Dell Remote Access Configuration Tool for Microsoft Windows Operating Systems Version 1.
Notes, Cautions, and Warnings NOTE: A NOTE indicates important information that helps you make better use of your computer. CAUTION: A CAUTION indicates potential damage to hardware or loss of data if instructions are not followed. WARNING: A WARNING indicates a potential for property damage, personal injury, or death. Information in this publication is subject to change without notice. © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.
Contents Notes, Cautions, and Warnings...................................................................................................2 1 Introducing Dell Remote Access Configuration Tool............................................................5 Supported RACs........................................................................................................................................................5 Supported Operating System..................................................................
Introducing Dell Remote Access Configuration Tool 1 Dell Remote Access Configuration Tool (DRACT) discovers and configures Remote Access Controllers (RACs) for systems on your network from a single console. You can use this tool to perform the following: • Discover or import RAC IP addresses on the network. • Update firmware for selected RAC IP addresses. • Configure standard or extended schema-based Active Directory (AD) settings for selected RAC IP addresses.
Other Documents You May Need In addition to this guide, you can see the following guides on the Dell Support website at support.dell.com/manuals or use the direct link on the Dell Systems Management Tools and Documentation DVD. • The Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller 7 (iDRAC7) User’s Guide provides information about configuring and using an iDRAC7 for rack, tower, and blade servers to remotely manage and monitor your system and its shared resources through a network.
Installing and Uninstalling DRACT 2 This section provides information about how to install and set up DRACT on your system. Prerequisites The prerequisites to install and run DRACT on your system are: • Install .Net Framework version 2.0 SP1 (or later). • Download the DRACT installer file (.msi) from the Dell Support website at support.dell.com. • A user account with installation and execution privileges.
Installing DRACT Using CLI To install DRACT using CLI: 1. Run the command msiexec /I /.msi at the command prompt, where, is the location of the DRACT installer file and is the DRACT installer name. The Welcome window is displayed. 2. Perform the steps provided in Installing DRACT Using MSI Installer. Installing DRACT Using AD Setup Package You can install DRACT using the AD Setup Package. For more information, see the readme.
1. Go to Start → Control Panel → Add or Remove Programs . 2. Select Dell Remote Access Configuration Tool and click Remove. After DRACT is uninstalled, it is removed from the list. Uninstalling DRACT Using CLI To uninstall DRACT using CLI: 1. Run the command msiexec /x /.msi at the command prompt, where, is the location of the DRACT installer file and is the DRACT installer name. The Welcome window is displayed. 2.
Discovering Importing and Verifying RACs 3 Firmware updates or configuring RACs requires discovery and verification of the RACs on the network. You can use DRACT to discover the RAC IP addresses or import a .csv file containing the RAC IP addresses that are discovered, and append the imported list of RAC IP addresses to the existing list. You can specify the RAC types you need to discover for a specific IP address or a range of IP addresses.
Importing RACs If you have a list of discovered RAC IP addresses saved in a .csv file, you can import the file into DRACT or you can perform a discovery and then import the .csv file. The contents of the file are appended to the existing list of discovered RAC IP addresses. To import a list of RAC IP addresses: 1. Launch DRACT. For information on the steps, see Launching DRACT. The Welcome window is displayed. 2. Click Next. The Discover or Import Remote Access Controllers window is displayed. 3.
– Verification Failed – Access Denied – A required license is missing or expired NOTE: If the Status is Verified, the DNS name and firmware version is also displayed. After all the RAC IP addresses are verified, the "Verification of the selected RACs is completed." message is displayed. 5. Click OK. This completes the verification process. NOTE: You can click Export and save the list of RAC IP addresses as a .csv file. You can import this .csv into DRACT at a later time to perform a verification. 6.
Updating RAC Firmware 4 After you have discovered and verified the RAC IP addresses on your network, you can perform a firmware update on the selected RACs using the firmware image file located on your local directory or on the Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) server. For information to discover and verify RAC IP addresses, see Discovering Importing and Verifying RACs. NOTE: iDRAC6 Enterprise for blade servers (version 3.3 and later) supports firmware update using the local directory.
In the firmware image file folder, if there is no firmware image file for a specific RAC type, then the corresponding option is disabled and is not available for selection. For example, if the firmware image file is not available for DRAC 4, then you cannot select the DRAC4 option. 4. Click Update Firmware.
Configuring RACs Using Microsoft Active Directory 5 The Active Directory (AD) service maintains a common database of all information needed for controlling users on a network. If you are using the AD software, you can configure it to provide access to the RACs, allowing you to add and control user privileges for the existing users in your directory service. AD centralizes all RAC user IDs and passwords using standard or extended schema.
To configure RACs using AD standard schema settings: 1. Discover and verify the RAC IP addresses on your network. For more information, see Discovering Importing and Verifying RACs. 2. In the Firmware Update Configuration window, click Next. The Active Directory Configuration window is displayed. The Schema column indicates that the RAC is configured to a standard or extended schema. If it is not configured, the Schema column displays Disabled. 3.
If the configuration is not complete, the Status column displays one of the following messages for the IP address(es): * Certificate Upload Failed - CA certificate uploaded is invalid. * Configuration Failed - RAC configuration is not successful. * Insufficient Privileges - The required privileges are not provided to configure the RAC. For more information on the Status column messages, see Troubleshooting and Frequently Asked Questions.
– Under Upload Active Directory CA certificate, click Browse and select the CA certificate file to be uploaded. NOTE: This is optional for iDRAC6 and iDRAC7, but mandatory for DRAC 4, DRAC 5, and CMC. The AD CA certificate on the RAC must be the same certificate that is on the AD server. For iDRAC6 and iDRAC7, if the certificate is not specified, the default SSL certificate is used. 6. – If you have selected the IP addresses for iDRAC6 or iDRAC7, click the iDRAC6/iDRAC7 tab and enter the AD settings.
If the configuration is not complete, the Status column displays one of the following messages for the IP address(es): * Certificate Upload Failed - CA certificate uploaded is invalid. * Configuration Failed - RAC configuration is not successful. * Insufficient Privileges - The required privileges are not provided to configure the RAC. For more information on the Status column messages, see Troubleshooting and Frequently Asked Questions.
3. Select the privilege object related to the association object that you had specified and click Select. The selected privilege object is displayed as a string in the Privilege Object field. Disabling AD Standard or Extended Schema for RACs You can disable the AD standard or extended schema configuration for a selection of the discovered and verified RACs on your network. To disable AD standard or extended schema for RACs: 1. Discover and verify the RAC IP addresses on your network.
6 Troubleshooting and Frequently Asked Questions 1. DRACT does not discover a RAC. Make sure that you have performed the following: – Ping the RAC IP address to make sure that you can connect to the RAC from your host. – The HTTP protocol is not blocked on the host system. Check your network proxy settings and make sure that the proxy is configured correctly to allow connectivity to the Internet. – The RAC has the remote RACADM feature enabled. 2. DRACT only discovers DRAC4 controllers.
The user name and password provided to verify the RAC IP addresses do not have configuration privileges on the RAC. 12. Standard schema, extended schema, or AD schema disabled fail with the message Configuration Failed. The RAC was in an undefined state or there was a known configuration update issue on a particular firmware version. For the solution, see the readme file for the specific firmware version before updating the firmware again.