Dell PowerEdge R720xd, Manual

Page 1: ...Author s Wei Liu Raja Tamilarasan Updating BIOS on Dell 12G PowerEdge Servers ...

Page 2: ...aphy or photography Dell the Dell logo and PowerEdge are trademarks of Dell Inc Intel and Xeon are registered trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U S and other countries Microsoft Windows and Windows Server are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and or other countries Other trademarks and trade names may be used in this document to refer to ...

Page 3: ...agement Controller CMC 28 Figures Figure 1 Windows DUP 6 Figure 2 After DUP installation a system reboot is required for the update to be staged 7 Figure 3 System reboots to Lifecycle Controller 8 Figure 4 The BIOS update inside Lifecycle Controller 9 Figure 5 Linux DUP 10 Figure 6 DOS based BIOS flash utility 11 Figure 7 BIOS Boot Manager 12 Figure 8 Flash BIOS in UEFI shell 13 Figure 9 UEFI base...

Page 4: ...Updating BIOS on Dell 12G PowerEdge Servers iv Figure 17 Remote Firmware Update 21 ...

Page 5: ...ng system OS Using the DOS based BIOS flash utility Using the UEFI based BIOS flash utility Using the Lifecycle Controller Platform Update option F10 Using the WSMAN based 1 Many Remote Update method Remote Enablement 1 1 Updates BIOS DUP Dell Update Package from the Operating System OS Windows DUP Installation steps 1 Browse to the location where you downloaded the file for example BIOS_VT7R8_WN3...

Page 6: ...Updating BIOS on Dell 12G PowerEdge Servers 6 Windows DUP Figure 1 3 Click Install 4 Follow the remaining prompts to perform the update Figure 2 ...

Page 7: ...Updating BIOS on Dell 12G PowerEdge Servers 7 After DUP installation a system reboot is required for the update to be staged Figure 2 5 The system will reboot and launch Lifecycle Controller Figure 3 ...

Page 8: ...tem reboots to Lifecycle Controller Figure 3 6 The Lifecycle Controller will invoke the BIOS update Figure 4 This may take a few minutes After the BIOS is updated a system reboot will automatically take place and boot back to the host operating system ...

Page 9: ...ate inside Lifecycle Controller Figure 4 Linux DUP Installation steps 1 Read over the release information presented by executing the PER710_BIOS_LX_6 0 7 BIN command from the shell 2 Run the update by executing PER710_BIOS_LX_6 0 7 BIN from the shell Figure 5 ...

Page 10: ...ystem DOS based BIOS Flash Utility The DOS or DRMK Dell Real Mode Kernel based BIOS flash utility for each platform can also be found at the Dell support website Note that you must have DOS bootable media such as a USB key To update the BIOS using this utility perform the following steps 1 Browse to the location where you downloaded the file 2 Update the name of the file to DOS recognizable format...

Page 11: ...eration platform There are two ways to utilize this utility one is to run it from a UEFI shell and the other is to load it directly from BIOS Boot Manager Run BIOS Flash Utility in a UEFI Shell In this method you must provide a UEFI bootable device such as a USB key To make a USB key bootable in UEFI mode you can download the UEFI shell binary from the UEFI open source website ttp sourceforge net ...

Page 12: ...r on the system Press F11 during POST to enter BIOS Boot Manager Figure 7 BIOS Boot Manager Figure 7 3 Click UEFI Boot Menu and choose the UEFI bootable USB key to boot 4 From the UEFI shell prompt locate the file system for the USB key and launch the BIOS flash utility Figure 8 ...

Page 13: ...Updating BIOS on Dell 12G PowerEdge Servers 13 Flash BIOS in UEFI shell Figure 8 5 Follow the on screen instruction to update the BIOS Figure 9 and Figure 10 ...

Page 14: ...Updating BIOS on Dell 12G PowerEdge Servers 14 UEFI based BIOS flash utility Figure 9 ...

Page 15: ...a UEFI shell you can still use the following method to update the BIOS using the UEFI BIOS flash utility 1 Copy the downloaded UEFI BIOS flash utility efi to a USB key 2 Plug in the USB key and power on the server Press F11 during POST to enter the BIOS Boot Manager Figure 7 3 Navigate to the System Utilities menu and select BIOS Update File Explorer Figure 11 ...

Page 16: ...IOS on Dell 12G PowerEdge Servers 16 BIOS Update File Explorer Figure 11 4 Select the USB key and navigate through the directory contents to find the UEFI BIOS flash utility for example R720 010100 efi Figure 12 ...

