Back to Contents Page

Introduction to IT Assistant

Dell OpenManage™ IT Assistant User's Guide

	Commonly Used Terms		IT Assistant Components
	What IT Assistant Does for You		Other Documents You Might Need
	Functional Overview		Obtaining Technical Assistance

Commonly Used Terms

The following is a list of commonly used terms and their definitions in the context of this document and IT Assistant:

System — A computer (notebook, desktop, or server), network switch, remote access controller (RAC), or server module (server in a modular system) that is attached to a network.

Discover (discovers, discovery) — The process that IT Assistant uses to find, identify, and obtain the status of systems on the network.

Manage (manages, management) — The general term used to describe the many actions that IT Assistant can perform on systems. IT Assistant manages systems by monitoring, setting, or otherwise handling critical system attributes and resources such as voltage, temperature, power redundancy, memory, and BIOS version.

Instrumentation — A combination of hardware and software components that enable a system, when connected to a network and discovered by IT Assistant, to communicate with and be managed by IT Assistant.

Managed system — A system equipped with instrumentation; also sometimes referred to as an instrumented system.

Management station — The system that runs the IT Assistant management services (see "IT Assistant Components").

NOTE: IT Assistant applies the label of "Unclassified" to systems without instrumentation. Such systems are also called non-instrumented systems or unmanaged systems.

Client system (client) — A system that is a desktop or notebook personal computer designed to perform a variety of tasks, usually for one user at a time. Dell™ OptiPlex™ and Latitude™ systems are client systems.

NOTE: A client system does not have to be instrumented; IT Assistant is capable of discovering and displaying unmanaged clients.

Server system (server) — A usually high-performance system that is designed provide a specific service to a large number of clients over a network. A few examples of servers are file servers that provide clients access to files, Web servers that provide clients access to Web pages, and database servers that provide clients access to database tables and the database administration application. Dell PowerEdge™ systems are servers.

Client instrumentation — The software component of instrumentation designed to recognize and run only on client systems, such as Dell OpenManage Client Instrumentation.

Server instrumentation — The software component of instrumentation designed to recognize and run only on servers, such as Dell OpenManage Server Administrator.

What IT Assistant Does for You

IT Assistant is the premier Dell management application for managing and monitoring Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), Desktop Management Interface (DMI), and Common Information Model (CIM)-instrumented systems. IT Assistant is designed for system administrators to remotely manage networked Dell systems equipped with SNMP, CIM, and DMI instrumentation.

Functional Overview

IT Assistant is a remote systems management application that employs the latest remote management technology. IT Assistant provides asset, configuration, event, security, and storage management for Dell systems and other systems equipped with industry-standard instrumentation.

IT Assistant enables you, the system administrator, to easily specify the parts of your corporate network that you want to monitor. The process of locating and viewing systems on your network, called discovery, is extremely versatile, with the ability to discover systems and certain other network devices on an entire subnet, on a range of IP addresses on a subnet, or on individual network addresses. You can discover systems based on a variety of addressing specifications, including Internet Protocol (IP) address, Internetwork Packet eXchange (IPX) address, and host name. You can also configure specific systems into custom groups that allow you to view systems based on your own particular criteria.

IT Assistant Components

IT Assistant comprises two main components: the IT Assistant browser-based user interface and the IT Assistant services. The IT Assistant services consist of the IT Assistant connection service, the IT Assistant network monitoring service, the IT Assistant data repository, and command-line utilities. The IT Assistant connection service establishes communication with the IT Assistant browser-based user interface; the IT Assistant network monitoring service discovers systems across the corporate network; the IT Assistant data repository stores configuration and system discovery information; the command-line utilities enable you to set up CIM discovery and security, manage the IT Assistant data repository, and write scripts to perform IT Assistant tasks without using the browser-based user interface. The system that runs the IT Assistant services is called the management station.

IT Assistant offers versatile installation capabilities that allow you to install the IT Assistant services on one system and the browser-based user interface on the same or another system. The interface seeks out individual management stations, making it possible for you to set several management stations to monitor different parts of your network while reporting in to a single interface. Conversely, one management station can support multiple interfaces dispersed strategically throughout your network. If a Web server is installed on the system hosting the IT Assistant browser-based user interface, you can run remote Web-served interfaces on any system that has Internet Explorer.

Other Documents You Might Need

Besides this User's Guide, you can find the following guides either on the Dell Support website at support.dell.com or on the documentation CD:

• The Dell OpenManage Server Administrator SNMP Reference Guide documents the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) management information base (MIB). The SNMP MIB defines variables that extend the standard MIB to cover the capabilities of systems management agents.

• The Dell OpenManage Server Administrator CIM Reference Guide documents the Common Information Model (CIM) provider, an extension of the standard management object format (MOF) file. The CIM provider MOF documents supported classes of management objects.

• The Dell OpenManage Array Manager User's Guide is a comprehensive reference guide for configuring and managing local and remote storage attached to a system.

• The Dell Remote Access Controller Installation and Setup Guide provides complete information about installing and configuring remote access controllers (RACs), and using RACs to remotely access an inoperable system.

You may also have one or more of the following documents included with your system:

• Documentation updates, which are sometimes included with your system to describe changes to your system or software. Always read these updates before consulting any other documentation because the updates often contain the latest information.
  
• Operating system documentation, which is included if your operating system was preinstalled on your system.
  
• Documentation included with any options you purchase separately from your system. This documentation includes information that you need to configure and install these options in your system. This documentation may be included on your documentation CD or a product-specific CD.

The Systems Management CD contains a readme file for Server Administrator and additional readme files for most applications found on the CD.

Obtaining Technical Assistance

If at any time you do not understand a procedure described in this guide or if your product does not perform as expected, tools are provided to assist you. For more information about these help tools, see "Getting Help" in your system's Installation and Troubleshooting Guide.

Dell Enterprise Training and Certification is available now; see www.dell.com/training for more information. This service may not be offered in all locations.

Back to Contents Page