Provisioning iDRAC devices

You can provision servers equipped with the Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller (iDRAC).

You can import both iDRAC6 Express and iDRAC6 Enterprise level devices into the BMC Server Automation system and provision them with the Windows operating system. After iDRAC devices are managed in the system, you can copy drivers from an iDRAC device to a data store so they can be shared for provisioning other iDRAC devices in the system. For servers equipped with iDRAC6 Enterprise with Virtual Flash (vFlash) and Firmware 1.3, you can also download the .iso to the iDRAC vFlash.

Note the following requirements for iDRAC provisioning:

• iDRAC devices must be equipped with iDRAC6 Express or later.
• The Stage ISO to vFlash option requires iDRAC 6 Enterprise with vFlash and Firmware 1.3.
• Only provisioning of the Windows operating system is supported.
• Only a network ISO boot image and booting from vFlash are supported. Booting from a PXE server is not supported.
• Provisioning from a local data store is not supported.
• You may encounter issues with provisioning servers equipped with the Dell iDRAC device due to issues with the setup of the device itself. For information about these issues, see the Dell iDRAC Release Notes and knowledge base.

• BMC Server Automation provisioning uses the txtsetup.oem file supplied by the iDRAC device. Currently, this file has an incorrect item that you must remove in order to provision successfully. Edit the txtsetup.oem file and in the [scsi] section, remove \ percsas.sys,\ from the line for PERC_32. (The example shows the item to remove in bold.)

  [scsi]
  # This section lists the options available for a particular component.
  #
  # <id> is the unique string for the option
  # <description> is a text string, presented to the user in a menu
  # <key_name> gives the name of the key to be created for the component in
  # HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ControlSet001\Services
  PERC_32 = "DELL PERC5 and PERC6/CERC6 RAID Controller Driver (Server 2003 32 bit)", *\percsas.sys, \*
  

To provision iDRAC devices

1. Import the iDRAC devices into the BMC Server Automation system.
   For information, see Importing an iDRAC device.
2. Create a WinPE 2.x ISO image file.
   For information, see Creating WinPE 2.0 and later boot image files.
3. Copy operating system drivers from the iDRAC device to the data store so the drivers can be used in provisioning other iDRAC devices.
   For information, see Copying iDRAC drivers to a data store.
4. (Optional) If you plan to boot the iDRAC device from an ISO image on the device's vFlash, download the ISO image from the data store to the vFlash.
   For information, see Downloading an ISO image to vFlash.
5. Create a Windows system package.
6. Create the Provision Job as you normally would for a Windows Provision Job.
   1. On the Select System Package panel, select the system package you created and select the WinPE 2.x ISO image you specified.
   2. On the System Package Properties panel, set the value for DATA_STORE property to the data store where operating system installation files for the iDRAC device.
   3. Provide drivers and boot information about the iDRAC panel. For information, see The iDRAC panel.
7. Execute the Provision Job.