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Updating Raid drivers on Power edge 860, can I use a CD instead of floppy.
I have power edge 860.
The Admin interface says the raid drivers are out of date. (SAS 5/IR card)
I have downloaded the new drivers, but it appears the way to update the drivers, based on their help is to boot from floppy and then install them from dos floppy.
( It seems a bit silly to talk about booting from floppy when dell by default doesnt even sell servers with floppy, and if you ask for one they will debate that you dont need one, but anyway thats beside the point.)
Can I boot the server with hirens disk or bard CD and then just run the software from a dos prompt on bart or hirens. I asume the issue is that the software needs exclusive access to the machine and only a system that is not booted from its drives will work.
Or am I going to have to create some sort of Dos boot cd with the files for the drivers on it and boot from it?
Obviously this is important to be done right, as failure would be bad.
Thanks.
theflash1932
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August 30th, 2012 12:00
Then here is your firmware package from the Support site Drivers and Downloads page for the 860 for updating the RAID firmware from Windows (your driver is up to date):
www.dell.com/.../poweredge-860
Run it, then reboot when prompted.
'Degraded' can be shown for the controller whether the firmware is out of date or a drive is offline/failed, but it is very important that you not update firmware when an array is degraded - consider it a precautionary statement to double-check before proceeding.
theflash1932
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August 30th, 2012 08:00
You have the wrong driver package :) If the OS is already installed, then you can simply install the drivers from the OS (just like you would any other device driver - in fact, it is not possible to update the driver 'offline' like that either):
The only reason you would need to use the "floppy" version is if you are installing Server 2003 and need to load the RAID drivers for Windows to see the drive(s), which DOES require a floppy (or slipstreaming with the likes of nLite).
Before updating the drivers, I would strongly recommend making sure your BIOS and ESM/BMC is up to date, then updating the RAID driver, THEN the RAID firmware and HDD firmware.
Which OS are we talking about here?
theflash1932
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August 30th, 2012 10:00
I didn't follow much of what you posted, but do you have a failed drive ('degraded')?! If so, DO NOT UPDATE THE FIRMWARE until you have repaired it!
Also, you should always update the driver BEFORE the firmware.
You should also update the BIOS and ESM/BMC before updating the RAID firmware.
Firmware has a package to update from the OS as well.
WHAT OS?
col288
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August 30th, 2012 10:00
Well when I open the Dell Openmanage Server administrator, then go to storage. I see an exclamation mark on the SAS 5/iR adapter
when I click on Check alert log it says,
Mon Aug 27 02:33:18 2012 Storage Service The current firmware version 00.06.50.00.06.06.00.02 is older than the required firmware version 00.10.51.00.06.12.05.00 for a controller of model 0x1F09: Controller 0 (SAS 5/iR Adapter)
I also see this when I click Information / configuration from storage.
0 SAS 5/iR Adapter PCI Slot 2 Degraded 00.06.50.00.06.06.00.02 00.10.51.00.06.12.05.00 1.28.03.01
I went to the dell site and download what I think is the most recent firmware upgrade. As far as I can tell its the only one there.
DELL_SAS-5-IR-ADAPTER_A04_R199559.exe
(although there is a Dell driver there called R194052? for 5/ir adapter) But the error says firmware.
The instructions say the following in the readme.txt
*******************************************************************************
** This release package contains the files necessary to flash the Dell
** SAS 5/iR Adapter with:
** Firmware Version ---- 00.10.51.00
** Option BIOS Version - 6.12.05.00
** NVDATA Version ------ 0x10
*******************************************************************************
** NOTE: Your SAS 5/iR Adapter must have at least the minimum
** FW Version of 00.06.17.00 to use this update package. If not,
** please download, and flash your adapter with, 00.06.17.00 before
** attempting to flash with this release package.
*******************************************************************************
To flash, boot to a DOS environment and execute the included batch file from
the Command line as:
Where
is the path to the folder containing the contents of the release
package.
This seems to indicate that I must update the adapter from a dos booted system.
Have I mis read the info somewhere?
Thanks.
col288
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August 30th, 2012 12:00
1. The os is windows 2003.
2. I dont know if the drive is degraded. I believe that its the raid card that has degraded.
What I have posted is information from the Dell OpenManage software. This is the software used to view hardware etc things about the server. (are you familer with it?)
When I look at the drives it looks fine, at least in their Openmanage software.
3 Unfortunetely the Dell software doesnt seem to say the driver needs updating although it might?
I will look at that.
However the firmware as described only seems to be installable from dos prompt.
regards
col288
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August 30th, 2012 13:00
Thanks I think that is the right one. Its confusing all the different versions and links, and then the types of installs. Im not sure the one you have pointed out was in the list. I didnt see it anyway.
Thanks.
theflash1932
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August 30th, 2012 13:00
When using the Support site, I would recommend you never use the Download File button on the main Drivers and Downloads page. Click on the NAME of the file (in this case, it is Dell-Firmware that has an Applies To that is relevant for the device you are looking for) OR click on the name of the controller to which the file applies (in this case, SAS 5/iR Adapter). This will take you to a page that will ask you which format you want to download - RedHat, Windows, Floppy, Hard Drive (which I believe is the default for the Download File button), etc. Some formats are for different uses - the Hard Drive version of the driver is used for pre-install driver loading, where the Windows version is much easier for running inside of Windows.