The following table lists frequently asked questions and answers.
Question
Answer
What User Datagram Protocol (UDP)/Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) ports does IT Assistant use?
See "Ports Used by IT Assistant and Associated Agent Application" in the Dell™ OpenManage™ Security and Installation Guide.
I just did a system update; why don't I see the updated version in the IT Assistant inventory?
All the data that IT Assistant displays in the system list is stored in the data repository, which is refreshed during each inventory cycle. If you perform an update, IT Assistant reports that change after the next inventory cycle. To refresh the inventory of the device before the next scheduled inventory cycle, right-click the device with the outdated version in the Device Tree viewand click Refresh Inventory.
NOTE: It may take several minutes for the inventory to
display the updated version, so it is recommended that
you wait 5 - 10 minutes before requesting an inventory of
the device.
I just shut down a system. Why does IT Assistant still show it as awake?
IT Assistant updates a system's up/down status only during a status poll of the system, during a discovery of the system, or when IT Assistant receives an event from the system.
Why can't I see a status update for a device on the IT Assistant user interface (UI)?
If IT Assistant detects that the global status of a device has NOT changed on a scheduled status poll, then it will not send a message to the UI. Also, IT Assistant will not send a message to the UI when it checks the status after an incoming event for that device. This behavior is to optimally use resources and to increase the processing speed of the other messages that are sent to the user.
If you are inspecting the device summary or device details at that very moment, the information about the last status time or the individual agent status will not be automatically refreshed. Refresh the view or click another device to automatically load the latest information from the database.
How do I know when IT Assistant is finished discovering systems?
IT Assistant provides discovery cycle progress information. In the IT Assistant UI, go to Discovery and Monitoring→ Logs. See also "Discovery and Monitoring Logs—Resolving Discovery Issues" in the Dell OpenManage IT Assistant Online Help.
I received a message stating that IT Assistant can't communicate with the remote device. What caused this problem?
IT Assistant was unable to connect to the remote agent or device. Use the Troubleshooting Tool to resolve the issue by running Ping, CIM, and SNMP Connectivity tests and the Name Resolution test. In the IT Assistant UI, go to Tools→ Troubleshooting Tool. See "Troubleshooting Tools—Finding and Resolving Discovery Issues" in the Dell OpenManage IT Assistant Online Help.
Why do I get an error message when launching applications from the right-click Device Tree?
Certain applications (for example, Dell OpenManage Server Administrator Storage Management Services and Digital KVM Console) must be installed on the system running the IT Assistant UI before they can be launched from IT Assistant.
Why do I get a Java out of memory exception?
When managing an environment with more than 2000 devices, increase the amount of memory allocated to the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) heap.
NOTE: The memory should be increased on the system from
where you access the IT Assistant Management Station.
To do so, close the IT Assistant browser session and go to the Java Control Panel. The panel is located under the Microsoft® Windows®Control Panel or the ControlPanel executable in the bin
folder of theJRE installation on the Linux system.
Click the Java tab and in the Java Applet Runtime section, click
View.... Click in the Java Runtime Parameters area and type:
-Xmx256M
Why do I get a host name mismatch warning when I try to access the IT Assistant user interface?
This warning appears if the web address that you use to connect to IT Assistant contains a different host name than the one that was used to install IT Assistant. For example, if you installed IT Assistant using the host name sysadmin3with anIP address of 133.143.157.30, the warning appears if you log in to IT Assistant using the IP address.However, if you log in to the remote device using the system name,sysadmin3, the warning does not appear.
Why don't I get a Login prompt when I login to IT Assistant from a desktop?
IT Assistant uses the operating-system credentials of the currently logged-in user and automatically logs you in to IT Assistant. See the section about Single Sign-On in the IT Assistant User's Guide for additional information.
Why does the Windows NT® LAN Manager (NTLM) authentication fail when I attempt to log in to IT Assistant?
Ensure that your Single Sign-On is enabled in your Internet Explorer browser.
To enable Single Sign-On, launch Internet Explorer. Click Tools→ Internet Options→ Security tab. Select Trusted sites. (The IT Assistant system is covered within this security zone.)
Click Custom Level. Scroll down to User Authentication and select Automatic logon with current username and password.
How do I disable Java caching?
To disable Java caching on a Windows system, go to the Windows Control Panel, click the Java icon to display the Java Control Panel, and ensure that the Enable Caching check box in the Java Applet Cache Viewer dialog box is not selected.
