[OpenIndiana-discuss] Problem with Dell iDRAC

[Edward Ned Harvey (openindiana)]

Oh.  I see now, Rich's solution about updated driver.  That sounds better.  ;-)


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Edward Ned Harvey (openindiana)
> Sent: Tuesday, April 23, 2013 8:34 AM
> To: openindiana-discuss at openindiana.org
> Subject: RE: [OpenIndiana-discuss] Problem with Dell iDRAC
> 
> > From: Kris Henriksson [mailto:kth48 at cornell.edu]
> >
> > I've been having a long-standing issue with using the iDRAC on my
> > server with OpenIndiana, and I thought before giving up completely, I
> > could try asking the mailing list. The problem is that the iDRAC is
> > completely inaccessible while OpenIndiana is running.
> >
> > The system is a Dell PowerEdge T610, with Dell iDRAC 6 Express. If I
> > run Linux on it, the iDRAC can be accessed just fine, and before
> > OpenIndiana has started booting, I can access it, but with OI running
> > it is inaccessible. The DRAC shares a physical network port with the
> > OS, but has a separate MAC address and independent network traffic.
> 
> I've seen that before.
> 
> Got over it...  I forget precisely how ...  I think I had to go into BIOS, and
> "disable" the first NIC.  This makes it inaccessible to the OS, but not
> inaccessible to the iDRAC.  Then, obviously, connect two separate ethernet
> cables.  One for the management interface, and one for the OS.
> 
> Also, if you ping monitor the OS and the iDRAC...  It is normal to see the
> iDRAC disappear at certain moments during the boot process.  So don't
> assume it's failed the moment ping begins to fail.  Wait for the OS to come up
> completely, and perhaps a minute longer.
> 
> Oh yeah ...
> 
> This might be separate, but the built-in broadcom NIC was never stable in
> solaris 10 / opensolaris.  Symptom was a weird sort of black-screen lockup
> while still responding to ping, which occurred approx once a week.  We made
> this problem go away by buying an add-on Intel server NIC.  So it's distinctly
> possible, that the actual iDRAC solution is to "disable" both the broadcom
> ethernets in BIOS (use only by iDRAC) and only use the Intel NIC in the OS.