I was trying to add a couple old Dell servers to mergepoint for remote reboot capabilities. As I was configuring one, I received and interesting message when I attempted a : racadm racreset
ERROR: A firmware update is currently in progress. Unable to reset the RAC at this time.
I had upgraded the firmware and was rather concerned about this error. I really became concerned when I tried to get system information and received the following:
C:\>racadm getsysinfo
RAC Information:
RAC Date/Time = Mon Dec 17 15:24:44 2012
Firmware Version =
Firmware Build =
Last Firmware Update =
Hardware Version =
MAC Address = 00:11:22:33:44:55
Common settings:
Register DNS RAC Name =
DNS RAC Name =
Current DNS Domain =
Domain Name from DHCP =
IPv4 settings:
Enabled =
Current IP Address = 0.0.0.0
Current IP Gateway = 0.0.0.0
Current IP Netmask = 0.0.0.0
DHCP Enabled = 0
Current DNS Server 1 =
Current DNS Server 2 =
DNS Servers from DHCP =
IPv6 settings:
Enabled =
Current IP Address 1 =
Current IP Gateway = /
Autoconfig =
Link Local IP Address = /
Current IP Address 2 = /
Current IP Address 3 = /
Current IP Address 4 = /
Current IP Address 5 = /
Current IP Address 6 = /
Current IP Address 7 = /
Current IP Address 8 = /
Current IP Address 9 = /
Current IP Address 10 = /
Current IP Address 11 = /
Current IP Address 12 = /
Current IP Address 13 = /
Current IP Address 14 = /
Current IP Address 15 = /
DNS Servers from DHCPv6 =
Current DNS Server 1 =
Current DNS Server 2 =
System Information:
System Model =
System Revision =
System BIOS Version =
BMC Firmware Version = 01.23
Service Tag =
Express Svc Code =
Host Name =
OS Name =
Power Status = ON
Watchdog Information:
Recovery Action = None
Present countdown value = 300 seconds
Initial countdown value = 300 seconds
Embedded NIC MAC Addresses:
NIC1 Ethernet =
iSCSI =
NIC2 Ethernet =
iSCSI =
NIC3 Ethernet =
iSCSI =
NIC4 Ethernet =
iSCSI =
What was odd was the fact I could run the firmware upgrade without error and the card was talking to the Mergepoint.
I almost reported the card as bad but I had an epiphany and had a look at installed programs. There I found the OpenManage Server Administrator and Drac Toolkit. I uninstalled the Drac toolkit and received valid information from the Drac card.
Lesson of the day: Sometimes different versions of software which interface with a device can give false readings.
techdork 