======================================================================= DELL SYSTEM E-SUPPORT TOOL 1.9.0 for Windows ======================================================================= This document contains the latest update information for Dell System E-Support Tool (DSET). ======================================================================= WHAT IS NEW IN THIS RELEASE ======================================================================= * Added support for 11th generation (11G) PowerEdge Servers * Added support for OpenManage 6.2 and OpenManage 6.2.1 software products * Added support for operating systems Windows Server 2008 R2 * Added support for Service Pack 2 for Windows Server 2008 * Added support for new PERC controllers H200, H700, and H800 * Added support for 6Gb SAS HBA card * DSET report creation speed improvements * Added support for collecting PDK collector inventory.xml file * Added support for collecting Mezzanine firmware version and LOM cards information in Log folders * Added support for PowerVault NX300 and PowerVault NX3000 * Added support for new network and fibre channel cards for PowerEdge blade servers * Added support in DSET report GUI for NIC teaming information of Intel and Broadcom NICs * Added Dell part/revision info (ePPID) for Dell-qualified hard disk drives * Added collection of IPv6 addresses for network interfaces and iDRAC cards * Added additional Power Management statistics and settings for 10G and 11G servers * Fixed crash issue while collecting Pagefile.sys information on Windows Server 2008 * Fixed "Logical Connector" display when PowerVault storage is connected in a load-balanced configuration * Miscellaneous fixes NOTE: * Removed support for PowerEdge 6G, 7G platforms and the related peripherals * Removed support for Windows 2000 Server ======================================================================= RECOMMENDED HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS ======================================================================= DSET System Information Reporting --------------------------------- The following minimum requirements are needed for DSET to collect a System Information Report using its command-line interface (CLI) utilities: * The following Dell PowerEdge(TM) systems are supported from the existing list: 800, 830, 840, 850, 860, 1600SC, 1650, 1655MC, 1750, 1850, 1950, 1855, 1800, 1900, 1955, 2600, 2650, 2800, 2850, 2900, 2950, 2970, 4600, 6600, 6650, 6800, 6850, 6950, SC1420, SC1425, SC1430, SC1435, SC420, SC430, SC440, NX1950, R805, R900, M600, M605, M805, M905, T100, T105, T300, T605, R200, R300, R905, R610, T610, R710, M610, and M710 (PowerEdge 7150, 7250 and 3250 Intel Itanium 64-bit systems are not supported) * Additionally in this release new platforms supported are: R410, T410, T710, T310, R210, T110, R510, R310, R810, R910, and M910 * The following Dell PowerVault(TM) systems are supported: 745N, 750N, 755N, 770N, 775N, 100T, 110T, 122T, 124T, 132T, 136T, ML6000, 200/210, 220S/221S, MD1000, RD1000 Internal SATA Drive, TL2000, TL4000, MD1120, and NF110 * Adding support for new Mezzanine cards: Qlogic 10G FCOE, Intel Quad Port 1GbE, Broadcom 57711 10GbE, Broadcom Quad Port 5709 1GbE, Intel 10GbE/DCE, Emulex 10G FCOE * Limited support for recent Dell Dimension, Inspiron, Optiplex, Latitude and Precision system models (intended if system has Dell OpenManage IT Assistant installed for systems management monitoring) * Microsoft Windows 2003 Server x86 and x64 * Microsoft Windows 2003 Server x86 and x64 R2 * Microsoft Windows 2008 Server 32-bit and 64-bit * Microsoft Windows 2008 Server 32-bit and 64-bit SP2 * Microsoft Windows 2008 Server R2 64-bit * Microsoft Windows Installer version 3.0 or above * A minimum of 512 megabytes (MB) of random-access memory (RAM) * A minimum of 100 MB of free hard-disk space (includes temporary files). More disk space may be needed when using advanced features (see below). * Dell OpenManage Server Administrator(tm) (OMSA) 4.3 or newer (optional). Note: DSET will not gather Dell-specific hardware and storage information if run within a virtual machine DSET web-based graphical user interface --------------------------------------- The following requirements are necessary for DSET to display System Information Reports in a web browser user interface contained within the compressed report file: * A system with an Intel(R) Pentium(R) processor running at a minimum of 800 megahertz (MHz) * Microsoft Windows Vista * Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 or newer * Mozilla Firefox 3.0 or newer * A minimum of 128 megabytes (MB) of random-access memory (RAM) * A monitor with a minimum resolution of 800 x 600 * A minimum of 15 MB of free hard-disk space ======================================================================= OVERVIEW ======================================================================= Dell System E-Support Tool (DSET) provides the ability to collect hardware, storage and operating system information