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cbtqt

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cbtqt

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February 2nd, 2012 08:00

How to diagnose hardware problem from far away on PE 1850

My data center just emailed that my PE 1850 is beeping or flashing or something.  (Everything seems to work, meanwhile.)

I logged in by terminal services (Windows 2003 server), and realized that I apparently have no diagnostic software on the machine (except event viewer, computer management etc. -- whatever Windows provides, and that doesn't indicate any problem).  I can't remember the history from when it was set up six years ago, but I must have skipped installing Dell OpenManage back then.

What is the lightest weight diagnostic thing that I could install and use via terminal services to check what is wrong with the machine?

OpenManage is quite huge and probably has a ton of functions I don't need, and the online administrator seems scary from a security standpoint, so I would prefer something smaller and simpler if it exists.

  • DELL-Rey G

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    Posted February 2nd, 2012 09:00

    Do mean you are looking for  dell Diags to run, here is one that runs in the OS.

    www.dell.com/.../DriverDetails

  • theflash1932

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    Posted February 2nd, 2012 09:00

    You can post a DSET here for review if installing OMSA is not an option.

  • theflash1932

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    Posted February 2nd, 2012 09:00

    I would strongly recommend having OpenManage Server Administrator installed on any server you have, as it is often the only way to determine what is going on with your system.  It is 150MB and has very little that you don't need.  This gives you direct access to the system's hardware, including fans, processors, memory, voltages, temperatures, HARDWARE LOGS (which is what you want first in your situation), RAID array and individual drive status, with the ability to change many settings in BIOS, disk configurations, etc.

    OpenManage Server Administrator (OMSA):
    http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/us/en/2684/DriverDetails/DriverFileFormats?DriverId=G2WT6&FileId=2731102719

    The only alternative to OMSA, is DSET, which pulls much of the same information as OMSA contains - just a snapshot of the current system state/configuration.  However, it sometimes does not pull all the data if the firmware/drivers are out of date or OMSA is not already installed.  It has the ability to run as a stand-alone application, so it doesn't need to be actually "installed".

    DSET (Dell Systems E-support Tool):
    http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/us/en/555/DriverDetails/DriverFileFormats?DriverId=R307647&c=us&l=en&s=biz

    I don't know what you mean by "online administrator".

     

     

     

  • cbtqt

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    Posted February 2nd, 2012 20:00

    Actually it turned out to be that an older PE 1650 server that I also help to manage was the one making noise, and it had DSET installed, along with OpenManage Array Manager.  I ran a DSET report, and temperature was said to be critical, and in particular one probe that had a reading of 0.0.  So maybe it was just a dead temperature probe that cased the system to beep.

    Meanwhile, I downloaded both OpenManage and DSET to the 1850 to be better prepared if it ever has a problem.  DSET comes as a .msi file, so it seems like it is actually something to be installed.

    By online administrator, I meant that OMSA seems to have a feature whereby you can access the server and do administration remotely via web browser.  I would prefer to have terminal services as the only mode of access.  Can OMSA be used that way, and can the browser access option be disabled or not installed?

  • theflash1932

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    Posted February 2nd, 2012 21:00

    DSET is an MSI, but you will be presented with three options ... one to run the report, two to install the application, and three to run the report and clear the logs.

    OMSA installs a small web server from which all OMSA pages are served.  Without the web server, pages cannot be served locally.  The byproduct of this is that, by default, the web server is open to web requests from other machines.  I am not aware of a way to disable remote access of the OMSA web server, but there might be such a setting ... or you may be able to simply block incoming external connections on port 1311.