Usingsystemmanagement
Thistopicisprimarilyintendedfornetworkadministrators.
Yourcomputerisdesignedformanageability,sothatyoucanredirectmoreresourcestobettermeet
yourbusinessobjectives.
Thismanageability,knownasTotalCostofOwnership(TCO),enablesyoutoremotelyoperateclient
computersinthesamewayasyouoperateyourowncomputer,suchasturningonaclientcomputer,
formattingasolid-statedrive,andinstallingaprogram.
Oncethecomputerisconfiguredandoperational,youcanmanageitbyusingthesoftwareandthe
manageabilityfeaturesthatarealreadyintegratedintotheclientcomputerandthenetwork.
DesktopManagementInterface
TheUEFIBIOSofyourcomputersupportsaninterfacecalledSystemManagementBIOS(SMBIOS)
ReferenceSpecification,version2.7.1.SMBIOSprovidesinformationaboutthehardwarecomponentsof
yourcomputer.ItistheresponsibilityoftheUEFIBIOStoprovideinformationaboutitselfandthedeviceson
thesystemboard.ThisspecificationdocumentsthestandardsforgettingaccesstothisBIOSinformation.
PrebooteXecutionEnvironment
ThePrebooteXecutionEnvironment(PXE)technologymakesthecomputermoremanageablebyenabling
thecomputertostartfromaserver.YourcomputersupportsthepersonalcomputerfunctionsthatPXE
requires.Forexample,withtheappropriateLANcard,yourcomputercanbestartedfromthePXEserver.
Note:TheRemoteInitialProgramLoad(RIPLorRPL)functioncannotbeusedwithyourcomputer.
WakeonLAN
ThenetworkadministratorcanturnonacomputerfromamanagementconsolebyusingtheWakeon
LANfeature.
WhentheWakeonLANfeatureisenabled,manyoperations,suchasdatatransfer,softwareupdates,and
FlashupdatesoftheUEFIBIOS,canbedoneremotelywithoutremoteattendance.Theupdatingprocess
canperformafternormalworkinghoursandonweekends,sothattheusersarenotinterruptedduringwork,
andtheLANtrafficiskepttoaminimum.Itsavestimeandincreasesproductivity.
Note:IfthecomputeristurnedonthroughWakeonLAN,thecomputerstartsfollowtheNetworkBoot
sequence.
AssetIDEEPROM
TheAssetIDEEPROMcontainsinformationaboutthecomputerconfigurationandtheserialnumbersof
thekeycomponents.Italsoincludesanumberofblankfieldswhereyoucanrecordinformationabout
theendusersinyournetwork.
Settingmanagementfeatures
Toenableanetworkadministratortoremotelycontrolyourcomputer,setthefollowingsystem-management
featuresintheThinkPadSetupprogram:
•WakeonLAN
•NetworkBootsequence
•Flashupdate
Chapter6.Advancedconfiguration87