Introduction

Lenovo XClarity Administrator (LXCA) is a centralized resource management solution that is aimed at reducing complexity, speeding response, and enhancing the availability of Lenovo server systems and solutions. Lenovo XClarity Administrator runs as a virtual appliance and provides agent-free hardware management that automates discovery, inventory, tracking, updates, monitoring, and provisioning for Lenovo server systems, storage, network switches, hyperconverged and ThinkAgile solutions. A single XClarity Administrator instance supports managing a maximum of 1,000 devices.

Features

The XClarity Administrator dashboard is an HTML 5-based web interface that allows fast location of resources so tasks can be run quickly. Because Lenovo XClarity Administrator does not include any agent software that is installed on the managed endpoints, there are no CPU cycles spent on agent execution and no memory is used, which means that up to 1GB of RAM and 1 - 2% CPU usage is saved, compared to a typical managed system where an agent is required. Fast time to value is realized through automatic discovery of existing or new Lenovo rack servers and Flex System infrastructure. Inventory of the discovered endpoints is gathered, so the managed hardware inventory and its status can be viewed-at-a-glance. A centralized view of events and alerts that are generated from managed endpoints is available. When an issue is detected by a managed endpoint, an event is passed to Lenovo XClarity Administrator. Alerts and events are visible via the XClarity Administrator Dashboard, the Status bar, and the Alerts and Events detail for the specific system.

Firmware management

Firmware management is simplified by assigning Firmware-compliance policies to supported managed endpoints to ensure that firmware on those endpoints remains compliant. You can also create and edit firmware-compliance policies when validated firmware levels do not match the suggested predefined policies. Additionally, you can also apply and activate firmware that is later than the currently installed firmware on a single managed endpoint or group of endpoints without using compliance policies.

Windows Device Driver updates

Starting with v2.1.0, XClarity Administrator utilizes Windows UpdateXpress System Packs (UXSPs) to enable the update of the OS device drivers on deployed Windows operating systems. Windows UXSPs contain Windows device drivers for supported Windows versions and for Lenovo servers that supports Windows. You can download or import Windows UXSPs in the repository. UXSPs must be available in the repository before you can update Windows device drivers on managed severs.

Integrate

Deploy and manage Lenovo infrastructure from your own IT applications by developing custom integration using XClarity’s web-based REST APIs or XClarity Integrator software plugins for common IT applications.