rcorralhit

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rcorralhit

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October 7th, 2019 16:00

iDRAC7 Upgrade Path

I'm trying to bring iDRAC7 firmware on a couple of Dell PowerEdge R420 servers up to date and I'm trying to determine the correct upgrade path to do so. The servers are running iDRAC7 firmware version 1.40.40 and BIOS version 1.5.2. 

None of my searches on the Dell website have relevant results. Since the systems are out of warranty I'm not getting much help via telephoning, and online chat is not available either.

If someone can point me to a good place to get started that would be a big help.  Thanks in advance.

  • DELL-Chris H

    7 Practitioner

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    Posted October 8th, 2019 06:00

    Rcorralhit,

     

    The server is really out of date, so trying to update either the BIOS or iDrac to current from where they are can cause issues. 

    You will need to walk the BIOS and iDrac up together in steps.

    BIOS 2.0.21

    iDrac 1.57.57

    BIOS 2.1.3

    iDrac w/ Lifecycle Controller 2.21.21 (the updates merged after this point)

    BIOS 2.4.2

    iDrac w/ LCC 2.40.40

    BIOS 2.5.1

    iDrac w. LCC 2.63.60.62. (latest)

    BIOS 2.6.0 (latest)

     

    Hope this helps, let me know how it goes.

    DELL-Chris H

    Social Media and Communities Professional

    Dell Technologies | Enterprise Support Services

    #IWork4Dell

    Did I answer your query? Please click on ‘Mark as Accepted Answer’. ‘Thumbs up’ the posts you like!

  • squigley

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    Posted October 21st, 2019 09:00

    Alternatively, if you don't want to go through the dance of step updating the iDRAC/LCC a bunch of times, my quicker and easier solution is to:

    Download the LCC update image, either the windows .exe or linux .bin, doesn't matter. currently "iDRAC with Lifecycle Controller v. 2.63.60.62". Don't run the exe, but open it with an archive manager like WinZip, as it is a self extracting archive. Inside you should find a "payload" directory, containing "firmimg.d7".

    Extract this file. Access the iDRAC Web UI, and use the update/rollback, "local file" "single update" etc procedure (may be different depending on your currently installed firmware), but load in the .d7 file as the update file.

    The iDRAC will receive this, reflash itself to upgrade, the iDRAC will restart, and after you login you should have HTTPS support, at which point you can either use the LCC or via the iDRAC do the updates, using https://downloads.dell.com as the update server, and you should know be able to install all the updates.

    Loading the .d7 file directly bypasses the issue that the bin file is signed using a hash algorithm that old LCC versions are unable to handle, causing it to reject the update, as it cannot verify it is authentic.

  • rcorralhit

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    Posted November 20th, 2019 17:00

    Thanks Chris and squigley for your replies.

    I followed the upgrade path provided by Chris and no issues so far.

    Cheers.

  • rmcbeth

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    Posted January 6th, 2020 05:00

    Will this path work for a server that is on 1.51.51 build 1 iDrac7 & LC 1.3.0.850?

  • InsulinFart

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    Posted June 7th, 2020 15:00

    Hello,

    Is this same for Dell R720?

  • DiegoLopez

    6 Operator

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    Posted June 8th, 2020 02:00

    Hello,

     

    Yes, it is the same recommendation for all PowerEdge Servers. When starting firmware version is too old is much better to update step by step. Instead of updating from a very old to the latest firmware version.

     

    Regarding the firmware download. You can also find directly the specific firmware versions in the download page: https://dell.to/2YdLdFX

     

    Regards.

  • Philip.HM

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    Posted August 26th, 2020 00:00

    Hi ,

    Will that work for iDRAC7 R720xd as well ?

  • Dell-Stephane T

    11 Legend

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    Posted August 26th, 2020 00:00

    Hi Philip,

     

    Yes this process works for all IDRAC7.

     

    Best regards,

  • Greg asd

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    Posted August 27th, 2020 14:00

    I have the same machine, a R420 with the PERC S110 running, and I still cant see nothing about storage in the IDRAC. I tried with AHCI aswell and the disks still doesnt shows up in the iDRAC (I just received these machines, they are in the testbed). Im running it with 2 120gb SSD Sata disks.

    my firmwares right now:

    bios: 2.9.0
    firmware version: 2.63.60.62
    LCC firm: 2.63.60.62
    idrac firm version: 2.63.60.62

    Anything else I can try?

  • Dell-DylanJ

    6 Operator

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    Posted August 27th, 2020 15:00

    When you pull up the iDRAC web interface to look at storage, what are you able to see? If possible, a screenshot may be best.