OpenManage Essentials (OME) is a systems management console that provides simple, basic Dell hardware management and is available as a free download.
The latest release is OME 1.1 and it launched on October 30th 2012. It brings a lot of great new features to the product:
  • Agent-free hardware inventory for Dell 11G and 12G servers
  • Agent-free system updates (e.g., BIOS, firmware) for Dell 11G and 12G servers
  • Dell SupportAssist extension for proactive “phone home” hardware issue resolution
And other features like:
  • Discover, Inventory, monitor health, and view logs of Dell clients (i.e., desktops, portables)
  • Discover, Inventory, and monitor health of Dell Force 10 Switches, Dell PDU and UPS devices
  • Discover and collect limited inventory Linux servers via SSH
  • Enhanced hardware inventory for ESXi servers with Server Administrator (OMSA)
  • Alerts for hardware health status changes (not just when a hardware trap is sent)
  • Ability to forward alerts in original format to support tiered event management
  • A new command line interface (CLI) for automation of server discovery and grouping
  • Calendar style task schedule view
  • Group filtering on portal pages
  • More configurable portal pages
  • Grouped discovery ranges for common protocol settings
  • Custom URL launch points to allow user-defined right-click actions on devices