SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT
www.
e
.com
owerso
ut
on
e
rinted from
ell Power Solutions
August 2005. Copyright © 2005 Dell Inc. All rights reserve
ELL POWER SOLUTIONS
1
console
co
y tft
:/
ostname/
ath/to/the/
ootimag
N
Best practices recommend savin
extra copies of the
switch con
igurations on a TFTP server, especially be
ore a
irm-
are upgra
e
The PowerConnect 5316M Ethernet switch module used in
e PowerE
ge 1855
a
e server c
assis
oes not come equippe
ith its own serial console
ort. Instead, the serial console can
e accesse
as a mo
u
e to w
ic
t
e DRAC
MC is connecte
.
here
ore, to use xmodem as the source
or the mana
ement
station where the
irmware image is stored, administrators must
perform the followin
steps from the DRAC/MC
1.
nsure that the current shell interface is already at the
RAC/MC command
rom
t. I
not, switch back to the con
ext of the DRAC/MC command prompt by pressing the
nter ke
, the tilde ke
, and the
eriod ke
. N
Pr
h
Shift key if the tilde character is located in the upper register
o
the ke
board, and then
ress the
eriod ke
.
2. At the DRAC/MC command prompt, issue the
ollowing
mm
n
DR
C/MC: racadm config –g cfgSerial
o cf
SerialConsoleIdleTimeout 0x300
3.
edirect the DRAC/MC serial console to the internal serial
console interface of the PowerConnect 5316M Ethernet switch
module in binary mode by enterin
the
ollowin
command:
DR
C
MC: connect –b switc
-N
w
r
is the chassis I/O module bay number in which the
owerConnect 5316M Ethernet switch module is inserted.
ress t
e Enter
ey severa
times to ensure t
at t
e termina
connection is success
ull
established and that the Ethernet
switc
mo
u
e prompt appears
ote
To terminate t
e
inary mo
e connection to t
e PowerConnect
316M Ethernet switch module’s serial console
disconnect the
current session o
the terminal
Keeping blade server system software
com
onents u
-to-
ate
he modular desi
n o
blade servers, such as the Dell PowerEd
e 1855
a
e server,
rings an a
e
imension to t
e tra
itiona
c
ange-
mana
ement process. Today’s industry-leadin
chan
e-mana
emen
nd software distribution frameworks such as Altiris Patch Management
olution and Microso
t SMS are desi
ned to provide robust auto-
mate
too
s to manage up
ates on mo
u
es t
at resi
e on server
blades. Because these frameworks do not scale to mana
e the updates
o
chassis management modules and I/O modules, updating blade
server chassis modules requires careful planning and deployment
such as the a
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.
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.
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
