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How to install Dell OMSA (OpenManage Server Administrator) 10.x on Ubuntu 20.04

Published on June 21st 2021


The best way to monitor a physical Dell server is to use the open source monitoring plugin check_openmanage. This monitoring plugin connects to the servers OpenManage installation - either remote or by using local OpenManage commands. In this article we describe how to install the currently latest Dell OpenManage Server Administrator (short OMSA) 10.x on an Ubuntu 20.04 system.

Note: If you are upgrading from a previous OMSA version, you should first manually uninstall all srvadmin packages.

APT Repository

Dell offers dedicated OMSA repositories for Ubuntu and Debian systems, using the APT package manager. The communication with the repository happens via https, therefore make sure to install the following packages first:

root@ubuntu:~# apt-get install ca-certificates apt-transport-https

Then add the Dell repository:

root@ubuntu:~# echo "deb https://linux.dell.com/repo/community/openmanage/1001/focal focal main" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/omsa.list
deb https://linux.dell.com/repo/community/openmanage/1001/focal focal main

The tricky part here is to find the correct version for OMSA. 1001 stands for OMSA v 10.01.

To add the Dell public GPG key:

root@ubuntu:~# sudo apt-key adv --keyserver pool.sks-keyservers.net --keyserver-options --recv-keys 1285491434D8786F
Executing: /tmp/apt-key-gpghome.EsOH3I9tXr/gpg.1.sh --keyserver pool.sks-keyservers.net --keyserver-options http-proxy=http://gateway.zscaler.net:9480 --recv-keys 1285491434D8786F
gpg: key 1285491434D8786F: public key "Dell Inc., PGRE 2012 (PG Release Engineering Build Group 2012) <PG_Release_Engineering@Dell.com>" imported
gpg: Total number processed: 1
gpg:               imported: 1

If your server has no direct Internet access and needs to use an outgoing http proxy, use the following command where you define your http proxy:

root@ubuntu:~# sudo apt-key adv --keyserver pool.sks-keyservers.net --keyserver-options http-proxy=http://proxy.example.com:3128 --recv-keys 1285491434D8786F

Note: Lately the SKS keyservers seem to have reliability problems. Use a different key server in this case. See recent blog article Unable to create LXC container due to ERROR: Unable to fetch GPG key from keyserver which relates to this issue.

Note 2: If you get an error, such as "keyserver option --recv-keys is unknown", use an alternative. See comments below this article.

Now update apt:

root@ubuntu:~# apt-get update
Hit:1 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-security InRelease                                                              
Ign:2 https://linux.dell.com/repo/community/openmanage/1001/focal focal InRelease                                             
Err:3 https://linux.dell.com/repo/community/openmanage/1001/focal focal Release
  Certificate verification failed: The certificate is NOT trusted. The certificate issuer is unknown.  Could not handshake: Error in the certificate verification.

Err:4 http://ch.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal InRelease
Get:5 http://ch.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates InRelease [114 kB]
Hit:6 http://ch.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-backports InRelease
Get:7 http://ch.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates/main amd64 Packages [1,026 kB]
Get:8 http://ch.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates/main i386 Packages [490 kB]
Get:9 http://ch.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates/main amd64 c-n-f Metadata [13.5 kB]
Get:10 http://ch.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates/universe i386 Packages [576 kB]
Get:11 http://ch.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates/universe amd64 Packages [781 kB]
Reading package lists... Done                                   
E: The repository 'https://linux.dell.com/repo/community/openmanage/1001/focal focal Release' does not have a Release file.
N: Updating from such a repository can't be done securely, and is therefore disabled by default.
N: See apt-secure(8) manpage for repository creation and user configuration details.

