I was experiencing some issues with one of my Dell R610 servers. (Fans never spin down.) After doing some research I noticed people suggested it was due to bad firmware of iDRAC Express. So I figured why not update it, should be a simple process and something I should be able to do in a couple of minutes. After scavenging the Dell website for hours I literally found nothing useful. Yes I found a Windows update package but it won’t run, it craps out with an “this update package is not compatible…” error. So I figured why not try to download a bootable ISO that contains all the firmware for a Dell R610…. I was astonished that I couldn’t find it.
After another hour I figured out I needed to download the Dell Server Update Utility. I downloaded that and figured I could just boot it and update the firmware, well not quite yet. It appears you need to also download a Repository Manager. A what? I don’t want to manage a repository, I expect my hardware vendor to manage it and just offer an ISO which contains all firmware I could possibly need. But anyway, I decided to download the repository manager and just see what I could get done. So I created a repository for the R610 and figured it would be nice to have the Server Update Utility combined with the Patches. So I clicked export and figured it would start exporting, well not quite yet… Dell Repository Manager told me I needed to have a plugin, what the heck give me the plugin… 190MB for a plugin to create an ISO? Are you serious?? I needed to upgrade the system so I downloaded it. After waiting for a couple of minutes I finally managed to start exporting the ISO.
While I was waiting I figured I would boot up my second R610 and try to use the Unified Server Configurator that someone pointed out on twitter. This server was experiencing no issues so update would be fairly simple. I needed to enable System Services through iDRAC before I could use USC though, funny as USC doesn’t seem to use the iDrac network configuration etc. Why not make it part of the normal Bios? But anyway, I booted into USC by pressing F10 when the Dell logo popped up and configured the network. (Click Settings on the left and Network Settings on the right) Next go to “Platform Update” and click “Launch Platform Update”, select the FTP option and you are good to go… After a couple of minutes it asks you if you want to apply the updates, so you click “apply” and wait for a while… (progress bar anyone?) after waiting and waiting it came back with a nice error that my selected repository was corrupt. Yes indeed corrupt, but wasn’t I using the Dell ftp server? Same player shoot again, reboot, same procedure, apply, and waiting… waiting… waiting… I don’t know what I am waiting for, no progress bar or status updates it seems to have just frozen up. After 1.5hrs I gave up and pulled the power cable.
Lets get back to the server that had the issues… It didn’t allow me to use USC as iDRAC fails during boot and I need to enter the iDRAC bios to enable it. So as said I exported the ISO and burned it. It took a while but I finally succeeded. Now for some weird reason this DVD is not bootable, no you need to run it within Linux/Windows first. So I decided to install Windows, but only to find out that the iDRAC firmware update was not included. Weird as I did make sure to select every single component out there, but that is not enough apparently or is it because iDRAC is disabled and if that is the case, why not just tell me that?
Anyway, I had enough for today… after some random tweets about upgrading Dell firmware a Dell representative contacted me. Lets hope he can figure out what is happening and why, I will keep you up to date. If not, well then I will need to buy a couple of HP Servers instead I guess, or just use a whitebox as I don’t need all those components like iDRAC anyway. Before anyone asks, yes I was slightly frustrated when I wrote this.
Wow, you really took the long way around through years of various ways of doing updates to Dell servers.
I update DRAC separate from everything else (the DRAC is my backdoor into a remote server, don’t want it to fail at the same time as everything else). Just grab this and use the update option in the iDRAC web page:
http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=us&cs=555&l=en&s=biz&releaseid=R299265&SystemID=pwe_r610&servicetag=99BB8P1&os=NAA&osl=en&deviceid=20137&devlib=0&typecnt=0&vercnt=9&catid=-1&impid=-1&formatcnt=0&libid=29&typeid=-1&dateid=-1&formatid=-1&source=-1&fileid=449470
For the rest, I use Dell Repository Manager to build a bootable iso containing the firmware that I need (I keep one iso per server model that we own). You could put everything under the sun for every server model in one iso, but then the size of the iso is measured in GB instead of MB and the process takes many moons to complete.
Well I tried that, but is either builds a Linux or a Windows based firmware CD. So I need to run Windows before I can upgrade anything. The server has nothing installed on it, baremetal.
It might just be that the motherboard has failed. But at least supply me with a message that it did :-/
Did you export the Linux System Bundle for the R610? If you did, you get the option to export it as “Deployment Media (Linux only)”. That creates an ISO you can boot from that will apply all the firmware updates available for that server (and without installing Windows).
