DELL RACADM

D

dkline201

Does FreeBSD (specifically 13.1-rel) support DELL RACADM? I can get to the iDRAC Web Page, and also to a console page with putty on a Windows 10 system. But I can't figure out how to do anything with it from the console. Maybe Lifecycle is just accessible at the DELL system locally, but not remote console??? Thanks
 
Isn't iDRAC just Dell's branded IPMI access? But you may need to a license to be able to access the IPMI remote console, not sure about that. I mostly use SuperMicro and their IPMI doesn't require any additional licenses.

Modern IPMI has a HTML5 console access through the management website. The older IPMI required Java to access it.
 
DELL's iDRAC vs MegaRAID IPMI is like comparing driving a Porsche to a VW beetle. :-) >>> I was not aware that HTML5 was necessary for IPMI. I never got past that '#$%&' message that a "newer version of JAVAscript is necessary", which did nothing. Does HTML5 work on older version of MegaRAID boards? >>> DELL has "Express" license which is good basic system info, or you can buy "Enterprise" that tells you the color of the socks of the guy who built the system.
 
Second question: Is there a newer version of StorCli than "007.1211.0000.0000_Unified_StorCLI"? That version of StorCli works fine on MegaRAID boards, but NOT on DELL PERC, even though they both are based on the same chipset. >>> DELL PERC H720 and MegaRAID LSI 9261, DELL PERC H730 and MegaRAID 9361, etc. StorCli 'sees' the MegaRAID controller, but NOT the DELL Controller.
 
dkline201 said:
MegaRAID IPMI
Click to expand...
MegaRAID? That's a line of SAS cards made by LSI (now owned by Broadcom). Dell actually uses some rebranded LSI MegaRAID cards. So does HP. SuperMicro just sells the original LSI cards with their servers instead of rebranding them. Besides, the SAS controller card has little to do with IPMI.

dkline201 said:
I was not aware that HTML5 was necessary for IPMI.
Click to expand...
Not for the management web interface itself. Only for the "remote console" function. And the option to use HTML5 is only available on the newer IPMI versions.

dkline201 said:
I never got past that '#$%&' message that a "newer version of JAVAscript is necessary", which did nothing.
Click to expand...
No! It's not Javascript, it's Java it needs. Besides the name they are most certainly NOT the same thing. This to me sounds like the old IPMI that required a Java webclient. This should work if you install Java 8, java/openjdk8 for example. Ignore the warning saying you should "upgrade" your Java client. You may need to enable some older SSL/TLS protocols though, they've all been disabled in recent versions of OpenJDK/Java 8 and these old IPMI systems usually don't support the newer TLS 1.1 or TLS 1.2 protocols.
 
Newer Dell iDRAC works well with HTML5; if you can afford the Enterprise version then do so - it allows remote ISO installs as a key useful function.

I've used the HTML5 version to remotely install FreeBSD from ISO images onto Dell R430s and Dell R640s. (No more Java HURRAH!) I've got one R720 stuck on the older Java version - I have more problems with too-old-TLS https version rather than Java on there - the browsers won't even get as far as needing Java.

MegaCli works fine for me on those machines as well, so not sure what you are missing? Both on the H730 and H740.

I'm aiming to try a R350 this year if my budget stretches to it, so I'll see how I go with the H755 RAID controllers at that point.

StorCli is definitely the replacement for MegaCli, but MegaCli is still very useful for checking drive, battery, etc. health and events. There was someone asking about it somewhere the other day - will see if I can find the link.

I've got racadm on my to-learn list - think I used it the other day via ssh - so you should be able to ssh into the same IP as you use for your web brower iDRAC session, and login with the same credentials. Have to dig out my notes.
 
So I've got a Dell R430, the iDRAC dedicated NIC is set to 192.168.1.2 (so to use the browser interface, I'd go to https://192.168.1.2)

From another computer, I ssh in:

Code: 
% ssh root@192.168.1.2
The authenticity of host '192.168.1.2 (192.168.1.2)' can't be established.
ECDSA key fingerprint is SHA256:...
This key is not known by any other names
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no/[fingerprint])? yes
Warning: Permanently added '192.168.1.2' (ECDSA) to the list of known hosts.
root@192.168.1.2's password:
Warning: It is recommended not to use the default user name (root) and password as it is a security risk.

