PowerEdge OS Forum

[jvaldez1990]

Hello,

We have several servers and majority run Scientific Linux 6.3 (It's based off of RedHat).

Normally, Dell supplies us with a update_firmware utility, but it seems to lag behind when it comes to firmware updates by a few versions. Does anyone know why? Or how to fix it? yum update returns nothing (with dell repos added), and update_firmware says i'm up to date when I can see on dell's website that I am not.

Another method that I've resorted to, for the time being, is to use the "Unified Server Configurator" to update firmware and bios. But it is very slow, tedious, and cumbersome (I have to update in a certain order or else it errors out and crashes). However, on my R410 server, it has version 1.0 and doesn't have any "platform update" option. How do I update it so I can gain the ability to update bios/firmware? I can't seem to find out how online

Thank you,

Jonathan

[DELL-Jonathan S]

I haven't tried it with SL6.3 yet but on many RHEL-based distros you can just use the normal BIN file for RHEL from support.dell.com, possibly after modifying /etc/issue or /etc/redhat-release. For R410 BIOS 1.11.0 that is downloads.dell.com/.../BIOS_VHP27_LN32_1.11.0.BIN. You can also use libsmbios to do the update at least as late as 11G systems linux.dell.com/.../dellBiosUpdate.html. I am not sure what the update schedule is for the yum firmware update repository. Let us know how it goes. Thanks!

[jvaldez1990]

Thanks for the help. I run the executable, then get this output.

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!

....

Device: BIOS

 Application: BIOS

 Unable to get the System Generation.

and it errors out.

[DELL-Jonathan S]

You can also use the biosdisk method which has some information on this page: en.community.dell.com/.../linux-projects.aspx and a really good write-up of the method on this page: www.math.ias.edu/.../cannot-update-dell-bios-with-.bin-file-99.php. The EXE you need with that is downloads.dell.com/.../PER410-011100.exe Does that work better?

[FindSolutions]

I was able to apply the .Bin file on Cent5.5 however have never been able to get it working on SL6, any reason why Dell is unable to release a binary which would work on any flavor of Linux? Same error.

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!
....
Device: BIOS
  Application: BIOS
  Unable to get the System Generation.

[reybeast]

the main reason is that the resources required to test every flavor of Linux would be huge. the main focus is to support the top tier versions of OS's.

[FindSolutions]

So most of this can be automated, if I recall correctly, why not open up the binary to the opensource community. In this day and age, every thing can be automated, maybe the resources need to go towards how to automate every flavor of Linux so we (customers) are not stuck with the top tier versions of OS's.

[reybeast]

All good in theory, but companies dont want to trust open source to perform updates on their systems, especially when running large clusters or if  the systems handle sensitive data,  they are afraid someone might alter the payload as well, and thats never a good thing. Sooo many security risks to deal with, and if we make a mistake that costs someone data, we can get sued quick!

[FindSolutions]

So, the point is Automation, more than opensource, with the talented people Dell has, and the fantastic product Dell produces, things would be 100% (rather than 85% today), where the support for every flavor of OS is shared with your customers.