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By Donnie Bell, Lance Osborne, and Jon Mc. Gary May 2. 00. 2The Dell. TM Remote Assistant Card II DRAC II and Dell Remote Access Card III DRAC III provide users with the necessary tools and functionality to monitor, troubleshoot, and repair servers that are around the corner or around the world. This article discusses the DRAC features and functionality and explores how they can reduce time to manage servers, enable faster recovery of remote servers, and lower cost of overall network ownership. Managing distributed servers from a remote location is often mandatory in todays business environment. IT administrators must easily and effectively manage servers in secure data centers or in locations that have no administrative IT staff. Such scenarios require remotely performing all server management operations and responding to server down situations. Latest trending topics being covered on ZDNet including Reviews, Tech Industry, Security, Hardware, Apple, and Windows. Remote access capabilities help to improve system administrator productivity and overall server availability by reducing administrator visits to the system and by allowing some operations on groups of systems instead of individual devices. The Dell. TM Remote Assistant Card II DRAC II and Dell Remote Access Card III DRAC III provide IT administrators with continuous access to servers. Administrators also achieve full control of the server hardware and operating system from any client system running a Web browser, even if the server is down or hung. The Dell remote access architecture consists of hardware and software components that allow administrators to do the following Access a server after a server failure, power outage, or loss of a network connection using a network interface card NIC or modemRemotely view a servers internal event logs and power on self test POST codes for diagnostic purposes. Manage servers in multiple locations from a remote console. Manage servers by redirecting the console output to a remote console graphic and textPerform an orderly shutdown of a server for maintenance tasks. Diagnose a server failure and restart the server. Alert the administrator using alphanumeric page, numeric page, e mail, or Simple Network Management Protocol SNMP trap when a server detects an error. Hardware to enable remote access. DRACs are peripheral component interconnect PCI cards that work with the Embedded Server Management ESM chip on the server motherboard. Figure 1 illustrates a typical system architecture using DRACs. Figure 1. Typical system architecture using DRACs. DRAC II occupies a single, full length PCI slot. In addition to the processor, the card includes 1. MB of memory, flash RAMnonvolatile random access memory NV RAM, onboard NIC for 1. Mbps Ethernet, PC Card interface, PCI controller, battery, real time clock, and ESM2 connector. DRAC II is compatible with Dell Power. Edge. TM x. 3xx, x. The software necessary to use DRAC II is incorporated into the Dell Open. Manage. TM IT Assistant that ships with every Dell server. DRAC III is a half length PCI card that requires one 3. MHz, 3. 2 bit PCI slot. It provides 1. 6 MB of memory, 8 MB flash RAMNV RAM, onboard NIC for 1. Mbps Ethernet, one serial interface, battery, real time clock, and ESM3 connector. The card may optionally include a PCMCIA modem and AC power adapter. Figure 2 illustrates the DRAC III components. Figure 2. DRAC III components. DRAC III is compatible with Power. Edge 1. 65. 0 and 4. Power. Edge 7. 15. These systems are based on a standard hardware implementation called Intelligent Platform Management Interface IPMI, which allows Dell to bring remote management capabilities to market at a lower cost. DRAC III allows up to 1. This improvement in access allows administrators to work together from different locations to isolate problems more quickly. DRACs are not cross compatible DRAC III cannot be used in DRAC II systems and vice versa. Software to enable remote access. Dell Open. Manage Server Administrator installs the driver and supplies both a graphical user interface GUI and command line interface CLI to set up and use DRAC III. Server Administrator is not used to manage DRAC II. Server Administrator installs and manages one server at a time. The Remote Access function provided in Server Administrator 1. Dell Open. Manage IT Assistant can configure and launch access to DRAC II and DRAC III. Open. Manage IT Assistant lets administrators remotely access an operating or non operating server in context. KB/DELL_ORGANIZATIONAL_GROUPS/DELL_GLOBAL/Servers/library/RMU%20interface.png' alt='Dell Server Serial Number Location' title='Dell Server Serial Number Location' />The Dell blade server products are built around their M1000e enclosure that can hold their server blades, an embedded EqualLogic iSCSI storage area network and IO. Figure 3 highlights the hardware and software required for DRAC II and DRAC III. Figure 3. Requirements for DRAC II and DRAC IIICapabilities of DRAC II and DRAC IIIDRAC II and DRAC III enable several monitoring and notification capabilities, facilitate diagnostics, provide mechanisms for remote operations, and offer various connection and backup alternatives. Unless specified otherwise, both DRAC II and DRAC III include the following capabilities. SNMP support. SNMP provides a standard message format to notify the administrator of server problems. DRAC can send notices, even if the server is down, to most of the industrys leading consoles. Ability to monitor server health. DRAC monitors the health of the hardware to identify any failures and provide the administrator with information to isolate components with problems. This capability enables faster troubleshooting of operational and non operational servers and potentially yields higher availability. Alphanumeric and numeric paging. Wireless devices immediately notify administrators of server problems or failure. E mail support. Mail systems provide immediate notification of server problems or failure. Review of hardware logs. DRAC provides access to data showing the state of the hardware and any errors that may have been logged. These logs are the best source of hardware data and help to troubleshoot problems, potentially yielding higher availability. Access to hardware sensors. DRAC provides readouts on all sensors including power, fans, disks, temperature, and voltage. Administrators can ascertain the servers condition regardless of the state of the operating system. Boot path analysis. DRAC III lets administrators determine whether any failures occurred during the boot sequence using boot path analysis, which displays the success or failure of POSTs as the server comes up see Figure 4. This capability helps administrators to identify the status of the components before the operating system is operational. Any errors in the boot path may be the source of why a server might not boot. Parts For Kitchenaid Mixer Model 4C. By identifying the component early and isolating problems quickly, administrators may be able to reduce downtime. Figure 4. Boot path analysis. Ability to start the server, even from powered down state. DRAC allows remote startup of the server so administrators can power up systems that are powered off at night or over a weekend. This capability reduces expenses and potentially makes administrators more productive. Shutdown and graceful shutdown procedures. Nonton Film Crazy Little Thing Called Love 2. Administrators can increase their productivity by powering down the server quickly or in a controlled fashion without visiting the system. Automatic server recovery. This feature watches the system to identify periods of inactivity that may indicate a hung condition. The server recovery, or watchdog, is a timer set by the user that counts down from X to 0, if enabled.