We have a Dell server we need to find some info about. We could just go to the server room with a flashlight and get its Chassis Service Tag (fancy name for serial number?), model number, and so on. But, this is a proper rackmount server; we should be able to do that remotely.
And we can. Normally that is done using the iDRAC interface, which is a glorified single board computer in a card stuck on the back of the server running a little webserver we can use to configure the server, install OS, and other common housekeeping. Problem is in this particular box we never bothered to run an ethernet cable to it. But, we can ssh into the server; can we do the same from there?
Actually we can, but we need to get some Dell packages first.
NOTE: This server happens to be running a release of xenserver. Other than it tying down package versions, we should not have any other problems. But, should is a funny word...
Getting OMSA
Dell offers two websites,
[root@xenbox ~]# wget -q -O - http://linux.dell.com/repo/hardware/latest/bootstrap.cgi | bash
Downloading GPG key: http://linux.dell.com/repo/hardware/latest/RPM-GPG-KEY-dell
Importing key into RPM.
Downloading GPG key: http://linux.dell.com/repo/hardware/latest/RPM-GPG-KEY-libsmbios
Importing key into RPM.
Write repository configuration
Downloading repository RPM
[root@xenbox ~]#Let's check:
[root@xenbox ~]# ls /etc/yum.repos.d/ CentOS-Base.repo CentOS-Media.repo Citrix.repo CentOS-Debuginfo.repo CentOS-Vault.repo dell-omsa-repository.repo [root@xenbox ~]#dell-omsa-repository.repo is the repo file added when we ran bootstrap.cgi ( Citrix.repo is the xenserver repo as it is owned by Citrix).
Let's install the required package:
[root@xenbox ~]# yum install dell_ft_install Loaded plugins: fastestmirror Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile citrix | 951 B 00:00 http://linux.dell.com/repo/hardware/latest/platform_independent/rh50_64/repodata/repomd.xml: [Errno 14] HTTP Error 404: Not Found Trying other mirror. Error: Cannot retrieve repository metadata (repomd.xml) for repository: dell-omsa-indep. Please verify its path and try again [root@xenbox ~]#Er, it does not look very happy. What is wrong? And why does it say rh50_64? That makes me think it wants RedHat 5.0; that is pretty old. We are in 2015 after all. Don't know. In any case, http://linux.dell.com/repo/hardware/latest/platform_independent/rh50_64/ exists. But no repodata dir. The repo config file looks like this
[root@xenbox ~]# cat /etc/yum.repos.d/dell-omsa-repository.repo
[dell-omsa-indep]
name=Dell OMSA repository - Hardware independent
type=rpm-md
mirrorlist=http://linux.dell.com/repo/hardware/latest/mirrors.cgi?osname=el$releasever&basearch=$basearch&native=1&dellsysidpluginver=$dellsysidpluginver
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=http://linux.dell.com/repo/hardware/latest/RPM-GPG-KEY-dell
http://linux.dell.com/repo/hardware/latest/RPM-GPG-KEY-libsmbios
enabled=1
failover=priority
bootstrapurl=http://linux.dell.com/repo/hardware/latest/bootstrap.cgi
[dell-omsa-specific]
name=Dell OMSA repository - Hardware specific
type=rpm-md
mirrorlist=http://linux.dell.com/repo/hardware/latest/mirrors.cgi?osname=el$releasever&basearch=$basearch&native=1&sys_ven_id=$sys_ven_id&sys_dev_id=$sys_dev_id&dellsysidpluginver=$dellsysidpluginver
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=http://linux.dell.com/repo/hardware/latest/RPM-GPG-KEY-dell
http://linux.dell.com/repo/hardware/latest/RPM-GPG-KEY-libsmbios
enabled=1
failover=priority
bootstrapurl=http://linux.dell.com/repo/hardware/latest/bootstrap.cgi
[root@xenbox ~]#It looks like any repo config file out there. How is it guessing the OS release is 5.0-something? When I look at the release file[root@xenbox ~]# cat /etc/redhat-release XenServer release 6.5.0-90233c (xenenterprise) [root@xenbox ~]#OK, notice it says XenServer and not CentOS. It just hit me: what is the centos release associated with the XenServer release 6.5.0-90233c? Let's cheat
[root@xenbox ~]# yum provides /etc/redhat-release Loaded plugins: fastestmirror Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile 10:centos-release-5-10.el5.centos.x86_64 : CentOS release file Repo : installed Matched from: Other : Provides-match: /etc/redhat-release [root@xenbox ~]#Yeah... xenserver is running on centos 5.10. Lovely. At least now we know the issue. Also, according to a thread in the Dell forum, we need to go back in time we version of the bootstrap.cgi script,
wget http://linux.dell.com/repo/hardware/Linux_Repository_14.12.00/bootstrap.cgiand try again
yum --enablerepo=base install srvadmin-allwhich this time will install properly. So, let's use it.
Using OMSA
Binaries as installed in /opt/dell/srvadmin/bin/, and we want to use /opt/dell/srvadmin/bin/omreport:
[root@xenbox ~]# /opt/dell/srvadmin/bin/omreport chassis fans Error! No fan probes found on this system. [root@xenbox ~]# /opt/dell/srvadmin/bin/omreport chassis temps Error! No temperature probes found on this system. [root@xenbox ~]# /opt/dell/srvadmin/bin/omreport chassis processors Error! Hardware or feature not present. [root@xenbox ~]# /opt/dell/srvadmin/bin/omreport chassis remoteaccess Error! Hardware or feature not present. [root@xenbox ~]#Why is it not working? Let's cut this story short: we need to start the services associated with OMSA:
[root@xenbox ~]# /opt/dell/srvadmin/sbin/srvadmin-services.sh start Starting Systems Management Device Drivers: Starting dell_rbu: [ OK ] Starting ipmi driver: [ OK ] Starting snmpd: [ OK ] Starting Systems Management Data Engine: Starting dsm_sa_datamgrd: [ OK ] Starting dsm_sa_eventmgrd: [ OK ] Starting dsm_sa_snmpd: [ OK ] Starting DSM SA Shared Services: [ OK ] Starting DSM SA Connection Service: [ OK ] [root@xenbox ~]#And now, it works!
[root@xenbox ~]# /opt/dell/srvadmin/bin/omreport chassis info Chassis Information Index : 0 Chassis Name : Main System Chassis Host Name : xenbox iDRAC7 Version : 1.57.57 (Build 4) Lifecycle Controller 2 Version : 1.4.2.12 Chassis Model : PowerEdge R320 Chassis Lock : Present Chassis Service Tag : AD92C42 Express Service Code : 24612345426 Chassis Asset Tag : Unknown Flash chassis identify LED state : Off Flash chassis identify LED timeout value : 300 [root@xenbox ~]#Next step is using openmanage to create a raid; we will do that in another article.
