How To Enable Secure Boot via Dell OpenManage

Question

Trying to enable Secure Boot on a Dell PowerEdge T330 running Windows Server 2012 R2. Physically installed OS, no VM's involved. Logged in to Dell OpenManage run as administrator on the server via a web browser, Under System / Main System Chassis / BIOS find that Secure Boot is grayed out and shows to be Disabled. Secure Boot Policy is grayed out and is set to Standard. No TPM present. I don't believe that any System Password is set. Can anyone tell me how I can turn On Secure Boot?

Origin3k · Answer

Are you talking about OpenManage Server Administrator or which OM?

You can do it on commandline as well.

C:\Temp>racadm get bios.SysSecurity.SecureBoot
[Key=BIOS.Setup.1-1#SysSecurity]
SecureBoot=Disabled

C:\Temp>racadm set bios.SysSecurity.SecureBoot Enabled
[Key=BIOS.Setup.1-1#SysSecurity]
RAC1017: Successfully modified the object value and the change is in
pending state.
To apply modified value, create a configuration job and reboot
the system. To create the commit and reboot jobs, use "jobqueue"
command. For more information about the "jobqueue" command, see RACADM
help.

C:\Temp>racadm get bios.SysSecurity.SecureBoot
[Key=BIOS.Setup.1-1#SysSecurity]
SecureBoot=Disabled (Pending Value=Enabled)

You need to create a job now and place it into the queue and on next server reboot the configuration job will be executed.

Regards,
Joerg

DELL-Shine K · Answer

Is your BIOS in UEFI mode? If not can you change to UEFI mode and check whether secure boot option can be enabled

Origin3k · Answer

Be carefull... a Windows Server OS will not boot any more if you tooggle from BIOS into UEFI mode after its installation.

If you run vSphere ESXi it will cause no problems. Keep in my that you need to switch from SHA1 to SHA256 within the Adv. Settings option under BIOS->Security->Adv. when dealing with a modern vSphere 7.0.x (ESXi/vCenter)

Regards,
Joerg

Origin3k · Answer

Your 13Gen Server is a little bit older. Because you already mentioned that you runs Windows Server 2012R2 i would like to share some expierence that after we enabled SecureBoot some Windows Appliaction doesnt work any more. Funny error message occures and we have disabled this feature again. I have no clue if it does make any difference if you have enabled it from the beginning or later.

Regards,
Joerg

DELL-Marco B · Answer

Hello Moonlanding, thanks to contact our community. Please let us know if those answer can helps. Thanks Marco

MoonLanding · Answer

Thanks for the help. Sorry for the delay in responding. We are using OpenManage Server Administrator on the server. Do you happen to know why the setting option is grayed out on this server?

MoonLanding · Answer

Thanks for this information. No vSphere on this server.

MoonLanding · Answer

Thanks for the help. Under Boot Mode, it is set to BIOS. I presume then that setting this to UEFI is a prerequisite to setting Secure Boot.

MoonLanding · Answer

Thanks!

PowerEdge Hardware General

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