Dell XenServer OEM version - racadm doesn't work

Thanks for posting!  If you have an iDRAC 6 Enterprise and racadm is unable to talk to the DRAC, it probably didn't initialize the last time you booted the server.  Try these steps to reseat the DRAC:

Shut down the server, unplug all cables.

Hold the power button in for 10 seconds to drain flea power.

Open the server, find the iDRAC 6 Enterprise module, and remove it from the system.

While it is out, check the pins on the module and the connector on the system board.

Keep the module out for at least a minute, then put it back, close up the system, plug everything in and start it up.

Watch the server start up, and make sure you see the iDRAC 6 Enterprise initialize.  If it does not, call Support, and be ready to continue troubleshooting if necessary.

If the iDRAC 6 Enterprise does initialize, flash the firmware and try your racadm command again.

@JEFFLM

My problem isn't so much getting the iDRAC interface back up, but rather trying to get the racadm command on the managed server working. We have not been able to get it to work as of yet.

The iDRAC was working fine (through the web interface, we couldn't get it working from the command line), then we had some network upgrades and the iDRAC on all of our servers stopped working.

On the Windows boxes, we could run the "racadm reset" command from the command from the command line. But from the Linux (XenServer) box, the 'racadm' command doesn't work unless you're using it as a remote command i.e. you add the host name/ip address.

Most likely there is some firewalling going on there.  Check ports 443 and 5869 to make sure they are open on your Linux systems.  Also make sure you are running the racadm commands from the host OS, not a virtual machine.

I'm not interested in getting the communication with the iDRAC over the network working. I know that just rebooting the server will get this running again.

What I'm trying to accomplish is to get the software on the managed machine (the physical machine with the DRAC card in it) to talk to the iDRAC over the PCI interface (or whatever non-network method it uses to communicate with the DRAC).

This hasn't worked from the beginning, and I know that it should work, due to the "racadm.exe" binary on the Windows hosts we run being able to send the iDRAC the "reset" command, even though the iDRAC's were dead to the network, meaning they sent the command using the internal (I'm assuming it's PCI) interface.

If you boot the system to an OMSA Live CD, can racadm work from there?  If it can, then your OS or some program on it is blocking racadm.  If it does not work, then your iDRAC is not talking to the system board correctly.

The OMSA Live CD ISO can be downloaded here:  http://linux.dell.com/files/openmanage-contributions/centos-5.4-omsa-6.2-l1/

Ok, we figured out the problem. It turned out that the iDRAC wasn't responsive, probably due to having a misconfigured NIC. We managed to log onto the OpenManage software running on the machine and re-configure the interface (first setting the NIC Selection to 'Shared') and then we were able to issue the 'racreset' command using the 'racadm' command.

Here's a break down of the steps taken:

1. Run Dell OpenManage on Server with down iDRAC (In my case v6.2.0)
2. Go to Main System Chassis -> Remote access -> Configuration -> LAN
there change NIC selection (to share, or other). Don't forget to put it back when the iDRAC comes back up.
3. find racadm util (usually on OpenManage server \Program Files (x86)\Dell\SysMgt\idrac)
and run command from command line:

>>racadm -r IP_iDRAC -i racreset              (or racresetcfg - reset to factory settings)
enter user
enter password

It's done