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12 Posts
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1600
March 19th, 2021 15:00
Retiring servers Gen14 - failures
Hello, community and Universal Mind!
By my job I often need to make a "Retire" procedure on servers selled to customers, before I've start Hardware Diagnostics.
At first glance, it's simple - enter to LCC, then press "Repurpose or Retire" key. But it takes a long time. So I've create simple script using racadm commands ('clrsel', 'jobqueue delete [i] JID_CLEARALL_FORCE', 'systemerase bios,lcdata'). It working fine on Gen12&13. And it was working on Gen14 before it changes iDRAC+LCC version from 3.xx to 4.xx.
I noticed that if I do a iDRAC reboot before cleaning the system ("by hand" pressing "blue key on front panel"), then using LCC Retire function, this almost always works and I have a clean, pre-updated system ready for diagnostics and shipping.
But if I try to use my "retireing" script I alnost always have fail. For better compliance with manual actions, I've added a command to the script to restart the iDRAC and wait for 4 minutes: racadm racreset, then (inside the script) DELAY 240
Does not work: System cleaning starts, LCC after reboot starts defaulting BIOS and cleaning LCC logs. But, after turning server off and on, reconnecting to iDRAC - in the jobqueue, I see a failed "systemerase" task. And LCC logs are NOT cleaned.
What am I doing wrong and how can I fix this failures?
With best regards!
P.S. The same failures occures on servers from R240 up to R740xd (and Towers too), althrough, sometimes, about 1 time out of 5-10, the script may work correctly.
P.P.S. All servers are always pre-updated from DELL site before "Retire". Failures are independent of connection type (ssh or "racadm on management station").
Dell-Stephane T
11 Legend
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3.7K Posts
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March 22nd, 2021 02:00
Hello,
Do you have an error code/screen shot to share with us.
Did you try to run only this erase command alone?
What happens if you upgrade the server to an older IDRAC version?
For more information, I invite you to consult this document (especially for Deprecated and New Subcommands part) and adapt your script :
https://www.dell.com/support/manuals/en-en/poweredge-r7525/idrac_4.00.00.00_racadm/ifcracmnoshostname-read-only
Regards,
cedenbal
12 Posts
0
March 24th, 2021 07:00
Hello.
Inside my batch/script I enter last command: racadm jobqueue view
Output is: Systemerase job successfully started
Then server starts working as it usual do: if it was powered off then powering on himself, if it was powered on then reboot himself. Then I view message like (I don't remember perfectly) "System Configuration Requested by Lifecycle Controller", then Job started, but job runs (very fast, so if even it shows my any error message I cannot catch it). But messages "Verifying LifeCycle Log Cleaned" and "Request BIOS Defaults" are marked green mark. Then server powers off himself.
After some minutes I've connect to iDRAC and in job queue I view message System Erase - Failed. Details - SYS017: Job did not complete successfully.
By the way, BIOS is not resets to defaults too. I guess it is so, because by default BIOS boot mode in Gen14 is UEFI, but then I've start server it all the same try to boot in BIOS mode.
Regards.
Dell-Stephane T
11 Legend
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3.7K Posts
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March 24th, 2021 09:00
Hi,
Unfortunately I cannot going depper because it's related to configuration. My advice is to focus you into this SYS017 error
SYS017
If this not possible to fix, a workaround could be a downgrade of the IDRAC/LCC version first.
I'll let this post open if another community member could help you more.
Regards,
cedenbal
12 Posts
0
April 21st, 2021 12:00
Solved.
All my scripts are works correctly after removing the command to force clear the task queue (i.e. jobqueue delete -i JID_CLEARALL_FORCE). As I understood from observing the behavior of the servers, the processing of this command is completely unpredictable. The server may process this command in 10 seconds and may not process in 5 minutes. During this time the systemerase command may work or may not work (often - not).
Tested on all rack servers Gen14 in our sales line (R240..R740).
Regards!