Evaluating Your Server Environment

This section can help you to decide which type of server management option or combination of options is best for your server environment.

The evaluation covers the following questions:

Which Operating System Do You Plan to Install?
From Which Platform Do You Want to Run the Software?
Do You Want to Update or Monitor Your System Components?
Do You Have a Modular System Environment?

Which Operating System Do You Plan to Install?

Most of the server management software will work with most operating systems that are supported for Oracle servers. However, there are some exceptions that are important to note. See the following table for detailed information.

Server Management Software	Operating System Limitations
Oracle Integrated Lights Out Manager (ILOM)	There are no operating system limitations with Oracle ILOM, because the software runs on the system service processor, not on the operating system.
Oracle Hardware Management Pack	There are some limitations on which operating systems are supported with the Hardware Management Pack components. For details, refer to the Support Matrix at http://www.oracle.com/goto/hmp.
Oracle Hardware Installation Assistant	You can only install Windows and Linux (Oracle Linux, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and SUSE Linux) operating systems with the Oracle Hardware Installation Assistant. If you have Oracle Solaris or Oracle VM installed on the server, you can update firmware and perform additional server management tasks.

From Which Platform Do You Want to Run the Software?

When deciding on your server management strategy, you need to determine whether you want to run your server management tasks from the system host, embedded firmware, or bootable media.

Server Management Software	Platform
Oracle Integrated Lights Out Manager (ILOM)	Embedded service processor firmware
Oracle Hardware Management Pack	Host operating system
Oracle Hardware Installation Assistant	Bootable media (CD/DVD or USB drive) from a local or remote source

Do You Want to Update or Monitor Your System Components?

The server management software tools are designed primarily to update or monitor system software and components. The following table lists the main functions of each software option.

Server Management Software	Update Functions	Monitoring Functions
Oracle Integrated Lights Out Manager (ILOM)	Updates ILOM and BIOS firmware.	Monitors component status and reports faults.
Oracle Hardware Management Pack	Configures ILOM and BIOS firmware. Updates HBA and expander firmware. Configures RAID.	Monitors component status and reports fault.
Oracle Hardware Installation Assistant	Updates and configures ILOM, BIOS, and HBA firmware. Assists in operating system and driver installation. Configures RAID.	Provides minimal system status information.

Do You Have a Modular System Environment?

All of the server management software can be used with modular systems (blades) or rack servers, but only one of the software tools, Oracle ILOM, can be used to manage blade servers from both the modular system chassis monitoring module (CMM) and blade server interfaces.

Server Management Software	Modular System CMM Interface?	Server Module Interface?
Oracle Integrated Lights Out Manager (ILOM)	Yes	Yes
Oracle Hardware Management Pack	No	Yes
Oracle Hardware Installation Assistant	No	Yes

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	Oracle Integrated Lights Out Manager (ILOM) 3.0 Supplement for Sun Server X2-4

Supplement for Sun Server X2-4