Cannot Update DRAC 5 Firmware

Question

I am really starting to wonder if these DRAC cards are worth it. I manage a number of different PE servers with them installed and find them to be very unreliable.   My latest problem is with a DRAC 5 installed in a PE 1950. The remote console function has just stopped working completely so I am trying to reflash the firmware.   I cannot get the reflash to work via the web gui. It either: 1) During the image upload process, stops and I get a dialog box saying 'Your request has timed out. Please try again later. Your session is about to close' or 2) The image upload is successful but when it moves to the 'Preparing for firmware update' stage, it fails and I get a dialog box saying 'Firmware update failed' (or similar)   I was originally attempting update over a WAN and wondered if that might be the issue. However, I visited their premises today and tried it with a directly connected cable and it failed as in no 2) above.   Can anyone help me out?   Thanks.

DELL-Jeff M · Answer

Thanks for posting!  I suggest trying to update the firmware using the racadm command line.  The User's Guide can show you how to do it:   http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/software/smdrac3/RAC/en/racadmug/racadmug.pdf   It goes into details about the process around page 23.

ElectromekDiagn · Answer

I've had the same issue happen to me before.  I suspected the firmware on the DRAC was locked, but the DRAC card doesn't reboot when the server reboots.  To fix the issue I did the following:   Shut down the server   Physically unplug the power from the back of the server   Hit the power button on the server to clear any residual power   Plugged back in, applied firmware update successfully.       Hope that helps, good luck.

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