest downloads.
- Access comprehensive OpenManage resources.
- OMCI at DellTechCenter
Chat Transcript
| DELL-ScottH | Getting excited for VMworld? |
| depping | Yes, I am; will be a lot of fun, but also hard work I guess |
| DELL-ScottH | Yeah, 100 percent work and play, no time to sleep—that's how I always attack VMworld :-) Was just starting to use twitter at the last one in the states—this year will be nuts |
| depping | I guess it will be the same for me. I hope I do have the time to meet up with some people |
| esloof | Hoi Duncan |
| DELL-ScottH | The VMware dream team in the house :-) |
| esloof | Wat een enorme file vandaag vanaf Amsterdam, ik heb er ruim twee uur over gedaan |
| depping | Hehe, VMware is taking over the Dell chat |
| cshanklin | esloof and depping? The standards of this forum have really dropped; they let anyone in these days |
| DELL-ScottH | I should just start having Tweet chat ups :-) |
| woookash | Seems that everyone knows each other here :p |
| depping | I've been on most chats the last six months. Carter, where were you? |
| DELL-ScottH | Always room for more! |
| cshanklin | I was incognito |
| DELL-ScottH | He's been busy playing with PowerPoint and Microsoft Paint :-) |
| cshanklin | Not true, I got Paint.net. It's like stepping into the bronze age |
| depping | Hehe |
| DELL-ScottH | Hey Roger |
| depping | Zeker een file Eric, man man man. Ik kwam uit alkmaar... drama. So do you guys understand Dutch? ;-) |
| depping | You Dell guys should discuss a naming convention! |
| DELL-ScottH | Hey, English only at the tables :-) |
| cshanklin | Certainly a traffic-jam, Eric, man man man. I ended up but…drama |
| depping | Hehe, Google Translates works great |
| DELL-ScottH | Naming for which products? |
| esloof | Carter, you’re really speaking Dutch great |
| woookash | For nicknames I guess :p |
| depping | Naming of chat nicks |
| DELL-ScottH | Ah, but that takes out all the fun |
| cshanklin | I tried to learn a few Dutch words at one point, I gave up almost immediately. Too hard. |
| depping | It's not that hard, even my 3-year-old kid can speak Dutch without a problem ;-) |
| DELL-ScottH | When I used to travel a bunch I would put phrases on 3x5 cards with English/foreign on both sides and was enough to get me around town |
| woookash | Any chance of asking a tech question to you guys? Seems that you know a lot about virtualization |
| DELL-ScottH | They always seem to have beer and bathroom on them :-) |
| DELL-ScottH | Ask away |
| woookash | Well, it's not about machine virtualization, but about application virtualization |
| DELL-ScottH | Carter (cshanklin) invented it |
| cshanklin | Beer or virtualization (I'm practicing for VMworld Europe) |
| woookash | We're having a lot of issues because of Web sites using Java; we're a financial company and our users have to frequently use Web sites from various banks, with various JRE versions |
| DELL-ScottH | Ah, sounds like you need to encapsulates applications and present them to the desktop |
| woookash | And of course Windows *** at handling that |
| woookash | Jep, something like that sounds great |
| DELL-ScottH | Hello Brian, Paul, Nathan, Angie |
| BrianMason | How-d |
| woookash | Any suggestion of directions to look at for that? |
| angie_dell | ::big grin |
| DELL_Nathan | Hello |
| esloof | Okay, here’s a question for the Dell guru’s: how is ESXi 3 embedded in a Dell server? Are you still using the motherboard USB stick? |
| DELL-ScottH | So who wants to take a quick stab at woookash’s question? Many opinions I bet… |
| DELL-ScottH | Hey vmdoug |
| DELL-ScottH | FYI, use Action, Recent Room History to catch up |
| DELL-ScottH | @esloof, yes—and no |
| depping | I'm most definitely not an application virtualization guy |
| VMDoug | Hey Scott! I finally got the chat, I think, working now that I'm running a Dell laptop (on Firefox) |
| DELL-ScottH | Congrats on the Dell Latitude E; nice box. Wish I had one |
| cshanklin | Woookash, you should look at ThinApp—I'm not sure it can do what you want; it's more about bundling traditional applications |
| depping | Hard part would be getting Internet Explorer to work with the different versions of virtualized Java |
| ramseyg_Dell | @wookash, Java can be a tough one |
| cshanklin | But you may be able to handle it with something like bundling up the whole browser with a particular version of Java |
| esloof | Don’t you think the USB stick will become corrupt of VMkernel logs over the long time? |
| woookash | @ramseyg_dell, I don't have kind words to describe it |
| ramseyg_Dell | Different requirements for different sites is tough |
| woookash | Well, if it's possible to package IE + Java version, using one package for each application, that would do the trick |
| ramseyg_Dell | As cshanklin mentions, if you can virtualize your Web browser, and include Java in it (and have multiple virtual applications), you can probably get there |
| DELL-ScottH | Couldn't you use Citrix to bundle up an entire environment? |
| cshanklin | Woookash, that may be possible, but we need a ThinApp expert to know for sure |