I've not finished setting this one up, so the user is the default root and the very naughty default Dell password for older systems like the R430.

Run a racadm command:

Code: 
/admin1-> racadm getsysinfo

RAC Information:
RAC Date/Time           = Wed Aug 31 22:23:11 2022

Firmware Version        = 2.81.81.81
Firmware Build          = 05
Last Firmware Update    = 08/10/2022 03:29:12
Hardware Version        = 0.01
MAC Address             = D0:94:66:1F:BC:7E
...

Appreciate this might not exactly be what you are looking for, but it is a way to use RACADM.

More info here: https://www.dell.com/support/manual...10ccba-c86f-4156-b7b9-3355c7af6bf8&lang=en-us

Might not be applicable to the iDRAC version you are using, but should get you started.

Look in the SEL (System Event Log):

Code: 
/admin1-> racadm getsel -i
Total Records: 31
/admin1-> racadm getsel -s 20
Record:      20
Date/Time:   02/11/2022 07:34:19
Source:      system
Severity:    Critical
Description: Drive 4 is removed from disk drive bay 1.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Record:      21
Date/Time:   02/11/2022 07:34:23
Source:      system
Severity:    Critical
Description: Drive 5 is removed from disk drive bay 1.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Record:      22
Date/Time:   02/11/2022 07:34:26
Source:      system
Severity:    Critical
Description: Drive 2 is removed from disk drive bay 1.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
...

Last example - getting sensor info:

Code: 
/admin1-> racadm getsensorinfo

Sensor Type : POWER
<Sensor Name>                   <Status>                 <Type>        
PS1 Status                      Present                  AC            
PS2 Status                      Present                  AC            

Sensor Type : TEMPERATURE
<Sensor Name>            <Status>    <Reading> <lc> <uc>  <lnc>[R/W]  <unc>[R/W]
[Key = iDRAC.Embedded.1#SystemBoardInletTemp]
System Board Inlet Temp       Ok      19C      -7C  47C      3C [Y]      42C [Y]

[Key = iDRAC.Embedded.1#CPU1Temp]
CPU1 Temp                     Ok      57C      3C   90C      8C [N]      85C [N]



Sensor Type : FAN
<Sensor Name>                   <Status>    <Reading>   <lc>        <uc>        <PWM %>    
System Board Fan1A              Ok          1920RPM     720RPM      NA          3%         
System Board Fan1B              Ok          1920RPM     720RPM      NA          3%         
System Board Fan2A              Ok          2880RPM     720RPM      NA          9%         
System Board Fan2B              Ok          2640RPM     720RPM      NA          9%         
System Board Fan3A              Ok          1920RPM     720RPM      NA          3%         
System Board Fan3B              Ok          1920RPM     720RPM      NA          3%         
System Board Fan4A              Ok          1920RPM     720RPM      NA          3%         
System Board Fan4B              Ok          1800RPM     720RPM      NA          3%         
System Board Fan5A              Ok          1920RPM     720RPM      NA          3%         
System Board Fan5B              Ok          1800RPM     720RPM      NA          3%         

