DRAC on R710: serial console

[Dr A V Le Blanc]

On Wed, 17 Jun 2009 at 13:38:12 +0100, Adam Huffman <bloch at verdurin.com> wrote:
> On Tue, Jun 16, 2009 at 01:26:23PM +0100, Dr A V Le Blanc wrote:
> > We've recently got a group of poweredge R710s instead of the 2950s
> > we've been using.  I have a few questions about some of the problems
> > I've met.
> > 
> > Is there documentation online for the DRAC in these machines?  It
> > doesn't quite work like the 2950 one.
> 
> There's some documentation here:
> 
> http://support.euro.dell.com/support/edocs/software/smdrac3/idrac/idrac10mono/en/ug/html/index.htm
> 
> http://is.gd/14r49
> 
> > There doesn't seem to be a connect command.  Can I connect to the
> > serial connection as I used to (connect com2), or is this no longer
> > supported?
> > 
> 
> In particular there's a section on serial connections here:
> 
> http://support.euro.dell.com/support/edocs/software/smdrac3/idrac/idrac10mono/en/ug/html/racugc5.htm#wp96741
> 
> http://is.gd/14r34
> 
> Not sure whether they'll answer your questions, but...

Thanks very much for the pointer to the documentation, but, if I understand
this correctly, it means the DRAC 6 cards do not have this functionality.
To clarify what I am saying, when a machine has a DRAC 5 card, I can
ssh into this card and give the command

     connect com2

for example.  This gives me a line-mode interface to the serial console.
Thus I can, without having to use a web browser, get a virtual console
which allows me to change BIOS settings, boot the machine with special
parameters at boot time, etc.  As far as I can see, I can't do this
with a DRAC 6 card on a poweredge 710; I was asking whether this is
correct or not.

As far as my other questions, I have found that the DRAC 6 appears to
give me access to the system console without having to direct the
output or the input through a virtual serial interface.  This is
definitely an improvement over the DRAC 5.  I have now worked out
configurations which allow me to see messages and to give input to
the console from the graphical interface which I can start via a
web browser.

The remaining question has not yet been addressed, and I have no
solution to it.  Namely: is it possible to send Alt-Sysrq commands
to a running linux on the 710 via the DRAC?  On some older DRACs
it was possible to send a break followed by the command character,
and to have this passed to the kernel.  I have not seen anything
yet which explains how to do this on the DRAC 6 on the 710.

     -- Owen