Configuration Management

This is a template script that can be used to generate all of the xml files for configuration of an HP lights out board as part of the build, it has some logic in it too for generation of the name of the ilo - just un rem the sections that you need and customize it.

It builds the name of the ilo by reading the computer name and then inserting a LO in the middle (for dns resolution).

We are on the final lap. We have made a lot of progress over the past articles. Here is what we have talked about:

• Part 1: Installing the Dell Client Manager into Notification Server

• Part 2: Dell Monitoring Policy (the health check)

• Part 3: Dell BIOS Upgrade

• Part 4: Dell BIOS Profile

Updating the BIOS is great, but it is something that doesn't have to be done (unless it is a security update). Being able to actually control the settings in the BIOS is where the rubber meets the road. Using the Dell Client Manager you can control every little setting in your computer's BIOS. You can configure your laptop, your desktop, and even your server. It is a great tool.

One of the most annoying things a system admin has to manage is the physical computer itself. Anytime a BIOS setting needs to be tweaked or a new version comes out you have to either ignore it or go to each machine. Not any more. Dell and Altiris have created a tool to make managing the BIOS a breeze.

The Dell Client Manager lets you update your BIOS, create BIOS profiles, monitor your computer's health, and inventory your BIOS settings and hardware. This series will help you get started with this time saving tool.

Just like everything else in the computer world, a computer BIOS needs to be updated and maintained. It can be a difficult task that in the past required the system admin to go to every computer and manually update the BIOS. In the not to distant past it even required a floppy disk to get the job done. Those days are over (thankfully). One of the great features of the Dell Client Manager is BIOS update tasks.

Prior to SQL 2005, the only way to easily manage a huge number of objects was to split them up and create one database for each logical subset -- one database for the sales department, another for marketing, still another for human resources, etc.

Monitors now often return their serial number in a HW inventory (aexmachinv.exe). If you are using CMDB Solution and are tracking monitors as a resource you can use Connector Solution to create the association between a computer and its monitor(s).

Who among you has ever looked at the CPU information that the Altiris hardware inventory gathers and said "That's not what I need. I need to know how many physical CPUs are there, or how many cores there are, or whether this is a hyper threading CPU, etc."