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Can someone explain how to do a full reset on the DRAC controller?  I tried updating firmware but that must not actually reset it.

I have the same problem. I did hard reset of the controller using:

racadm racreset hard

and also performed reset to the default config:

racadm racresetcfg

I did it localy using racadm from Open Manage server administrator package under Windows 2000 server.

 

remote call:

racadm -r -u -p

does the same error: Failed to perform write operation with RAC controller

 server pe2650, RAC Firmware Version 3.38 (tried also downgrade to 3.35 = same result)

I could not find the answer/solution...

 

any ideas?

I never found a "fix" but I did get a workaround.  Dell support helped me with this for hours on end, over the span of several weeks.  They  never gave up!  But, we never did FIX it.  But they did help me get a workaround.

Luckily, I kept notes!  It is a two-part workaround.

First, enable telnet access to DRAC (dell helped me with this).

Second, write a script to telnet in and issue the command (I came up with this part on my own).

 

Part 1:

See here
http://lists.us.dell.com/pipermail/linux-poweredge/2003-November/011654.html

My summary:
to enable the telnet interface:
Log into the RAC web interface.
Select the Debug tab
Select the "Command Debug" subtab
enter the command
d3debug propget ENABLE_TELNET
and submit it.

you should see something like
Status Text
----------
ENABLE_TELNET=FALSE

Click on 'Go Back to Command Debug Page', enter the command
d3debug propset ENABLE_TELNET=TRUE
and submit it.

if that succeeds, then run 'racadm racreset'

 

Part 2:

I found a little utility called TST10.exe, it allows you to write a small "telnet" script and execute it from the CLI or a batch file.

My TST file:

192.168.1.5
WAIT "Login:"
SEND "root\m"
WAIT "Password:"
SEND "calvin\m"
WAIT "#"
SEND "serveraction powerup\m"
WAIT "#"
SEND "exit\m"

Execute it via TST such as:

tst10.exe /r:

 

 

Good luck.  If you do ever find a real FIX, please post it here...

thax a lot for sharing that, it works.

reseting of rac is possible from web interface also.

however, using telnet is not secure at all. (probably  racadm -r -u -p is also not secure...)

I was having the same problem. Updating the DRAC firmware to 1.75 fixed it.

http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/us/en/04/DriverDetails?DriverId=V0F9Y&FileId=2731109153&DriverName=Dell%20Remote%20Access%20Controller%20-%20DRAC%204%2FI%2C%20Remote%20Access%20Controller%20-%20DRAC%204%2FP%2C%20v.1.75%2C%20A01&productCode=poweredge-2850&urlProductCode=False

I ran into this problem today and spent 1/2 day locating the root cause and identifying a quick fix. The issue lies in the fact that the cert being used (usually the default one embedded in the firmware) has expired. The issue is not that the cert is untrusted, its simply expired. In my case, the latest RAC f/w image was dated 2008 and had an embedded cert that expired in 2009. There was simply no later version of the f/w released by Dell The easiest way to verify this is to issue from a remote machine, "racadm -r -u root -p calvin getsysinfo It should return "failed to perform write operation". Set the date back to 2008 or whatever year is in the validity period. You can check what date to use by double clicking the red certificate message in the IE browser address bar and looking at the cert properties Now repeat the command and it will login and return info. Next you can simply run racadm request to generate the CSR. This time it will succeed and then you can create the cert and upload. Remember that the default keysize in the CSR can be set by updating the csr key size to whatever you want before genning the CSR. But be sure to specify the size in hex such as 0x400 Lastly be advised that you need to have the cert in base 64, X509 format (called .cer by MS) The easiest way to get this from a MS CA issued cert is to double click on the genned cert in explorer, select the cert from the UI and choose export. Good Luck.