This blog post has been written by Sanjeev Singh and Elie Jreij from the iDRAC team
Some of you may want to configure the iDRAC and other system components through the system serial interface. This blog explains how to do just that ...
With the iDRAC7 firmware version 1.30.30 or later and BIOS 1.4.x or later installed, you can accomplish full deployment of your server through the serial interface (DB9 connector) on the server. To do this,
- Connect AC power to the server. Note, the server doesn’t need to be powered on until you’ve completed the system configuration.
- Wait for iDRAC to initialize (this may take up to 2 minutes).
- Connect the management station to the serial connector on the server (example shown below).
- Launch your terminal application and configure its baud rate to 57600, N,8,1 with no flow control.
- Send the “<esc >” key followed by the “(“ key. The hexadecimal values for these keys are: 0x1b and 0x28 respectively. The management station should now be connected to the iDRAC and the iDRAC login prompt should be displayed in the terminal window..
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At this time, you can log in to the iDRAC as an administrator. To avoid having to log in each time and to prevent the log-in session from timing out, you may want to disable authentication. To do this, enter the following command:
racadm getconfig/config -g cfgserial -o cfgserialconsolenoauth 0
To re-enable authentication, enter the same command, replacing the trailing “0” with a “1”.
Once logged in, you may configure BIOS, iDRAC, NIC and other settings. This configuration can be done from the serial interface by using RACADM commands. For complete information on RACADM commands, see the RACADM Command Line Reference Guide here.
Here are a few sample commands to get you started:
BIOS configuration / status:
racadm getconfig –g cfgServerBIOS
racadm set bios.satasettings.SataPortB off
racadm set BIOS.SysSecurity.SysPassword "dell"
iDRAC configuration / status:
racadm getconfig -g cfgSerial
racadm racresetcfg
racadm serveraction powercycle
racadm getsel
NIC configuration / status:
racadm getniccfg
racadm config -g cfgLanNetworking -o cfgNicEnable 1 [or 0]
racadm config -g cfgLanNetworking -o cfgNicIPv4Enable 1 [or 0]
racadm config -g cfgLanNetworking -o cfgNicUseDhcp 0 [or 1]
You might also want to update the firmware for BIOS, NIC, iDRAC, and / or the Power Edge Raid Controller (PERC) through the serial interface.
Here is a sample command to update the iDRAC7 firmware from a TFTP server:
racadm fwupdate –g –u –a [TFTP IP Address]
When you’re done making the desired configuration changes, power-up the server and the configuration changes and firmware updates will be applied by the Lifecycle Controller. If the server is already on, you’ll need to reboot to apply the settings.
Stay Tuned: PERC configuration will be supported in a future iDRAC firmware release.
Additional Information