| ramseyg_Dell | But Microsoft will tell you that they don't support wrapping IE as a virtual application :( |
| woookash | Well, for the moment, we're running a lot of VMware machines, but only server virtualization; on the application level we're nowhere |
| depping | http://blogs.vmware.com/thinapp/2008/10/using-ie-7-on-v.html |
| DELL-ScottH | @esloof, hadn't really thought about that. I can forward to Dell Virtualization Engineering team to see if they tested or have thoughts—e-mailing now |
| DELL-ScottH | Alright, appreciate all the pre-chatter...time to hand it over to Dell IT to discuss the real topic of the day: OMCI scripting |
| woookash | (Thanks :-) ) |
| DELL-ScottH | Feel free to jump in anytime with questions; we can short everything out as we go. And you always have the option of right-clicking and using private chat to continue any discussion |
| DELL-ScottH | Welcome Greg and Angie from Dell IT. Please introduce yourselves and anyone you have joining, and take it away. As always, when a link is posted, right-click or you'll get exited from the chat :-) |
| ramseyg_Dell | Hi, Greg here. I'm a ConfigMgr administrator for Dell IT, managing internal Dell systems. Angie is my colleague. We have a few others here as well. I'll point out Dell_nathan, as he knows All things OMCI! :) |
| angie_dell | And I’m Angie. I work on the same team as Greg, but this chat today is all his |
| ramseyg_Dell | So we're glad to have him, as OMCI is the topic today |
| angie_dell | And Nathen's |
| ramseyg_Dell | OMCI = OpenManage Client Instrumentation. This is a client application supported on Windows XP, Vista (and probably Windows 2000 also; can't recall off the top of my head) |
| DELL_Nathan | Yes, 2000 as well, for now |
| ramseyg_Dell | OMCI allows you to dive into Dell hardware information that's on your system. As for Dell hardware, this is for Latitude, OptiPlex, and Precision workstations. |
| ramseyg_Dell | A couple of weeks ago, we chatted about DCCU (Dell Client Configuration Utility). DCCU allows you to create a package to query/modify hardware settings. OMCI allows you to make some scripting magic. |
| ramseyg_Dell | (Caution, right-click on links): www.delltechcenter.com/page/openmanage+client+instrumentation+%28omci%29 |
| ramseyg_Dell | This is our landing page for OMCI in the Dell TechCenter. Lots of good information there. |
| ramseyg_Dell | First thing to mention is installing OMCI. You can see on that link we've provided an example silent installation. It is an application that runs on the local system. Once it's installed you can script against it |
| woookash | A quick question: I've been testing Dell Client Manager 3.0 for a couple of weeks; where's the difference in a few words? |
| ramseyg_Dell | Nathan has done a great job of putting together documentation. Check out the OMCI User Guide, OMCI white paper, and for the deep dive, OMCI Reference Guide |
| ramseyg_Dell | Nathan can probably answer this one better than I can. I believe DCM is the server-side application and interfaces with OMCI |
| DELL_Nathan | Yes, DCM provides a console for administrators |
| woookash | Okay, makes things clear; thanks! |
| ramseyg_Dell | So you can use OMCI separately as well. We have a link on the page also for using OMCI with ConfigMgr. OMCI populates WMI, so that's where we do the scripting |
| DELL_Nathan | It also has an agent on all systems that communicates with OMCI to provide a good amount of the management capability |
| ramseyg_Dell | Also, for you ConfigMgr administrators, in the "OMCI and ConfigMgr" link we discuss how to inventory information collected from OMCI |
| ramseyg_Dell | So, into scripting...if you're familiar with WMI (Windows Management Instrumentation), scripting with Dell OMCI will be fairly straightforward |
| ramseyg_Dell | We have a page on the Dell TechCenter for scripting and OMCI: www.delltechcenter.com/page/omci+sample+scripts |
| ramseyg_Dell | For VBScript, we reference the two white papers mentioned previously. You'll find several sample scripts in there that you can run on a local system, as well as remotely |
| angie_dell | Action, Room History |
| ramseyg_Dell | For all things Dell OMCI, you'll connect to the root\dellomci namespace |
| ramseyg_Dell | If you're scripting in PowerShell, we've also provided a few example one-liner's there also |
| ramseyg_Dell | So let's talk about some of the cool things you can do |
| ramseyg_Dell | Changing alert notifications (for hard drive space, etc.), changing a BIOS password, enabling the Wake-on-LAN bit in the BIOS, and you can even query and reset the chassis intrusion status if you'd like |
| ramseyg_Dell | And if you have any OptiPlex 960s, you'll see a new feature that will be on all new enterprise systems, "manufacturedate," which will give you a better idea of when this system came out of the factory |
| ramseyg_Dell | You can also perform remote BIOS updates and set/change the Boot password |
| ramseyg_Dell | Anyone currently doing any scripting with OMCI? |
