| DELL-davej | Hi and Welcome to the 2nd 10G Blades Eval Wiki web chat! | |
| DELL-davej | Today we will be talking about upgrading your blade firmware, which customers should probably do if they haven't already done so. | |
| DELL-davej | I have a few things to cover, and then Scott will add a few words about automating firmware updates, etc. | |
| DELL-davej | I'll go ahead and cover what I want to cover for customers to read later in the archives | |
| DELL-davej | I'm talking about the firmware on the CMC, the iDRACs and the blade BIOS. | |
| DELL-davej | I just got through upgrading the CMC firmware, bringing the BIOS on my blades up to 1.0 (mine shipped at 0.2.8) and upgrading the iDRAC firmware to .46. For the most part the Cookbook under Deployment covers the subject pretty well. | |
| DELL-davej | The key one for me was upgrading the iDRAC. This enabled the remote console to work | |
| DELL-davej | To upgrade from the .36 F/W, which is what shipped on my blades, to the current, .46, requires you to do it from a DOS session. Later on you will be able to do it in the GUI | |
| DELL-davej | The tricky part is that the firmware doesn't fit on a diskette so you will need to create a boot USB key | |
| DELL-davej | Well the guys in the lab will tell you that I spent the whole day today getting my boot USB key to work. I finally did but I'm not sure how! | |
| DELL-davej | Anyway, the package you want from the FTP site is P600 - 605 iDRAC 0.46.zip (customers will need their account team to download it for them) | |
| dgebeke joined. | ||
| DELL-davej | Once you get it on a bootable USB it's easy. Just boot into DOS and run idracdos | |
| DELL-davej | Hey DeDe, welcome! | |
| dgebeke | thanks | |
| DELL-ScottH | Welcome DeDe | |
| lboeck joined. | ||
| DELL-ScottH | Welcome Larry ! | |
| dgebeke | We have only updated the cmc firmware so far, we did that through the gui | |
| DELL-davej | Any problems? | |
| dgebeke | none it was VERY simple. | |
| DELL-ScottH | Good to hear, we've been working on that simplification strategy over here | |
| DELL-davej | What level is your Server Firmware (iDRAC)? | |
| dgebeke | It doesn't sound like the iDRAC is going to be as easy though | |
| dgebeke | .37 | |
| DELL-davej | Yeah, then you'll have to go through the DOS thing. I will document what I did and place it on the wiki - it's not in the Cookbook | |
| dgebeke | ok that sounds good. | |
| DELL-davej | As you pointed out, the CMC can be upgraded through the GUI. And for the BIOS there is the usual array of DOS, Windows and Linux programs | |
| dgebeke | so is this the boot USB key you discussed earlier | |
| DELL-davej | Yeah. Once you create it you can put the BIOS updates on there too and do both at once | |
| dgebeke | Ok and you are putting that on the wiki also? | |
| dgebeke | Have you got any negative feedback on this yet? | |
| DELL-davej | Are you referring to the iDRAC update or the blades in general? After you upgrade to .46 further upgrades will be done in the GUI. | |
| dgebeke | iDRAC | |
| dgebeke | Yeah the GUI works slick, so when this goes into production I am assuming all firmware will be upgradeable through the gui?!?! | |
| DELL-davej | Yes. | |
| DELL-ScottH | Yes, this is just in the interm. Also you will be able to update using the OpenManage suite of tools | |
| DELL-ScottH | Are you using OpenManage in your environment yet ? | |
| dgebeke | Will it be a new version of OM or 5.3? | |
| DELL-ScottH | 5.3 with a 3rd level update | |
| DELL-ScottH | not sure on version yet, but will be 5.3.x | |
| dgebeke | Yes, but not to its full potential, just for ITA basically to monitor all of our Dell hardware | |
| DELL-ScottH | We've got some demos to show other aspects of the tools. Link in a second ..... | |
| dgebeke | ok, | |
| dgebeke | Can I change the subject for a second? | |
| DELL-davej | Yes, what's on your mind? | |
