Dell Inc. last week announced three free server management tools for use with Microsoft Corp. software. The announcement coincided with Microsoft's release of Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003.
The Dell OpenManage products are designed to reduce the number of tools needed to manage standards-based servers, said Neil Hand, director of worldwide marketing for Dell's product group. The move follows Dell's September announcement of a set of network management tools under the OpenManage brand that centralize management of its PowerConnect family of switches [see story].
The new tools include the following:
- Dell Management Pack for Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM), to monitor the status of and forward alerts from PowerEdge servers.
- Dell Update Packages with SMS, to automate management of server hardware, applications and operating system patches with a single tool.
- Dell Deployment Toolkit, for deploying servers using Microsoft Automated Deployment Services.
The MOM and SMS-related tools will ship immediately; the ADS tool will ship by Jan. 1. All are available at no charge.
John Enck, an analyst at Gartner Inc. in Stamford, Conn., said Dell's tools development is an "interesting marketing tactic" because such tools are currently proprietary and a source of keen competition among management vendors.