If you get the same error from the output above (Certificate verification failed: The certificate is NOT trusted. The certificate issuer is unknown), this means that the server certificate of Dell's repository server could not be verified using the locally installed (Root) CA certificates. You can tell apt to skip certificate verification:

root@ubuntu:~# echo 'Acquire::https::linux.dell.com::Verify-Peer "false";' | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/99dell-cert
Acquire::https::linux.dell.com::Verify-Peer "false";

And apt-get update should now work:

root@ubuntu:~# apt-get update
Hit:1 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-security InRelease
Get:2 https://linux.dell.com/repo/community/openmanage/1001/focal focal InRelease [2,509 B]
Get:3 https://linux.dell.com/repo/community/openmanage/1001/focal focal/main amd64 Packages [7,571 B]
Get:4 https://linux.dell.com/repo/community/openmanage/1001/focal focal/main i386 Packages [421 B]
Hit:5 http://ch.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal InRelease           
Hit:6 http://ch.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates InRelease
Hit:7 http://ch.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-backports InRelease
Fetched 10.5 kB in 10s (1,009 B/s)
Reading package lists... Done

Again, if the server has no direct Internet access you may have to configure APT to use an outgoing http proxy first.

Install OMSA

Dell OMSA is split into several packages. The easiest and complete way to install OMSA is to install the srvadmin-all package. This package contains all other packages, including the Tomcat web server for the web user interface.

root@ubuntu:~# apt-cache show srvadmin-all
Package: srvadmin-all
Source: srvadmin-meta
Version: 10.0.1
Architecture: amd64
Maintainer: Dell Inc. <support@dell.com>
Installed-Size: 2
Depends: srvadmin-base (>= 10.0.1), srvadmin-storageservices (>= 10.0.1), srvadmin-webserver (>= 10.0.1), srvadmin-standardagent (>= 10.0.1), srvadmin-server-snmp (>= 10.0.1), srvadmin-server-cli (>= 10.0.1), srvadmin-oslog (>= 10.0.1), srvadmin-idracadm8 (>= 10.0.1)
Homepage: http://support.dell.com
Priority: optional
Section: partner/utils
Filename: pool/main/s/srvadmin-meta/srvadmin-all_10.0.1_amd64.deb
Size: 912
SHA256: 84c473d04cbb95df24c490b861705c9a04e3eaade013cd6e2fb9e05fd1b53b16
SHA1: 54cdc348bfa8614e1aadb92c4ebd50f3cab41575
MD5sum: 4bdeb01208b84ffcd6e9b71a224d9c87
Description: Meta package for installing all Server Administrator features
 Meta-package that contains dependency information to automatically pull
 in all base and optional Server Administrator Features.
Description-md5: 7d7cc7ea41588bb1b03f2a5da6d51a9a

root@ubuntu:~# apt-get install srvadmin-all

Once the packages were installed, reboot the server.

Processes and listener

After the server booted, the following "srvadmin" processes can be seen:

root@ubuntu:~# ps auxf | grep srvadmin
root        2338  0.0  0.0 177136  8528 ?        Ssl  14:02   0:00 /opt/dell/srvadmin/sbin/dsm_sa_eventmgrd
root        2366  0.0  0.0  13140  2060 ?        Ss   14:02   0:00 /opt/dell/srvadmin/sbin/dsm_om_connsvcd -run
root        2367  0.1  0.1 5477452 156672 ?      Sl   14:02   0:31  \_ /opt/dell/srvadmin/sbin/dsm_om_connsvcd -run
root        2604  0.0  0.0 1067828 41360 ?       Ssl  14:02   0:13 /opt/dell/srvadmin/sbin/dsm_sa_datamgrd
root        2906  0.0  0.0 666036 23676 ?        Ss   14:03   0:00  \_ /opt/dell/srvadmin/sbin/dsm_sa_datamgrd
root        2885  0.0  0.0 375232  9832 ?        Ssl  14:03   0:03 /opt/dell/srvadmin/sbin/dsm_sa_snmpd

The processes are launched by the following Systemd service units:

ck@ubuntu:~$ systemctl list-units|grep dsm
  dsm_om_connsvc.service       loaded active running   DSM SA Connection Service
  dsm_sa_datamgrd.service      loaded active running   Systems Management Data Engine
  dsm_sa_eventmgrd.service     loaded active running   Systems Management Event Management
  dsm_sa_snmpd.service         loaded active running   Systems Management SNMP

The web user interface listens on port 1311, which is opened by the dsm_om_connsvc process:

root@ubuntu:~# netstat -lntup | grep 1311
tcp6       0      0 :::1311                 :::*                    LISTEN      2367/dsm_om_connsvc

OMSA web user interface

The web user interface can now be accessed by using the server's address (IP or DNS) and appening the listener port :1311 (https://serverip:1311). This shows a login screen in the browser:

Dell OMSA 10.x login prompt

On Linux systems, the "root" user and its password from the OS is used for login.