To disable caching on a Linux system, run the ControlPanel executable in the bin folder of the JRE installation on the Linux system, and ensure that the Enable Caching check box in the Java Applet Cache Viewer dialog box is not selected.
What precautions do I need to take when I revert to an older version of IT Assistant?
If you have Java applet caching enabled on any of the systems where you have accessed the IT Assistant UI, then delete the jar files used by IT Assistant, from the cache of each of those systems. Go to Java Control Panel and click Settings under Temporary Internet Files. The panel is located under Microsoft Windows Control Panel or Linux ControlPanel in the bin folder. Click View Applets. Select the cached files and click Delete.
NOTE: Failure to delete the Java applet cache may result in
inconsistent behavior of the older version of IT Assistant.
Scope and Capabilities of IT Assistant
These frequently asked questions cover the general capabilities of IT Assistant, optimizing the UI environment, and discovery configuration.
Question
Answer
Why does IT Assistant show that my discovered system is down during a status poll when it is up?
For networks where Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) is prevalent, IT Assistant may show a system as down when it is actually up due to another system obtaining its IP Address. During a discovery round, when IT Assistant discovers a particular managed system, it looks for other systems in its database with the same IP address as the one under discovery. If any other system shares that address, its IP address is marked as invalid. When the system whose IP address was marked as invalid is eventually rediscovered, its IP address entries are updated and marked as valid again. Until these IP address entries are updated, any status poll that runs will mark that system as down due to not having any valid IP address entries to check against.
Why doesn't IT Assistant show my system as up after I changed the name?
When IT Assistant discovers a particular managed system through its IP address during a discovery round, IT Assistant attempts to resolve the managed system's address to a name, either through instrumentation or DNS. If DNS is the preferred name resolution method and the name of the managed system under discovery has recently changed, it may take several discovery rounds for the name to update in IT Assistant due to Windows caching DNS entries on the local system. For more information on how to clear the cache faster, see the Microsoft documentation for your operating system.
Why can't I discover my desktop system?
Use the IT Assistant Troubleshooting Tool to help resolve this issue. In the UI, go to Tools→ Troubleshooting Tool. See "Troubleshooting Tool—Finding and Resolving Discovery Issues" in the Dell OpenManage IT Assistant Online Help.
Does IT Assistant manage only Dell systems?
Yes. IT Assistant only manages Dell systems that have Dell instrumentation installed and running. However, starting with IT Assistant 8.0, devices that are configured with IPMI 1.5 or later can also be discovered with IT Assistant.
Do I have to install IT Assistant on a Dell system?
No. Although IT Assistant is tested for installation on Dell systems, the IT Assistant UI is designed to operate on a system running the supported operating systems. Therefore, IT Assistant should work without incident on non-Dell systems that run these operating systems and that meet the minimum hardware specifications.
However, Dell does not provide warranty or free support for non-Dell systems.
How many users can run IT Assistant at the same time?
Multiple users can run IT Assistant to connect to IT Assistant services. The number of users is limited by the resources available on the management station.
Can I install IT Assistant on top of Client Administrator?
Client Administrator is not currently a supported configuration on the same system as IT Assistant.
How many systems can I manage?
IT Assistant is designed and tested to manage up to several thousand systems on a suitably configured system.
NOTE: CPU-intensive tasks like the performance monitoring can,
however, be performed only on a hundred systems and software
deployment can be attempted only on about 20 systems at a time.
Can I use IT Assistant over the Internet?
IT Assistant is a local area network (LAN)-oriented tool for monitoring and managing systems in an IP network. You can monitor and manage systems over the Internet using IT Assistant, but Dell does not recommend it unless you have a way of securing your data, which you must provide. IT Assistant does provide security suitable for use over a corporate intranet.
IT Assistant User Interface
Question
Answer
I know that the IT Assistant UI is set to automatically log me out after 30 minutes of being idle. So, why am I able to continue to change menus and views after being logged into IT Assistant after 30 minutes?
IT Assistant caches some data and validates the time-out only when gathering new data is required.
Why don't I see all the alerts on the Alerts tab?
The IT Assistant UI displays alerts in the Alert Logs view. You can specify that you want to view all alerts by selecting All Alerts in the Filter drop-down menu. See "Alert Logs—Working With Alerts" in the Dell OpenManage IT Assistant Online Help.
