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Phylum

32 Posts

2755

January 7th, 2020 06:00

iDRAC vFlash Does not Create Partition from Image

I've got a vFlash SD card in an R730xd that I've successfully initialized but am having a hard time successfully creating a partition from an [.ISO] image
 
I initially started via the GUI but I that would:
  • Sometimes fail almost immediately with error: RAC0237: An error occurred while uploading the vFlash image.
  • Sometimes it runs for a while (e.g.: 18%, 24% etc.) then seems to stall as it doesn't progress any further with no errors
  • Sometimes it runs for a while (e.g.: 18%, 24% etc.) then fails with error: RAC0235: vFlash image upload timed out.
This prompted me to switch racadm and although the command is successful:
 

 

racadm -r 192.128.100.100 -u root -p calvin vflashpartition create -i 1 -o Drive1 -e cddvd -t image -l //192.168.100.10/iso$/sli.iso -u blah -p blah

Partition image upload in progress. Depending on network speed and traffic,
large image files (3-4GB) may take more than 1 hour to complete. To avoid
data corruption, please do not interrupt the upload or reset the iDRAC.

 

 
I'm not seeing any indication that something/anything is happening, be it via the GUI or racadm:
 

 

racadm -r 192.168.100.100 -u root -p calvin vflashpartition status -i 1

ERROR: Partition 1 does not exist.

racadm -r 192.168.100.100 -u root -p calvin vflashpartition list

No vFlash partitions currently exist.

 

 
Here's what I know:
  • iDRAC version is 2.70.70.70
  • vFlash SD card is not write protected
  • vFlash SD card health is 'OK'
  • vFlash is indeed enabled 
  • Am trying with the Dell Support Live Image (SLI) but plan to do this with Server 2019 and other known-good ISO's.
  • I am doing this remotely but on the same LAN; it's right next to me connected to the same switch as my management machine
Am I being impatient or doing something wrong?

DELL-Daniel My

Moderator

 • 

6.2K Posts

January 7th, 2020 12:00

The iDRAC manual has a section on managing vFlash, it starts on page 236 of the 2.70 manual. Aside from all of the recommendations in the manual, make sure the system is not in booted into the setup menu. The iDRAC/LCC may have reduced functionality until the system completes boot.

http://www.dell.com/idracmanuals/

Phylum

32 Posts

January 9th, 2020 04:00

Good Morning @DELL-Daniel My and thanks for taking the time to reply.

Yes, the 'Managing vFlash SD card' section starts on page 236 of the 'Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller 8 Version 2.70.70.70 User’s Guide' and there's some additional relevant information in the 'iDRAC 8/7 v2.70.70.70 RACADM CLI Guide' document.

Unless I'm missing something, it looks like all the prerequisites and dependencies have been met:

  • vflashsd status shows the last action was to initialize the SD card, that progress is at 100% and the status is complete
  • iDRAC.vflashsd.Initialized shows initialized
  • iDRAC.vflashsd.Health shows OK
  • iDRAC.vflashsd.AvailableSize and iDRAC.vflashsd.Size both confirm plenty of space
  • iDRAC.vflashsd.Enable shows enabled
  • iDRAC.vflashsd.Licensed shows licensed
  • iDRAC.vflashsd.WriteProtect shows disabled

Having said all that:

  1. Does everything appear to be in order?
  2. Did I miss checking something? 

Like I mentioned in my original post, the vflash commands are being accepted, there are no errors thrown, but it also doesn't appear to be doing anything.  I'm not seeing any relevant log entries under

  • Overview > Server > Logs
  • Overview > Server > Job Queue

So I have to ask:

  1. Are these types of actions (e.g.: create partition; create partition from image etc.) and their results logged anywhere?
  2. Do I need to increase log verbosity to get that information?  If so, how & where?

 

Now, you mentioned something that gave me thought:

@DELL-Daniel My wrote:

...make sure the system is not in booted into the setup menu. The iDRAC/LCC may have reduced functionality until the system completes boot.

This is particularly interesting:

  1. Would you mind pointing me to where this is documented so I can better understand the limitations and ideal conditions for accessing & manipulating iDRAC/LCC?
  2. What constitutes a complete boot?

I am performing the vflash operations with the asset powered off primarily because there is no OS currently installed.  I could turn it on, but I'm not confident that is going to help, especially considering it wouldn't boot into a full OS.  But let me ask you:

  1. Would booting an OS from a USB thumb drive or virtual media count has 'completing boot'?

Thanks again

Dell-DylanJ

2.9K Posts

January 17th, 2020 15:00

What Dan was trying to say is that if you open a configuration utility in one location, say you are locally in the system setup utility, you may see reduced functionality if you also try to access it through the iDRAC's web GUI (save for the virtual console, since you would in effect be looking in the same space).

As for completing boot, that would have meant that completing POST, since the iDRAC can function at full capacity without an OS to boot. Just a miscommunication, I'm sure. For clarity, when I say "completing POST," I mean that the system didn't halt for any errors and the system is not in the system setup or any other system utlity. 

BradWaite

5 Posts

September 20th, 2021 12:00

In my experience, whether using racadm or the iDRAC web interface, it's hit-or-miss when creating vFlash partitions from an image on my R710 iDRAC6. Eventually it works, though.

Unfortunately, there's no indication as to why it fails when it does. In many cases the web interface indicates the upload was successful, but when I click the 'Go back' button, the partition list is empty.

In once case, I was using racadm to view the status and it said the partition existed, and was unattached and read-only. But when I went to the vFlash Manage tab, the partition list was empty. After that, racadm said there were no partitions defined.

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