Hi ezekielusa,

It is doing the Lifecycle controller collecting system inventory step which is checking for hardware configuration changes. You can try to update the BIOS and iDRAC firmware and see if it resolves it, the other option is to disable the iDRAC setting "Collect hardware inventory on boot" in the Lifecycle controller settings.

iDRAC7/LCC Firmware Version 1.37.35, A00, released 3/11/13, URGENT if below 1.23.23, *May take 8-15 minutes to complete

Red Hat Linux: downloads.dell.com/.../ESM_Firmware_TN4DM_LN32_1.37.35_A00.BIN

Bios Firmware Version 1.5.2, Released 3/26/13, Recommend, requires immediate reboot:

Red Hat: downloads.dell.com/.../BIOS_0TWCR_LN_1.5.2.BIN

Thanks Josh,

My Bios is already 1.5.2 and the iDRAC is at 1.35.35 and most importantly when I first started running the server it booted up in less than a minute.  Nothing has changed hardware wise. The only changes have been made are to the filesystem within the OS.

Also I'm not seeing the setting "Collect hardware inventory on boot" in the Lifecycle controller settings. I access this by pressing F10 on boot right?

Anyway Josh thanks for the info!!

Is there an option in F10 for hardware configuration? it should be under there under hardware inventory.

OK thanks, I found it and disabled it. Unfortunately that wasn't it. Something is happening or not happening after the Firmware Interface Initialization. It still takes approx. 7 minutes to get from "Initialization Complete" to the OS load.

Any ideas?

Thanks Josh!

Try downloading our Linix LiveDVD and booting to that and see if it hangs, maybe it is something in the OS handoff that is causing it.

linux.dell.com/.../OMSA71-CentOS6-x86_64-LiveDVD.iso

Thanks, I tried this but it's the same scenario.

Could this be an issue with the H710 or the enclosure/backplane? I did see the hard drives flash once during the 7 minute interval. It seems like this would be the next area to check so I'll look at the firmware version.

Thanks!

Well I checked the H710 v21.2.0-0007 and the Enclosure v1.00. From what I see in the support area these are the latest firmware versions.

I have ProSupport +Mission Critical - Is this something that I can address with support? I'm getting ready to put this R320 in production and I want to make sure I have this kink ironed out before hand.

Thanks!

Thanks Josh - I've contacted support and we're in the process of diagnosing. I'll report back with any resolution information so that others may benefit.

Thanks!

Yes, you can contact support and they can try to isolate the issue, however support is a break/fix group and this is a performance problem, and is potentially not something they will be able to resolve or be covered under warranty, this system might just initialize slowly. That being said it does seem like it is taking longer than it should and I am sure they will try to assist you as best as possible, I just wanted to give you fair warning and not promise a resolution if they are unable to provide one.

Support is available 24/7 for Prosupport and the best phone number to reach them at is 800-945-3355.

This has been resolved.

During the troubleshooting process I found an external USB hard drive plugged in to one of the back ports. After removing it the system now boots normally (about 1 minute).

I'm not totally sure why the USB device was causing the delay. It is an older device and possibly the system was having trouble initializing it.

Thanks for working on this with me Josh!