Sometimes it happens that the servers iDRACs have some problems, they do not respond or respond “in a bad way”, perhaps they are pingable but the web interface is not responding correctly or perhaps entirely inaccessible. The first thing to do in cases like this is to reset the iDRAC, We can distinguish two cases:
- I can turn off the server because it is not in production
- The server must remain active or I want to avoid to turn it off
In the first case the issue almost never arises because I have the ability to completely turn off the server and disconnect the power supply in order to completely reset the status of the iDRAC.
In the second case we have two more streets:
- The server is a standalone rack or tower server
If the idrac web interface is still responding, maybe even at slow speed, we can try to navigate to the menu Server -> troubleshooting, Diagnostic tab and then click on “Reset iDRAC”:
Alternately, if the web interface is not responding properly, we can try to reset the idrac by connecting in ssh to its ip address and launching the command “racadm racreset”. There are other alternatives… not that come to mind at least. If ssh is not responding the only solution is to completely turn off the server and remove the power for a few seconds.
- The server equipped with idrac is part of a chassis
In this case I have another chance in addition to that described in the case of a standalone server. I can connect to chassis cmc via web, go to Chassis Overview-> Troubleshooting -> Reset Components
At this point, select “iDRAC Reset” in the drop-down menu for the server with the idrac that gives you problems and click on “Apply selections”.
At this point you will hear the server fans screaming, wait about 4 minutes and your idrac should be back online.
Thanks for the article! Very useful.
To complement, this post is very interesting: How to know the IP address of the iDRAC from ESXi SSH: https://www.sysadmit.com/2018/10/vmware-saber-ip-idrac-dell.html