Dell servers, such as their wide PowerEdge™ models, include a remote management system known as "Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller", or iDRAC for short.
For certain administrative tasks, you may need to use some of their official command-line tools such as racadm. Unfortunately, they only offer packages for Windows, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server.
While you can't install Redhat/SUSE .rpm packages on Ubuntu/Debian, thankfully the binaries (software / program files) within Dell's RPM packages work perfectly fine if you can figure out how to install them.
In this guide, you'll learn:
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The latest version of Dell's iDRAC Tools for Linux, is v9.4.0.
Official Dell download page: Dell EMC iDRAC Tools for Linux, v9.4.0
You can check if there's a newer version by typing into Dell's search box "Dell iDRAC Tools for Linux", and looking for any larger version numbers, e.g. v9.5.0 or v10.1.0 etc.
Once on the download page, at the bottom of the page you'll find an attached file with a format labelled as "Gnu-ZIP", "Linux Tar Ball", or a similar format.
Right click on the "Download File" link, and copy the link.
At the time of writing, iDRAC Tools v9.4.0 had the following download URL, which we'll use in this guide:
https://dl.dell.com/FOLDER05920767M/1/DellEMC-iDRACTools-Web-LX-9.4.0-3732_A00.tar.gz
To download the file, we'll use the common Linux tool wget - it's likely that it's already installed on your system, but to be sure, you can use apt to install it. It won't hurt if it's already installed:
sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y wget
Now we'll download the TAR file from Dell, using the link we copied earlier from their website:
wget https://dl.dell.com/FOLDER05920767M/1/DellEMC-iDRACTools-Web-LX-9.4.0-3732_A00.tar.gz
Once it's downloaded, we can extract the file using tar xvf - which will also show us the files that were extracted
tar xvf DellEMC-iDRACTools-Web-LX-9.4.0-3732_A00.tar.gz
At the time of writing, the tar file contains a folder called iDRACTools (case sensitive) which is extracted by tar xvf into your current folder.
Let's enter the folder and see what's inside:
cd iDRACTools
ls -l
Here's what we see after running ls -l
user@host ~/iDRACTools $ ls -l
-rwxrwSrwx 1 root root 18013 Oct 23 2019 gpl.txt
drwxrwxrwx 5 root root 4096 Oct 23 2019 ipmitool
-rwxrwSrwx 1 root root 1361 Oct 23 2019 license.txt
drwxrwxrwx 5 root root 4096 Oct 23 2019 racadm
-rwxrwSrwx 1 root root 9119 Oct 23 2019 readme.txt
There are two folders: ipmitool and racadm - along with three text files: gpl.txt, license.txt, and readme.txt
For this guide, we're only going to install racadm.
racadm package on Ubuntu/DebianEnter the racadm folder and let's see what's inside:
cd racadm
ls -la
Here's what we can see:
user@host ~/iDRACTools/racadm » ls -l
drwxrwxrwx 5 root root 4096 Oct 23 2019 .
drwxrwxrwx 4 root root 4096 Oct 23 2019 ..
-rwxrwSrwx 1 root root 4746 Oct 23 2019 install_racadm.sh
drwxrwxrwx 3 root root 4096 Oct 23 2019 RHEL7
drwxrwxrwx 3 root root 4096 Oct 23 2019 RHEL8
drwxrwxrwx 3 root root 4096 Oct 23 2019 SLES15
-rwxrwSrwx 1 root root 316 Oct 23 2019 uninstall_racadm.sh
There are three folders: RHEL7 (RedHat Enterprise Linux 7), RHEL8 (RedHat Enterprise Linux 8), and SLES15 (SUSE Linux Enterprise Server)
And two files (not needed for ubuntu/debian): install_racadm.sh and uninstall_racadm.sh
Dell does not provide official packages for Ubuntu / Debian or other debian-based distros, but you can pick one which is closest to the release date of your distro version.
We can convert the .rpm package (for RedHat based distros) into a .deb package (for Debian based distros), and most things should still work fine.
In the case of this guide, we tested it on Ubuntu 18.04 Bionic Beaver. So we're going with the RHEL8 package.
