iDRAC: Configure and troubleshoot the iDRAC service module

iDRAC: Configure and troubleshoot the iDRAC service module

Summary: Learn to configure and troubleshoot the IDRAC service module (ISM), including OS Passthrough, network interface checks, and TLS handshake issue resolution.

iDRAC Service Module Basics:

Features:

• Lightweight OS Agent
• This feature allows iDRAC to talk to OS over an internal USB Network Interface Controller
• This feature allows the iDRAC to launch without an IP
• This feature can reboot host during lock-ups or other troubleshooting steps
• Replicate Lifecycle Controller Logs to OS for log scraping tools
• S.M.A.R.T. monitoring

ISM Versions:

• The OS DUP is the embedded version in the iDRAC, which allows to upload the contents to the iDRAC
• This is the version to install in the OS, and supports Linux, Windows, and ESXi.

ISM installation

Requirements

• OS-BMC Passthrough enabled on the iDRAC
• This is the USB Network Interface that is in the OS and must use the APIPA Address.
• This is the USB Network Interface IP with the default IP of 169.254.0.2 that must be able to ping 169.254.0.1.
• IDRAC7 or newer
• Some ISM Versions require a minimum iDRAC Firmware revision to be installed.
• ISM 3.4 and newer require a TLS handshake if the iDRAC9 firmware supports the use of TLS.

ISM Installs for a Windows Operating System.

• Download the ISM .exe
• Run it on the host, it self-extracts by default to C:\OpenManage\ISM\windows
• Run the iDRACSvcMod.msi

ISM Installs for Linux:

• Download the ISM tar.gz file and SCP it to the Linux operating system
• Tar –zxvf ISM.tar.gz
• Run the setup.sh
• Type the number for all features(10 on newest release) and press Enter

ISM Installs on an ESXi host:

• Download the ISM .zip file and SCP it to any patch, such as /tmp
• Install the ESXcli software using the following command: vib install –d /tmp/ISM.zip

ISM Troubleshooting

Windows

• Check iDRAC for OS Passthrough being enabled for USB
• Check ncpa.cpl for Remote NDIS Device

Note: The most common Windows failure is a missing NDIS Device or an unsupported IP Is assigned to the network interface controller (NIC).

• Run ipconfig /all and find out the IP Address of this NIC
• Ensure that the user can ping the IDRAC 169.254.0.1 IP
• Reboot the iDRAC and then reinstall iSM. Then reboot the iDRAC again if it still shows Not Running
• If the issue persists, then check the OS Audit logs for errors. Something is blocking TLS Handshake.

Linux

• Check iDRAC for OS Passthrough being enabled for USB
• Run ip addr to see the NIC is present and assigned an APIPA address

Note: The most common issue is that USB is blocked.

• Ensure that the user can ping the IDRAC 169.254.1.1 IP
• Reboot the iDRAC and then reinstall iSM. Then reboot the iDRAC again if it still shows Not Running
• If the issue persists check /opt/dell/srvadmin/iSM/etc/rceclient.p12 to ensure that the TLS cert exists then engage SST

ESXi

Note: Run tail -f /var/log/syslog.log | grep -i dcism during the install process so the user can follow the progress.

• Check iDRAC for OS Passthrough being enabled for USB
• Check that the NIC exists by running the following command: esxcli network ip interface list
• This should show a virtual USB Nic named “vSwitchiDRACvusb”

Example:

• Since the vUSB NIC is listed as vmk2, check its IP address using the following command:

esxcli network ip interface ipv4 get -i vmk2

• Ensure that the user can ping the IDRAC 169.254.0.1 IP
• If that works stop the service: /etc/init.d/dcism-netmon-watchdog stop
• Now start it with the Installed switch: /etc/init.d/dcism-netmon-watchdog start install
• Reboot the iDRAC
• Rerun the TLS Handshake if the issue persists: /opt/dell/srvadmin/iSM/bin/Invoke-iSMPKIHelper-install
• Ensure that the certificate is created and stored in the following path: /etc/cim//dell/srvadmin/iSM/rceclient.p12

Affected Products

iDRAC7, iDRAC8, iDRAC9, PowerEdge C4130, Poweredge C4140, PowerEdge c6320, PowerEdge c6320p, PowerEdge C6420, PowerEdge C6520, PowerEdge C6525