Do you have a DRAC installed? If so you could try booting to a live image and updating from an older OS version. Since RHEL/CentOS 7 is not validated that probably is why it doesn’t let you update.
I would not expect it to be updated since there has not been any BIOS revisions since 2013. Without a DRAC there is not a remote method to update it without installing the package that CentOS doesn’t recommend installing. If you are at 1.3.1 you probably don’t need to update as the fixes were mostly for Windows systems.
no DRAC installed on this machine. Red Hat/CentOS 7 are about 9 months old now, will they be certified by Dell so the firmware installers will work again? Is there a way around the OS check on these bios installers?
In that case it would be recommended to update, but you would need physical access to boot to our Live DVD and run the update from there. It is possible that an updated repository would allow it to work if they updated the repository for the older systems as well. There is a slightly newer repository version, but it still doesn’t have RHEL 7 listed. http://linux.dell.com/repo/hardware/DSU_15.01.00/
Getting a little farther, apparently a libxml2 update came out in the last couple days that wasn't installed yet, so after a 'yum upgrade' I was able to 'yum install libxml2.i686' to get past that error.
Also uninstalled the Dell firmware-tools package and installed the DSU app which you linked, which does show me that I have v1.0.0 and can upgrade to v1.4.3. I run the upgrade and it says BIOS installed successfully, but 'dsu --inventory' then still reports bios 1.0.0, even after a reboot still shows 1.0.0.
I then tried to just manually run the .BIN again and it too said the bios had been updated, but again on reboot dsu still reports bios 1.0.0 installed.
Any idea why the firmware would say it installed fine but then report the old version?
Ran DSET and it reports BIOS v 1.0.0 as well. For good measure I made sure selinux is in permissive mode, so shouldn't be silently blocking any updates.
The full output from the BIOS update is:
# ./PER200_BIOS_LX_1.4.3.BIN
Collecting inventory...
....
Running validation...
BIOS
The version of this Update Package is newer than the currently installed version.
Software application name: BIOS
Package version: 1.4.3
Installed version: 1.0.0
Continue? Y/N:y
Executing update...
WARNING: DO NOT STOP THIS PROCESS OR INSTALL OTHER DELL PRODUCTS WHILE UPDATE IS IN PROGRESS.
THESE ACTIONS MAY CAUSE YOUR SYSTEM TO BECOME UNSTABLE!
.....
The BIOS image file is successfully loaded. To apply the BIOS update successfully, the OMSA data manager service is stopped in case it
is already running. Do not shutdown, cold reboot, power cycle, or switch off the system before the BIOS update is completed. Restart
the system for the update to take effect. The update remains incomplete until the system is rebooted.
That looks like it should. It should then have stored the BIOS update in memory and apply on the reboot. Once the update is complete it reboots again and boots back to the OS. Does the reboot look like it is going properly? I have seen sometimes where the server powers off instead of reboots and the update doesn’t apply.
Had someone hook up a monitor and watch the reboot. So after I run the BIOS update and it says it was successful, I run 'shutdown -r now' and the machine begins to reboot, it outputs the messages:
"Attempting to update BIOS..."
"Update failed"
Then the machine reboots back to the 1.0.0 bios without any further error codes or descriptions etc. Any idea what could be causing that? Not sure how to further debug it without even hint at the error.
It looks like my reply yesterday didn't post properly.
We can try using the Dell update package method again with an older bios version and see if stepping up to the latest version works. It is possible this may work now that you installed the other libraries. http://downloads.dell.com/bios/PER200_BIOS_LX_1.2.1.BIN
It may also help to power off the server and unplug it for a minute and then try again or to reseat the motherboard NVRAM with the jumper on the motherboard.
But unfortunately looks like they don't work with the modern bash v4, only bash v3, so you get the error: /spsetup.sh: line 122: source: buildVer.sh: file not found
So looks like I can only use the 1.4.3.bin bios file.
About the NVRAM, is the jumper on the board the only reliable method? Ran across this page with lists a couple other methods: en.community.dell.com/.../17592640
DELL-Josh Cr
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February 2nd, 2015 11:00
Hi,
Do you have a DRAC installed? If so you could try booting to a live image and updating from an older OS version. Since RHEL/CentOS 7 is not validated that probably is why it doesn’t let you update.
DELL-Josh Cr
Moderator
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9.5K Posts
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February 2nd, 2015 12:00
I would not expect it to be updated since there has not been any BIOS revisions since 2013. Without a DRAC there is not a remote method to update it without installing the package that CentOS doesn’t recommend installing. If you are at 1.3.1 you probably don’t need to update as the fixes were mostly for Windows systems.
xref
14 Posts
0
February 2nd, 2015 12:00
no DRAC installed on this machine. Red Hat/CentOS 7 are about 9 months old now, will they be certified by Dell so the firmware installers will work again? Is there a way around the OS check on these bios installers?