Also, make sure you have the latest version of the Repository Manager (1.3, available here http://www.delltechcenter.com/page/Repository+Manager).
The iDRAC Express is a very limited version of the iDRAC. The Enterprise version is more like iLO in that you get remote console access and the ability to update firmware *inside* the USC (without needing a SUU DVD). That means not having to deal with the Repository Manager at all for firmware and BIOS updates. It’s unfortunate that Dell doesn’t make this clear when you order the server (and why having iLO in HP servers by default is so nice).
Of course, all of this is moot if the iDRAC or motherboard is bad.
Duncan, feel your pain.
And the fact that they want to charge for the Dell vCenter plugin to manage all this mess is even more egregious.
I have a plain ISOLinux bootable I use, that has a folder in it where I place all the Linux.BIN Dell update files.
I reboot my ESXi servers via the iDRAC CDrom option (if that doesn’t work, in you case you can burn a physical CD) and then ALT-F2 to get a console and go to the /opt/dell/BLAH/BLAH/BLAH directory and manually run the BIN’s to update.
Time consuming, but after running over 50 ESXi hosts for 2 years this way, it’s the easiest course of action I’ve found.
Let me know if you want a copy of the Boot iso.
P
iDRAC fails with an error unfortunately, I think the motherboard has failed.
Sounds like a nightmare of a day, I hate it when you end up with a waste of time like this
It sounds like you wanted the Dell Systems Build and Update Utility (not the OpenManage Server Updated Utility with a very similar name), which is normally used as a bootable CD before installing any OS, though can be used afterwards too. It updates everything from the motherboard BIOS to the SCSI RAID adapter.
I think this link should work and take you to the latest DVD ISO image, which includes support for ESXi 4.1 amongst other OS’s:
http://support.euro.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=uk&cs=RC1050265&l=en&s=pad&releaseid=R300653&SystemID=PWE_R610&servicetag=&os=EIx4&osl=en&deviceid=24134&devlib=0&typecnt=0&vercnt=3&catid=-1&impid=-1&formatcnt=0&libid=36&typeid=-1&dateid=-1&formatid=-1&source=-1&fileid=451468
It’s been a while since I’ve used it (I don’t work on Dell kit anymore), but it normally works pretty well.
I’ve found that selecting the right options with the Dell Repository Manager was key. Instead of a non-bootable SUU DVD-DL with a bootable SBUU DVD, I now have 1 bootable auto-update DVD (or even USB key) with no hassles.
“(Server) Dell Repository Manager”, Bundles, select bundles, Export, Deployment Media.
With some quick work with Syslinux, I believe I’ve transformed these ISOs to being a part of my multi-boot USB flash drives.
For Windows users, you can use UNetbootin to turn the Linux ISO that Repository Manager creates into a bootable USB drive.
Nice to read, as I had similar experiance. I am used to proliants, so maybe I am petted, but the Dell way is a whole mess. Downloading three files each several hundred MB, then catting them to an ISO that does not work and so on… If you ever used HP Firmware Updates on your USB drive key, you will never want anything else.
Also, I never made it to install Dell CIM provider, vihostupdate just throws weird messages. Dell support was absolutely unable to even try to help us. Fortunately only one customer uses these boxes.
Dell? Strong dislike…
I hate the ISOs now, especially since they now exceed the capacity of a DVD-R/DVD+R (6.3 or 6.4 was the last one that fit). RepoManager is a much more compact download but is more work.
Somewhere in the README it states you need a dual layer DVD. If you don’t want to use a disk you can make a USB key from the ISO. In case you don’t have a big USB key, the Repo Manager can spit out the files you need for one specific model.
There’s a solution: Dell Management Plug-in for vCenter. It’s not free, but the price is reasonable (we bought a 50-server license, $1800 list price). It does ESXi deployments from bare metal, hardware health alerting, firmware updates, and more, all from within vCenter. A free trial version is available.
http://content.dell.com/us/en/enterprise/d/virtualization/management-plug-in-for-vmware-vcenter.aspx
I was reading this and chuckling at several points, but only because I can relate. I wish I could say it was a Dell only type problem, but all in all events like what you went through have made me like HP an awful lot. I dread working with other vendor’s stuff because I’m so acustomed to the way HP does things.
Check this out:
http://ftp.us.dell.com/bios/
then scroll down to your model and date.