of a Dell PowerEdge or PowerVault server. This information is consolidated into a single "System Configuration Report" that can be useful for troubleshooting or inventory collection of a system. The browser user interface provides a convenient means to view specific data through hierarchical menu trees. DSET is intended to be a small, non-intrusive tool that does not require a reboot of the system to provide full functionality. DSET can collect information about Linux modules, services, network settings, etc. as well as system logs. DSET will also collect extended hardware information such as processors, memory, PCI cards, ESM log, BIOS/firmware versions and system health (fan/voltage levels) as well as storage configuration information(RAID controllers, hard drives). Usage Instructions ======================================================================= A DSET System Configuration Report can either be created when running the DSET installer program, or can be created after installing DSET. For exercising the first option, when running the DSET installer program, choose "Create DSET Report Only". A console window will appear showing the progress of system information being gathered. Alternatively, the "Install DSET Application/Browser" option could be chosen. In this case, a report can be created anytime after installation by choosing "Create DSET Report" from the Start menu under "Programs > DSET". Once report creation is complete, a single compressed configuration report file called "DSET Report of Tag- -" would be copied to the Desktop by default. The report file can be uncompressed using any standard ZIP utility such as WinZIP or the "Extract" menu built into Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008 or newer. The report file is encrypted so the password "dell" (all lowercase without quotes) must be specified first in a ZIP utility before decompressing. The report information can then be viewed by opening the file "dsetreport.hta" using Microsoft Internet Explorer. NOTE: Please only use this feature when instructed to do so by Dell Technical Support since your report will not be reviewed if you do not have a current support case open with Technical Support. NOTE: Do not run DSET and Dell PowerEdge Diagnostics (Online Diagnostics) concurrently. NOTE: Due to any reason DSET report command time-out, change the "Timeout" value to a higher value in \bin\dset.cfg file and re-run DSET. Make sure this activity is done in the supervision of Dell Technical Support person. Advanced Features ======================================================================= DSET automatically detects the presence and collects various logs and optional information such as clustering, OpenManage, etc. and includes these logs in the DSET report archive ZIP file. DSET also contains advanced features only available from the DSET CLI (command-line interface) available from the Start Menu under "Programs" > "DSET" > "DSET CLI". The DSET CLI has the following syntax: DELLSYSTEMINFO.EXE {options} {alternate report path or filename} NOTE: With Windows Server 2008 DSET must be run as a local or domain administrator. You must launch a Windows command line shell using the "Run As Administrator" option and enter proper administrator credentials. Options: -event Collects entire Windows System and Application event logs in native .EVT format and includes them in the single DSET report archive. Note: EVT files can be loaded in the Event Viewer utility of any other Windows system where they can be sorted or filtered. However, the event messages may not appear appropriately unless the same software that created the event is installed on the viewing system. -noHardware Skip gathering data for all components under the "System" main category.** -noStorage Skip gathering data for all components under the "Storage" main category.** -noSoftware Skip gathering data for all components under the "Software" main category.** -noLogs Skip collecting various log files if found. NOTE: This option does not mean that no log files would be collected. DSET always collects ESM log, Windows event logs, Powerpath and RMSE config files, etc. This option is intended just to hold down DSET report file size. -time Adds date and time to create a unique DSET archive filename if using Windows Scheduling features with the DSET CLI. This allows multiple report "snapshots" to be saved to a specified directory. NOTE: If the alternative path given has spaces in between, provide it within double quotes. For example: DELLSYSTEMINFO.EXE -nohardware "C:\Program Files\reports\" The last parameter allowed in the DSET CLI can be a path to an alternate location to save the DSET report archive file instead of saving it to the user's Desktop (default). A custom filename can also be specified. The "-time" parameter will also append the date and time to the filename so that automatic scheduling of DSET reports can be done and saved to a specific drive or mapped network share. NOTE: Advanced Information (use option: -advanced) is not collected by default and these log files may be quite large in size thus causing the DSET report file to be excessively large in size. You usually do not need to collect this information unless instructed to by Dell Technical Support. NOTE: Incase of DSET Report only mode, on Windows Server 2008 SBS run DSET installer from the command prompt opened with "Runas Administrator". NOTE: On Windows Server 2008 SBS, any DSET executable like "dellsysteminfo.exe" should be executed on a command prompt opened with "Runas Administrator". Gathering and Clearing the Dell Hardware Log ======================================================================= At DSET launch you may choose "Gather then clear Dell Hardware Log" which clears the Dell Hardware Log (also known as the "ESM Log") found on most systems. The Dell Hardware Log tracks important hardware events. Choosing this option will save a text file of the log contents before the log is cleared. If DSET is already installed the log can be only cleared by using the Start menu option under "Programs > DSET > Clear ESM Log" or by using the DSET CLI command "CLEARESM.EXE" Unattended Installation, Remote Control and Database Importing ======================================================================= DSET can be deployed to multiple systems and installed in an unattended fashion by launching the installer from a command shell using standard Windows Installer parameters (MSI). Using unattended install along with the DSET CLI allows DSET to be installed unattended, a report created (with unique time stamped filename), and the report saved to a specific location such as a mapped share common to all servers that can easily be collected for viewing later. DSET will also need to be installed in an unattended fashion for a Windows Server 2008 "Core" installation (which does not have a graphical interface) using the following syntax from a Windows command line: START /wait MSIEXEC.EXE /i /qn To create a report saved to the C: drive: C:\Program Files (x86)\Dell\DSET\bin\DellSystemInfo.exe C:\ To uninstall DSET: START /wait MSIEXEC.EXE /x {6C4D609A-0AC3-4264-9C68-49208A7FC743} /qn ======================================================================= KNOWN ISSUES ======================================================================= * DSET configuration reports can only be created if the current logged in user is a local or domain administrator. This is especially important for Windows Server 2008 and newer. * During report creation there may be an excessive amount of CPU usage while OS information is collected. This is a limitation of Windows. * Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 and newer allows the DSET zipped report file to be "browsed". This is not the same as extracting the report and you can NOT use this approach to view the actual DSET report. As mentioned earlier you must first extract all the files from the Zip archive and then view the report by pointing your browser at dsetreport.hta. * If an older version of OMSA is already installed on the system, in rare cases DSET may not be able to collect new data features since it must utilize the older OMSA drivers already loaded. * DSET reports can only opened with Internet Explorer 6.0 and above and Mozilla based browsers that contain MSXML support. Reports cannot be viewed with Netscape or other browsers that don't support HTML applications. * Dsetreport.hta fails to show data properly when company name has extended ASCII character "^". The report works fine for every other extended ASCII character. * DSET cannot collect storage information on 745N, 750N, 755N, 770N, and 775N. * DSET may not collect System and Storage information correctly if Dell PowerEdge Diagnostics (Online Diagnostics) is already installed on the system * DSET will not collect drive part number and revision for SCSI devices * DSET may not show the connected SAS tape devices * DSET may not show NMI and power button status in Front panel * DSET may not show CMOS battery information in windows report (381558) * Sometimes DSET shows LSI Logic 1020/1030 Ultra320 SCSI Adapter as unknown device in the report (381486) * DSET may not retain company name in report file name after DSET installer upgrade ----------------------------------------------------------------- Information in this document is subject to change without notice. (C) 2010 Dell Incorporated. All rights reserved. Trademarks used in this text: "Dell" and "Dell OpenManage" are trademarks of Dell Incorporated; "Microsoft," "Windows," "Windows NT," and "MS-DOS" are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation; "Intel," "Pentium" and "Itanium" are registered trademarks of Intel Corporation. Other trademarks and trade names may be used in this document to refer to either the entities claiming the marks and names or their products. Dell Incorporated disclaims any proprietary interest in trademarks and trade names other than its own. Apr 2010 Revision 1.9.0