How to configure a Dell iDRAC card using the Racadm command line tool

[learn_more caption=”Background” state=”open”] As the Director of Technology, my teams include Software Development, Business Intelligence, and managed I.T Infrastructure services.[/learn_more]

Having recently taken over an existing site, we’re in the process of conducting various house cleaning efforts. We came across a server that had a mis-configured iDRAC card which prevented managing it remotely or to run hardware diagnostics.

One option is to reboot the server, boot into BIOS, and configure the iDRAC while in front of the machine. However this would require a drive out the data center, and the additional maintenance window outage.

We did find a solution to all of this with the installation of Dell DRAC Tools which includes a command line tool called Racadm. When installed on the machine you want to configure, Racadm allows a Systems Administrator to modify the iDRAC settings from a command-line without requiring a reboot.

Here are the commands:

racadm getniccfg
racadm setniccfg –s 172.17.2.124 255.255.252.0 172.17.0.5

 
-OR-
 

racadm getconfig -g cfgLanNetworking
racadm config -g cfgLanNetworking -o cfgNicIpAddress 172.17.2.124
racadm config -g cfgLanNetworking -o cfgNicNetmask 255.255.252.0
racadm config -g cfgLanNetworking -o cfgNicGateway 172.17.0.7
racadm config -g cfgLanNetworking -o cfgDNSServer1 172.17.0.6
racadm config -g cfgLanNetworking -o cfgDNSServer2 172.17.0.5
racadm config -g cfgLanNetworking -o cfgDNSRacName ServerName-DRAC
racadm config -g cfgLanNetworking -o cfgDNSDomainName corp.company.com

[box type=”shadow”]Kudos to Jeremy Moreira for this information[/box]

DRAC Tools, includes Racadm (32bit), v7.1:

The Dell Remote Access Controller (DRAC) console is management station software designed to provide remote management capabilities for the Dell systems. You can remotely connect to the DRAC hardware and access the DRAC features either by using a web browser or the RACADM Command Line Interface (CLI). RACADM CLI is the command line user interface to the DRAC.

Download DRAC Tools (v7.1):  http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/us/en/19/driverdetails?driverid=HR1V5

• Filename:OM-DRAC-Dell-Web-WIN-7.1.0-5304_A00.exe
• Compatibility: Windows Server 2003, Windows 2003 x64, Windows 2008 x86, Windows 2008 x64, Windows 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012

RACADM Subcommand Overview:

The getconfig subcommand allows you to retrieve iDRAC configuration parameters individually, or all the iDRAC configuration groups may be retrieved and saved into a file.

Example:

racadm config -g cfgLanNetworking -o cfgNicIpAddress 10.35.10.110

Sets the cfgNicIpAddress configuration parameter (object) to the value 10.35.10.110. This IP address object is contained in the group cfgLanNetworking.

[button link=”http://stuff.mit.edu/afs/athena/dept/cron/documentation/dell-server-admin/en/idrac1/appa.htm” type=”small”] Learn More[/button]