Had the same problem a few months ago. I ended up with issueing a support incident at dell. It took them one week to figure out a way to update my servers. They gave a centos bootcd which I had to mount with iDrac, after bootup I could browse to the .bin files on a network share. The whole procedure took 1 hour per server, one complete week of work in my environment. Next time I apply for HP servers..
Hi Duncan, I wanted to say sorry for the trouble. I just wanted to chime in and help out if possible. I work for Dell, so I’ve done this a few times:
Sounds like you may have tried some of these options but I just wanted to cover all the bases. To update iDRAC firmware, you can follow these instructions. Barring a hardware failure, this should address your issue.
Browse to the iDRAC page on http://www.DellTechCenter.com > Dell Systems Management > Dell Remote Access Controller (DRAC)
http://www.delltechcenter.com/page/Dell+Remote+Access+Controller+%28DRAC+%2F+iDRAC%29
If you want the iDRAC update for the R610, download the image at “iDRAC6 Monolithic Firmware”
http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/format.aspx?c=us&cs=555&l=en&s=biz&deviceid=20137&libid=29&releaseid=R299265&vercnt=5&formatcnt=0&SystemID=PWE_R910&servicetag=&os=WS8R2&osl=en&catid=-1&dateid=-1&typeid=-1&formatid=-1&impid=-1&checkFormat=true
Since it sounds like you have Windows installed, so the most simple and easiest option for you is to download the “Update Package for MS Windows” and per the instructions run the executable on the server that contains the iDRAC to be updated (not sure if this is the point where you got the failures saying the update package is not compatible). There are also Linux install options mentioned on the page as well.
The other option is to get the .IMG file update package, extract the file then perform an update either through the DRAC web GUI (assuming your iDRAC is connected to the network and addressable). To do that you type in the IP address of your DRAC card in any web browser, log in with the username / password (if you haven’t changed anything u:root p:calvin) then click on the iDRAC Settings > Update tab. Point the GUI towards the firmware image, and you should be good to go.
With Regards to Repository Manager, it might be helpful to watch the video entitled “USB Updates Using Repository Manager with Lifecycle Controller” following these steps would eliminate the need to go through the FTP site and would minimize the risk for corruption.
http://www.delltechcenter.com/page/Repository+Manager
Hi Duncan, I wanted to say sorry for the trouble. I just wanted to chime in and help out if possible. I work for Dell, so I’ve done this a few times:
Sounds like you may have tried some of these options but I just wanted to cover all the bases. To update iDRAC firmware, you can follow these instructions. Barring a hardware failure these steps should take care of that iDRAC update.
Browse to the iDRAC page on http://www.DellTechCenter.com > Dell Systems Management > Dell Remote Access Controller (DRAC)
http://www.delltechcenter.com/page/Dell+Remote+Access+Controller+%28DRAC+%2F+iDRAC%29
If you want the iDRAC update for the R610, download the image at “iDRAC6 Monolithic Firmware”
http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/format.aspx?c=us&cs=555&l=en&s=biz&deviceid=20137&libid=29&releaseid=R299265&vercnt=5&formatcnt=0&SystemID=PWE_R910&servicetag=&os=WS8R2&osl=en&catid=-1&dateid=-1&typeid=-1&formatid=-1&impid=-1&checkFormat=true
Since it sounds like you have Windows installed, so the most simple and easiest option for you is to download the “Update Package for MS Windows” and per the instructions run the executable on the server that contains the iDRAC to be updated (not sure if this is the point where you got the failures saying the update package is not compatible). There are also Linux install options mentioned on the page as well.
The other option is to get the .IMG file update package, extract the file then perform an update either through the DRAC web GUI (assuming your iDRAC is connected to the network and addressable). To do that you type in the IP address of your DRAC card in any web browser, log in with the username / password (if you haven’t changed anything u:root p:calvin) then click on the iDRAC Settings > Update tab. Point the GUI towards the firmware image, and you should be good to go.
With Regards to Repository Manager, it might be helpful to watch the video entitled “USB Updates Using Repository Manager with Lifecycle Controller” following these steps would eliminate the need to go through the FTP site to minimize the risk for corruption.
http://www.delltechcenter.com/page/Repository+Manager
Hi Duncan,
I have been using the Dell 11g servers for a few years now and I have a system in place which seems to work well. I download the system repository ISO file and mount it. I the extract the “repository” folder to a 8gb usb thumb drive.
