Dell OpenManage Server Administrator · 2005-11-13 · central IT Assistant console using Windows Management Instrumentation ... from Dell OpenManage IT Assistant 7 ... The fourth
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Wscript.Echo strCommand & “ was started with a process ID of “ _
& intProcessID & “.”
Else
Wscript.Echo strCommand & “ could not be started due to error “ & errReturn & “.”
End If
Figure 1. Example WMI script
Windows Management Instrumentation provides a consistent way to access comprehensive systems management informa-tion. It does so by using WMI infrastructure, which consists ofthe WMI providers, the WMI service, the WMI repository, and the WMI consumers.
The WMI providers act as intermediary between the WMI service (Common Information Model Object Manager, or CIMOM) and a managed resource. They request information from and send instructions to WMI-managed resources on behalf of consumerapplications and scripts. The WMI service handles the inter action between the WMI consumers and the WMI providers. The WMI repository stores the schema that defines the management infor-mation exposed by WMI. The WMI consumers are scripts andapplications that access and control management informationavailable through the WMI infrastructure.
A WMI class exists to encapsulate the properties and the actions that WMI can perform to manage each manageable resource. The managed resource that is accessed in the example installation script in this article is the win32_Process class, which encapsulates properties and actions that can be performed on a process in a Microsoft Windows OS.
WINDOWS MANAGEMENT INSTRUMENTATION
Figure 2. Entering task name and type in IT Assistant Task Creation Wizard
and it executes the WMI-based remoteexec.vbs script located in
C:\scripts. The WMI script takes the following four arguments:
• Target device: The first argument is the host name or IP
address of the target system on which the Dell OpenManage
agent must be installed. Administrators can use $IP or $NAME
to select devices from the device selection pane. • MSI installation command: The second argument is the
silent installation command for the SysMgmt.msi package
located in C:/tmp on the target device. The silent instal-
lation command—msiexec.exe /i c:\tmp\SysMgmt.msi
/l*v “C:\install.log” /qn—installs the complete MSI
package and writes the log to the C:\install.log file. Admin-
istrators can pass options to install specific components of
the MSI package.1
• Username: The third argument specifies the name of the
user running the WMI script on the remote node. • Password: The fourth argument is the password of the user
running the WMI script. Administrators can use $USERNAME
and $PASSWORD to pass the credentials securely using the
ITA authentication pane.
Step 3. Select the target device by either choosing from the
Devices tree or running a query.
Note: Administrators can select more than one target device
for the task. In this case, the script will be executed on each of the
target nodes with the same parameters except for the first argument,
which will change depending on the device. Also, the MSI should
be placed in the same location on all target devices, and the same
credentials should apply.
Step 4. Select the time at which the task should run.
Step 5. Enter the credentials—username and password—with
which the task needs to be run on the remote node.
Step 6. Review the summary of the task and click the Finish
button if no changes are required (see Figure 3).
Task execution resultsOnce the task executes, administrators can view the execution
results by selecting the Execution Log tab. This screen displays the
standard output and the standard error of the process that executed
the task on the remote node. Figure 4 shows the Execution Log
screen after a task was successfully executed.
Verifying the installationThe output of the task reveals only whether the installation started
successfully—it does not provide information about how and when
the installation completed. Because the task is asynchronous, it
spawns only the MSI installation and does not wait for the process
to complete. To verify whether the installation ended successfully,
The task management component in Dell OpenManage IT Assistant is designed to provide a feature-rich, robust, and secure systems management interface that can be used by system administrators to efficiently manage systems in their enterprise. IT Assistant sup-ports execution of various types of tasks, which can be classifiedbased on their functionality. These task types include:
• Generic command line: Executes generic remote command-line tasks that are not specific to any agent.
• Remote Server Administrator command line:Executes Dell OpenManage Server Administrator CLI commands remotely.
• Shut down device: Performs a shutdown operation on a selected device.
• Wake up device: Wakes up a selected device via the user-specified port number. This task works by sending a “magic packet” to the target device.
• Software update: Performs a software update on one or more remote devices.
TYPES OF TASKS IN DELL OPENMANAGE IT ASSISTANT
1 For more information about other silent installation options, refer to the Dell OpenManage Server Administrator User’s Guide at support.dell.com/support/edocs/software/svradmin.e
Figure 3. Task summary information from IT Assistant Task Creation Wizard