Virtual Disk commands using RACADM

Question

Re iDRAC7 and iDRAC8: I want to mount a virtual DVD and boot from it without using the iDRAC web interface, using only racadm commands. Thus far, I can't find a way.

1. If I "attach virtual media" using the GUI, I can't find any racadm command that tells me I did so. I also can't find any racadm command that causes the GUI to report that virtual media is attached. One might suspect "racadm get Storage.VirtualDisk" would tell me something, but I see, "ERROR: STOR0701: Storage objects are unavailable in the current system configuration."

2. I can use "racadm remoteimage" to specify the DVD. But that ends up as a remote file system (RFS), not as virtual media. I can't boot from it.

I do not want to install local software, OpenManage or anything else. I want to do this simply with an SSH session to the iDRAC. Is there something I'm missing?

Daniel My · Answer

Hello

The storage.virtualdisk is related to virtual disk on storage controllers.

remoteimage -s should return a status of the remote image.

I think you should be able to boot from the remote image. You will need to configure the BIOS boot options. Our CMCs have a -e option on the remoteimage command that specifies it as the next boot device. You can check the documentation to see if that exists on the version of iDRAC you are using.

Thanks

thalesifec · Answer

I'm reasonably certain that I tried this multiple times and using various command sequences without success. But inspired by Daniel's comments, I tried again and this time it worked. The following commands seem to work properly using iDRAC8 on R230s and iDRAC7 on R520s; I presume they will also work on other systems with those iDRAC models.

racadm remoteimage -c -u xxx -p xxx -l xx.xx.xx.xx:/path/to/xxx.iso
racadm set iDRAC.VirtualMedia.BootOnce 1
racadm set iDRAC.ServerBoot.FirstBootDevice VCD-DVD
racadm serveraction powercycle

Of course, I need to leave the image connected during the boot, which is after my script terminates. That means I need to find a reliable, and preferably automatic, way to disconnect the image after I'm done using it. I'm still working that issue.

Note that the remoteimage command applied to an NFS share as shown above still requires the -u and -p options, though the server ignores them. Why does racadm require them?

tblancher · Answer

@thalesifec wrote:

I'm reasonably certain that I tried this multiple times and using various command sequences without success. But inspired by Daniel's comments, I tried again and this time it worked. The following commands seem to work properly using iDRAC8 on R230s and iDRAC7 on R520s; I presume they will also work on other systems with those iDRAC models.

racadm remoteimage -c -u xxx -p xxx -l xx.xx.xx.xx:/path/to/xxx.iso
racadm set iDRAC.VirtualMedia.BootOnce 1
racadm set iDRAC.ServerBoot.FirstBootDevice VCD-DVD
racadm serveraction powercycle

Of course, I need to leave the image connected during the boot, which is after my script terminates. That means I need to find a reliable, and preferably automatic, way to disconnect the image after I'm done using it. I'm still working that issue.

Note that the remoteimage command applied to an NFS share as shown above still requires the -u and -p options, though the server ignores them. Why does racadm require them?

To disconnect the Remote File Share use the -d option to remoteimage:

racadm remoteimage -d

Note that neither the -u or the -p options are necessary with an NFS share.

PowerEdge Hardware General

Virtual Disk commands using RACADM

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