| DELL-ScottH | Here's the link on the public wiki --> http://www.delltechcenter.com/page/Demonstrations | |
| dgebeke | Have you guys done any iSCSI testing with the new switches? | |
| dgebeke | ok thanks | |
| DELL-davej | No, I don't have a switch, just passthrus. But what is your question/issue? | |
| dgebeke | We are wanting to test the private VLANing | |
| DELL-davej | Sounds cool. How far have you gotten? | |
| dgebeke | We've only done the testing on our in house Cisco switches, not the Dell switches yet, but we were informed it was possible | |
| dgebeke | We used the Dell passthrus | |
| DELL-davej | Yes, the switches are full PowerConnect switches so they should support a VLAN | |
| dgebeke | Well I think we've got everything we need for today, what is next weeks topic? I will take a look at the OM links you sent. Thanks for all the info | |
| DELL-davej | Let me know if you have any problems...I will route them to the correct person. Meanwhile I'm going to have to talk to the guy in charge of hardware in the lab (actually that's me!). | |
| dgebeke | haha | |
| DELL-davej | Next week Scott will be talking about his Christmas dinner | |
| dgebeke | oh yeah | |
| dgebeke | should be a good one | |
| DELL-ScottH | I'll remember to wear my sweats ... pack more in ! | |
| DELL-davej | The next session is Thursday 1/3. What do you want us to talk about? | |
| dgebeke | I would like to learn more about inter connecting the switches | |
| dgebeke | Not that we can do that with one chassis, but would like to learn more | |
| DELL-davej | Excellent topic. For that one I will bring in one of our switch experts | |
| dgebeke | If we are going to discuss switches at our next webchat I would like to invite our network engineer is that ok? | |
| DELL-davej | Absolutely, but we will have to invite him/her first. Please send the email address to enterprise_techcenter@dell.com | |
| dgebeke | any particular subject? | |
| dgebeke | for the email | |
| DELL-davej | No, our computers can handle any subject (haha) | |
| dgebeke | so you'll know what it's about if i just send an email with an email address in it? | |
| dgebeke | You must think it's a friday or something. I hate to be the one to break it to you, but its only Tuesday. :) | |
| DELL-ScottH | pretty much, that email box is currently mainly doing eval wiki requests | |
| DELL-davej | The persons's name would be helpful too | |
| dgebeke | OK done. | |
| dgebeke | So are the OM demos worth watching? | |
| DELL-ScottH | :-) ... well since I made them, I would say they are AWARD winning :-) | |
| dgebeke | OK, I'll pass it on to someone else. :) | |
| DELL-davej | Scott's demos were mentioned by eWeek | |
| dgebeke | really... | |
| DELL-ScottH | I try to keep them short so only about 8 minutes of your life you'll never get back | |
| dgebeke | i guess i better watch them then | |
| dgebeke | ok I can handle that. | |
| DELL-ScottH | yeah, the trade publications always know what is good .... wink wink | |
| DELL-davej | We have a few more minutes left. What else is on your mind DeDe? | |
| dgebeke | Wow I feel so special | |
| dgebeke | I think that's it..... I'll be eagerly anticipating the switch webchat | |
| dgebeke | ok I will do that. So how do I get the transcript of this webchat? | |
| DELL-davej | Tomorrow go to the same page you launched this from and there will be a link to the transcript | |
| dgebeke | ok great. | |
| dgebeke | Thanks for the info and entertainment. | |
| DELL-davej | Well thanks for your time and best of luck with the blades | |
| DELL-ScottH | Great chatting with you, we'll be here every week | |
| dgebeke | ok CYA | |
| DELL-davej | Bye DeDe | |
| DELL-davej | Well, it's 4:00 so we'll wrap it up. I will go ahead and document the iDRAC upgrade in the CMC, iDRAC and KVM section for account teams that will be working with customers to do this. |