Next I boot the server I want to upgrade the firmnware on and go to the USC and select the update option. Instead of selecting FTP I select USB as the source of the repository. It loads much faster then the FTP. I have had mixed luck with the FTP otion.
This way works for me but it still will take a good 30-45 minutes to update one server. I hope this helps!
Thank god im not the only person that murphy comes to torture.
I honestly thought i was the only person that runs into a brick-wall at every turn, good to see the big-names have this from time to time as well!*
* = not that im saying it was good that you had issues or anything haha!!!
Wow,
Welcome to the club Duncan!!!
After 4 years of dealing with Dell Servers, I have found my way around to manage these servers.
Guess what?!!!
What happens when you have such situations (Firmware upgrade issues) on Dell Equallogic SAN that your entire Infrastructure relays on it.
Oh boy, Don’t want to think about it.
Good luck,
Ernest
It’s as if Dell goes out of there way to make firmware updates a complete PITA!
The fact that you have to compile your own firmware update DVD says it all!
Well, I’m managing about a hundred servers and devices (SAN, NAS, DAS, Bladecenters etc etc…) and imho Dell supporto is quite well.
I never experienced your troubles, simply because I followed best practices from Dell support, first of all update Bios, then Drac/iDrac, then Perc drivers/modules, Perc firmware and al last (if you want) OpenManage Server Administration.
Following these simple rules I updated almost thirty servers (PR2900, PE2950, R710) without a single problem.
OpenManage setup has some bugs finding OS version into the bash setup script (very simple to fix) but no other problems in my experience.
Perhaps after the first problem you had better to call Dell support and open a ticket
Well thank you very much… I tried following the same procedure, but when the Dell website time-outs your in deep shit as they would say in the Netherlands. And that is what happened to me. On top of that, try to find a document which describes the best practices. They have so many different tools, but not one of the is straight forward.
PS: I am not using Dell Openmanage as it is only 2 home lab servers…
Yes HP servers usually cost me more, however I never have any trouble performing tasks such a firmware updates for them. If you think about it, hours wasted on determining the most efficient process to update Dell servers eats up the cost delta between them and HP. Therefore if I will be running ESXi on a server I go for HP. If I will be running Windows natively then I am not as concerned and then go for the cheapest quote.
IBM has better firmware update utilities than Dell but overall I find HP to be the most effective of the big three.
I have an impression that R610 comes with iDRAC Enterprise instead of Express.
iDRAC GUI can update DRAC firmware itself if connected to internet (Dell repository/ftp).
Also the UEFI BIOS (Unified Server Configurator?) can update any firmware of hardware components if connected to internet. It’s slow but it eventually worked for me on R[5-7]10s, had to try a few times as I could remember.
Good luck!
26 comments in 2 days… one might begin to think that firmware updates is the bane of many peoples existence!
Sure is for me
You can find some help at this page: http://www.delltechcenter.com/page/Updating+DRAC+Firmware
It is updated 06/27/2011
We’ve had similar issues with the R410 and R510 models. In fact, one server in particular has been “repaired” at least three times now, and still has issues. I feel your pain.
Dealing with the Blade counterpart, the best luck I’ve had with the M600 and M610′s is with a bootable SBUU DVD, then have the SUU on a 16GB USB drive. Can get most of the firmware to update, although NIC’s on the M600 and M610′s sometimes don’t want to. Sometimes mine will stick on 5%, then error out saying “Error while receiving packet from VKVM service” I’ve been contemplating various ways of gettings these completely up to date, and would even pay for the plug-in (assuming that it really works).
Duncan,
I do beleive the best way to update the DRAC is through the DRAC interface. If you cannot connect to the iDRAC, if it is a iDRAC enterprise it is a seperate card. If it is a iDRAC Express, I believe it is on the MoBo and not replaceable. At any rate, if you cannot connect to the iDRAC because of a failed firmware update, try completely unplugging the server from all power for 15 seconds and then plug it back in. This has worked for me with failed DRAC firmware updates before. Also turn off the virtual media in the DRAC before updating.
Anyway, use the serial number to search for the proper iDRAC firmware on the Dell Web site, one you get it, extract the .d6 file out of it and then use the Update function in the iDRAC Web console to update the firmware. Also while your at it, get the firmware for the lifecycle controller – the unified server configurator firmware, and use the iDRAC web interface to update the firmware for it too.
