January 2018 - NOTICE!
This is an advance end-of-life (EOL) and deprecation notice for the Dell Deployment Toolkit (DTK). DTK will be sustained for current and earlier supported platforms until those platforms pass their end of support life (EOSL) threshold. Support for DTK on future platforms beyond the current 14th generation (14G) systems is not anticipated.
Dell recommends that customers using DTK transition to the Remote Access Controller Admin (RACADM) utility. RACADM is a command line tool that allows for remote or local management of Dell servers via the integrated Dell Remote Access Controller (iDRAC) that is embedded in every PowerEdge server. RACADM provides similar functionality to the iDRAC’s web interface. Another plus is that the Dell Chassis Management Controller (CMC), an embedded management controller for blade servers, can also be managed remotely with RACADM.
RACADM commands can be run remotely from a management station and/or locally on the managed system. RACADM commands allow operations such as viewing system information, performing power operations, firmware updates, and configuring settings. Since RACADM is run from a command line interface (CLI), system administrators can create scripts that control and update Dell multiple systems at the same time.
For more info on these alternatives, please visit the following links:
RACADM TechCenter: http://dell.to/1jXAbz9
iDRAC TechCenter: http://delltechcenter.com/idrac
You can access the DellEMC Deployment Tool Kit (DTK) Porting Guide Version 1.0 from here. This provides further information towards DTK deprecation plan, for an existing user to self-sustain DTK environment and a smooth transition from DTK to RACADM. This guide used as a reference manual to add boot critical drivers and controller to support for the Dell Power Edge server platforms till 14G.
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The Dell OpenManage Deployment Toolkit (DTK) includes a set of utilities, sample scripts, and sample configuration files that you can use to deploy and configure the Dell systems. You can use DTK to build script-based and RPM-based installation for deploying large number of systems on a pre-operating system environment in a reliable way, without changing their current deployment processes. Using DTK you can install operating systems on Dell systems in BIOS or Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) mode.
In addition to the command line utilities used to configure various system features, DTK also provides sample scripts and configuration files to perform common deployment tasks and documentation. These files and scripts describe the use of the DTK in Microsoft Windows Pre-installation Environment (Windows PE) and Linux environments.
The benefits of the DTK:
- Provides the tools necessary to automate the pre-operating system configuration tasks and the unattended operating system installation tasks when deploying PowerEdge systems.
- Scales to support from one to many system deployment efforts.
- Facilitates consistent system configurations across multiple systems.
- Provides diverse and useful deployment tools that can be utilized in many different ways.
Downloads
The Dell OpenManage Deployment Toolkit is free of charge and can be downloaded here:
Whitepaper - Documents
RAIDCFG to RACADM Migration guide (using command MAP) - NEW Feb 2018!
This document helps to understand RAIDCFG utilities, scripts and transition guidelines for RACADM deployment and configuration of Dell PowerEdge servers in Windows and Linux environments.
Configuring Dell server deployments end to end with Deployment Took Kit
Above whitepaper targets the below functionalities
- Use DTK to configure a bare metal server with both native and advanced options.
- Proceed on to deploy an operating system (unattended).
- Continue Keeping your Dell Server's driver and firmware updated with System Update Utility (SUU).