Why is the power state for a system that I shut down not shown as shut down in IT Assistant?
The power state is dependent on the most recent status poll, which is dependent on the status polling interval. The power state will be updated when the next status poll occurs.
What do I do if a system does not wake up?
To wake up a device, IT Assistant uses the MAC addresses and subnet mask that were discovered for that device. If NIC teaming is configured on the device, only one MAC is advertised by the operating system. For Wake-on-LAN (WOL) to work, WOL must be enabled for all NICs in that team.
For a WOL packet to reach its intended destination, directed broadcasting (also known as subnet broadcasting) must be enabled on the intermediate routers. Directed broadcasting is typically disabled on the routers, so you must configure this feature on the routers to enable it.
Why don't I see new alerts displayed in the Alert Logs view?
To see new alerts, click Show New Alerts in the Alert Logs window.
Why don't I see a detailed description of my network adapter manufacturer on the IT Assistant Device Details Summary page?
Due to the implementation of MIB2 on Red Hat Linux, the Network section of the IT Assistant Device DetailsSummary page does not have a detailed description of the network adapter manufacturer. For example, "eth0" or a similar string appears under Product Name.
Why is the IP address on the NIC information page displayed in a wrong row.
This issue has been fixed by a Red Hat patch to the net-snmp package.
When I export my report to CSV format, Excel doesn't display the report in a correct view. How can I fix this problem?
The reporting system generates all of its output in Unicode format (www.unicode.org). To open the CSV reports, start Microsoft Excel and run the File | Open command, which displays the Import Wizard. Select the comma delimited option to open the report with the data in the correct columns.
Why do I get a registry error when I attempt to open the IT Assistant UI?
A registry editor error occurs while opening the IT Assistant UI on a system with less than the required space. The IT Assistant client requires 25 MB of available hard-drive space.
Alert Management
Question
Answer
Why is the Alert Log for a managed system empty when I receive alerts and see them displayed in the Alert Logs view?
When IT Assistant receives an event with an IP address stored in the event, IT Assistant resolves the event to a name accordingly by using its database of discovered systems (if instrumentation name resolution is preferred) or by using DNS (if DNS resolution is preferred). SNMP traps and CIM indications will always have an IP address to resolve from.
If the IP address is already resolved to a name, IT Assistant does not attempt to resolve it again because this action could lead to differences in the name stored in the event versus the name under which IT Assistant discovered the system and sent the event, if instrumentation name resolution is preferred in IT Assistant. This issue may result in event actions not being performed due to the selection of system names in the Event Filters creation dialog that do not match the name contained in the event.
In addition, all of the events received from that system may not be displayed in that system's Alerts view in IT Assistant. To avoid this behavior, it is recommended to choose DNS resolution as the preferred resolution in IT Assistant if DNS or WINS exist in the network environment in which IT Assistant is performing discovery.
IT Assistant Services
Question
Answer
How does IT Assistant resolve the names of discovered systems?
See "Name Resolution" in the Dell OpenManage IT Assistant Online Help.
Why am I experiencing a slow logon process after rebooting my system? Are IT Assistant Services causing these performance issues?
Why does the SQL server process appear to consume a large amount of the management station's memory when viewing memory consumption from the Task Manager?
The Task Manager may not be reporting the actual amount of memory that is being consumed. To better gauge the SQL server's memory usage, go to www.microsoft.com and search for the knowledge base article KB321363, which describes how SQL Server consumes and releases memory.
IT Assistant Discovery
Question
Answer
I have discovered a system that supports CIM indications. In the past I was able to receive indications from the system, but am now no longer receiving them through IT Assistant. I am seeing the indications locally on the managed system.
In order for CIM indications to be sent to the management station, the management station must register with the managed system. The registration is broken every time the management station or the managed system is restarted. When IT Assistant discovers a system, it registers that system with the CIM indication provider. If the managed system is restarted, IT Assistant does not reregister it until the next discovery cycle. To force a reregistration with the indication provider, force discovery of the managed system in IT Assistant by right-clicking the system in the Device Tree view and clicking Refresh Status.
How do I qualify CIM user names?
CIM is enabled/disabled only by discovery range and requires each CIM user to be qualified with a domain or local host if no trusted domain is configured.
It is critical to provide this qualification when configuring CIM through a discovery range (for example: <domain>\<user name> or localhost\<user name>) to authenticate and use the CIM protocol.
