Dell System Update (DSU) and racadm 

The Dell System Update (DSU) is a script optimized update deployment tool for applying Dell Update Packages (DUP) to Dell EMC PowerEdge servers. See the DSU manuals.

The DSU may also be configured as a Yum repository, see the DSU page. The commands are:

curl -O https://linux.dell.com/repo/hardware/dsu/bootstrap.cgi
bash bootstrap.cgi

Alternatively, download the latest Systems-Management_Application_* file from the server’s download category Systems Management and execute it, for example:

./Systems-Management_Application_N2H86_LN64_2.1.2.0_A00.BIN

This will create the Yum repository file:

/etc/yum.repos.d/dell-system-update.repo

Now you can install RPM packages including iDRAC tools:

yum install dell-system-update

or you can extract the RPM package:

./Systems-Management_Application_MPVTK_LN64_2.1.0.0_A00.BIN --extract /tmp
ls -l /tmp/dell-system-update-2.1.0.0-24.09.00.x86_64.rpm
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root 6430762 Dec  3 08:21 /tmp/dell-system-update-2.1.0.0-24.09.00.x86_64.rpm
dnf install /tmp/dell-system-update-2.1.0.0-24.09.00.x86_64.rpm

Using DSU to preview Dell upgrades:

/usr/sbin/dsu -n -p

To apply Dell upgrades:

/usr/sbin/dsu -u

Installing the racadm package 

The racadm package is no longer contained in the dell-system-update.repo (Dec. 2024). You have to download the Dell iDRAC Tools for Linux tar-ball file (currently v11.2.1.0) file from the server’s download category Systems Management.

Unpack the tar-ball:

tar xzvf Dell-iDRACTools-Web-LX-11.2.1.0-528_A00.tar.gz

and go to the iDRACTools/racadm folder. Unfortunately, the install_racadm.sh script doesn’t work on Rocky and other EL8/EL9 clones. Go to the appropriate subfolder and install the RPM packages:

cd iDRACTools/racadm/RHEL8/x86_64/
dnf install srvadmin-*rpm
ln -s /opt/dell/srvadmin/bin/idracadm7 /usr/local/bin/racadm  # Provides a "racadm" command

Systems Management Managed Node Core and CLI 

Install the package:

yum install srvadmin-omacore

Disk reports:

omreport storage vdisk                      # List of Virtual Disks in the System
omreport storage pdisk controller=1         # List of Physical Disks on Controller 1
omreport storage pdisk controller=1 vdisk=0 # List of Physical Disks belonging to Virtual Disk0

The racadm command 

Make a soft link for the racadm command:

ln -s /opt/dell/srvadmin/bin/idracadm7 /usr/local/bin/racadm

Read the Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller 9 RACADM CLI Guide.

There is a useful racadm cheat sheet.

Some examples are:

Get Health LED status:
```
racadm getled
```
Make the LED blink:
```
racadm setled -l 1
```
Stop the LED from blinking:
```
racadm setled -l 0
```

Get system and version information:

Service Tag: racadm getsvctag
System info: racadm getsysinfo -s
Versions:    racadm getversion
BIOS:        racadm getversion -b
CPLD:        racadm getversion -c
iDRAC:       racadm getversion -f idrac

Get system logs:

SEL Event Log: racadm getsel
Lifecycle Log: racadm lclog view

Get hardware inventory information:
```
racadm hwinventory
```

Clone system configuration with racadm 

The racadm command can be used to get and set the system configuration using:

--clone Gets the configuration .xml files without system-related details such as service tag. The .xml file received does not have any virtual disk creation option.

For example:

racadm get --clone -t xml -f config.xml

In the config.xml you may possibly want to delete the line setting the iDRAC password so that your current password is preserved:

<Attribute Name="Users.2#Password">Calvin#SCP#CloneReplace1</Attribute>

To use the config.xml on another server and reboot automatically by default:

racadm set -t xml -f config.xml

To postpone the reboot:

racadm set -t xml -f config.xml -b NoReboot

Add the --preview to just check the operation.

You can also reconfigure just a single setting component with the -c flag, for example:

racadm set -t xml -f config.xml -c NIC.Integrated.1-1-1 -b NoReboot

To configure the UEFI boot order:

racadm set bios.biosbootsettings.UefiBootSeq NIC.PxeDevice.1-1,Disk.SATAEmbedded.A-1

or configure this setting in the config.xml file:

<Attribute Name="UefiBootSeq">NIC.PxeDevice.1-1, Disk.SATAEmbedded.A-1</Attribute>

The server will need to be rebooted, see the racadm set -b NoReboot|Graceful|Forced options in:

racadm help set

The racadm set operation launches an iDRAC job which must complete before you reboot the server. See the job status by:

racadm jobqueue view -i JID_xxxxxx

Setting system parameters with racadm 

Set the E-mail alerts destination:

racadm set iDRAC.EmailAlert.Address.1 <some-email-address>

View the BIOS boot mode:

racadm get BIOS.BiosBootSettings

To set the boot mode to UEFI at the next reboot:

racadm set BIOS.BiosBootSettings.BootMode Uefi
racadm jobqueue create BIOS.Setup.1-1

Note: It seems that additional UEFI parameters also need to be set (TBD):

UefiBootSeq NIC.PxeDevice.1-1,Disk.SATAEmbedded.A-1
HddPlaceholder Enabled

To enable IPMI over LAN:

racadm set iDRAC.IPMILan.Enable 1

The server needs to be rebooted in order for the new setting to take effect.

Get a list of settings:

racadm get BIOS

To read some current values:

racadm get iDRAC.IPMILan
racadm get BIOS.ProcSettings
racadm get BIOS.SysProfileSettings
racadm get BIOS.SysProfileSettings.WorkloadProfile

See the manual Configuring IPMI over LAN using RACADM.

To enable WakeOnLan first check the installed NICs (network adapters), for example:

racadm get NIC.NICConfig
NIC.NICConfig.1 [Key=NIC.Embedded.1-1-1#NICConfig]
NIC.NICConfig.2 [Key=NIC.Embedded.2-1-1#NICConfig]

View the NIC settings:

racadm get NIC.NICConfig.1

Set the WakeOnLan:

racadm set NIC.NICConfig.1.WakeOnLan Enabled

Then you must create a job for this NIC:

racadm jobqueue create NIC.Embedded.1-1-1

A new setting will only take effect after a system reboot.

Dell System Update (DSU) and racadm

Installing the racadm package

Systems Management Managed Node Core and CLI

The racadm command

Clone system configuration with racadm

Setting system parameters with racadm