First we'll enter the RHEL8 folder:
cd RHEL8
ls -l
We can see only one folder x86_64 (64-bit version) - so let's enter that one
cd x86_64
ls -l
We can see there are several .rpm files in this folder.
user@host ~/iDRACTools/racadm/RHEL8/x86_64 $ ls -l
-rwxrwSrwx 1 root root 65300 Oct 23 2019 srvadmin-argtable2-9.4.0-3732.15734.el8.x86_64.rpm
-rwxrwSrwx 1 root root 1223520 Oct 23 2019 srvadmin-hapi-9.4.0-3732.15734.el8.x86_64.rpm
-rwxrwSrwx 1 root root 1888644 Oct 23 2019 srvadmin-idracadm7-9.4.0-3732.15734.el8.x86_64.rpm
To be able to install these on Ubuntu/Debian, we're going to have to convert them into .deb files (the package format of Debian-based distros such as Ubuntu)
For converting the packages, we'll install the tool alien
sudo apt install -y alien
Now let's convert the packages. The command alien srvadmin-*.rpm will convert all .rpm files starting with srvadmin-:
alien srvadmin-*.rpm
If we run ls -l again, we'll see there are now 3 .deb files along with the original .rpm files.
user@host ~/iDRACTools/racadm/RHEL8/x86_64 $ ls -l
-rwxrwSrwx 1 root root 65300 Oct 23 2019 srvadmin-argtable2-9.4.0-3732.15734.el8.x86_64.rpm
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 56392 Jun 13 02:40 srvadmin-argtable2_9.4.0-3733.15734_amd64.deb
-rwxrwSrwx 1 root root 1223520 Oct 23 2019 srvadmin-hapi-9.4.0-3732.15734.el8.x86_64.rpm
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1001256 Jun 13 02:40 srvadmin-hapi_9.4.0-3733.15734_amd64.deb
-rwxrwSrwx 1 root root 1888644 Oct 23 2019 srvadmin-idracadm7-9.4.0-3732.15734.el8.x86_64.rpm
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1714920 Jun 13 02:41 srvadmin-idracadm7_9.4.0-3733.15734_amd64.deb
We can install all of the .deb packages at once, to avoid dependency issues, by running:
sudo dpkg -i *.deb
You should see something like this:
Selecting previously unselected package srvadmin-argtable2.
(Reading database ... 215550 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack srvadmin-argtable2_9.4.0-3733.15734_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking srvadmin-argtable2 (9.4.0-3733.15734) ...
Setting up srvadmin-argtable2 (9.4.0-3733.15734) ...
Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.27-3ubuntu1) ...
Selecting previously unselected package srvadmin-hapi.
(Reading database ... 215573 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack srvadmin-hapi_9.4.0-3733.15734_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking srvadmin-hapi (9.4.0-3733.15734) ...
Setting up srvadmin-hapi (9.4.0-3733.15734) ...
Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.27-3ubuntu1) ...
Selecting previously unselected package srvadmin-idracadm7.
(Reading database ... 215648 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack srvadmin-idracadm7_9.4.0-3733.15734_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking srvadmin-idracadm7 (9.4.0-3733.15734) ...
Setting up srvadmin-idracadm7 (9.4.0-3733.15734) .
Once that's finished, you should now have the iDRAC tools successfully installed.
You can find them in the folder:
/opt/dell/srvadmin
racadm in /usr/local/binFor convenience, we're going to create an alias for racadm in /usr/local/bin - allowing it to be easily called with just racadm from any user.
At the time of writing, Dell's racadm utility was installed at /opt/dell/srvadmin/bin/idracadm7
To make the symlink, run:
sudo ln -s /opt/dell/srvadmin/bin/idracadm7 /usr/local/bin/racadm
You should now be able to simply type racadm in your shell (linux command prompt), and be presented with the racadm help page:
racadm
Example output:
===============================================================================
RACADM version 9.4.0
Copyright (c) 2003-2019 Dell, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
===============================================================================
RACADM usage syntax:
racadm <subcommand> <options>
Examples:
racadm getsysinfo
racadm getsysinfo -d
racadm getniccfg
racadm setniccfg -d
racadm setniccfg -s 192.168.0.120 255.255.255.0 192.168.0.1
racadm getconfig -g cfgLanNetworking
Display a list of available subcommands for the RAC:
racadm help
Display more detailed help for a specific subcommand:
racadm help <subcommand>
To help save you some time from having to search these up individually, or check the help, we've got some of the most common / useful racadm commands with examples below.
Be aware that this only covers a small subset of the available commands - the available commands + their syntax may vary depending on which Dell server model you have, which iDRAC version it runs, and what version of the iDRAC tools you have.