Sensor Type : VOLTAGE
<Sensor Name>                   <Status>    <Reading>           <lc>        <uc>       
CPU1 VCORE PG                   Ok          Good                NA          NA         
CPU1 FIVR PG                    Ok          Good                NA          NA         
System Board 3.3V PG            Ok          Good                NA          NA         
System Board 1.5V AUX PG        Ok          Good                NA          NA         
System Board 5V AUX PG          Ok          Good                NA          NA         
System Board Dedicated NIC      Unknown     Good                NA          NA         
PERC1 Presence                  Unknown     Good                NA          NA         
CPU1 Presence                   Unknown     Good                NA          NA         
CPU2 Presence                   Unknown     Bad                 NA          NA         
CPU1 M23 VPP PG                 Ok          Good                NA          NA         
System Board 1.05V PG           Ok          Good                NA          NA         
System Board 2.5V AUX PG        Ok          Good                NA          NA         
System Board 5V SWITCH PG       Ok          Good                NA          NA         
System Board BP1 5V PG          Ok          Good                NA          NA         
System Board PS1 PG Fail        Ok          Good                NA          NA         
System Board PS2 PG Fail        Ok          Good                NA          NA         
PS2 Presence                    Unknown     1.00V               NA          NA         
CPU2 DIMM PG                    Ok          Good                NA          NA         
CPU1 VCCIO PG                   Ok          Good                NA          NA         
CPU1 M01 VDDQ PG                Ok          Good                NA          NA         
CPU1 M01 VPP PG                 Ok          Good                NA          NA         
IDSDM Presence                  Unknown     Bad                 NA          NA         
System Board 1.5V PG            Ok          Good                NA          NA         
CPU1 M01 VTT PG                 Ok          Good                NA          NA         
CPU1 M23 VTT PG                 Ok          Good                NA          NA         
PS1 Voltage 1                   Ok          236.00V             NA          NA         
PS2 Voltage 2                   Ok          236.00V             NA          NA         

Sensor Type : CURRENT
<Sensor Name>            <Status>    <Reading> <lc> <uc>  <lnc>[R/W]  <unc>[R/W]
[Key = iDRAC.Embedded.1#PS1Current1]
PS1 Current 1                 Ok      0.4Amps  NA   NA       0Amps [N]      0Amps [N]

[Key = iDRAC.Embedded.1#PS2Current2]
PS2 Current 2                 Ok      0.0Amps  NA   NA       0Amps [N]      0Amps [N]

[Key = iDRAC.Embedded.1#SystemBoardPwrConsumption]
System Board Pwr Consumption  Ok      84Watts  NA   728Watts 0Watts [N]      658Watts [Y]


Sensor Type : PROCESSOR
<Sensor Name>                   <Status>    <State>             <lc>        <uc>       
CPU1 Status                     Ok          Presence_Detected   NA          NA         
CPU2 Status                     N/A         Absent              NA          NA         

Sensor Type : MEMORY
<Sensor Name>                   <Status>    <State>             <lc>        <uc>       
DIMM A1                         Ok          Presence_Detected   NA          NA         
DIMM A2                         Ok          Presence_Detected   NA          NA         
DIMM A3                         Ok          Presence_Detected   NA          NA         
DIMM A4                         Ok          Presence_Detected   NA          NA         
DIMM A5                         N/A         Absent              NA          NA         
DIMM A6                         N/A         Absent              NA          NA         
DIMM A7                         N/A         Absent              NA          NA         
DIMM A8                         N/A         Absent              NA          NA         
DIMM B1                         N/A         Absent              NA          NA         
DIMM B2                         N/A         Absent              NA          NA         
DIMM B3                         N/A         Absent              NA          NA         
DIMM B4                         N/A         Absent              NA          NA         

Sensor Type : BATTERY
<Sensor Name>                   <Status>    <Reading>           <lc>        <uc>       
System Board CMOS Battery       Ok          Present             NA          NA         
PERC1 ROMB Battery              Ok          Present             NA          NA         

Sensor Type : PERFORMANCE
<Sensor Name>                   <Status>    <State>        <lc>      <uc>     
System Board Power Optimized    Ok          Not Degraded   NA        NA       

Sensor Type : INTRUSION
<Sensor Name>                   <Intrusion>    <Status>      
System Board Intrusion          Closed         Power ON      

Sensor Type : REDUNDANCY
<Sensor Name>                   <Status>                 <Type>        
System Board Fan Redundancy     Full Redundant           Fan           
System Board PS Redundancy      Full Redundant           PSU           

Sensor Type : SYSTEM PERFORMANCE
<Sensor Name>            <Status>    <Reading> <lc> <uc>  <lnc>[R/W]  <unc>[R/W]
[Key = iDRAC.Embedded.1#SystemBoardCPUUsage]
System Board CPU Usage   Ok             0%      NA  NA    NA  [N]      101% [Y]

[Key = iDRAC.Embedded.1#SystemBoardIOUsage]
System Board IO Usage    Ok             0%      NA  NA    NA  [N]      101% [Y]

[Key = iDRAC.Embedded.1#SystemBoardMEMUsage]
System Board MEM Usage   Ok             0%      NA  NA    NA  [N]      101% [Y]

[Key = iDRAC.Embedded.1#SystemBoardSYSUsage]
System Board SYS Usage   Ok             0%      NA  NA    NA  [N]      101% [Y]

Backspace doesn't seem to work so editing commands was ... tricky ... not sure what that is about.
 
