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R
e
p
rinted from
D
ell Power Solutions
,
August 2005. Copyright © 2005 Dell Inc. All rights reserve
d
.
D
ELL POWER SOLUTIONS
6
1
console
#
co
p
y tft
p
:/
/
h
ostname/
p
ath/to/the/
b
ootimag
e
boot
N
ote:
Best practices recommend savin
g
extra copies of the
switch con
f
igurations on a TFTP server, especially be
f
ore a
f
irm-
w
are upgra
d
e
.
The PowerConnect 5316M Ethernet switch module used in
th
e PowerE
d
ge 1855
bl
a
d
e server c
h
assis
d
oes not come equippe
d
w
ith its own serial console
p
ort. Instead, the serial console can
b
e accesse
d
as a mo
d
u
l
e to w
h
ic
h
t
h
e DRAC
/
MC is connecte
d
.
T
here
f
ore, to use xmodem as the source
f
or the mana
g
ement
station where the
f
irmware image is stored, administrators must
perform the followin
g
steps from the DRAC/MC
:
1.
E
nsure that the current shell interface is already at the
D
RAC/MC command
p
rom
p
t. I
f
not, switch back to the con
-
t
ext of the DRAC/MC command prompt by pressing the
E
nter ke
y
, the tilde ke
y
, and the
p
eriod ke
y
. N
ote:
Pr
ess
t
h
e
Shift key if the tilde character is located in the upper register
o
f
the ke
y
board, and then
p
ress the
p
eriod ke
y
.
2. At the DRAC/MC command prompt, issue the
f
ollowing
co
mm
a
n
d:
DR
A
C/MC: racadm config –g cfgSerial
–
o cf
g
SerialConsoleIdleTimeout 0x300
0
3.
R
edirect the DRAC/MC serial console to the internal serial
console interface of the PowerConnect 5316M Ethernet switch
module in binary mode by enterin
g
the
f
ollowin
g
command:
DR
A
C
/
MC: connect –b switc
h
-N
w
he
r
e
N
is the chassis I/O module bay number in which the
N
P
owerConnect 5316M Ethernet switch module is inserted.
P
ress t
h
e Enter
k
ey severa
l
times to ensure t
h
at t
h
e termina
l
connection is success
f
ull
y
established and that the Ethernet
switc
h
mo
d
u
l
e prompt appears
.
N
ote
:
To terminate t
h
e
b
inary mo
d
e connection to t
h
e PowerConnect
5
316M Ethernet switch module’s serial console
,
disconnect the
current session o
f
the terminal
.
7
Keeping blade server system software
com
p
onents u
p
-to-
d
ate
T
he modular desi
g
n o
f
blade servers, such as the Dell PowerEd
g
e 1855
bl
a
d
e server,
b
rings an a
dd
e
d
d
imension to t
h
e tra
d
itiona
l
c
h
ange-
mana
g
ement process. Today’s industry-leadin
g
chan
g
e-mana
g
emen
t
a
nd software distribution frameworks such as Altiris Patch Management
S
olution and Microso
f
t SMS are desi
g
ned to provide robust auto-
mate
d
too
l
s to manage up
d
ates on mo
d
u
l
es t
h
at resi
d
e on server
blades. Because these frameworks do not scale to mana
g
e the updates
o
f
chassis management modules and I/O modules, updating blade
server chassis modules requires careful planning and deployment
such as the a
pp
roach described in this article
.
Narayan Devireddy is a development manager in the Dell Enterprise
Systems Management Software organization. He has 14 years of systems
management product development experience. Before joining Dell, Narayan
worked for Novell, Compaq, and Computer Associates in different capaci-
ties. He has an M.S. in Computer Science from Alabama A&M University.
Ruoting Huang is a development engineer in the Dell Enterprise Systems
Management Software organization. He focuses on parallel processing and
internetworking. Ruoting has an M.S. in Computer Science from the Asian
Institute of Technology.
7
For more information about configuring and using the DRAC/MC, refer to the
Dell Remote Access Controller/Modular Chassis User’s Guide
at support.dell.com/support/edocs/software/smdrac3/dracmc.
e
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Dell PowerEdge 1855 Systems User’s Guide:
support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/pe1855
Dell OpenManage:
www.dell.com/openmanage
Dell servers:
www.dell.com/servers