Once logged in, OMSA can be used and also shows all relevant server information - including hardware status.

Dell OMSA 10.x hardware component health

Even the storage configuration can be checked. Here the virtual disk of a PERC H745 storage controller can be seen (and tasks executed):

Dell OMSA 10.x PERC H745 storage raid controller

Monitoring the server using check_openmanage

Now that all OMSA packages were installed on the server, the check_openmanage plugin can be executed locally. This uses the OMSA command line in the background. With the -d parameter, debug output shows a lot of information - helpful to collect some kind of device inventory without having to login into the web UI.

nagios@ubuntu:~$ /usr/lib/nagios/plugins/check_openmanage
OK - System: 'PowerEdge R7525', SN: 'XXXXXXX', 128 GB ram (4 dimms), 1 logical drives, 3 physical drives

root@ubuntu:~# /usr/lib/nagios/plugins/check_openmanage -d
   System:      PowerEdge R7525          OMSA version:    10.0.1
   ServiceTag:  XXXXXXX                  Plugin version:  3.7.12
   BIOS/date:   1.7.3 10/05/2020         Checking mode:   local
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Storage Components                                                        
=============================================================================
  STATE  |    ID    |  MESSAGE TEXT                                          
---------+----------+--------------------------------------------------------
      OK |        0 | Controller 0 [PERC H745 Front] is Ready
      OK |  0:0:1:0 | Physical Disk 0:1:0 [SATA-SSD 960GB] on ctrl 0 is Online
      OK |  0:0:1:1 | Physical Disk 0:1:1 [SATA-SSD 960GB] on ctrl 0 is Online
      OK |  0:0:1:2 | Physical Disk 0:1:2 [SATA-SSD 960GB] on ctrl 0 is Ready (Global HS)
      OK |      0:0 | Logical Drive '/dev/sda' [RAID-1, 893.75 GB] is Ready
      OK |      0:0 | Cache Battery 0 in controller 0 is Ready
      OK |      0:0 | Logical Connector  [SAS Port RAID Mode] on controller 0 is Ready
      OK |    0:0:1 | Enclosure 0:0:1 [Backplane] on controller 0 is Ready
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Chassis Components                                                        
=============================================================================
  STATE  |  ID  |  MESSAGE TEXT                                              
---------+------+------------------------------------------------------------
      OK |    0 | Memory module 0 [A1, 32768 MB] is Ok
      OK |    1 | Memory module 1 [A2, 32768 MB] is Ok
      OK |    2 | Memory module 2 [B1, 32768 MB] is Ok
      OK |    3 | Memory module 3 [B2, 32768 MB] is Ok
      OK |    0 | Chassis fan 0 [System Board Fan1A] reading: 3120 RPM
      OK |    1 | Chassis fan 1 [System Board Fan2A] reading: 3240 RPM
      OK |    2 | Chassis fan 2 [System Board Fan3A] reading: 3120 RPM
      OK |    3 | Chassis fan 3 [System Board Fan4A] reading: 3120 RPM
      OK |    4 | Chassis fan 4 [System Board Fan5A] reading: 3120 RPM
      OK |    5 | Chassis fan 5 [System Board Fan6A] reading: 3120 RPM
      OK |    0 | Power Supply 0 [AC]: Presence Detected
      OK |    1 | Power Supply 1 [AC]: Presence Detected
      OK |    0 | Temperature Probe 0 [CPU1 Temp] reads 32 C (min=[N/A]/3, max=[N/A]/100)
      OK |    1 | Temperature Probe 1 [CPU2 Temp] reads 30 C (min=[N/A]/3, max=[N/A]/100)
      OK |    2 | Temperature Probe 2 [System Board Inlet Temp] reads 23 C (min=3/-7, max=38/42)