Re-reading your original post - if you are after host operating system integration with the iDRAC then I don't think there's anything like that for FreeBSD, no. Definitely Windows, and maybe Linux.

Looks like there's a lot you can do with the ssh RACADM console access, but can't guarantee it 100% overlaps with what you can do with the host OS integration.

But there's stuff like firmware upgrades etc. listed on that page so it does seem fairly extensive.

I've done the firmware upgrades via an uploaded ISO (so needing iDRAC Enterprise). So boot the Dell ISO and let the upgrade run. It's a bit too exciting, though, in terms of the screen going blank at times and not being quite sure how things are going.
 
Anyone have any updates on the StorCLI on DELL PERC systems? I have a SuperMicro X10DRL with a MegaRAID 9361 that returns proper status responses to MegaCLI and StorCLI commands. I can get all the information that I need to check the functions on the RAID board. However, I also have several DELL Servers with H720, H730, and now H755 PERC controllers. The MegaRAID still works on the DELL, but StorCLI reports "no Controller found", therefore no status information is returned. This seems to be the latest StorCLI version.
 
Got a Dell R450 with H755 PERC RAID controller and seeing the same as you, sadly. FreeBSD 13.1. Neither MegaCli nor StorCli think I've got anything useful:
Code: 
# MegaCli -LDInfo -Lall -aALL
                                  

Adapter 0 -- Virtual Drive Information:
Adapter 0: No Virtual Drive Configured.

Exit Code: 0x00

# storcli /c0 show
CLI Version = 007.1211.0000.0000 Nov 07, 2019
Operating system = FreeBSD 13.1-RELEASE-p2
Controller = 0
Status = Failure
Description = Controller 0 not found

FreeBSD knew to use mrsas automatically, and from dmesg:
Code: 
AVAGO MegaRAID SAS FreeBSD mrsas driver version: 07.709.04.00-fbsd
mrsas0: <BROADCOM AERO-10E2 SAS Controller> port 0xe000-0xe0ff mem 0xe6800000-0xe68fffff,0xe6900000-0xe69fffff,0xe6a00000-0xe6afffff at device 0.0 numa-domain 0 on pci10
...
da0 at mrsas0 bus 0 scbus12 target 239 lun 0
da0: <DELL PERC H755 Front 5.16> Fixed Direct Access SPC-3 SCSI device
da0: Serial Number 0077c9b1571257ee2a00d1a04580e04e
da0: 150.000MB/s transfers
da0: 457344MB (936640512 512 byte sectors)

I'll keep digging.

EDIT: found a newer version of storcli, May 2022, but same outcome:
Code: 
# ./storcli64 show all
CLI Version = 007.2203.0000.0000 May 11, 2022
Operating system = FreeBSD 13.1-RELEASE-p2
Status Code = 0
Status = Success
Description = None

Number of Controllers = 0
Host Name = r450.xxx.yyy.zzz
Operating System  = FreeBSD 13.1-RELEASE-p2
StoreLib IT Version = 07.2300.0200.0100

EDIT: getting confused now - a Dell support page says MegaCli *will* work and so it does:
Code: 
# MegaCli -PDList -aALL

