Tag Archives: Drac

Dell

Dell servers crash when running memtest

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Issue:
Maintenance is finally complete on your Dell Poweredge server and it is ready to be placed back into production.  You decide to run through a day of memory testing so you download the latest version of memtest  – 4.0a.  You mount it in the machine either physically or through DRAC and let it run.

First you try it on your 2950.  The 2950 completely freaks out and throws CPU errors.
CPU 1 has an internal error (IERR).
CPU 2 has an internal error (IERR).
CPU 1 is operating correctly.
CPU 2 is operating correctly.
CPU 1 machine check detected.
A fatal IO error detected on a component at
CPU 2 machine check detected.
A fatal IO error detected on a component at
CPU 2 machine check detected.

Strange.  This machine has never had any issues before.  Next you try it on your r900.  You boot over DRAC first and then physical media.  This machine just restarts when booted off of memtest.

So you decide to run memtest 3.5b instead of 4.0a on both machines.  Wow it works.

Solution:
When running memtest on your Dell Poweredge machines, use 3.5b.

Dell

DRAC5 is stuck trying to boot from virtual media

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Issue:
Sometimes if a machine crashes while virtual media is attached, it will continue to attempt to boot from virtual media even if no media is present.  This creates long boot times at the Dell Splash Screen and after the Remote Access Controller is detected.  If you have a linux variant installed, you will also see it hang when USB is being initialized.  In this instance, the DRAC needs to be reset.

Solution:

  1. Install the DRAC Windows tools from ftp://ftp.dell.com/sysman/
  2. The file will start with “OMI-DRAC”.  As of this article, the current version is OMI-DRAC-Dell-Web-WIN-620-32-677.exe
  3. Run the install and extract it to a temp directory.  Default is openmanage.
  4. Browse to the temp directory where the file was extracted and browse to windowsdrac
  5. Run the Drac msi
  6. After install completes, open up the command prompt and go to c:program filesdellsysmgtrac5.  If it is installed on a 64 bit machine, the application will be in Program Files (x86)
  7. Type in “racadm -r <IP> -i racreset”.
  8. You will be prompted for username and password and the DRAC will reset.  It typically takes 1-2 minutes.

More information on DRAC Commands:
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/software/smdrac3/drac5/OM53/en/ug/racugaa.htm

Dell

How to update DRAC5 firmware using Web GUI

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  1. Go to the Dell FTP site – ftp://ftp.dell.com/sysman/
  2. Search for “f_drac5”
  3. Find the latest edition.  As of this article, it is f_drac5v160_A00.exe
  4. Download, Run and Extract the file which will contain a d5 file
  5. Open up your DRAC5 interface and go to Remote Access – Update (or DRAC Update)
  6. Click the Browse button and choose the d5 file extracted from step 3.
  7. Click Update and don’t interrupt the process.