Once you flash the firmware on the lifecycle controller, reboot into USC mode and flash all the other firmware, including BIOS, PERC, NICS, etc. This method works well for me.
I seldom use the repository manager for updating servers now.
Good luck!
Already tried that, nothing seems to help. Will ask Dell to replace the motherboard.
On a tangent…
How frequently are firmware updates performed in your environment? Does anyone update firmware with any rigor or schedule?
Most I work with perform all available updates at system deployment and then only perform updates when directed by vendor in the resolution of an issue.
I’ve used everything from USC to SUU/Repository Manager and to IT Assistant. SUU takes the longest. but with USC you generally have to babysit it. That’s why I like Dell’s IT Assistant. Having a DB of Dell FW updates that you can run a complaince check on the servers that are imported makes it easy to deal with. I set up a schedule to check for new firmware every weekend, run a compliance report, and pick and choose the FW updates I want to run. I can even schedule them to have them run at a certain time. You might want to check it out. I believe it comes with the OpenManage suite of software.
I just went through this trying to update the PERC/6i firmware on a Dell PowerEdge server. Took absolutely forever to update this small thing. I went the SBUU + SUU route because Dell’s instructions for making a bootable CD-ROM, with just my firmware update, don’t work.
First, get the latest Dell Systems Build and Update Utility (SBUU) (cdu_1.6_core_173_A01.iso – 1,362,982,912 bytes). This is a bootable CD-ROM / DVD. After booting it up (which goes into Linux), select the first option (the utility itself) on the menu given, then select “Firmware Update” from the tree on the left. Then tell it you have a CD-ROM with the repository.
Then, get the latest Dell Server Updates (SUU) (om650_suu_a00.iso, downloadable in three parts and put together with a “copy” command – 4,833,628,160 bytes). This requires a double-layer (DL) DVD, since it’s 4.5 GiB (big!) But it has every firmware update imaginable.
After it scans the DL DVD, put the SBUU back in the drive. The updating process will reboot at some point, and you can go back into SBUU to confirm that you’re all up-to-date.
Using the SBUU + SUU will help you get all of your firmware up-to-date, though you can select which ones to actually apply.
Yep….trying to find anything on the DELL website, except if you wish to purchase something, can turn in to a large waste of time.
After 3 years dealing with DELL staff I have to say there are good people there etc, but their processes are still very ordinary compared to HP.
JB
I use the CentOS Live CD to update firmware. The LiveCD has many of the Dell tools deployed in a LiveCD Environment. I first discovered this tool when I had to collect a DSET off of an ESXi host. This is also useful for accessing the Open Manage Server Administrator (OMSA) application and running Dell Diagnostics.
Here is the process:
1. Download and burn the LiveCD ISO from:
http://linux.dell.com/files/openmanage-contributions/omsa-64-live/
2. Download the three files that make up the dual layer DVD and burn the “Dell Server Updates” disk also called the Server Update Utility (SUU). this disk is released on a quarterly basis.
3. Once the LiveCD is up and running, replace it with the SUU DVD. Mount the DVD and change directory to the root of the SUU DVD. The SUU binary can be run via GUI or CLI. These options are will documented in the commands help function. For the Windows centric folks, make sure to use a fully qualified path to the binary (./suu, or /mountpoint/suu), not just suu as it will not execute.
4. Run the suu command with the desired options.
5. Enjoy updated firmware
A few process improvements I’m working on:
* Bootstrap the LiveCD over the network with pxelinux
* Setup and export a repository that’s accessible over the network. This could get messy when updating NIC firmware on the NIC that the repo is connected to. Initial testing shows that the NIC firmware update succeeds but updates scheduled after the NIC update fail.
* Automate this entire process so that firmware updates become a “one touch” process.
* Centralize the logging for this process. This could be done via a file copy, or exporting DSETs. Otherwise, the logs are lost once the system reboots.
Wow. You probably have bad hardware/mobo.
I have a fleet of R610′s I manage. I use this method.
http://www.delltechcenter.com/page/Updates+using+USB+with+Lifecycle+Controller
1. I have repo manager and I filter on R610.
2. Download the latest bundle for the R610.
3. Export to USB Key
4. Boot into USC (F10)
5. Choose the Update option, point it at the USB key.
It will update everything. Never had a problem. I have labled USB key for different models, R410, R610, R710.
Duncan, I have been there and worked out my way using the followings.
