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DELL OPENMANAGE(TM) DEPLOYMENT TOOLKIT VERSION 1.3.1 A04 README
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Contents
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NOTE: This readme provides information regarding the Dell OpenManage
Deployment Toolkit version 1.3.1.
This file contains updated information for your "Dell OpenManage
Deployment Toolkit User's Guide" and any other technical documentation
included with the Deployment Toolkit.
The Deployment Toolkit documentation includes the "Command Line
Interface Reference Guide" and the "User's Guide." See the Dell
Support website (support.dell.com) for the most current information.
This file contains the following sections:
* Criticality
* Release Highlights
* Minimum Requirements
* Installation
* Upgrading
* User Notes
* Known Issues
* Documentation Updates
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CRITICALITY
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3 - Optional
Dell recommends that you review the specifics about the update to
determine if it applies to your system. The update contains changes
that may impact only certain configurations, or provides new features
that may/may not apply to your environment.
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RELEASE HIGHLIGHTS
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Deployment Toolkit version 1.3.1 adds the following features:
* Support for Dell(TM) PowerEdge(TM) 6800 and 6850 systems.
Note: Other systems may be supported with this release. Check
"support.dell.com" to verify the supported systems and to
download the latest version of the toolkit.
* Support for the following BIOSCFG.EXE utility options:
- lcd1 -- Sets the first line of user defined LCD strings
- lcd2 -- Sets the second line of user defined LCD strings
NOTE: These options apply only to Dell PowerEdge "x8xx" systems.
* Support for the following BMCCFG.EXE utility options:
- powerctl -- poweroff/powercycle the system
- identify -- flashes the identification LED for a specified number
of seconds.
NOTE: These options apply only to Dell PowerEdge systems with a
baseboard management controller (BMC).
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MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS
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The following Dell PowerEdge systems are supported by Deployment
Toolkit version 1.3.1: 650, 700, 750, 800, 1500SC, 1550, 1600SC, 1650,
1655MC, 1750, 1800, 1850, 1855MC, 2500, 2550, 2600, 2650, 2800, 2850,
4600, 6600, 6650, 6800, and 6850 systems.
Note: Other systems may be supported with this release. Check
"support.dell.com" to verify the supported systems and to
download the latest version of the toolkit.
Note: The BIOSFLSH.EXE utility is not supported on PowerEdge "x5xx"
series systems.
Note: The RAIDCFG.EXE utility is not supported on PowerEdge 2550
systems.
* The sample scripts included with Deployment Toolkit have been tested
with the deployment of the following operating systems:
- Microsoft Windows 2000 Server and Advanced Server
- Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition
- Red Hat Linux version 9
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS, version 2.1
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES, version 3
* The utilities provided with the Dell OpenManage Deployment Toolkit
are not compatible with 32-bit DOS extenders. Examples include, but
are not limited to, DPMI, Novell(R) NetWare(R) NIOS, and PharLap.
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Installation Prerequisites
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Before installing DTK components, ensure that you have:
* The DTK self-extracting installation file (dtk-1.X-dos-AXX.exe),
which contains the utilities, sample scripts, sample configuration
files, and documentation you need to deploy your Dell system.
* A workstation that has at least 18 MB of free hard-drive space.
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Deployment Prerequisites
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Before beginning the deployment process, ensure that you have all of
the following tools, software, and information ready to use or
consult:
* Advanced knowledge of DOS.
* Access to DOS utilities and documentation necessary to create or
modify a DOS boot disk:
- A bootable MS-DOS diskette or CD and documentation
- A workstation with the following capabilities:
-- A diskette drive
-- A writable CD drive and CD writing software
-- Network access
* A target system with a CD drive, if performing a local deployment.
* A target system with a diskette drive or CD drive and network
access, if performing a network deployment.
* All DTK utilities, sample scripts, and sample configuration files.
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INSTALLATION
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For complete installation instructions, see the "Dell OpenManage
Deployment Toolkit User's Guide."
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UPGRADING
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* When upgrading from a previous release of the Deployment Toolkit,
extract the toolkit to a different directory and copy the individual
components to the working directory as needed.
* All files in the "dell/toolkit/tools" directory can be overwritten
with updated utilities and are completely backward compatible.
Note: The "PFLASH" utility has been updated to properly use the /f
option. Use the updated "RAIDFWUP.BAT" in your deployments.
