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92677
July 24th, 2014 11:00
PowerEdge R910 BIOS Upgrade
Hi All,
I'm trying to gather all the information i can to Upgrade the BIOS on my PowerEdge R910.
What is the propper method to update it? Download the files and boot from the pendrive?
I also found that it can be upgraded from Dell's FTP server, has anyone attempted this?
ONe last question: if i update the BIOS, is it neccessary to update SAS controller or iDrac??
Thanks!
DELL-Chris H
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July 24th, 2014 13:00
Jbonpland,
There are multiple ways of updating the BIOS on the R910. One of the easiest is using one of the Dell Update Packages, dependent on the OS used. There are some things to consider when updating the BIOS as well is how far behind it is, if the server is drastically out of date then it isn't recommended to go to the current version. It is best to walk the updates up. Now with updating the Raid Controller and Drac there is 2 answers. First is that with the iDrac you need to update it with the BIOS. If both are out of date then walk both up simultaneously. If you update the BIOS and leave the ESm far back then there can be a lose of communication between the two. So something to keep in mind. The second answer would be that with the Raid controller, if you are already going to bring the server down to update the other two then might take advantage of the maintenance window and update the server fully.
Let me know what OS you are using and I can get you the information needed.
jbonpland
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July 24th, 2014 14:00
Thanks for your answer Chris:
By Dell Update Package you mean the following? http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/04/Drivers/DriversDetails?driverId=GX7WN&fileId=3346059578&osCode=WS8R2&productCode=poweredge-r910&languageCode=EN&categoryId=BI
The BIOS version is: "BIOS version 2.02"
I found these previous versions: should i start with 2.5 and work my way up to 2.10 ?
benmanran
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July 25th, 2014 14:00
I never did these in between updates unless it was mentioned in the notes that you should do it.
Seriously, I have more important to do than spending half a day updating a machine.
Recently I started using Dell Repository Manager and creating Bootable ISOs which will update all components of the system.
Just boot from it and about one hour later and one more restart due to the bios update you're finished.
No time required downloading all those single updates.
From what I've seen bios updates are usually done in one step with thse ISOs but some other updates like HDD firmware might be updated in several steps.
DELL-Chris H
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July 28th, 2014 06:00
You don't need to run all of them. I would start with 2.5.0., then 2.7.4., then 2.8.2. then current.
Remember to also bring the Drac/ESM up with it as well.
Jim_Fraser_ssc
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November 13th, 2014 09:00
I don't know whether to reply to this post, or start a new one. Chris H said to update the BIOS and iDRAC6 in step, and gives suggested BIOS versions to update to.
1) Which are the corresponding steps for the iDRAC6 firmware versions? Is there a web page that specifies all this?
2) The server I'm working on, a DELL PowerEdge R910 runs Solaris 10 as the OS. The iDRAC was at version 1.80 and the BIOS at 2.5.0. I've updated the iDRAC6 firmware to 1.85. From reading documents and web pages, it looks like Solaris 10 is not a supported OS for this iDRACR6 and R910. Can I still attempt to do the updates?
3) Where is there a complete list of the iDRAC6 firmware versions? web page: [View: lists up to iDRAC6 firmware version 1.85, but my co-worker has collected versions up to 1.98.
4) DELL's search engine on this site is pathetic when trying to locate information like this.
From a confused and frustrated client,
Jim Fraser