Thursday, January 15, 2015

How to upgrade all of the firmware and bios on a Dell PowerEdge Server running VMware or another non-windows OS.

How to Upgrade ALL of the firmware, bios, etc. on a Dell server.

This comes up often with VMware hosts.  Here is your easy solution to update all of the firwares (RAID, Lifecycle, Drac, etc.) and BIOS all at once.

1)      Download and install Dell Repository manager.  You can get it here- http://downloads.dell.com/FOLDER02720479M/1/Dell_Repository_Manager_2.0.0.187.msi or you can find it on the dell support site for your server product under the category “Systems Management.”
2)      There will be two icons on your start menu, you want to run “Datacenter Edition.”  After launching, it will check for updates.  If there is an update, go ahead and install it.
3)      On the “Source” menu, click “Sync Database with Dell Online.”
4)      Click on the “Dell Online” tab, select your system under “Supported Platforms.”
5)      Check the checkbox next to “System Bundle (Linux)”, if there are multiple select the newest one.
6)      Click “Export”, select the bubble next to “Bootable ISO (Using Linux Bundle), Click Next.
7)      If you do not have the plugin installed, let it install it for you.
8)      Select the location you want to save the ISO.
9)      Leave the bubble next to ‘No” when asked if you want to include your own script, click “Next.”
10)   Click “Finish.”
11)   Down at the bottom, there is a section that says “Job Queue”.  It’s not obvious that it is there.  Click the little “UP ARROW” to bring it up so you can monitor the status of the ISO creation.  It takes a bit, as it has to download from Dell.

12)   Once it finishes, simply burn the ISO and boot the server from it or use the drac to connect the ISO to boot from. 

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