Page 17: ... Update wizard to view the current versions of the installed applications and firmware display the list of available updates and select the required updates downloads and apply the updates Different methods such as FTP server local USB devices and network share can be set up to access the updates in your organization For detailed usage please refer to the Lifecycle Controller User s guide In this ...

Page 18: ...ll 12G PowerEdge Servers 18 Lifecycle Controller screen after pressing F10 during POST Figure 13 1 Click on Platform Update Launch Platform Update Figure 14 Platform Update screen Figure 14 2 Select Local Drive Figure 15 ...

Page 19: ...2G PowerEdge Servers 19 Select Update Repository in Platform Update Figure 15 3 Select your USB device from the Local Drive drop down list Type in the name of the DUP for example BIOS_VTR78_WN32_1 1 0 EXE to be used to update ...

Page 20: ...te 1 Many Updates Remote BIOS Update using WSMAN The option discussed here is a remote BIOS update feature using a CIM method based on the DMTF standard through the WSMAN protocol a network transport service that enables the user to access a number of CIM style data access methods supported by the target platform The WSMAN protocol is transmitted through an SSL encrypted HTTP connection ...

Page 21: ...ins the Dell update packages DUPs that will be used to update the firmware on the target system Before you Begin Here is a list of items that you need to prepare 1 Verify that the target system is a Dell PowerEdge server with iDRAC enabled configured and network reachable to talk WSMAN 2 If you are using Windows verify that the winrm command line tool is configured and ready If you need help with ...

Page 22: ...message and exit v verbose Prints information verbosely f FWUPDATE firmware component FWUPDATE prints component information nic bios idrac_fw drivers_pack power_supply raid lifecycle_controller diagnostics 1 The fw_inventory py script will prompt for 2 Enter iDRAC IP Address iDRAC IP Enter User Name USER NAME Enter User Password PASSWORD The first argument is the IP address of the iDRAC on the tar...

Page 23: ...cess Controller 10 update APAC Installed 25806 4216 1 Dell Enterprise UEFI Diagnostics Diagnostics Utility 11 update APAC Installed 28897 1 0 0 3551 Dell Lifecycle Controller 2 1 0 0 3551 X69 12 update FRMW Installed 27763 0 5 3 System CPLD 13 update APAC Installed 18981 7 0 0 38 Dell OS Driver Pack v 7 0 0 38 X38 14 update FRMW Installed Empty 3 0 0 0135 PERC S110 Controller 15 update FRMW Instal...

Page 24: ... and lists the components that are updatable A sample output of the command Firmware Component Inventory List b bios dp drivers_pack i idrac_fw n nic p power_supply r raid lc lifecycle_controller d diagnostics a all Each entry in the output lists the device that can either be a Updated to firmware located on a network share ftp http tftp nfs cifs or b Rolled back to a previous version of the firmw...

Page 25: ...is the IP address of the update package repository The LOCATION is the path or directory The DUPFILENAME is the update package file name The only supported update package is the Dell Update Package for Windows that can be downloaded from support dell com USER and PASSWORD refer to the user credentials allowed to access and download from the share MOUNTNAME refers to the share mount name The follow...

Page 26: ...mediately Use the schedule option to schedule the job for a future time The schedule option will prompt for a start time which should be of the format MM DD YYYY hh mm ss Y Year M Month D Day H Hour m minute S second 12 13 2011 11 11 11 Once the start time is specified the Update job is initiated 11 The update package is downloaded from the repository and may take some time depending on the size o...

Page 27: ...to monitor when the actual update is executed and ultimately be able to verify the update by checking the new version from the inventory enumeration The script to monitor the update fw_poll py Run fw_poll py h for usage options fw_poll py h Usage fw_poll py options Options h help show this help message and exit j JOBID JobID JOBID Provide one of the JobIDs begins with JID or RID within the fwupdat...

Page 28: ... For more information on Repository Manager refer to the techcenter link below http en community dell com techcenter systems management w wiki 1767 repository manager aspx BIOS update using Dell Management Plug In for VMware vCenter The Dell Management Plug in for VMware vCenter is designed to streamline the management processes in your data center environment by allowing you to use VMware vCenter...

Page 29: ... remotely power on off blades and enable alerts for events on servers and components in the blade chassis For more information on performing updates using the Dell Chassis Management Controller refer to the following link http en community dell com techcenter systems management w wiki dell chassis management controller aspx ...