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52052
January 19th, 2015 08:00
R815, USB not showing in boot sequence
I have been tasked with maintaining some PowerEdge R815 installed with VMware ESXi 5.5. It was previously installed off a disk from the internal optical drive. I was aiming to run Dell tools/updates and ESXi updates off a bootable USB drive (these servers do not have internet connectivity) instead of burning a new disk each time. I followed Dell guides and other online guides to try to get the USB bootable and identified as a drive.
- I created the Linux bootable ISO update package from Dell Repository Manager (linuxIso.iso).
- Using UNetBootin (unetbootin-windows-608), I put the ISO on a FAT32 formatted USB drive (Kingston DT R3.0 16GB).
- With Virtual Media as Detached in iDRAC, there is no system menu item for USB Flash Drive Emulation Type so I set to Attach and left the check boxes unchecked.
- Rebooted into System Settings and changed Boot Mode to BIOS.
- After reboot, the 4 options under Boot Settings are Boot Mode (BIOS), Boot Sequence, USB Flash Drive Emulation Type, and Boot Sequence Retry (Disabled). Under Boot Sequence I have SATA Optical Drive, Hard drive C: (Integrated RAID PERC H700), Embedded NIC 1, Virtual Floppy, and Virtual CD. Under USB Flash Drive Emulation Type I just have Virtual Floppy (Auto).
- In Integrated Devices, User Accessible USB Ports is set to All Ports On.
I have tried both front USB port and rear USB port and neither shows the drive in the Boot Settings. BIOS was previously at 3.2.1, but I got fed up and just burned the update package to disk to get it done, BIOS at 3.2.2 now.
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DELL-Chris H
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January 19th, 2015 11:00
Apilachowski,
There are a couple things to confirm, and clear up. The ISO you are using, is it based on the Server Update Utility (SUU) repository? If so, then one of the issues is that it isn't a bootable program. With ESXi installed what you would need to do is boot to the Build and Update Utility (BUU) ISO, and then once you reach the menu then mount the SUU ISO and run the Platform Update. It should run successfully then.
Another option is booting to OMSA Live and then running the SUU ISO from it's GUI. You can find OMSA LIve here.
Now in regards to mounting the ISO. What you will need to do is connect to the server via the Drac Web GUI and then launch the Virtual Console, once connected you can select to Mount Virtual Media, under the media tab of the console. From there select the ISO file and Connect.
Let me know how it goes.
apilachowski
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January 19th, 2015 12:00
In Repository Manager I have my repository for PowerEdge R815, select the System Bundle (Linux)PER815 v530, and Export - Bootable ISO (Using Linux Bundle). This saves as linuxIso.iso and boots when burned to DVD. I was able to successfully update all the firmware booting to the burned disk.
I have been unsuccessful booting to USB with the update bundle above, Dell Support Live Image Version 2.2, Dell Systems Build and Update Utility v2.4, and Dell Systems Management Tools and Documentation DVD ISO v7.4. All the tools were downloaded after putting in the server serial number in product support and changing the OS to VMware ESXi 5.5.
I was trying to create a bootable USB, not mount an ISO file located on a USB drive. If the answer is to mount an ISO in DRAC instead of trying to boot, I can try that next.