======================================================================== DELL SYSTEM E-SUPPORT TOOL 1.5.0 ======================================================================== This document contains the latest update information for Dell System E-Support Tool (DSET). ======================================================================== WHAT IS NEW IN THIS RELEASE (as of version 1.5.0) ======================================================================== * Added support for Fibre Channel HBA and LUN discovery * Added support for new PowerEdge servers and PowerVault storage * Added Powerpath, and RMSE log collection * Added iSCSI HBA/initiator discovery (on 32-bit systems only) ======================================================================== RECOMMENDED HARDWARE & 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: 600SC, 650, 700, 750, 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, T105, R200 (PowerEdge 7150, 7250 and 3250 Intel Itanium 64-bit systems are not supported) * 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 * 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 2000 (Server or Advanced Server version) SP3 or later * Microsoft Windows 2003 Server * Microsoft Windows 2003 Server x64 * Microsoft Windows 2003 Server R2 * Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional * Microsoft Windows XP Professional * Microsoft Windows Installer version 3.0 or above * A minimum of 64 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 NOTE: DSET cannot collect storage information or logs if OMSA is installed yet optional Storage Services are not with OMSA NOTE: DSET cannot collect DRAC information or logs if OMSA is installed yet optional Remote Access Services are not with OMSA 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 450 megahertz (MHz) * Microsoft Windows 2000 (Server, Advanced Server or Professional version) * Microsoft Windows XP (Professional version) * Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5 or later with MSXML option * A minimum of 64 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 NOTE: DSET reports can only opened with Internet Explorer and cannot be viewed with Netscape, Mozilla or other browsers that don't support HTML applications. ======================================================================== OVERVIEW ======================================================================== Dell System E-Support Tool (DSET) provides the ability to collect hardware, storage and operating system information from a Dell PowerEdge or PowerVault server as well as limited support for recent model Dell Dimension, Inspiron, Optiplex, Latitude and Precision desktop/laptop systems. This information is consolidated into a single "System Configuration Report" that can be useful for troubleshooting or inventory collection of a system. The web browser user interface provides a convenient means to view specific data through hierarchical menu trees based on applicable features of the specific server model. DSET is intended to be a small, non-intrusive tool that does not require a reboot of the system to provide most functionality. DSET can collect information about Windows drivers, services, network settings, etc. It will also collect basic information about the system's storage such as active drives, RAID containers, etc. DSET will also collect extended hardware information such as processors, memory, PCI cards, ESM log, BIOS/firmware versions and system health (fan/temperature/voltage levels). DSET will gather Dell-specific storage information such as PERC controllers and their firmware, array/containers, enclosures and physical hard drives installed, etc. DSET always collects Windows 2000 and 2003 information such as services, tasks, drivers, and events logs, etc. as well as information various Dell OpenManage products if installed. 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. Alternativey, 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 XP. 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. 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 {options} {alternate report path or filename} Options: -event Collects entire Windows 2000/2003 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. 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. If launching DSET to only create a report instead of installation, an extra window will appear with checkboxes prompting "Gather Advanced Information" as well as skipping data categories from being collected. Advanced Information will collect the following: - Complete, native Windows System and Application Event Log files in native .EVT format - Detailed Dell OpenManage IT Assistant (ITA) log and database files NOTE: Advanced Information 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 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" 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 "SETUP.EXE /S".However, you must make sure to download the multi-file diskette install package of DSET, not the single-file application (Dell_DSET_*.exe). Note that the multi-file installer can still be run directly from a hard drive. Floppy diskettes are not necessary. Then verify that the file "SETUP.ISS" (InstallShield silent script file) is located in the "Disk1" directory. An example SETUP.ISS file is present, however Dell encourages that you edit the fields for "CustomerName" and "CustomerEmail" to enhance naming of DSET report files. Also note that on systems with a dual boot you should note that it will try to install on drive C:. If this is not the proper volume you will need to change it to the proper drive letter. To prepare a custom unattended installation first bring up a Windows command shell and type "SETUP.EXE /R" from the "Disk1" directory to perform a mock interactive install. Your custom settings will be saved to a new SETUP.ISS file that will be saved to the system directory ("\WINNT" or "\WINDOWS"). Using unattend install along with the DSET CLI allows DSET to be unattend installed, 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. To silently uninstall this version of DSET, use the command "setup.exe -uninst silent" from the "Disk1" directory. The DSET CLI can also be used to create a report on a remote system by using one of several remote command shells including telnet, rsh, or Rclient (part of the Windows 2000 or 2003 Resource Kits). The remote service must be installed prior to using DSET. You will also need to make sure to run the "DELLSYSTEMINFO" command directly from the "\bin" directory of where DSET is installed (default is "C:\Program Files\Dell\DSET\bin"). The report will need to be collected by using file sharing to connect to the remote system so it is recommended to specify an alternate path to a shared volume on the remote server or the report will be saved to the current logged in Rclient user's Desktop directory (default). Each DSET report contains data stored in eXtensible Markup Language (XML), a tagged data format that is extremely compatible with most database applications. After uncompressing the DSET report, the XML data for each category component of the report is saved in the path bin\rawxml. Consult the database application documentation for further information on importing XML-tagged data. Do not use the XML files found in path bin\xml as these are only to be used for displaying the web browser graphical interface and are not formatted properly for database use. ======================================================================= KNOWN ISSUES ======================================================================= * When Microsoft Windows Installer present on the system is less than version 3.0, then it is not possible to load the Visual C++ libraries necessary to create the report. Upgrading the Windows Installer to version 3.0 or above would solve this problem. * Dsetreport.hta is considered an "HTML Application" for purposes of secure local operation on Windows. Double-clicking the file will launch the HTML rendering engine of Windows which looks very similar to Internet Explorer. Do not rename the file extension to ".htm" as unpredictable behavior may result when using with other Internet Explorer sessions active. * DSET Report Browser only works properly in Internet Explorer versions that contain MSXSL 3.0 or newer parsers. Version 5.0 can have MSXSL installed but using Internet Explorer 6.0 is recommended which has the MSXSL 5.0 parser embedded. * DSET configuration reports can only be created if the current logged in user is part of the local or domain administrators group * During report creation there may be an excessive amount of CPU usage while OS information is collected. This is a limitation of Windows. * Windows XP 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.htm. * DSET report creation is heavily influenced by an existing OMSA installation in that DSET will detect the OMSA installation and utilize OMSA services to collect hardware information. If for any reason the OMSA software is not installed properly or the OMSA services have been stopped or disabled, the report will fail to collect hardware information. Reinstalling OMSA properly or removing it from the system will allow DSET to create a valid report. * If an older version of OMSA is already installed on the system, DSET may not be able to collect new data features since it must utilize the older OMSA drivers already loaded. * DSET cannot collect storage information or logs if OMSA is installed yet optional Storage Services are not with OMSA, and vice versa. DSET cannot collect DRAC information or logs if OMSA is installed yet optional Remote Access Services are not with OMSA, and vice versa. * DSET reports can only opened with Internet Explorer 6.0 and above and cannot be viewed with Netscape, Mozilla or other browsers that don't support HTML applications. * DSET report creation uninstalls Remote Access services on systems where only Remote Access Services from OMSA 4.x are installed. * DSET cannot collect chassis and storage information on systems where only Remote Access Services from OMSA 5.x are installed. * DSET cannot collect storage information on systems where only Array Manager is installed. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Information in this document is subject to change without notice. (C) 2007 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. January 2008 Revision 1.5.0 build 120