Dell EMC OpenManage Ansible Modules

Overview

Dell EMC OpenManage^TM Ansible Modules allows Data Center and IT administrators to use RedHat Ansible to automate and orchestrate the provisioning, configuration, deployment, and update of PowerEdge Servers by leveraging the out-of-band (agentless) management automation capabilities in-built into the iDRAC (Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller).

Ansible by RedHat is one of the most popular DevOps tools that can configure systems, deploy software, and orchestrate more advanced IT tasks such as continuous deployments or zero downtime rolling updates.

With OpenManage Ansible Modules, Data Center and IT administrators will be able to rapidly deploy their infrastructure, change server configurations and will be able to manage and maintain the desired-state configurations for PowerEdge Servers by running Ansible playbooks.

Key Features:

• Supports agent-free and automated bare-metal configuration, provisioning, deployment and update of 12^thGeneration of Dell EMC PowerEdge Servers and above, including 14^th Generation of PowerEdge Servers
• Leverages Redfish REST APIs provided by iDRAC with Lifecycle Controller for Agent-Free (Out-of-Band) bare-metal provisioning, deployment and update of PowerEdge Servers
• ExportServer Configuration Profile (SCP) containing the complete representation of server configuration in XML or JSON format to a remote network share (CIFS or NFS) or local file path
• Import Server Configuration Profile (SCP) from a remote network share (CIFS or NFS) or local file path
• Use Ansible playbooks for zero-touch automated end-to-end configuration, provisioning, deployment and update of PowerEdge Servers:
  • Power Cycle
  • iDRAC Configuration
    • User and Password administration – create, modify and delete local user settings
    • Network Configuration – iDRAC network settings including DHCP and Static address configuration
    • Services – Web server and SNMP settings
    • SNMP Alerting and Email settings
    • Configure Time zone and NTP settings
    • System Lockdown
  • BIOS Configuration
    • Configure Boot mode to legacy Bios or Uefi
    • Configure Boot Sequence
    • Configure NVMe mode to RAID or Non-RAID
    • Enable / Disable Secure Boot
  • Storage Configuration– Create or Delete RAID volumes on direct-attached storage (DAS) associated with a storage controller
  • OS Deployment– deploy operating system ISO from a remote network share (CIFS, NFS)
• Lifecycle Controller JOB Management– use Ansible modules for keeping status of the LC jobs and construct a step-by-step workflow for your automation playbook
• Get detailed component level Hardware and Firmware inventory
• Out-of-Band Firmware Updates from remote network file share (CIFS, NFS) using Dell EMC Update packages and catalog files

Downloads

Dell EMC OpenManage Ansible Modules is open-source and offered to customers and community as a stand-alone software and can be downloaded from the support.dell.com site here:

• http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/Drivers/DriversDetails?driverid=GK4WW

If you want to take advantage of the new features when they are implemented and want to contribute to the ongoing development, then you can go to Github repository using the following URLs and either clone or download the modules:

• {Code} by Dell EMC: https://thecodeteam.com/projects/dell-emc-openmanage-ansible-modules/

• Github repository: https://github.com/dell/Dell-EMC-Ansible-Modules-for-iDRAC

Documentation

Please refer to the OpenManage Ansible Modules Documentation. Sample playbooks and examples could be found under examples directory

Support

• Dell EMC OpenManage Ansible Modules are supported by Dell support.
• In addition, if you want to report any issues, then you can log an issue on the Github repository (https://github.com/dell/Dell-EMC-Ansible-Modules-for-iDRAC).
• If you want to provide any feedback to development team, then please send an email to OpenManageAnsibleEval@dell.com.
• We also have a #openmanageansible slack channel. You can get an invite by requesting one at http://community.codedellemc.com.

Licensing

OpenManage Ansible Modules are Open Source and licensed under GNU GPL v3.0 License. Please see the LICENSE for more information