All Aboard the Scripting Train: Moving from DTK to RACADM

For those PowerEdge server customers who use scripts to manage servers, you’re probably familiar with a longtime Dell EMC tool: the Dell Deployment Toolkit (DTK). What you may not know is that DTK’s days are numbered, and there’s a newer command-line tool that will do the job for many years to come: the Remote Access Controller Admin (RACADM) utility.

As part of our commitment to intelligent automation, we want to make sure our customers can manage servers in the manner that best suits their IT environment, and for many customers, using scripts is their method of choice. RACADM provides a reliable means to do just that. So, to support this transition, we have prepared two new documents for you.

What was DTK for?

But first, a little background. The DTK is a set of utilities, scripts, and configuration files used to configure PowerEdge servers in both Windows and Linux environments. DTK will be sustained for current (that’s 14^th generation PowerEdge servers like the R740, as an example) and earlier supported platforms until those platforms pass their end of support life (EOSL) threshold. Dell EMC will not offer support for DTK on future platforms.

We strongly recommend that if you are using DTK now, that you start learning about using the RADADM utility.

What can RACADM do?

RACADM is a command line tool that allows for remote or local management of Dell EMC servers via the integrated Dell Remote Access Controller (iDRAC) that is embedded in every PowerEdge server. RACADM provides functionality similar to that provided by the iDRAC’s web interface. Another plus for RACADM users is that the Dell Chassis Management Controller (CMC), the embedded management device for blade server chassis, can also be managed remotely. RACADM commands can be run remotely from a management station and/or locally on the managed system. RACADM commands allow operations such as viewing system information, performing power operations, firmware updates, and configuring settings. Since RACADM is run from a command line interface (CLI), system administrators can create scripts that control and update Dell multiple systems at the same time.

To support your move to RACADM, Dell EMC engineers have written two new documents for existing DTK users to help guide them to and through a smooth transition to RACADM. The first is a guide that can be used as a reference manual for using DTK with supported PowerEdge servers and provides transition guidelines for RACADM deployment and configuration in Windows and Linux environments. The second is intended to be used as a reference manual to map RAIDCFG (a DTK utility used for storage configuration) operations into equivalent RACADM command syntax for PowerEdge Raid Controllers (PERC). These RAIDCFG operations are supported in the PowerEdge server platforms through the current 14th generation systems.

I hope you find this interesting and useful. With RACADM, you’ll be managing your PowerEdge servers just the way you want to. For more information, please take a look at these additional resources:

• DTK Transition Guide: http://dell.to/2GE0sOm
• DTK RAIDCFG to RACADM Whitepaper: http://dell.to/2CBO8eY
• iDRAC with LC TechCenter page: http://dell.to/2BHniFg
• RACADM TechCenter page:  http://dell.to/1jXAbz9
• iDRAC TechCenter page- http://delltechcenter.com/idrac
• DTK TechCenter page: http://dell.to/2hzENvG

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