OpenManage Mobile Overview

Dell OpenManage Mobile is a software application that enables one to securely perform a subset of datacenter monitoring and server remediation tasks from a mobile device.

OMM is supported for Android and iOS mobile devices.

OpenManage Mobile can connect to your datacenter through the Dell OpenManage Essentials management console. This allows a user to monitor all systems managed by OpenManage Essentials such as Dell Servers, Storage, Networking, and Firewall appliances and any other supported third party appliance from your android mobile device.

OpenManage Mobile can also connect to a Dell PowerEdge server directly through the iDRAC interface. Once connected, a user can perform several basic management functions on the server. OpenManage Mobile can connect to a server in two possible ways:
1) Remotely using Wi-Fi or broadband network from anywhere.
2) Physically at the data center using Near Field Communications (NFC) technology. This requires a Dell 13G PowerEdge server equipped with an iDRAC Quick Sync Bezel. (This connectivity is supported only on Android Mobile devices.)

Key benefits:

• Flexible schedule for system administrators: Monitor your data center systems from anywhere at anytime
• Increase business productivity: Reduce response time on critical alerts by taking server remediation actions from your phone

Key Features

• Connect to multiple OpenManage Essentials servers from a single mobile device. 
• Connect to multiple 12G and 13G servers individually through the iDRAC web interface.
• Connect to multiple 13G servers through the iDRAC Quick Sync interface (Android only).
• Forward server details, health status, network info, firmware info, and log entries from iDRAC via email using compatible email clients.
• Establish connection with individual 12G & 13G server OS desktops remotely using Virtual Network Computing (VNC). 
• Receive critical alert notification on your mobile device as they arrive into your OpenManage Essentials management console.
• Acknowledge, forward and delete alerts from your mobile device.
• Browse device details, health status, firmware inventory, and event logs of individual systems.
• Access server warranty information and QRL support pages directly from the mobile device
• Perform server management functions such as Power On, Power cycle, Reboot, or Shutdown from the mobile application.
• Email Reporting - Forward server details, health status, network info, firmware info, and log entries from iDRAC via email using compatible email clients.

FAQ: iDRAC Quick Sync & OpenManage Mobile - October 2014

Minimum Requirements 

• Mobile device running Android OS v 4.0.3 or higher OR iOS 7.1 or higher
• OME v1.3 or OME v2.0 management console (for data center monitoring features)
• 12G & 13G servers (for 1:1 connection through IDRAC)
• 13G servers (R630, R730, R730 XD) and the iDRAC Quick Sync Bezel (for at-the-box features)

Videos

Value proposition video for iDRAC with Quick Sync enabled by OMM

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Video showing iDRAC Quick Sync features with OMM 

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Video explaining the value proposition of the application –

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A video explaining the 4 key steps involved in using the application -

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Download

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dell.omm

Documents   

OpenManage Mobile v1.3 User Guide (for Android) 

OpenManage Mobile v1.3 User Guide (for iOS)

OpenManage Mobile Best Practices White Paper

iDRAC QuickSync Technical Guide - Nov. 2014

OpenManage Mobile TIP of the day

12/02/2014 - iDRAC Quick Sync

Certain Android handsets do not autonegotiate well at all NFC speeds. This might be an Android OS bug or a bug in the chipset silicon of the handset. So far we have not managed to isolate any vendor or Android OS version that  has this problem. It happens to be random across manufacturers, but consistent to a handset model.

Of the supported 106, 212, and 424 kbps for Quick Sync, only 106 kbps works effectively.

If you have a a device that has the above-mentioned problem during Quick Sync, then you are advised to launch the “Add via Quick Sync” animation within the OMM app before you perform an Quick Sync Scan, in order to have a successful scan.

For the devices that  do not have this problem, you can be in any state of using the app (even minimized) and the app is launched when you attempt to do a Quick Sync read.

03/18/2014 - Push Notifications

Question – I am able to connect to my OME through 3G/4G connections and get notifications. When I am not connected to my OME server I still keep receiving notifications from the devices I am monitoring. Why is this happening? How can I stop this?

Answer – When a user adds an OME to the OMM app on the phone, he/she chooses a filter for “push notifications”. This is the second screen of the “Add OME” wizard. Whenever OME receives an alert that matches the filter chosen by the user it sends an alert update via the end users phone network to the mobile device. If “All Alerts” was chosen, the user will receive all alerts that are received by OME. Ideally an administrator should set the filter to only those alerts that are critical and are of interest to avoid alert overload.

The alerts will get pushed to your mobile phone even when you are no longer connected to the OME, and away from your company network. These messages are not warnings about lack of connection to OME. As an OME administrator, you would want to receive these alerts even when not connected to the OME (for example when you are offsite or it is after work hours), since they usually indicate problems in your data center. After receiving one or more alerts log onto OMM, connect to the OME, and then view more details on the alerts. After browsing through the alert details take action on the alert, without having to physically access the OME or the targets managed by OME. If you don’t log onto OMM, the alerts will accumulate as they are still marked “unread.”

If you don’t want to receive alerts when not connected to the OME this feature can be turned off. There are several ways to do this.

1)      Log onto OMM, edit the OME’s connection and change your filter settings to “None” or to the filter you are most interested in. You have to be connected to the OME to make this change. A user can always re-subscribe to the right filter as his roles and responsibilities changes over time.

2)      Log onto OME via a web browser, and in the “Preference” section you will see your phone listed in the “Mobile Settings” page. You can choose to delete or disable your device from that list. 

OpenManage Mobile Forum -

Have a question or feedback on OMM. Start a discussion here.

Others –

OpenManage open source license document