NOTE: For these examples we'll be using the example remote iDRAC connection details:
Example iDRAC IP: 10.10.10.25
Example Admin Username: root
Example Admin Password: Sup3rS33kr!TP@55w0rd
We're not entirely sure, but we believe racadm connects to remote iDRAC either via SSH or possibly Dell's own proprietary binary API - which
allows racadm to work even when the iDRAC WebUI doesn't.
racadm -r 10.10.10.25 -u root -p "Sup3rS33kr!TP@55w0rd" help
racadm -r 10.10.10.25 -u root -p "Sup3rS33kr!TP@55w0rd" help racreset
racadm -r 10.10.10.25 -u root -p "Sup3rS33kr!TP@55w0rd" help jobqueue
racadm -r 10.10.10.25 -u root -p "Sup3rS33kr!TP@55w0rd" help update
This will show:
Command:
racadm -r 10.10.10.25 -u root -p "Sup3rS33kr!TP@55w0rd" getsysinfo
The following command will connect to iDRAC at 10.10.10.25 and request that iDRAC reset itself (reboot).
racadm -r 10.10.10.25 -u root -p "Sup3rS33kr!TP@55w0rd" racreset
Most likely this is the same as a normal racreset - but we're not sure. This would be similar to a "warm" reboot of a computer, where the iDRAC controller doesn't fully shutdown before it starts to load back up - to save time.
racadm -r 10.10.10.25 -u root -p "Sup3rS33kr!TP@55w0rd" racreset soft
You can specify -f at the end of the command to force the reset - incase you get any errors which prevent you from being able to reset the RAC (and are unable to fix those errors preventing the reset... without a reset):
racadm -r 10.10.10.25 -u root -p "Sup3rS33kr!TP@55w0rd" racreset soft -f
You can also do a HARD reset of the iDRAC controller using racadm. This would be similar to a "cold" reboot of a computer, where the iDRAC controller is shut down fully, before it starts to load back up - to ensure the iDRAC controller's RAM is fully cleared, and the iDRAC software is reloaded from the start.
racadm -r 10.10.10.25 -u root -p "Sup3rS33kr!TP@55w0rd" racreset hard
Just like with the soft reset, you can specify -f at the end of the command to force the reset - incase you get any errors which prevent you from being able to reset the RAC:
racadm -r 10.10.10.25 -u root -p "Sup3rS33kr!TP@55w0rd" racreset hard -f
The below command would upload the iDRAC update package file from /mnt/other/r630/iDRAC_KRCXX_WN32_2.75.75.75_A00.EXE on the local system (where you're running racadm from) - to the remote iDRAC at 10.10.10.25, attempt to install it, and automatically perform a "graceful system reboot" once the update is successfully installed / ready to install at boot:
racadm -r 10.10.10.25 -u root -p "Sup3rS33kr!TP@55w0rd" update -f /mnt/other/r630/iDRAC_KRCXX_WN32_2.75.75.75_A00.EXE --reboot
Same as previous, but instead of automatically rebooting, ensure that it does NOT automatically reboot after the update:
racadm -r 10.10.10.25 -u root -p "Sup3rS33kr!TP@55w0rd" update -f /mnt/other/r630/iDRAC_KRCXX_WN32_2.75.75.75_A00.EXE -a FALSE
Similar to the first update example, except obtain the update file iDRAC_KRCXX_WN32_2.75.75.75_A00.EXE via CIFS/SMB from the share //185.130.44.5/web/other/r630
racadm -r 10.10.10.25 -u root -p "Sup3rS33kr!TP@55w0rd" update -f iDRAC_KRCXX_WN32_2.75.75.75_A00.EXE -l //185.130.44.5/web/other/r630 --reboot
Close to the previous example, except obtain the update file via NFS from the share 185.130.44.5:/filesrv/web/other/firmware/poweredge-r630 - and explicitly declare that it should use the NFS protocol ( -t NFS ).
racadm -r 10.10.10.25 -u root -p "Sup3rS33kr!TP@55w0rd" update -f iDRAC_KRCXX_WN32_2.75.75.75_A00.EXE -l 185.130.44.5:/filesrv/web/other/firmware/poweredge-r630 -t NFS --reboot
Instead of installing a singular update, install any available updates from a Dell update repository (Catalog.xml) over FTP, and automatically reboot when ready to install the updates:
racadm -r 10.10.10.25 -u root -p "Sup3rS33kr!TP@55w0rd" update -f Catalog.xml -e 185.130.44.5/other/firmware/poweredge-r630/repository -a TRUE -t FTP
racadm -r 10.10.10.25 -u root -p "Sup3rS33kr!TP@55w0rd" jobqueue view
WARNING: This can break your iDRAC / RACADM if the certificate is the wrong format, has the wrong domains, or other problems. Do not attempt to install/replace an iDRAC certificate unless you know what you're doing.
racadm -r 10.10.10.25 -u root -p "Sup3rS33kr!TP@55w0rd" sslcertupload -t 1 -f /etc/letsencrypt/archive/idrac.example.com/fullchain1.pem
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We also accept several different cryptocurrencies with our own in-house payment processor - no third parties involved in processing your payments.
At the time of writing, we currently accept: Bitcoin (BTC), Litecoin (LTC), Monero (XMR), Dogecoin (DOGE), HIVE, and HBD