To upgrade from IT Assistant version 6.x to version 7.x, qualify your user name correctly by editing the discovery ranges.
How does the IT Assistant UI determine the times that it displays?
Dates and times are reported according to the time zone configured on the management station.
Why can't IT Assistant discover systems on the configured discovery range?
Use the IT Assistant Troubleshooting Tool to help resolve this issue. In the UI, go to Tools→ Troubleshooting Tool. See also "Troubleshooting Tool—Finding and Resolving Discovery Issues" in the Dell OpenManage IT Assistant Online Help.
Why does IT Assistant report some attribute values as blank or empty values?
IT Assistant will show blank or empty data values for those attributes which are queried from, but are not returned by, the agent. These blank fields may indicate that the feature is not supported by the device or reported by the device's agent(s), or that the device's current configuration disables the feature. In addition, blank values can also indicate empty fields that are returned by the agent.
What ports do the IT Assistant services use to communicate? How can I change the port assignments?
Port 2607 enables the IT Assistant UI to communicate with the IT Assistant Connection Service. Port 2606 enables the IT Assistant Connection Service to communicate with the IT Assistant Network Monitoring Service. You can change these port assignments when installing IT Assistant using customized settings. If you do not change the port assignments during customized installation, you must use the registry to reassign port numbers. See also "Ports Used by IT Assistant and Associated Agent Application" in the Dell OpenManage Security and Installation Guide.
If I have multiple protocols bound to one network card, IT Assistant displays multiple entries for that network card under Network Data on the Summary tab of the systems window. This leads me to believe that I have more network cards installed on the system than are actually there. Why does IT Assistant display these multiple entries?
This situation is most likely to occur when using pure SNMP to communicate with the managed system. Most of the summary information shown is taken out of tables across the appropriate MIB file. In this case, network information is taken from the MIB2|Interfaces table. Binding multiple protocols to a single network card adds a row to the MIB file interfaces table for each protocol. IT Assistant then pulls all rows from this table. Because there is only one physical address per network card, you can use the physical media access control (MAC) address to ascertain how many network cards are actually installed.
Why does DCOM generate event log messages when it fails to establish communication with managed systems?
This problem is a known issue with the Microsoft WBEM implementation. DCOM logs an error every time a remote connection fails. If CIM is enabled, IT Assistant tries to connect to every CIM agent that resides at an address that can be contacted using the ping command. If the user name and password do not work or if there is no CIM agent, DCOM adds an error message to the event log.
Why are IT Assistant services unstable on my system running Windows 2000?
IT Assistant services may exhibit instability on Windows 2000 SP3. See the Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 813648: "Random Access Violations When Multithreaded Applications Call the setlocale Function."
Why is there a delay in the display of discovery feedback in the Discovery and Monitoring Logs window?
If a discovery task is already running and another discovery range is entered, the new range may not immediately show in the Discovery and Monitoring Logs window. This behavior is also dependent on the number of systems that are being discovered.
Why does discovery hang on my CIM-enabled IT Assistant installation?
If IT Assistant has CIM enabled and is discovering managed systems with Dell OpenManage Server Agent version 4.4 or earlier that are configured for CIM, discovery may hang. You must upgrade the instrumentation for these systems. In the IT Assistant UI, go to Discovery and Monitoring→ Discovery Configuration to resolve this issue. See "Discovery Configuration—Configuring IT Assistant to Discover New Devices" in the Dell OpenManage IT Assistant Online Help.
A memory leak has occurred in the IT Assistant Network Monitoring Service. What caused the problem?
If IT Assistant is installed on a device that is running Windows 2000 SP4, a known issue with the Microsoft WMI API results in a memory leak in the IT Assistant Network Monitoring Service when using the CIM protocol. The leak occurs when the remote device is passed incorrect authentication credentials during a discovery cycle or status poll.
Why can't I discover my ERA/MC device?
Before you can discover your ERA/MC you must have it properly configured. (For configuration information, see your ERA/MC documentation.) After you configure your ERA/MC, ensure that the IP address assigned to the device is included in the IT Assistant discovery range.
Why does the device status display Unknown when I attempt to discover it using the SNMP and CIM protocol combinations?
IT Assistant discovers various ranges asynchronously and one range will be overwritten by the other. Provide consistent credentials for discovering the device. For example, if you have enabled SNMP and CIM with particular credentials for the first range, enter the same SNMP and CIM credentials for the second range for the device to be discovered.
