This IBM® Redbooks® publication describes the positioning of the IBM Systems Director in the complete management range. It also compares the IBM Systems Director with the IBM Flex Systems Manager (FSM) and describes the environments for which each tool is best suited.
This publication helps you plan, install, tailor, and configure the IBM Systems Director on different platforms. It contains information about required system resources and which network ports are used. It shows how to use the Workload Estimator to select the appropriate hardware for IBM Systems Director server and provides information about the IBM Systems Director Editions.
Best practices are covered for the basic management tasks that are available in IBM Systems Director, including how to perform discovery; how to collect inventory on discovered resources; how to deploy agent, driver, and firmware updates; how to manage hardware events; and other miscellaneous tasks.
An overview of best practices is provided for using IBM Systems Director VMControl™. Systems Director VMControl is a cross-platform product that assists you in rapidly deploying virtual appliances to create virtual servers that are configured with the operating system and software applications that you want. It also enables you to group resources into system pools, which enable you to centrally manage and control the different workloads in your environment.
The following plug-in offerings are described:
This book is for IBM IT specialists and IT architects, IBM Business Partners, and clients, who are utilizing or considering implementing IBM Systems Director.
Chapter 1. Positioning IBM Systems Director
Chapter 2. Planning
Chapter 3. Installation
Chapter 4. Basic management tasks
Chapter 5. VMControl
Chapter 6. Active Energy Manager
Chapter 7. AIX Profile Manager
Chapter 8. Workload Partition Manager
Chapter 9. Network Control
Chapter 10. Service and Support Manager
Chapter 11. Storage Management solutions and Storage Control
Chapter 12. Troubleshooting
Appendix A. Technical articles