Jason Edgecombe asked: > In the Linux on Dell wiki, it mentions that the idrac6 can be used as a > fencing device in an linux-ha setup. Can the idrac express be used for > this, or is the idrac enterprise required? >
For fencing, as I understand it, you simply need to be able to make absolutely sure that the disabled host is not performing any I/O to shared disks, etc. (and be able to undo that). With either iDRAC6 Express or Enterprise, and even with the non-DRAC BMC on 9th generation and low-end Nehalem (e.g. R410), this is possible by powering off the host system, via IPMI (ipmitool -I lan power off) or (on iDRAC6 or other DRAC) via remote racadm (racadm serveraction powerdown). Jeff Ewing replied: > I believe the idrac express does not have remote console or remote media > support. > (nor its own RJ45 plug) Trey Sheldon replied: > Actually the express *does* have remote console, it is however missing > remote media support. Biggest thing missing is the local racadm > command. While the iDRAC Express has remote *serial* console - it does not support remote access to the VGA console via the Java GUI client (and as Jeff Ewing noted, the dedicated NIC RJ45 and remote media support are also absent). However, those three features (and the "last crash screen" capability, since there is no VGA capture) are pretty much the only ones absent from the Express. You have the full HTTP/S server interface, remote racadm and SSH access. The -h (playback history) option to the SSH console com2 command doesn't seem to work for me, but I don't know if that is an Express/Enterprise feature, or whether it only works for BIOS redirected serial output rather than Linux serial console. Local (on the host CPU) racadm *is* supported with the iDRAC Express (I use it frequently) and ssh to the iDRAC6 also allows local (on the iDRAC6) racadm (I didn't know you could do this until very recently, but just checked to confirm): /admin1-> racadm getsysinfo RAC Information: RAC Date/Time = 11/20/2009 10:50:50 Firmware Version = 1.20 Firmware Build = 01 Last Firmware Update = 11/13/2009 23:20:45 Hardware Version = 0.01 MAC Address = 00:24:e8:79:0f:2d That on-the-DRAC racadm ifconfig is an interesting command - from the output you could almost guess what Linux distro rev it's running :-) @alex -- mailto:alex.du...@mac.com _______________________________________________ Linux-PowerEdge mailing list Linux-PowerEdge@dell.com https://lists.us.dell.com/mailman/listinfo/linux-poweredge Please read the FAQ at http://lists.us.dell.com/faq