The 1.0 and 1.1 versions of the "RAIDFWUP.BAT" file do not
work with the updated utility.
* Exercise caution when upgrading the "dell/toolkit/template/scripts"
directory. It is recommended that you compare the updated scripts
against your existing scripts and manually make the necessary
changes to the new scripts.
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USER NOTES
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This section provides information that can help enhance your
experience with the Deployment Toolkit.
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SCRIPT NOTES
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* The sample scripts are provided as examples for customers wishing to
develop their own deployment process. Some customers may find that
the scripts work well in their environment, while some customers
may need to develop their own scripts entirely from scratch.
Customers deploying multiple systems need to provide unique
information for each server when appropriate. For example, system
host names, IP addresses, and BIOS asset tags need to be unique for
each system. The batch scripts and configuration files need
to be modified to reflect the unique information for each system
being deployed. There are many options available to optimize this
process.
* A system profile generated on a specific Dell PowerEdge system can
be used to deploy only similar system models. For example, a
system BIOS configuration profile generated for an optimally
configured PowerEdge 1850 system can be used to deploy only
similarly configured PowerEdge 1850 systems.
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TOOL NOTES
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* BIOSCFG:
- Some options may not be present on all systems. This can
be due to the BIOS version or hardware feature set. The usage
information generated by running BIOSCFG without arguments shows
only those options that are valid for your system.
- The "--devseq" option is present only if you have an
available, bootable hard-disk partition. If this option is
present in the configuration file, but not present on your
system, you receive a usage error.
- If you perform operations that change the "--redmem"
option, you should immediately reboot the system. This applies to
command line usage as well as "--infile" usage. Additionally, the
"--redmem" option should not be issued with any other command
and should be immediately followed by a system reboot. This is
important when you develop scripts that can alter the "--redmem"
setting.
* BIOSFLSH:
- In some environments, when using the BIOSFLSH utility, the system
may not flash the BIOS after reboot. When using the "-c" (check)
option, the command may report that the system could not find the
image in memory, or the checksum was invalid. If this behavior is
consistent, try specifying a new temporary memory region to load
the BIOS image. This is done using the "-m" option.
- BIOSFLSH will attempt to find a free region of memory to load the
BIOS image for update. If the selected region conflicts with
drivers or other software, use the "-m" option to force BIOSFLSH
to use a different location. For example,
"BIOSFLSH -m 64 -f bios.hdr" will force BIOSFLSH to load the file
bios.hdr at 64 megabytes. In this case, ensure your system has
more than 64 megabytes of memory. Valid values are 2 to 254.
* BMCCFG:
- For options that use text strings such as username,
password, hostname, and community string, using some characters
such as <space>, "<," ">," "|," "=" on the command line can be
misinterpreted by the command line parser and cause errors.
- In some instances, the BMCCFG.exe utility might report
an incorrect version in the "minorfwrevision" field. BMCCFG
reports the bmcversion --> minorfwversion CLI option in decimals.
Convert this value to hexadecimal value to get the correct
firmware version.
* RAIDCFG:
- At least 500 KB of disk space is needed to run RAIDCFG.
This means that the run location specified by -rl or the scratch
location specified by -sl must have at least 500 KB of free
space.
- When creating virtual disks, do not specify the units for
chunk (stripe) size. It is always in KB.
- When providing multiple physical disks for the "create
virtual disk" command, do not separate the disks with spaces. For
example, "-ad=1:4, 1:5" causes an error. The correct way to
display multiple physical disks is "-ad=1:4,1:5,1:6."
- If the controller is changed from SCSI to RAID mode, expect data
loss to occur. Back up any data you wish to save before changing
the modes.
* MPTPSIR:
- The file input and output features of MPTPSIR may not
function properly in some situations.
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KNOWN ISSUES
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* If the system password of a PowerEdge "x8xx" system, which supports
LCD options, is set using BIOSCFG, the system erases the LCD text.
Workaround: Set the LCD text after setting the system password.
* After using BIOSFLSH or BIOSCFG on the PowerEdge 1650 with a network
boot disk, the system may hang during reboot. This occurs with BIOS
versions A10 and below.
* Use the REBOOT.EXE utility to perform warm reboots of the PowerEdge
1650 system.
