DRAC : Unable to use it for OS installation ? is it normal ?

[Harris, Don]

Florent,

With DRAC virtual media, if you ever logout or get your session gets killed for some reason (e.g. flaky network between you are target host), the virtual media will disconnect and whatever process is dependent on it (e.g. OS install) will fail. I use and recommend a network boot and install approach similar to what the previous two posters mentioned. There's more to setup initially but the transfer is usually quicker (certainly on a gig network) than trying to pull it from a local virtual media and you run into less chance of interruptions. I find the virtual media is best for short-lived sessions, with relatively small transfers and good (fast and reliable) network connections. The key is not having the intervening network drop out on you while you have virtual media mounted.   

On the issue of updating the DRAC firmware from DRAC virtual media, from the Dell's latest SUU_readme.txt:

"* Do not use the RAC virtual media to run SUU remotely on a system.
  This procedure breaks the virtual media connection, causing the SUU
  update procedure to fail. (144487)"

I usually just download the latest DRAC firmware from Dell's support site and run it from the target system's local disk or a NFS share near the target system. I've also run the full SUU package this way, mounting the ISO as a loop device. Another option to upgrade the DRAC's firmware is via the DRAC's web interface: "> Remote Access > Update". I prefer the first option, especially if you have an unreliable network (prone to disconnects) between you and your target.

HTH/Don

-----Original Message-----
From: linux-poweredge-bounces at dell.com [mailto:linux-poweredge-bounces at dell.com] On Behalf Of Mircea Vutcovici
Sent: Monday, November 03, 2008 9:40 PM
Cc: linux-poweredge at dell.com
Subject: Re: DRAC : Unable to use it for OS installation ? is it normal ?

I've noticed that if I am connected to a slow network connection or I
have packet loss, the DRAC will disconnect both the remote display and
the virtual CD.
I've installed remotely Ubuntu Linux 8.4.1 and VMware ESX and ESXi.
I've run also firmware updates remotely. Only for DRAC you need
someone to unplug the power cord for a few seconds.
As an alternative of virtual CD you could use PXE boot. You just need
dnsmasq (for DHCP TFTP and DNS) and sometimes NFS or HTTP/FTP server.
The advantage is that if you get disconnected you do not have to
restart from beginning.

On Mon, Nov 3, 2008 at 7:15 AM, Florent Gilain
<Florent.Gilain at direct-energie.com> wrote:
> That's the error message i get too..."SSL socket errors".
> I'm not a Linux Guru, so, difficult for me to do something else than booting from original VMware CDROM to update my ESX...was thinking DRAC would do the trick  ;-((
>
> -----Message d'origine-----
> De : linux-poweredge-bounces at dell.com [mailto:linux-poweredge-bounces at dell.com] De la part de christian.peper at kpn.com
> Envoyé : lundi 3 novembre 2008 11:34
> À : linux-poweredge at dell.com
> Objet : RE: DRAC : Unable to use it for OS installation ? is it normal ?
>
> Florent,
>
> I deploy all my bare metal servers this way and have had no serious issues.
> My server have system BIOS 1.3.7 and DRAC5 v1.20.
>
> On occasion, I get SSL socket errors, loose the session and any mounted ISOs. But if I simply reconnect, everything is fine and the server just went ahead with what it was doing.
> I am using a custom boot ISO (only 5 MB) to do unattended network installs with kickstart. So if it looses the connection to the CD after 1 minute, that is fine. Would I be doing a CD-based install, the loss of connection would be more seious of course. :)
>
> Chris.
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: linux-poweredge-bounces at dell.com
>> [mailto:linux-poweredge-bounces at dell.com] On Behalf Of Florent Gilain
>> Sent: Friday, October 31, 2008 12:19 PM
>> To: linux-poweredge at lists.us.dell.com
>> Subject: RE : DRAC : Unable to use it for OS installation ?
>> is it normal ?
>>
>> ok, because during my tests, I was (or the remote virtual
>> storage) was disconnected after few minutes...maybe is there
>> a timeout to configure somewhere in the drac virtual cdrom/iso menu ?
>>
>> Ps : each time i use the latest 5.5 SUU DVD iso/dvdrom to
>> update my PE servers (1950/2950..), DRAC firmware update
>> always fails in SUU...
>>
>> Florent
>>
>> ________________________________________
>> De : linux-poweredge-bounces at dell.com
>> [linux-poweredge-bounces at dell.com] de la part de Rainer Traut
>> [tr.ml at gmx.de] Date d'envoi : vendredi 31 octobre 2008 11:42
>> À : linux-poweredge at lists.us.dell.com Objet : Re: DRAC :
>> Unable to use it for OS installation ? is it normal ?
>>
>> I just did that, updated a couple of PE2950 with el4 to el5
>> via ISO mounted from my workstation.
>>
>> Be sure to use the latest firmware for the drac, I think it
>> is 1.40 and 1.50 for drac 4 and 5.
>>
>> Florent Gilain schrieb:
>> > Hello all,
>> >
>> > On my PE 1850/1950/2950, i have a DRAC and i was thinking i
>> could use it for connecting a remote CDROM/ISO to boot on it
>> and install the OS.
>> >
>> > but this doesn't seem to work ? did somebody has already
>> succeed in doing this ?
>> >
>> > for example, I tryed to update a remote ESX from 3.5 to
>> 3.5u2 using the 3.5u2 ISO bootalbe cdrom, and it failed too..
>> >
>> > thanks
>> >
>> > Florent
>
> _______________________________________________
> Linux-PowerEdge mailing list
> Linux-PowerEdge at dell.com
> http://lists.us.dell.com/mailman/listinfo/linux-poweredge
> Please read the FAQ at http://lists.us.dell.com/faq
>
> _______________________________________________
> Linux-PowerEdge mailing list
> Linux-PowerEdge at dell.com
> http://lists.us.dell.com/mailman/listinfo/linux-poweredge
> Please read the FAQ at http://lists.us.dell.com/faq
>

_______________________________________________
Linux-PowerEdge mailing list
Linux-PowerEdge at dell.com
http://lists.us.dell.com/mailman/listinfo/linux-poweredge
Please read the FAQ at http://lists.us.dell.com/faq