PowerEdge firmware/driver update management

[jediatzinger]

It's been nearly a decade since I brought a new server up (physical). Long story short I have two new Dell PowerEdge R350's. I powered the first up yesterday and configured the iDRAC and set a static IP on the LAN adapter. It's now joined to the domain and ready for work

I've been using Dell for a while laptop wise and I really like the Dell Command app. It's a simple way for users to know if there is firmware/driver updates for their systems. I always explan that is the updates for hardware, whereas Windows Updates are for the software.

Is there something similar for servers? I don't have many and I'm looking into Windows Admin Center (never used it) and other ways I can best manage these servers going forward.

What's the "best practices" for these now a days?

 

[staypuft86]

Dell has a few utilities that do this. PowerEdge LifeCycle Controller works well - https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-us/000128133/poweredge-server-lifecycle-controller-update

 

[sryan2k1]

We lifecycle controller them when doing hypervisor updates or as needed. Which is never

 

[jediatzinger]

Does the lifecycle controller list the firmware or driver updates available for the system?

 

[Dr Nno]

Does the lifecycle controller list the firmware or driver updates available for the system?

You can set it up so it connects to the Dell website to grab the catalog of updates, and applies them as needed. For small infrastructures, like yours, the LifeCycle Controller is the easiest option in my opinion.


View: https://youtu.be/rDwod3lkKK4


For clusters, or bigger companies, you may prefer to go the SupportAssist Enterprise/Secure Connect Gateway route.

 

[sryan2k1]

Does the lifecycle controller list the firmware or driver updates available for the system?

Not drivers, that is in the OS, but the lifecycle controller it's own self contained UEFI OS (technically built into the iDRAC)

The simple version is you boot into it, tell it what NIC you want it to use, hit firmware update, tell it to check Dell, and hit next a bunch of times and it updates everything, including multiple reboots if needed.

 

[DrWebster]

I usually just preload updates through iDRAC then hit the "install next reboot" button. That way, they'll get done at the same time I'm rebooting the box for Windows updates or ESXi patches or whatever.

 

[Klockwerk]

Connecting the iDRAC directly to the Dell website works.

If you have a vmware/hyper-v cluster you can also run the Dell OpenManage Enterprise appliance which does firmware management - https://www.dell.com/en-au/dt/solutions/openmanage/enterprise.htm

The core appliance is free and is fairly straightforward to setup and run.