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168972
Lifecycle Controller unable to connect to ftp.dell.com
I has been a while since I last tried to update my R720xd servers. But to today I have been battling them them trying to get the firmware update function to work.
When testing the network connection it tells me it is unable to resolve host name for ftp.dell.com. If i just press the next button it tells me invalid ip address or share name.
I am not sure what I am doing wrong. Any help would be appreciated.
michaelr985
3 Posts
2
February 1st, 2017 08:00
efredriksen, you are correct. The Dell FTP site is still ftp.dell.com and it not going away any time soon. I have seen some Dell teams are posting files to Box but for drivers & catolog files, ftp.dell.com is the main location. I am not sure what SpeedStep is referring to the ftp address being decommissioned. If that is indeed true then Dell needs to come out and make it very clear and update all their documentation.
I think some of the confusion is to blame on the other DNS names the FTP can be reached at, such as.
downloads.dell.com
ftp1.us.dell.com
ftp2.us.dell.com
ftp.us.dell.com
The reason I opened this post was resolved under case 940656672. It was a networking issue on my end. My r720xd is plugged into a HP switch stack. I was using LACP Trunk ports with Windows NIC Teaming. But inside the preboot Lifecycle Controller interface, it wasn't playing nice with my trunk ports the NICs were plugged into. Turning off the trunk port fixed the issue but is not ideal way of dealing with it.
Link: http://www.dell.com/Support/Article/us/en/04/SLN296511
Using the link above will take you to the Knowledge Base page for Updating Dell PowerEdge servers via bootable media. I found this to be a good alternative option to using the Lifecycle Controller.
dgitter
2 Posts
1
September 16th, 2017 14:00
ftp.dell.com is still the correct entry to use in the LCC to download firmware updates.
speedstep
8 Wizard
8 Wizard
•
47K Posts
0
December 13th, 2016 07:00
ftp://ftp.dell.com is decommissioned
http://downloads.dell.com/published/pages/oth-r720xd.html
its now
http://downloads.dell.com/published/Pages/index.html
michaelr985
3 Posts
1
December 13th, 2016 12:00
When I replace ftp.dell.com with downloads.dell.com I get a network connection failure. Then when I try and include the http:// in the field I get unable to resolve hostname errors. Maybe you can explain exactly what I should be typing in what field because I am not able to figure it out.
efredriksen
3 Posts
0
February 1st, 2017 06:00
Also, ftp.dell.com does not appear to be *fully* decommissioned as I can still browse the firmware directories (and others):
ftp.dell.com/.../
efredriksen
3 Posts
0
February 1st, 2017 06:00
Can you please go into a bit more detail here?
What specifically are we supposed to use in place of ftp.dell.com for a Lifecycle Controller firmware update via FTP? I've tried googling for an hour now but haven't found any other blogs, announcements, forum posts or anything else about this.
Technigogo
6 Posts
8
April 9th, 2018 08:00
After about 2 hours of trying to get the necessary updates on this new 14G server out of the box, I finally pieced all the incorrect information together and found the working solution. Here is what you need to know:
1. When you set the network settings for the Lifecycle Controller, I could not get the IPV6 to work with Static or DHCP. It will error. Here is what I figured out - just set the IPV4 and leave the IPV6 however you want. Once you hit NEXT, it will check the configuration and give you an error for IPV6 -BUT- it also has already saved the IPV4 settings so now just hit CANCEL. You now have a working IPV4 connection.
2. When you proceed to the Firmware Updates, the Lifecycle Controller will pre-fill the address with downloads.dell.com which you will think would be right, it's not and it won't work. Fill in the old familiar "ftp.dell.com" and forget about all the other fields. That's all you need.
Nerdulus
1 Message
0
July 25th, 2018 17:00
Thanks!! Glad I bypassed the other incorrect posts and found your post - spot on for the IPV6 issue and the Firmware update issue!
David Dame
1 Message
0
October 3rd, 2018 16:00
Crazy... how does this go on so long and Dell never corrects this issue?
antspants77
3 Posts
1
February 7th, 2019 15:00
So here we are in February 2019.
I work for an MSP that quotes work hours. One of the things we always include is updating firmware etc.
To save time, we use the Dell Lifecycle controller, rather than identifying, downloading and manually installing.
On a brand new Dell R740 server, I configured the Lifecycle Controller network (after ignoring the repeated IPV6) errors and then finding this article.
https://www.dell.com/support/article/us/en/04/sln308584/dell-poweredge-unable-to-save-ipv4-and-ipv6-dhcp-network-settings-swc0001-on-14g-servers?lang=en
Which says to ignore it, even though there is not ignore button. What it means was go back to the previous menu and continue, which it did.
Then presented with and option to update BIOS from
downloads.dell.com
so continued, but failed more than once.
Tested using a FTP client and found I could not open this site.
Then searched and found this article.
And used
ftp1.us.dell.com
And was able to identify and update the server.
So, instead of thousands of users having to waste an hour EVERY time they update their server, fix the above 2 problems. Either in the firmware of the server or by enabling the site you are pointing everyone to by default.
Or are you too busy?
antspants77
3 Posts
0
February 7th, 2019 16:00
But wait there's more.
The above FTP site (ftp1.us.dell.com) has not been fully updated.
This shows BIOS version 1.6.12
Where
https://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/04/product-support/product/poweredge-r740/drivers
Shows
1.6.13
So tried to install this manually via SMB.
Downloaded BIOS_YJXXX_LN_1.6.13.BIN
And tried using the SMB method to update.
But presented with
"use a valid Windows-Based Update Package with an .exe extension.
No EXE BIOS updates on the above site.
Let me get back to our sales team and see how competitive Dell servers are after we factor in hours of trying to install updates.
daemoch
3 Posts
0
May 10th, 2019 12:00
You just saved me a few (more) hours, THANKS!!
It pays to read an entire thread (in this case a short one). I'm happily updating after spending a few hours trying to "follow the directions" and exercising my Google-foo because I erroneously thought I didn't know what I was doing or had entered something wrong at some point. I'd set aside all of today to figure out why this batch of old servers was being such an issue; thanks for giving me some of my day back. *beer*
"HP servers and Dell desktops make a happy office" I've heard often enough...there's some truth to that I'm thinking. And as a consultant, I'll be keeping that in mind.
Technigogo
6 Posts
0
May 10th, 2019 15:00
I posted a solution for this a while back. Not sure if it still works the same way but I keep getting kudos so I guess it does.
https://www.dell.com/community/Systems-Management-General/Update-Firmware-with-Lifecycle-Controller-14G-servers/m-p/6059965#M25902
daemoch
3 Posts
0
May 10th, 2019 15:00
After finally getting it kicked off, this:
https://www.dell.com/community/Rack-Servers/Lifecycle-controller-FTP-Firmware-update-failing/m-p/7288816/highlight/false#M4969
DBergkamp
8 Posts
0
June 21st, 2019 20:00
I know this is old, but thanks Technigogo!
What a pain that was. Docs said use https:// blah blah but it said everything I used was an invalid address. You can't use colons or slashes. Spent forever searching for an answer and yours worked.