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DELL POWER SOLUTIONS Re
p
rinted from Dell Power Solutions, August 2005. Copyright © 2005 Dell Inc. All rights reserve
d
.
A
ugust 2005
56
SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT
E
q
uipped with 10 server blades and several I/O mod
-
ules and management modules, the Dell PowerEdge
1
855 blade server contains numerous system software
components to update durin
g
the chan
g
e-mana
g
ement
p
rocess. Although best practices dictate careful planning
and methodical implementation when deployin
g
system
software updates for the PowerEdge 1855 blade server,
such chan
g
e mana
g
ement need not be di
ff
icult. As is
th
e case wit
h
ot
h
er PowerE
d
ge servers, a
d
ministrators
can mana
g
e software updates for the PowerEd
g
e 1855
blade server using standards-based Dell OpenManag
e
™
t
oo
l
s, t
h
ir
d
-party enterprise c
h
an
g
e-mana
g
ement
t
ools
,
or both.
Upd
at
i
ng server
bl
a
d
e
s
T
he process for updating system software components on
PowerEd
g
e 1855 server blades is desi
g
ned to be the same
as on ot
h
er PowerE
d
ge servers. T
h
is simi
l
arity a
ll
ows
administrators to levera
g
e existin
g
chan
g
e-mana
g
ement
p
rocesses in their IT or
g
anization to mana
g
e updates to
P
owerEdge 1855 server blades. On PowerEdge 1855 server
b
lades, administrators can typically update firmware on
the
f
ollowin
g
system so
f
tware components
:
•
S
erver s
y
stem BIO
S
•
Baseboard management controller (BMC
)
•
PowerEd
g
e Expandable RAID Controller 4,
Integrated Mirroring
(
PERC 4/IM
)
•
Adaptec SCSI Card 3916
0
•
S
CSI hard disk drives
•
OS
-
le
v
el
d
riv
e
r
s
As part of the change-management planning
p
rocess, administrators must decide which u
p
date
m
ethod best fits their environment. System software
components on a PowerEd
g
e 1855 server blade can be
updated using one o
f
two methods: o
ff
line updates or
online updates.
BY NARAYAN DEVIREDDY AND R
UO
TIN
G
H
U
AN
G
U
p
d
at
i
ng t
h
e
Dell PowerEdge 1855 Blade Server
C
hassis and
S
erver Blade
s
Many hardware components in the Dell
™
PowerEdge
™
1855 blade server have been
designed with a firmware upgrade option—including the Dell Remote Access Controller/
Modular Chassis (DRAC/MC) management module; server baseboard management
controllers; I/O modules; and keyboard, video, mouse modules. This article discusses
standards-based frameworks for updating individual server blades and available
software utilities as well as recommended methods and best practices for updating
chassis component firmware.
Related Categories:
Blade servers
Dell PowerEdge blade servers
New-generation server technology
Visit www.dell.com/powersolutions
for the complete category index.