Tried many things to reset the iDrak (flea) even installed a

Hello

It sounds like you have several issues. If the iDRAC is not functional it can stop the system from proceeding to boot, but a failed iDRAC will not affect the system from booting or installing an OS if it is not stopping the process.

You should be able to locate status LED information in the system manual. If you would like assistance from the community I suggest starting with explaining the issue. I don't see mention of the server model or an explanation of what is wrong with the iDRAC. If you are receiving an error with the iDRAC then I suggest providing that information.

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

I notice that you tagged the thread with "poweredge320", so I would assume you have a T320 or R320. The iDRAC is integrated into the R320 and T320 system board, so if you replaced the system board the iDRAC was replaced.

Thanks

Poweredge R320

Hi, and thank you for your reply, and my apologies for not being articulate; when I wrote that I was pretty frustrated as something that should be easy, is being complicated.

I've logged each step, as follows. I'm attempting to do a clean installation of windows server 2k8. Here are the steps...

1 plugged in both power supplies

2 Start computer initialization of idrac fails
reboots fans high speed

3 LC is disabled

4 both drives are online in RAID Configuration

5 controller perc 310 mini

6 vd's found on boot 1 atapi 1 vd handled by bios

7 press f11 to boot from disk successfully

8 windows "install now"

9 access flash drive for driver

10 find driver(s two of them) for 310 mini

11 both attempts yield the same message

12 no new devices could be found...

nothing more to do

If you need further information, please let me know. This should be easy, it's not rocket science; what am I missing? 

I wouldn't worry about the iDRAC issue for the time being. Once you get an OS installed you can attempt to update all of the system firmware through the OS and see if you can get it working.

The system has an integrated RAID controller, I think it is the S110 in 12th generation servers. Check the system BIOS. You should have SATA settings in the system BIOS, your options for it should be something like ATA, AHCI, or RAID. Make sure it is not set to RAID. You may also have another option in the BIOS for integrated RAID controller. If that option is present it will allow you to enable or disable PERCs installed into the integrated storage slot. If your H310 is in the integrated storage slot and that option is present make sure it is enabled.

The embedded controller(S110) and our hardware controllers, like the H310, use different cabling. I think they both use SAS cables, but they connect to different locations. If your SAS cables are connected to the embedded storage controller slot then your cabling is configured for the S110. If the cables are directly connected to the H310 or the hardware storage slot then they are cabled for the H310.

Server 2008 should have a built-in SAS driver for the H310, so it sounds like your system is cabled and configured to use the S110. If you want to use the S110 controller then you will need to load the S110 driver during OS installation. The S110 is a driver-based controller that does not use generic drivers.

http://www.dell.com/storagecontrollermanuals/

Thanks

Thank you for your help, windows svr 2k8 is now installed. I'm now trying to import the 30 day license until my client is able to update his actual license. I've created a bootable flash drive with the image, but can't seem to boot to linux. Any tips. In  the time being I'll keep googling. thank you so much again.

error

Can't find live image configuration file rebootexception reboot in 120 sec...

You are not going to be able to install a trial license if the iDRAC is not functional. You will need to resolve the iDRAC initialization issue before trying to install a license. Also, make sure the LifeCycle controller is working(system services).

so what you're saying is that the integrated idrac is bad on this board and that I need to return it for a refund and/or another board? Thank you, this idrac is new to me, so my apologies for my ignorance. 

I would try updating all of the firmware and BIOS in the system before giving up on it. You can try flashing the iDRAC/LCC firmware. Sometimes the iDRAC will be partially functional and allow you to update the firmware. If it is not functional enough to perform a firmware update then you will receive errors that no such hardware exists or the update is incompatible with your system.

Greetings, and thank you again so much for your help with this; it's certainly a great learning experience. The main problem is just the fans being so loud, as my client said, "the idrak, we don't use that so it's not important", but because of the loudness of the fans running at high speed, that is really the only problem. I do not see the LifeCycle service, it's not listed in services and I also looked through the services with the prefix of "dell", to no avail. Is there a way to put the fans to normal, so that it's not so loud? All other services are running great, it's just very loud.

In addition, is there a way to set the bios so that it doesn't halt on any errors? So if they restart the machine, they don't have to wait to pres the f1 key? Is there a way to bypass/disable idrac completely? 

Thank you.

No, the iDRAC controls the fans. The LCC will not function without the iDRAC.

I would like to know if my bios settings serial com are set correct for the idrac. Thank you so much for all of your help. 

1: on w/o console redirection

2: seral device 1=com1 serial device com2

3: 15200

4: vt100/vt220

5: Enabled

Please let me know if these are correct, and thank you so much

In addition, when I save, even if no changes have been made, I get a "Critical" error

"an error occurred. One or more settings may not be saved." 

Thank you again for all of your help. Best Regards.

Could you send me the proper link please for the firmware update for the idrac, thank you again for your help.

When trying to flash the bios, i get the IPMI driver is disabled. I look in device manager under Storage Controllers and there is only the PERC h310. Please help me, not sure where to go from here.

And the iDrac with LCC gives the error, "Update package is not compatible with your sys config"