* RAID firmware updates using PFLASH fail if the RAID controller is
running a consistency check. The sample script RAIDFWUP.BAT will
not detect a PFLASH failure. Therefore, the script continues
executing without performing the flash. This impacts any
deployment scenario where logical disks are performing a
consistency check/background initialization while using PFLASH to
flash their controller.
* Some KVM solutions have caused PowerEdge 1750 systems to prompt the
user to press the <F1> or <F2> key during POST or lose functionality
of the numlock feature in BIOSCFG. This is due to the keyboard
connection between the system and the KVM unit.
* Insufficient free memory in DOS may cause errors during RAIDCFG
execution. The message "Out of environment space" may be generated.
To fix this, increase the amount of free memory available for
RAIDCFG by reducing the size of the network stack. If you are using
the command "net start full," use the command "net start basic"
instead.
* Ensure that your config.sys file contains the lines FILES=20
and BUFFERS=20. Failure to do so can result in unexpected operation
when using various utilities.
* Copy operations using XCOPY. Else, the DOS COPY command may fail
when copying across a network share. The message "invalid file
handle" may be displayed. This is an intermittent error that is
usually caused by the network connection. If the problem persists,
check your network settings.
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DOCUMENTATION UPDATES
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* Errata for Table 14-6 (PARTCFG.EXE Options and Arguments), Section
"PART CFG.EXE," "Dell OpenManage Deployment Tool Kit Version 1.3
Command Line Interface Guide:"
- The example for "--remove" is invalid, since it omits
the "--" before the "partition" switch.
- The example used for "--create," "--disk," "--filesystem,"
and "--size" does not include the "--type" switch.
- The Valid Arguments for "--filesystem" must be entered in
upper case (i.e., FAT16, FAT32, or NTFS). They are listed in
lower case in the "Valid Arguments" column in the table and other
places in the section.
- The example for "--type" in the table includes the
"--filesystem" switch, which is not allowed when "--type" is
'utility', as in the example.
- The example for "--wipe" is invalid. The first switch must be
"--create," "--remove," or "--input."
* Errata for Table C-3 (BMCCFG.EXE Error Codes and Messages), Section
"Messages and Codes," "Dell OpenManage Deployment Tool Kit Version
1.3 Command Line Interface Guide:"
- The text under "Message" for Error Code 32 should read as: "The
username may only contain printable ASCII characters."
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Information in this document is subject to change without notice.
(C) 2005 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.
Reproduction in any manner whatsoever without the written permission
of Dell is strictly forbidden. Trademarks used in this text: "Dell,"
"PowerEdge," and "Dell OpenManage" are trademarks of Dell Inc.;
"Microsoft," "MS-DOS," and "Windows" are registered trademarks of
Microsoft Corporation; "Red Hat" is a registered trademark of Red Hat,
Inc.; "Novell" and "NetWare" are registered trademarks of Novell, Inc.
Other trademarks and trade names may be used in this document to refer
to either the entities claiming the marks and names or their products.
Dell Inc. disclaims any proprietary interest in trademarks and trade
names other than its own.
The sample scripts provided with the Dell OpenManage Deployment
Toolkit are provided "as is." Dell disclaims any and all warranties,
express, implied or statutory, with respect to the sample scripts,
including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of
merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title and any
warranty of non-infringement. Use the sample scripts at your own risk.
Dell shall not be liable for any direct or indirect damages incurred
in using the sample scripts. In no event shall Dell or its suppliers
be responsible for any direct or indirect damages whatsoever
(including, without limitation, damages for loss of profits, loss of
use, loss of data, business interruption, or other pecuniary loss, nor
for punitive, incidental, consequential, or special damages of any
kind, under any part of this agreement, even if advised or aware of
the possibility of such damage.
February 2005
Download Driver Pack
After your driver has been downloaded, follow these simple steps to install it.
Expand the archive file (if the download file is in zip or rar format).
If the expanded file has an .exe extension, double click it and follow the installation instructions.
Otherwise, open Device Manager by right-clicking the Start menu and selecting Device Manager.
Find the device and model you want to update in the device list.
Double-click on it to open the Properties dialog box.
From the Properties dialog box, select the Driver tab.
Click the Update Driver button, then follow the instructions.
Very important: You must reboot your system to ensure that any driver updates have taken effect.
For more help, visit our Driver Support section for step-by-step videos on how to install drivers for every file type.