DRAC on PowerEdge 2950

Question

We are trying to configure DRACs on all of our Windows servers (mostly2012 R2).  All R710s and R910s we have tried just worked with littleeffort.  But, we haven't been able to get any PowerEdge 2950s to work.In all cases we're using a shared NIC; the DRAC has a different IPaddress in the same subnet.I can ping the DRAC IP address on three 2950s; on two I cannot.A web browser cannot get a response from the 2950s.If I run 'racadm getsysinfo' on a pingable 2950, I getERROR: RACADM is unable to process the requested subcommand because there is nolocal RAC configuration to communicate with.  (Same command on an R710spits out a lot of info.)  There definitely is a DRAC; I can configureit by hitting ctrl-E during boot or with OMSA.I suspect a DRAC firmware update may help.  I got a bootable ISO ofdrivers for 2950s fromhttps://www.dell.com/support/article/us/en/19/sln296511/updating-dell-poweredge-servers-via-bootable-media-iso?lang=enIt ran for ~half an hour on one 2950 and updated some things, but Ithink not the DRAC firmware.Systems-Management_Firmware_D8GP9_WN32_1.65_A00.EXE fromhttps://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/Drivers/DriversDetails?driverId=D8GP9&fileId=3009896398&osCode=WNET&productCode=poweredge-1950&categoryId=SMsays 'not compatible with your system configuration'.I have firmimg.d5 from f_drac5v165_A00.exe but I don't know how toinstall it without either a working DRAC or working racadm.I can ssh into the servers where the DRAC is working, but not into theones where it is not working.I know TLS may be a problem for web access.  We've disabled TLS 1.0and 1.1 by group policy, but a web browser from a machine not in thedomain also couldn't connect.In DRAC BIOS setup, the top box says 1.28 which I assume is thefirmware version.  BMC was 2.1 before update, now 2.5.Any suggestions on how to update the DRAC firmware or any otheractions we should take?  Thanks.

Daniel My · Accepted Answer

Hello

It sounds like the DRAC is either not installed or not functional. The CTL E BMC/DRAC menu is available whether a DRAC is installed or not. If a DRAC is installed the BMC/DRAC menu should list a Remote Access Controller revision. You will also have a couple of extra options, like virtual media configuration. If those are not present then the DRAC is either not functional or not installed. You can find more information in the manuals.

http://www.dell.com/support/

http://www.dell.com/esmmanuals/

The DRAC manuals should be under DRAC and BMC manuals should be under Remote Enterprise Systems Management on the Embedded Server Management manuals link. The system manuals are on the system support page.

Thanks

rwbrwb · Answer

Thanks.  I checked one of the servers where I can ping the DRAC IP address and there is no virtual media option, so I guess no DRAC.  I thought there must be one if I could configure and ping an IP address.  We've gotten a lot of use out of these 12 year old servers but there are plans to upgrade in the not too distant future.

PowerEdge Hardware General

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