I recently purchased a used PowerEdge C1100 on ebay. It supposedly has DRAC.
I’m a complete newb when it comes to these things. I figured it’d be somewhat like a normal PC 😛 I’m finding that a mistaken assumption. Want to push Ubuntu onto this thing and get some VM’s up.
I’m not completely sure it actually has DRAC. I can’t find any configuration for it in the BIOS. I also can’t seem to find any hints from google about how to find it in the BIOS. Only thing I can find is a claim that I should be able to hit Ctrl-E to get into the configuration utility. This does not happen.
I do not see any extra cards in the system. There’s only one slot and I think it’s a PCI…though it’s not white or brown. Nothing is in it. I assume if it actually has DRAC it must be integrated. Don’t see it in the specs, but these things can be bought customized in large batches right?
The server has a network port with a wrench icon by it. I assume that’s where I should be plugging in?
I tried to connect with a crossover cable. Unfortunately I only have a Windows 7 laptop and I apparently totally fail at setting up windows IP addresses…cannot find any dialog or utility that will let me.
So is there a tutorial or something for total dumbshits? Should Ctrl-E work and I just got lied to? I hope a USB CDRom or something would do the trick if so?
The system seems to otherwise work and it actually attempted to boot windows when I plugged a drive into it (apparently I’d installed vista on that drive some time ago).
Someone is bound to ask why someone like me has something like this. I’m a software developer that works remote and I want to set up my own testing environments for the product. Multiple VM’s and such… It also wasn’t very expensive.
Answer
The wrench icon indeed indicates the DRAC/BMC port. DRAC requires you to install a module into the machine for full management capabilities, however the server also has a basic module on board called BMC (Baseboard Management Controller). This module can only do basic command line operations such as a powercycle or retrieve system info.
If the DRAC module is installed you should be able to use Ctrl+I on POST to be able to access the DRAC configuration from the BIOS. In here you can assign IP address and username with password.
Here’s a video detailing a bit how it works.
Attribution
Source : Link , Question Author : Community , Answer Author : Michael Hampton