How to Update Firmware on ESX using Dell Repository Manager
http://www.modelcar.hk/?p=3612
Also see Another Poweredge Firmware Update Nightmare: 2nd Time Disappointment
http://www.modelcar.hk/?p=3049
Hope this helps.
I have some R710′s and R910′s. Dell Repository Manager is pretty much the way you have to go about it. Once I came to this realization myself, it actually turns out to be fairly straight forward (though not intuitive from the get-go).
Once you have Dell RM installed, it’s simply a matter of selecting your server, checking both windows and Linux packages, hitting save, and then exporting to a Linux bootable ISO. Then, boot to it, and it updates everything (although with a very minimalist quasi-status bar).
I agree though, this is not an intuitive process, and Dell should be managing this a little better or more gracefully.
I had the same problem with one of our newest Dell R610. The FAN never spinned down… This was certainly the case when my machine was powered off, but it had still 1 power supply connected to the wall. A real jumbojet-noise!!!
After a phonecall to Dell & a visit from a technician, we found out what happened.
It’s not enough to connect one power supply in the wall socket/on a battery…NO, you need to put both in the socket/on a battery.
I believe (like most people here), it’s a firmware bug. But i can neutralize it by putting that second power cord. Not the greatest solution, but that worked for me.
I know this thread is a little old now but I had the exact same issues about 3 months ago. And when I finally got the firmware update to work it said there was only 1 component to update… What a waste of time.
HP Firmware update utility beats this Dell process hands down.
Yes, I have used Dell for many years, now its time for HP. What used to be a simple process, run an .exe, DUP has become far to complex. I have spent 10s of thousands on Dell servers, no more!! What used to take minutes now takes hours. Real junk!
I’ve found the best way is to use Win PE to update using a batch file. Of course you have to add WMI to the image.
Now there is an easy way to upgrade bios and firmware : a centos-based live update dvd. found at http://linux.dell.com/files/openmanage-contributions/om65-firmware-live/
Hi. I see lots of ideas here on how to accomplish firmware update. Hopefully, one of them has already worked for you to your satisfaction. If not, there is one more option that is not mentioned here.
The option is to use the Remote Services in iDRAC. You can perform the firmware update (1) remotely and independent of the host OS; (2) set the update now but apply it at a scheduled time; (3) can be scriptable and unattended. The interface is WSMAN protocol over HTTPS which means you can use winrm/powershell scripting in Windows and there is also openwsman for Linux.
There is a bit of a learning curve up front but it can save you loads of time in the long run. The link http://www.delltechcenter.com/page/Updating+DRAC+Firmware provided earlier is updated. See item 4 and follow the trail.
I’m an engineer at Dell and I hope you can take full advantage of the many ways iDRAC can help you. If you want to know more, a good place to start: http://en.community.dell.com/techcenter/systems-management/default.aspx
RANT on: Dell servers SUCK eggs man. I have wasted more time and sleep working with this crap over the years. I thought I’d ridded myself of these things forever until I changed jobs and found myself with a whole fleet of them.
Why does Dell make it so difficult to do something so simple as to update firmware and BIOS. Just give me a bootable ISO with the latest stuff on it and I’d be done. If you’re running Windoze you have more options of course.. try running something like ESX that doesn’t have all the cute online utils.
I download Open Manage in three huge ISO’s that you cat into one giagantic ISO that requires a double sided DVD it is so damn big.. then it turns out that isn’t bootable! Their drivers and downloads page has a laundry list of tools and utilities but no clue on what you need to download to keep your servers up to date on fixes. OMG are you kidding me? Give me HP or IBM and turn these dell “servers” into scrap metal please! RANT off.
I’ll just add to the Dell rant. Like many here, I’m a fan of “The HP Way.” 1 (OK, 2 now, one for 32 and one for 64bit) SmartStart CD, 1 ServicePack for ProLiant DVD, OS CD, and EVERYTHING is there and done. I’m trying to repurpose an inherited PE1900, and it’s a chore. BIOS on floppy image. PERC firmware one way, HDD firmware another, DRAC as a DOS install. I guess Dell is keeping the IT economy going by making sure admins have LOTS of work to do!
Trying to update firmware on Poweredge 1950. Have tried every single variant described above. None work. The Dell firmware process is just plain broken unless you have Windows. Don’t even try it otherwise. I’m getting out a spare disk, installing windows, will do the firmware upgrades in windows, and will then put my ESX disk back in.