DRAC 5 -- Something useful?

Tue Aug 7 16:05:35 CDT 2007

Hi,

Trying to use DRAC 5 in to boot, but I'm not able to see all the boot
messages.

After swearing a lot about the graphical interface to the DRAC5, I found
the following article on this list, and followed the directions (and
rechecked them).
This is *almost* great!  What happens is that I can see the BIOS and
everything up to the grub info about which kernel is booting.
Unfortunately, it stops right there, and I don't see any of the OS
information as the boot process continues.  It sounds from the message
like I should see it.

Any idea why not?

Liam

Here's the way I set it up:
> 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.
>   

Checking the serial configuration:
> $ racadm getconfig -g cfgSerial
> cfgSerialBaudRate=57600
> cfgSerialConsoleEnable=1
> cfgSerialConsoleQuitKey=^\
> cfgSerialConsoleIdleTimeout=300
> cfgSerialConsoleNoAuth=0
> cfgSerialConsoleCommand=
> cfgSerialHistorySize=8192
> cfgSerialCom2RedirEnable=1
> cfgSerialTelnetEnable=0
> cfgSerialSshEnable=1

Here's the actual boot information:

Phoenix ROM BIOS PLUS Version 1.10 1.3.7                      F10 =
Utility Mode
Copyright 1985-1988 Phoenix Technologies Ltd.                    F11 =
Boot Menu
Copyright 1990-2007 Dell Inc.                                     F12 =
PXE Boot
All Rights
Reserved                                                            

Dell System PowerEdge
2950                                                     
www.dell.com                                                                   

Testing memory.  Please
wait.                                                  

Memory tests terminated by
keystroke                                           

Two 2.66 GHz Dual-core Processors, Bus Speed: 1333 MHz, L2 Cache: 4
MB         

System Memory Size: 4.0 GB, System Memory Speed: 533
MHz                       

Remote Access Controller
detected                                              

PowerEdge Expandable RAID Controller
BIOS                                      
Copyright(c) 2006 LSI Logic
Corporation                                        
Press <Ctrl><R> to Run Configuration Utility
F/W Initializing Devices 100%
HA -0 (Bus 2 Dev 14) PERC 5/i Integrated

The battery hardware is missing or malfunctioning, or the battery is
unplugged, or the battery could be fully discharged.  If you continue to
boot the system, the battery-backed cache will not function.
If battery is connected and has been allowed to charge for 30 minutes
and this message continues to appear, then contact technical support for
assistance.
FW package: 5.1.1-0040

Your battery is either charging, bad or missing, and you have VDs configured
for write-back mode.  Because the battery is not currently                 
will actually run in write-through mode until the battery i              
or replaced if it is bad or missing.

The following VDs are affected: 00,01
Press any key to continue.

2 Logical Drive(s) found on the host adapter.
2 Logical Drive(s) handled by BIOS

Baseboard Management Controller Revision 1.33
Remote Access Controller Revision (Build 07.03.02) 1.20
Primary Backplane Firmware Revision 1.05

IP Address: 192.168. 1 .106
Netmask: 255.255.255. 0
Pressa<Ctrl-E>6for1Remote Access Setup within 5 sec......

GRUB Loading stage2...
Press any key to continue.
Press any key to continue.
Press any key to continue.
Press any key to continue.
Press any key to continue.
Press any key to continue.
Press any key to continue.
Press any key to continue.
Press any key to continue.

  Booting 'CentOS (2.6.18-8.1.8.el5xen)'

root (hd0,0)
 Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83
kernel /xen.gz-2.6.18-8.1.8.el5 dom0_mem=524288 console=ttyS1,57600
console=tty
0
   [Multiboot-elf, <0x100000:0x9b6b8:0x47948>, shtab=0x1e3078,
entry=0x100000]
module /vmlinuz-2.6.18-8.1.8.el5xen ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00
rhgb quiet
   [Multiboot-module @ 0x1e4000, 0x8e59e0 bytes]
module /initrd-2.6.18-8.1.8.el5xen.img

-- 
Liam Kirsher
PGP: http://liam.numenet.com/pgp/