I have discovered a device by specifying the IP address in the range. The system rebooted and received a new IP address. Though the IP address is in the range, why is the Status displaying the system as down?
IT Assistant uses the IP address supplied only during discovery for all operations, such as, Status, Troubleshooting, Tasks, and so on. If the IP addresses used for discovery is unavailable or changed (due to Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol re-allocation), the Status will display the system as down.
Discover the device again from the range that contains the updated IP address for the device.
Performance Monitoring
Question
Answer
I have scheduled my performance monitoring tasks with an interval of 2 minutes. The task, however, does not fetch all samples at equal intervals.
The delay in fetching samples can be caused due to various reasons, such as, low memory or high processor utilization on the IT Assistant management station.
I am unable to see the information about the memory attribute in Execution Results pane of the task.
If an attribute is not supported on the remote device (managed system), information about the attribute will not display in the Execution Results pane of the task and the Performance tab on the Device view. Also, this attribute is not considered for status calculations.
I stopped the Windows Management Interface (WMI) service. When I restart this service, why do I see the "Unable to connect to device using CIM/SSH" message?
This is a normal situation. Data collection will start after fifteen to thirty minutes, as the connections are released once every fifteen minutes.
IPMI Discovery Support
Question
Answer
I have given my system IP address and credentials for Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) discovery, but the discovery still fails.
Provide the managed system's BMC IP address and the BMC credentials (user name, password, and KG Key)
NOTE: KG Key is available only on PowerEdge x9xx systems.
I have configured BMC on my managed systems. However, I am still unable to discover these systems.
Ensure that you have a LAN connection to the BMC.
I am using the IPMI discovery feature to discover my x9xx systems. However, I am unable to get the software and hardware inventory of these systems.
IPMI discovery feature communicates with the BMC of the managed systems to get the status of the systems. The BMC provides data such as:
power and chassis status
hardware log
service tag
host name
operating system
system type
BMC does not provide any other information about the managed systems.
NOTE: If you want more information about your managed
systems, you can use the Software Deployment feature of
IT Assistant to deploy Dell agent (Server Administrator) on
your managed systems. For more information, see "Using
Server Software Deployment."
Miscellaneous
Question
Answer
I want to run another application on the port on which the IT Assistant Netmon Service is installed. Do I have to uninstall and reinstall IT Assistant?
The port number for the DSM IT Assistant Network Monitor service is defined using the Microsoft Windows registry key HKLM\Dell Computer Corporation\Dell OpenManage IT Assistant\Network Monitoring Service\PortNumber. Change the value of this key and restart the DSM IT Assistant Connection Service and the DSM IT Assistant Network Monitor services.
What are the names of the various IT Assistant services?
The names of the IT Assistant services are:
DSM IT Assistant Network Monitor
DSM IT Assistant Connection Service
I have redundant entries for Dell™ PowerConnect™ switches—one under the Unknown category and the other under Network Devices as Switch Object.
When IT Assistant discovers the PowerConnect switch with its IP address configured, but SNMP not configured, it classifies this object under the Unknown group as an Unknown device. However, when you configure SNMP on the switch, and click Refresh Inventory, IT Assistant reclassifies the switch as a Switch Object under the Network Devices category, but does not delete the Unknown entry. You must delete the redundant Unknown entry manually.
The RAC Console Application Launch is not available for my systems.
If you have discovered your systems using CIM instead of SNMP, then the RAC Console Application Launch will not be available.
I am unable to receive traps from the Dell OpenManage Server Administrator Storage Management Service from my Linux systems.
Ensure that the snmpd.conf file is not set to send SNMP traps in version 2 format. IT Assistant does not recognize the SNMP version 2 format.
Ensure that the trap format is set to trapsink hostname <community string>.
NOTE: trapsink sends SNMP version 1 traps trap2sink sends SNMP version 2 traps.
I am not able to receive Array Manager and Storage Management Service events.
Storage Management Services and Array Manager do not support CIM. Therefore, IT Assistant does not receive events from storage devices using CIM.
To receive storage events, configure Array Manager and Storage Management Service to send SNMP-based events.
I am unable to see the latest data on the Tasks tree.
If you are seeing outdated data or if the data is missing, press F5 to manually refresh the IT Assistant user interface.
