How to get something useful out of a DRAC 5?

[Linux PowerEdge]

Here's what i use.  maybe you can get some use out of it too.

I've configured the appropriate settings to perform serial console
redirection to the drac.  with that i can ssh to the drac and run
'connect com2' to see the serial console (BIOS, grub, and OS level).
also, once ssh into the DRAC you can manage it using 'racadm' commands
(i use it for power management on/off/cycle of the system).

The serial config on support.dell's documentation didnt seem to be
100% so here's what i ended up with for my systems:

*************************************
BIOS:
	on with console redirection via com2
	remote access device
	57600
	vt100/vt220
	enabled

DRAC:
	racadm config -g cfgSerial -o cfgSerialBaudRate 57600
	racadm config -g cfgSerial -o cfgSerialConsoleEnable 1
	

grub.conf:
	serial --unit=0 --speed=57600
	terminal --timeout=10 console serial
	#splashimage ...
	#hiddenmenu

	kernel ... console=ttyS1,57600 console=tty0


inittab:
	s1:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty ttyS1 57600

securetty:
	ttyS1
*************************************
racadm command guide:
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/software/smdrac3/drac5/OM5.2/en/ug/racugaa.htm#wp30007

with the above, i dont even worry about the "graphical" console
redirection using the drac5 web service.

Hope this helps.

On 8/2/07, Matthias Saou
<thias at spam.spam.spam.spam.spam.spam.spam.egg.and.spam.freshrpms.net>
wrote:
> Matthias Saou wrote :
>
> > Matthias Saou wrote :
> >
> > > As my normal user, the extension install fails because it tries to
> > > install to the system-wide plugins directory. So I hack the permissions
> > > to allow that, then get a supposedly completed install, logout and
> > > restart firefox... but then firefox still says it's missing a plugin for
> > > "application/x-smdvv". I thought it might be java since I didn't have
> > > it installed, but installing it didn't change anything. A google search
> > > for "x-smdvv" returns only two hits, one being an unanswered post to
> > > this very list about someone with the same error :-(
> > > (this is a x86_64 workstation, but with an i386 firefox)
> >
> > I just saw that all this has generated selinux messages, so I tried
> > "setenforce 0" and tried running the "Console" again... now I get a
> > nice "Aborted" message from firefox, crashing miserably.
>
> Solution :
> - rpm -e firefox.i386
> - rpm -Uvh mozilla-1.7.12-5.i386.rpm   #(taken from FC5...)
> - sudo chown myuid: /usr/lib/mozilla-1.7.12/plugins
> - mozilla
>
> And the "Console" works. But this is definitely not an acceptable
> production solution, merely okay for emergencies...
>
> Matthias
>
> --
> Clean custom Red Hat Linux rpm packages : http://freshrpms.net/
> Fedora release 7 (Moonshine) - Linux kernel 2.6.22.1-27.fc7
> Load : 0.45 0.56 0.57
>
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