Dell DRAC Remote SSH Console Redirection

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Editorial

I posted this originally in my blog. I do not believe the context of these instructions belong in my blog and would be better suited for a wiki where they can be openly edited and changed over time (unlike my blog). In addition, there are references cited below as well as formatting changes that make it different from the original blog entry.

This information could change over time and is better suited for a wiki page where it can be openly edited and updated over time by any who wish to keep it up to date.

Pre-configuration Steps: Upgrade software and firmware

1. Upgrade to the latest Dell OpenManage Server Administrator Managed Node package Omconfig and racadm should be included in those packages.

2. Upgrade your Drac firmware to the latest version.

: :

3. Set the DRAC root password. See Dell DRAC Passwords.

Determine if you have a DRAC4 or DRAC5 card installed

Two ways to tell your DRAC card version _before_ installing racadm (so you know which racadm to symlink to /usr/bin/racadm ) :

First way is to use the IPMI version. DRAC4's are version 1.5 and DRAC5's are 2.0.

On a DRAC4 host:

# ipmitool mc info |grep IPMI

IPMI Version : 1.5

On a DRAC5 host:

# ipmitool mc info |grep IPMI

IPMI Version : 2.0

What's nice about ipmitool is that you don't have to have any OpenManage packages installed to use it.

But that's not going to work when they release DRAC6 if DRAC6 is IPMI version 2.0 as well.

A more direct method is to use the omreport command:

On a DRAC4 host:

# omreport chassis info |grep DRAC

DRAC4 Version : 1.60

On a DRAC5 host:

# omreport chassis info |grep DRAC

DRAC 5 Version : 1.32

I recommend using omreport to determine the DRAC version.

Dell DRAC 4 : How to set up console redirection for ssh connections

1. Configure the bios options:

omconfig chassis biossetup attribute=conredirect setting=enable

omconfig chassis biossetup attribute=serialport1 setting=rac

omconfig chassis biossetup attribute=fbr setting=9600

omconfig chassis biossetup attribute=crab setting=enabled

2. Change drac settings:

racadm config -g cfgSerial -o cfgSerialBaudRate 57600

racadm config -g cfgSerial -o cfgSerialConsoleEnable 1

racadm config -g cfgSerial -o cfgSerialConsoleIdleTimeout 0x300c

racadm config -g cfgSerial -o cfgSerialTelnet7fIsBackspace 1

racadm config -g cfgSerial -o cfgSerialSshEnable 1

racadm config -g cfgSerial -o cfgSerialHistorySize 0x2000

Check the changes with "racadm getconfig -g cfgSerial"

3. Edit your grub.conf to enable two things: 1- grub interaction and 2- kernel messages and rc script output.

For the first part (grub interaction) you'll need to add a "serial" and "terminal" line to the grub.conf. You must comment out the splashimage for this to work.:

# splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz

# hiddenmenu

serial --unit=0 --speed=9600

terminal --timeout=5 serial console

Next you'll need to pass to the kernel the console arguments so you can see all the messages once the kernel loads and beyond (output from rc scripts for example.) Note that it's ttyS0:

kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.9-67.ELsmp ro root=LABEL=/ console=tty0 console=ttyS0,57600

4. You'll need to add a agetty line in the /etc/inittab to redirect the serial console correctly and restart init afterwards. This will provide you with a login prompt in the serial console once the system has booted.

For example (Note: ttyS0):

CONS:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty -i -L 57600 ttyS0 vt100

5. After you've added the above line to /etc/inittab

Restart init with:

init q

Dell DRAC 5 : How to set up console redirection for ssh connections

1. Configure the bios options:

omconfig chassis biossetup attribute=extserial setting=rad

omconfig chassis biossetup attribute=fbr setting=9600

omconfig chassis biossetup attribute=serialcom setting=com2

omconfig chassis biossetup attribute=crab setting=enabled

2. Change drac settings:

racadm config -g cfgSerial -o cfgSerialBaudRate 57600

racadm config -g cfgSerial -o cfgSerialConsoleEnable 1

racadm config -g cfgSerial -o cfgSerialSshEnable 1

racadm config -g cfgSerial -o cfgSerialHistorySize 0x2000

3. Edit your grub.conf to enable two things: 1- grub interaction and 2- kernel messages and rc script output.

For the first part (grub interaction) you'll need to add a "serial" and "terminal" line to the grub.conf. You must comment out the splashimage for this to work. Note that it's unit=1 and speed=57600 which is different from the DRAC4:

# splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz

# hiddenmenu

serial --unit=1 --speed=57600

terminal --timeout=5 serial console

Next you'll need to pass to the kernel the console arguments so you can see all the messages once the kernel loads and beyond (output from rc scripts for example.) Note that it's ttyS1:

kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.9-67.ELsmp ro root=LABEL=/ console=tty0 console=ttyS1,57600

For example (Note: ttyS1):

CONS:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty -i -h -L 57600 ttyS1 vt100

5. After you've added the above line to /etc/inittab

Restart init with:

init q

Test your connection to the Inband interface

: :

1. Now from a remote host, ssh to the Drac IP address or Drac hostsname as user "root".

For example :

ssh test.host.com -l root

Then type the drac password to log into the Drac.

2. Once logged into the Drac, at the command prompt you can either use racadm commands or the connect command (Example: racadm help ).

To connect to the serial console redirection connect to com2.

For example:

connect com2

To disconnect use "[CTRL]+[]" (Press the Control key and the backslash key together to disconnect cleanly from the connection.)

3. If it says the port is in use by another user that probably means the connection was not cleanly terminated. Best way to clear that up is to reset the drac card with the following command:

racadm racreset

4. Also useful for when you need to reboot the host:

# racadm help serveraction

serveraction [-s ] [-d ]

where is one of the following:

powerup, powerdown, powercycle, hardreset, graceshutdown, gracereboot

For example:

racadm serveraction gracereboot

References/External Links

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Last updated on Thursday March 06, 2008 at 23:04:34 PST (GMT -0800)
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