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255589
June 4th, 2013 08:00
PowerEdge R320 - After BIOS update completes, hangs during reboot.
I have found an issue on the R320 that occurs every time I do a BIOS update.
From the top: I am using the iDRAC to control the server which is booted up in a Linux environment. I am getting the .BIN file for the BIOS update. I apply the update, and it advances through all the steps normally. At the end, it says something along the lines of "Update Complete, please reboot for changes to take effect" and prompts me to reboot.
The issue: When I reboot (immediately when prompted or later,) sometime during the boot process, the iDRAC stops working, and I lose any remote access to the server. The system never boots unless I go and manually reboot the server, but it boots correctly once I do that, with the update applied.
Additional Information: The iDRAC7 firmware and the Lifecycle Controller firmware are updated to the most recent versions.
Why is it hanging during the reboot and making the iDRAC unusable?
DELL-Chris H
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June 4th, 2013 13:00
Tim,
The issue may be attributed to the Inventory Collection being enabled during the update. If you could let's disable it, then run the update and reboot, then we can re enable it.
You can disable by running the following racadm command -
C:\rac>racadm –r xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx –u root –p calvin set LifecycleController.LCAttributes.CollectSystemInventoryOnRestart Disabled
Where the xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx is the IP address of the iDRAC on that server. Calvin in this example is the root password. You should receive a confirmation that it modified successfully.
After that you can run the update and it should reboot normally. Then run the same command except for change the value to Enabled.
Let me know.
DELL-Chris H
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June 4th, 2013 10:00
Tim,
When it hangs, is it displaying any error or anything?
Such as iDrac initilization failure?
Also, are you initiating the reboot, or does it go automatically?
Let me know what you find.
TimSexton
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June 4th, 2013 12:00
It is hanging on the screen which i believe says "Initializing Firmware Interfaces..." (or something like that) and is blank otherwise. The Java app status bar on the bottom says "Link Interrupted" for a while, and eventually pops up with an error message saying that I could not connect and should attempt to retry. If I go back into my browser to try to click anything the browser tells me it cannot display the page, and I'm essentially stuck. One of the reasons that this is so annoying is because I have to bother a supervisor who has access to the lab where he can manually reboot the server.
After I run the .BIN and it tells me the update has completed, and gives me a (y/n) prompt for if I would like to reboot now or later to allow the changes to take place. I've never let it just hang there, I assumed it would have waited forever. I have done both options. A few times I rebooted right when prompted, and another time I delayed the reboot, but had the exact same issue in both cases.
Note: My supervisor says that when he arrives at the R320, it is frozen after the BIOS post, but with part of the white bar going across the bottom. And the text at the top saying something that could be "Initialzing Firmware Interfaces" (he's not sure)
Additionally, on this system I've had a lot of trouble if i ever needed to boot into the Lifecycle Controller. It works less than 1/3 of the time, and it usually gets stuck at the screen that says "Entering Lifecycle Controller.." with about 1/4 of the white bar going across the bottom. This issue is only resolved by rebooting and retrying. The LC firmware version is 1.1.1.18 which is believe is the current version. I'm starting to think that there might be something funky going on with either this specific server or the lifecycle controller on the r320. It would be nice to see if this issue was reproducible on a different system, but I don't have access to one.
TimSexton
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June 5th, 2013 12:00
This has helped prevent the iDRAC window from losing connection and disconnecting me.