R430 bricked by iDRAC/Lifecycle controller update

Hello, thanks for choosing Dell. Let me direct you to one of the older posts. Hope this helps. ^^

Solved:LC is in recorery mode - Dell Community  

I managed to boot the server, but only by rolling back the iDRAC to 2.21.21.21, I tried to load the new BIOS in there and it failed, both via the iDRAC (because of the certificates being different) and via the OS (seems like the BIOS update package crashes in Windows 2012R2).

I tried to move the iDRAC forward to 2.40.40.40 which is supposed to resolve the certificate issue but that bricked my server again... 

I am trying to install 2.12.1, which fails via the older iDRAC because it is signed with an algorithm that isn't supported in my iDRAC version (2.21.21.21). I need at least 2.40.40.40 to be able to install a newer BIOS. 

I tried to upgrade the iDRAC to 2.40.40.40 which bricked me right back, only this time the POST is stuck like this:

This is with LC enabled and disabled, makes no difference. 

I've rolled back to iDRAC 2.21.21.21 again, if I perform a cold boot after draining power, hopefully the server will pass POST. 

Hello,

which BIOS version are you installing? Did you try with an intermediate version? Which error are you receiving when it fails?

Thanks

Marco

Just tried to install BIOS 2.0.1, it failed with "Message: RED014: Job for this device is already present"

I know the rules, been doing the Dell server support job during the 7-8-9th gen days in Cherrywood I simply forgot this time and messed up, it's been over a decade after all. 

Anyhow, what I have on the host is BIOS 1.5.4 (you can see that in the first screenshot I posted). 

Right now this is what I have in place:

What is the current BIOS version installed? 

Now just so you are aware, this issue may not be resolvable short of a motherboard replacement. We aren't at that point yet, but I wanted to make you aware of the possibilities.

A rule to go by later is that you never want to jump to the latest version of the BIOS or iDrac when really far behind, as well as you need to walk both the idrac and bios up together, as getting them too far apart can also cause issues.

Here's what the LC config looks like:

get LifecycleController.LCAttributes
Security Alert: Certificate is invalid - self signed certificate
Continuing execution. Use -S option for racadm to stop execution on certificate-related errors.
AutoBackup=Disabled
#AutoDiscovery=Off
AutoUpdate=Enabled
BIOSRTDRequested=False
CollectSystemInventoryOnRestart=Enabled
#DiscoveryFactoryDefaults=Off
IPChangeNotifyPS=Off
#Licensed=Yes
LifecycleControllerState=Enabled
PartConfigurationUpdate=Apply always
PartFirmwareUpdate=Match firmware of replaced part
ProvisioningServer=
#SystemID=639
VirtualAddressManagementApplication=

If you follow this link it will show the steps to use SSH to resolve the RED error and to clear the job queue, I would advise to continue trying 2.0.1, if you get that one then only jump a couple versions at a time to current.

Already tried that, it didn't work. 

I actually just got off a call with a support rep, and he suspects it's either the RAID controller or the disks, will be pulling the disks out and retrying to POST this thing. Apparently a fresh iDRAC firmware should still work with an old BIOS version, so I didn't mess up that much, it's just a bad chunk of hardware I'm dealing with. 

I'll update with my findings as I have them

Got it resolved finally:

re-updated iDRAC to latest

applied the updates via iDRAC from https/downloads.dell.com

reboot, hit F2

reboot remained hanging but when I returned later on, it eventually opened up the menu

disabled the PCI slots (as it has been suggested POST is being blocked by faulty disks or controller or enclosure)

this allowed me to actually go through POST and finalize the firmware updates

With the disks removed I was passing POST every time, 5 dead out of 12 (yay enterprise drives!)