This post is more than 5 years old
19 Posts
0
141168
iDRAC 6 communication problems
Recently I attempted an upgrade of an old R610's iDRAC6 firmware. Well, it all went wrong. It was actually at the point where it was just uploading the new BIN file before I told it to update. It just hung at 65% for hours until I had to give up. I attempted a racadm racreset but it showed:
ERROR: A firmware update is currently in progress. Unable to reset the RAC at this time.
SO I deciede to take down the server, unplug it, and then drain the "flea" power by holding in the power button for 10 seconds. I then plugged it back in and waited a bit before powering it on.
Then it go really fun when I saw this on POST:
Initializing Remote Access Controller........
iDRAC Configuration Utility 1.54
Copyright 2010 Dell Inc. All Rights Reserved
iDRAC6 Communication Failure.
Alert! iDRAC6 not responding. Rebooting.
Then it rebooted and then this showed up:
Alert! iDRAC6 not responding. Poer required may exceed PSU wattage.
Alter! Continuing system boot accepts risk that system may power down without warning.
Strike the F1 key to continue, F2 to run the system setup program
I can eventually get into the OS and I atempt a racadm racreset and it gives me the same Update warning as before plus this:
IMPORTANT NOTE!
The RAC is unable to communicate with the BMC. This condition may occur because of (1) no BMC is present, (2) missing or disfunctional IPMI-related software components. Many RAC features depend on BMC connectivity in order to work properly, and you may see failures as a result.
I've attempted all the suggested "fixes" from this page but it's still dead it seems: http://en.community.dell.com/techcenter/systems-management/w/wiki/3464.troubleshooting-idrac6-issues
Is there anyway to force a re-flash of the iDRAC or since I cannot even communicate with it it's pretty much dead and now I have to pres F1 to start my server from now on?
Alison Santos
18 Posts
0
January 12th, 2016 11:00
Hello,
the process was corrupted and the iDRAC will not be able to reflash, in this case it will be necessary to replace the mother board
sdfjksfdjnksfds
19 Posts
0
January 13th, 2016 07:00
Well, then I'll just give up on that and have to keep using it without an iDRAC. Too bad, but it's an old server so I guess it was bound to happen sooner or later. I'm hoping the new iDRAC modules are more resilient to flash corruption, though. Thanks for the response.
timoid
1 Message
0
June 10th, 2019 03:00
Was there a solution to this?
I've got 3 R710s that have now done this. Working for years, did the latest updates to the BIOS/Lifecycle Controller/iDRAC and next time the power went out, they all now fail to communicate to the iDRAC.
3! Out of 6! Beginning to suspect that this is DELL killing off old hardware to force upgrades...