I recently inherited an environment of five T710s all rack mounted running a DevTest environment. Not the best hardware but it works for what we need it for. It looks like the previous admin never updated these devices. The iDRAC6 firmware is v 1.80.17. The Lifecycle Controller is version 1.5.1.57. The BIOS is version 6.1.0.
In the past I have learned the hard way that updating BIOS and Lifecycle Controllers out of order can lead to a very bad, and sometimes expensive, day. Would anyone be able to provide me an update path for these boxes.
I figured if worse comes to worse I could do
BIOS 6.2.3 & iDRAC 1.90
BIOS 6.3.0
iDRAC 1.95
BIOS 6.4.0
iDRAC 1.96
iDRAC 1.97
BIOS 6.4.0
iDRAC 1.98
iDRAC 1.99
iDRAC 2.80 (Latest I see for my Service Tag)
BIOS 6.4.0
BIOS 6.5.0
This process would likely take me 5 service windows and I will likely die a bit inside. If there is anyway I could streamline this process I would really appreciate it. Please do not make me lose any more hair than I already have.
Yes. It is not advised to directly update from vry old FW to latest FW and also it is recommended to have BIOS and iDRAC FW in sync. The upgrade path you provided looks correct. If I were in your position I would have updated iDRAC directly from 1.95 to 1.99 or 1.95 to 1.97 to 1.99 by skipping some versions in-between
As you have Lifecycle Controller firmware also in old FW I would recommend upgrading 1.6.5.12 after 1.97 and 1.7.5.4 after 2.80
Shine, Thank you so much for your incredibly fast response. You are awesome!
I would also like to thank you for catching that I forgot to add the Lifecycle Controller and the latest BIOS update to my list. I really dropped the ball there. Can you please look over my new list and let me know your thoughts. I also noticed that I somehow added 6.4.0 multiple times. I do not know how that happened.
BIOS 6.2.3 iDRAC 1.90 Lifecycle 1.6.0.73 BIOS 6.3.0 iDRAC 1.95 Lifecycle 1.6.5.12 BIOS 6.4.0 iDRAC 1.99 iDRAC 2.80 (Latest I see for my Service Tag) Lifecycle 1.7.5.4 BIOS 6.5.0 BIOS 6.6.0
Thank you @Dell -Charles R . Dell support has been wonderful with this process.
I noticed that the LifeCycle Controller Updates are all Windows executables. Is there any other way to install these updates? Currently Windows is not installed on these machines.
If the LifeCycle Controller Updates are critical I guess I could try livebooting into Windows or possibly temporarily install Windows onto a HDD on the machine just for the update.
I am sorry if this is a stupid question. I appreciate your patience and value your advice.
Again, thank you so much for your assistance. I actually just found out we have an extra T710 not being used in a our IT graveyard. I am going to use that to test the upgrade path and see if I can do it without installing Windows. I will report back with the results.
Thank you again for your support. This is one of my first times dealing with Dell support on this type of thing and to say I am impressed is an understatement.
DELL-Shine K
6 Operator
•
3042 Posts
1280
1
Posted September 30th, 2020 22:00
Yes. It is not advised to directly update from vry old FW to latest FW and also it is recommended to have BIOS and iDRAC FW in sync. The upgrade path you provided looks correct. If I were in your position I would have updated iDRAC directly from 1.95 to 1.99 or 1.95 to 1.97 to 1.99 by skipping some versions in-between
As you have Lifecycle Controller firmware also in old FW I would recommend upgrading 1.6.5.12 after 1.97 and 1.7.5.4 after 2.80
For T710 latest firmware levels are below
BIOS - 6.6.0
iDRAC - 2.90
Lifecycle Controller - 1.7.5
You can download these from below link
https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-us/product-support/product/poweredge-t710/drivers