      OK |    3 | Temperature Probe 3 [System Board Exhaust Temp] reads 29 C (min=8/3, max=75/80)
      OK |    0 | Processor 0 [AMD EPYC 7262 8-Core] is Present
      OK |    1 | Processor 1 [AMD EPYC 7262 8-Core] is Present
      OK |    0 | Voltage sensor 0 [PS1 Voltage 1] reads 230 V
      OK |    1 | Voltage sensor 1 [PS2 Voltage 2] reads 230 V
      OK |    2 | Voltage sensor 2 [System Board Pfault Fail Safe] is Good
      OK |    3 | Voltage sensor 3 [System Board DIMM VSHORT] is Good
      OK |    4 | Voltage sensor 4 [System Board PS1 PG FAIL] is Good
      OK |    5 | Voltage sensor 5 [System Board PS2 PG FAIL] is Good
      OK |    6 | Voltage sensor 6 [CPU1 MEMABCD VDD PG] is Good
      OK |    7 | Voltage sensor 7 [CPU1 MEMABCD VPP PG] is Good
      OK |    8 | Voltage sensor 8 [CPU1 MEMABCD VTT PG] is Good
      OK |    9 | Voltage sensor 9 [CPU1 MEMEFGH VDD PG] is Good
      OK |   10 | Voltage sensor 10 [CPU1 MEMEFGH VPP PG] is Good
      OK |   11 | Voltage sensor 11 [CPU1 MEMEFGH VTT PG] is Good
      OK |   12 | Voltage sensor 12 [CPU1 VCORE PG] is Good
      OK |   13 | Voltage sensor 13 [CPU1 SOC RUN] is Good
      OK |   14 | Voltage sensor 14 [CPU1 SOC S5 PG] is Good
      OK |   15 | Voltage sensor 15 [CPU2 MEMABCD VDD PG] is Good
      OK |   16 | Voltage sensor 16 [CPU2 MEMABCD VPP PG] is Good
      OK |   17 | Voltage sensor 17 [CPU2 MEMABCD VTT PG] is Good
      OK |   18 | Voltage sensor 18 [CPU2 MEMEFGH VDD PG] is Good
      OK |   19 | Voltage sensor 19 [CPU2 MEMEFGH VPP PG] is Good
      OK |   20 | Voltage sensor 20 [CPU2 MEMEFGH VTT PG] is Good
      OK |   21 | Voltage sensor 21 [CPU2 VCORE PG] is Good
      OK |   22 | Voltage sensor 22 [CPU2 SOC RUN] is Good
      OK |   23 | Voltage sensor 23 [CPU2 SOC S5 PG] is Good
      OK |   24 | Voltage sensor 24 [System Board BP0 PG] is Good
      OK |   25 | Voltage sensor 25 [System Board BP1 PG] is Good
      OK |   26 | Voltage sensor 26 [System Board BP2 PG] is Good
      OK |   27 | Voltage sensor 27 [System Board BP3 PG] is Good
      OK |   28 | Voltage sensor 28 [System Board BP4 PG] is Good
      OK |   29 | Voltage sensor 29 [System Board V18 P1 PG] is Good
      OK |   30 | Voltage sensor 30 [System Board V18 P2 PG] is Good
      OK |   31 | Voltage sensor 31 [System Board 3.3V A PG] is Good
      OK |   32 | Voltage sensor 32 [System Board 3.3V B PG] is Good
      OK |   33 | Voltage sensor 33 [System Board 5V SW PG] is Good
      OK |   34 | Voltage sensor 34 [System Board BMC SW PG] is Good
      OK |   35 | Voltage sensor 35 [System Board OCP1 PG] is Good
      OK |   36 | Voltage sensor 36 [System Board OCP1 HP SW PG] is Good
      OK |   37 | Voltage sensor 37 [System Board BATT PG] is Good
      OK |    0 | Battery probe 0 [System Board CMOS Battery] is Good
      OK |    2 | Amperage probe 2 [System Board Pwr Consumption] reads 104 W
      OK |    0 | Chassis intrusion 0 detection: Ok (Chassis is closed)
      OK |    0 | SD Card 0 [Unknown location, Unknown size] is Unknown state
      OK |    1 | SD Card 1 [Unknown location, Unknown size] is Unknown state
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Other messages                                                            
=============================================================================
  STATE  |  MESSAGE TEXT                                                     
---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------
      OK | ESM log health is Ok (less than 80% full)
      OK | Chassis Service Tag is sane