DELL-Josh Cr
Moderator
•
9.5K Posts
0
February 2nd, 2015 13:00
In that case it would be recommended to update, but you would need physical access to boot to our Live DVD and run the update from there. It is possible that an updated repository would allow it to work if they updated the repository for the older systems as well. There is a slightly newer repository version, but it still doesn’t have RHEL 7 listed. http://linux.dell.com/repo/hardware/DSU_15.01.00/
You may be able to use the repository manager tool to create your own repo with the latest versions and update from that. http://en.community.dell.com/techcenter/systems-management/w/wiki/1767.dell-repository-manager
xref
14 Posts
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February 2nd, 2015 13:00
I should have noted in the original post (added now), but the server is on bios 1.0.0
Even if the individual .BIN files aren't updated, won't the upgrade_firmware tool be updated to support CentOS 7 and then the bios install will work?
xref
14 Posts
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February 2nd, 2015 15:00
Getting a little farther, apparently a libxml2 update came out in the last couple days that wasn't installed yet, so after a 'yum upgrade' I was able to 'yum install libxml2.i686' to get past that error.
Also uninstalled the Dell firmware-tools package and installed the DSU app which you linked, which does show me that I have v1.0.0 and can upgrade to v1.4.3. I run the upgrade and it says BIOS installed successfully, but 'dsu --inventory' then still reports bios 1.0.0, even after a reboot still shows 1.0.0.
I then tried to just manually run the .BIN again and it too said the bios had been updated, but again on reboot dsu still reports bios 1.0.0 installed.
Any idea why the firmware would say it installed fine but then report the old version?
xref
14 Posts
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February 2nd, 2015 15:00
DELL-Josh Cr
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February 2nd, 2015 16:00
Can you run a DSET report and see what that shows for the BIOS version?
<ADMIN NOTE: Broken link has been removed from this post by Dell>
xref
14 Posts
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February 2nd, 2015 18:00
Ran DSET and it reports BIOS v 1.0.0 as well. For good measure I made sure selinux is in permissive mode, so shouldn't be silently blocking any updates.
The full output from the BIOS update is:
# ./PER200_BIOS_LX_1.4.3.BIN
Collecting inventory...
....
Running validation...
BIOS
The version of this Update Package is newer than the currently installed version.
Software application name: BIOS
Package version: 1.4.3
Installed version: 1.0.0
Continue? Y/N:y
Executing update...
WARNING: DO NOT STOP THIS PROCESS OR INSTALL OTHER DELL PRODUCTS WHILE UPDATE IS IN PROGRESS.
THESE ACTIONS MAY CAUSE YOUR SYSTEM TO BECOME UNSTABLE!
.....
The BIOS image file is successfully loaded. To apply the BIOS update successfully, the OMSA data manager service is stopped in case it
is already running. Do not shutdown, cold reboot, power cycle, or switch off the system before the BIOS update is completed. Restart
the system for the update to take effect. The update remains incomplete until the system is rebooted.
Would you like to reboot your system now?
Continue? Y/N:
DELL-Josh Cr
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February 3rd, 2015 09:00
That looks like it should. It should then have stored the BIOS update in memory and apply on the reboot. Once the update is complete it reboots again and boots back to the OS. Does the reboot look like it is going properly? I have seen sometimes where the server powers off instead of reboots and the update doesn’t apply.
xref
14 Posts
0
February 3rd, 2015 10:00
Had someone hook up a monitor and watch the reboot. So after I run the BIOS update and it says it was successful, I run 'shutdown -r now' and the machine begins to reboot, it outputs the messages:
"Attempting to update BIOS..."
"Update failed"
Then the machine reboots back to the 1.0.0 bios without any further error codes or descriptions etc. Any idea what could be causing that? Not sure how to further debug it without even hint at the error.
xref
14 Posts
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February 4th, 2015 20:00
No ideas?
DELL-Josh Cr
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February 5th, 2015 08:00
It looks like my reply yesterday didn't post properly.
We can try using the Dell update package method again with an older bios version and see if stepping up to the latest version works. It is possible this may work now that you installed the other libraries. http://downloads.dell.com/bios/PER200_BIOS_LX_1.2.1.BIN
It may also help to power off the server and unplug it for a minute and then try again or to reseat the motherboard NVRAM with the jumper on the motherboard.
xref
14 Posts
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February 5th, 2015 11:00
Tried both:
http://downloads.dell.com/bios/PER200_BIOS_LX_1.2.1.BIN
http://downloads.dell.com/bios/PER200_BIOS_LX_1.3.1.BIN
But unfortunately looks like they don't work with the modern bash v4, only bash v3, so you get the error: /spsetup.sh: line 122: source: buildVer.sh: file not found
So looks like I can only use the 1.4.3.bin bios file.
About the NVRAM, is the jumper on the board the only reliable method? Ran across this page with lists a couple other methods: en.community.dell.com/.../17592640
DELL-Josh Cr
Moderator
•
9.5K Posts
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February 5th, 2015 11:00
You can try that method for resetting the NVRAM, that method worked well on older servers, but not on newer ones.