| ramseyg_Dell | You can also query status of specific hardware components, like fan health, CPU temperature, and so on |
| woookash | Not yet, but looking to implement that. We're using only OptiPlex/Latitude computers (+/- 600) and really would love to have WOL activated on them |
| DELL_Nathan | I am :) |
| ramseyg_Dell | By querying (or inventorying) status of hardware, you have the opportunity to be proactive on hardware failures |
| DELL_Nathan | You can also check if an HDD password is set |
| woookash | Just another quickie: is DCM a requirement to be able to do anything with OMCI? Or another hardware management system like SMS? |
| VMDoug | Possible stupid question: are there any compiled tools or widgets taking advantage of OMCI to run on the client? |
| DELL_Nathan | Just OMCI |
| ramseyg_Dell | Good point, Nathan. I know when we send out mandatory installations that require a reboot, systems that have HDD passwords set will not complete the reboot process until a user logs in. |
| ramseyg_Dell | @woookash, you can use OMCI completely standalone if you'd like, but if you're going to perform operations on hundreds of computers, you'll need to be a pretty good scripter, or use a more preferred method such as DCM or other systems management tools like SMS/ConfigMgr |
| ramseyg_Dell | @vmdoug, not exactly sure what you mean. |
| DELL_Nathan | @vmdoug, DCM uses OMCI; I don't know of any other products at this time that specifically use OMCI |
| ramseyg_Dell | But I did want to mention that you don't have to be a scripter to look under the hood with OMCI (or WMI for that matter); take a look at the FAQ on the sample scripts page: www.delltechcenter.com/page/omci+sample+scripts |
| VMDoug | I understand using OMCI to manage multiple systems, but I was wondering about a widget for my own—just curious |
| ramseyg_Dell | You can use the WMI Admin Tools to look at WMI—just go to the root/dellomci namespace |
| VMDoug | Aka, Vista widget |
| ramseyg_Dell | And the two PowerShell links there do the same—just requires that PowerShell be installed. |
| ramseyg_Dell | FYI: use the OMCI Reference Guide: to look up values of settings. For example, Dell_battery class can tell you if the battery is charged, critical, and so on. You can also query information like CPU family, type of RAM, and so on. |
| ramseyg_Dell | With OMCI, you can dive a little deeper into the hardware (from Windows), including looking at VPro/Amt settings |
| ramseyg_Dell | Any questions on OMCI? Problems? Feature requests? |
| ramseyg_Dell | On every Dell TechCenter page, you can add a thread for asking additional questions. Or if you're looking for more information and you don't see it, post there and we'll help you out the best we can |
| DELL_Nathan | @vmdoug, I don't know of any Vista widgets that use OMCI |
| DELL-ScottH | Sounds like an exercise for the reader |
| ramseyg_Dell | Any other questions? OMCI, or anything else? |
| VMDoug | I'll get right on that in my spare time |
| ramseyg_Dell | :) - |
| DELL-ScottH | Sure you will :-) |
| ramseyg_Dell | (silence...must be after lunch...everyone tired... :) |
| DELL-ScottH | Looks like today might be a short chat; any other topics anyone wants to raise? |
| depping | Can we expect an OpenManage Client for VIMA (VMware Infrastructure Management Assistant)/ESXi soon? |
| DELL-ScottH | I think the chance of that rounds to 0 |
| depping | I don't like to install clients with ESX itself, so running it in VIMA would be awesome |
| depping | Why? Wouldn't you be able to communicate with DRAC or...? |
| DELL_Nathan | There is no DRAC on client boxes |
| DELL-ScottH | Sorry. Confused myself |
| VMDoug | CIM/Smash is the future on ESX |
| DELL-ScottH | U4 has OpenManage Client 6 in it...ssshhhh |
| ramseyg_Dell | <Quick mention on next week's chat> |
| depping | I know there’s no Drac on client boxes |
| depping | Okay, that's what I wanted to hear, Scott |
| ramseyg_Dell | Next week we're going to talk about the Dell Deployment Pack for ConfigMgr 2007, which gives you some cool new task sequences |
| depping | My typing is really bad today, sorry |
| DELL-ScottH | Actually, testing that right now on an 805; that's why I've been a little quiet on the chat |
| VMDoug | @depping, it's late for you; we understand |
| ramseyg_Dell | Allows you to deploy Dell servers with ease, use a GUI to configure RAID, BIOS, and so on |
| ramseyg_Dell | My colleague, Angie, will be driving that one with some pretty 8x10 color glossy pictures with circles and arrows on the back of each one |
| angie_dell | I will what? |
| ramseyg_Dell | Seriously, good stuff there. DDP will be releasing very soon, and it's free (just like OMCI) |
| DELL-ScottH | Cool, I want an autographed one! |
| ramseyg_Dell | So if you're deploying Dell servers, and you have ConfigMgr, definitely take a look next week |
| ramseyg_Dell | Thanks everyone for joining the chat; we'll hang around for a while for general questions |
| DELL-ScottH | Yes, thanks, and as always, the transcript will be on the page of the same link that got you here |