But this has wodged it:
Code: 
# MegaCli -AdpAllInfo -aAll
                                     
load: 0.02  cmd: MegaCli 50178 [mrsas_sleep] 22.25r 0.00u 0.00s 0% 2716k
mi_switch+0xc2 sleepq_timedwait+0x2f _sleep+0x1e3 mrsas_issue_blocked_cmd+0xe6 mrsas_passthru+0x6bb mrsas_ioctl+0x46d devfs_ioctl+0xc6 vn_ioctl+0x1a4 devfs_ioctl_f+0x1e kern_ioctl+0x25b sys_ioctl+0xf1 amd64_syscall+0x10c fast_syscall_common+0xf8 
load: 0.01  cmd: MegaCli 50178 [mrsas_sleep] 60.76r 0.00u 0.00s 0% 2716k
mi_switch+0xc2 sleepq_timedwait+0x2f _sleep+0x1e3 mrsas_issue_blocked_cmd+0xe6 mrsas_passthru+0x6bb mrsas_ioctl+0x46d devfs_ioctl+0xc6 vn_ioctl+0x1a4 devfs_ioctl_f+0x1e kern_ioctl+0x25b sys_ioctl+0xf1 amd64_syscall+0x10c fast_syscall_common+0xf8
 
Not having much joy with MegaCli and StorCli yet but yes, RACADM allows you to see disk status which is what I'm after.

So this is a test R450 with H755, two SSDs set up as RAID1 in the Dell System Setup screens.

I ssh in to the iDRAC IP address I specified as part of the iDRAC set-up, use the iDRAC password, and I can do things like this:
Code: 
racadm>>racadm raid get pdisks -o -p state,size
Disk.Bay.0:Enclosure.Internal.0-1:RAID.SL.3-1
   State                            = Online                                  
   Size                             = 446.625 GB                              
Disk.Bay.1:Enclosure.Internal.0-1:RAID.SL.3-1
   State                            = Online                                  
   Size                             = 446.625 GB                              
racadm>>racadm raid help vdisks               
Storage monitoring and inventory of virtual disks connected to the controllers.
...
racadm>>racadm storage get vdisks -o -p name,status
Disk.Virtual.239:RAID.SL.3-1
   Name                             = OSBOOT                                  
   Status                           = Ok
So I can see the physical (2x480GB SSDs) & virtual drives (OSBOOT is the name I gave the RAID1 set) and their status.

It's a bit old but might help: https://dl.dell.com/manuals/all-products/esuprt_software/esuprt_remote_ent_sys_mgmt/esuprt_rmte_ent_sys_lifecycle_cntrllr/dell-lifecycle-cntrler-2-rel-v1.3.0_white papers108_en-us.pdf

Not remotely as convenient as something at the OS-level that can get these details and not much better than just using the iDRAC web GUI.

I'll still keep trying StorCli and MegaCli but really looks like Dell is pushing their PERCCLI tool now.

EDIT: MegaCli hang (or similar) happens under Debian, too, and the only OS-side "solution" is to install PERCCLI:

serverfault.com

Dell PERC H750 compatibility with Debian

I've been using Debian on Dell servers for many years. For a long time I've been using the PERC H730P RAID controller, which is well supported by utilities like MegaCLI. Recently I've bought a R440
serverfault.com serverfault.com
 
Last edited:
Hey there, this is going to be a zombie reply, but I'll share it because I have some details.

I've been trying for a while now to get a port of racadm working in FreeBSD (and it may finally happen). That bug is here: https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=201799, and you can see that lots of people ask the same questions again and again. Anyway, if it happens, there's a few catches:

1) It will require the linux subsystem and
2) You'll have to build the port yourself (no pkg, for Dell licensing reasons)
3) If you want to use it to talk to your local machine, you'll have to configure the internal USB nic that the idrac exposes, and talk to it that way.

You can also do this without racadm, and just ssh, internally, to the idrac, where there's a slightly more limited version of racadm running ("embedded racadm"). You can even add an ssh pubkey to your idrac and your FreeBSD OS so you can do this in a scripted fashion. Or you can speak snmp, internally or externally, to the idrac.

Under Linux, it *used to be* that racadm spoke some weird undocumented form of ipmi, but nowadays, it just connects over https, internally. (ipmi, I think, is still used to do things like reset the card and configure the ip address).

The FAQ I've written (which I'll update if it becomes a port) is at:

gushi.medium.com

A Story about racadm and FreeBSD

SysAdmin Combat Story #29, collect them all.
gushi.medium.com gushi.medium.com

One more note: I have found a few cases of some Supermicro machines needing extra licenses for things, especially for mounting remote media, so they're not perfect here.
 
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