iDRAC driver¶

Overview¶

The integrated Dell Remote Access Controller (iDRAC) is an out-of-band management platform on Dell EMC servers, and is supported directly by the idrac hardware type. This driver uses the Dell Web Services for Management (WSMAN) protocol and the standard Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF) Redfish protocol to perform all of its functions.

iDRAC hardware is also supported by the generic ipmi and redfish hardware types, though with smaller feature sets.

Key features of the Dell iDRAC driver include:

Out-of-band node inspection
Boot device management and firmware management
Power management
RAID controller management and RAID volume configuration
BIOS settings configuration

Ironic Features¶

The idrac hardware type supports the following Ironic interfaces:

BIOS Interface: BIOS management
Inspect Interface: Hardware inspection
Management Interface: Boot device and firmware management
Power Interface: Power management
RAID Interface: RAID controller and disk management
Vendor Interface: BIOS management

Prerequisites¶

The idrac hardware type requires the python-dracclient library to be installed on the ironic conductor node(s) if an Ironic node is configured to use an idrac-wsman interface implementation, for example:

sudo pip install 'python-dracclient>=3.1.0'

Additionally, the idrac hardware type requires the sushy library to be installed on the ironic conductor node(s) if an Ironic node is configured to use an idrac-redfish interface implementation, for example:

sudo pip install 'python-dracclient>=3.1.0' 'sushy>=2.0.0'

Enabling¶

The iDRAC driver supports WSMAN for the bios, inspect, management, power, raid, and vendor interfaces. In addition, it supports Redfish for the bios, inspect, management, and power interfaces. The iDRAC driver allows you to mix and match WSMAN and Redfish interfaces.

The idrac-wsman implementation must be enabled to use WSMAN for an interface. The idrac-redfish implementation must be enabled to use Redfish for an interface.

Note

Redfish is supported for only the bios, inspect, management, and power interfaces at the present time.

To enable the idrac hardware type with the minimum interfaces, all using WSMAN, add the following to your /etc/ironic/ironic.conf:

[DEFAULT]
enabled_hardware_types=idrac
enabled_management_interfaces=idrac-wsman
enabled_power_interfaces=idrac-wsman

To enable all optional features (BIOS, inspection, RAID, and vendor passthru) using Redfish where it is supported and WSMAN where not, use the following configuration:

[DEFAULT]
enabled_hardware_types=idrac
enabled_bios_interfaces=idrac-redfish
enabled_inspect_interfaces=idrac-redfish
enabled_management_interfaces=idrac-redfish
enabled_power_interfaces=idrac-redfish
enabled_raid_interfaces=idrac-wsman
enabled_vendor_interfaces=idrac-wsman

Below is the list of supported interface implementations in priority order:

Interface	Supported Implementations
`bios`	`idrac-wsman`, `idrac-redfish`, `no-bios`
`boot`	`ipxe`, `pxe`, `idrac-redfish-virtual-media`
`console`	`no-console`
`deploy`	`iscsi`, `direct`, `ansible`, `ramdisk`
`inspect`	`idrac-wsman`, `idrac`, `idrac-redfish`, `inspector`, `no-inspect`
`management`	`idrac-wsman`, `idrac`, `idrac-redfish`
`network`	`flat`, `neutron`, `noop`
`power`	`idrac-wsman`, `idrac`, `idrac-redfish`
`raid`	`idrac-wsman`, `idrac`, `no-raid`
`rescue`	`no-rescue`, `agent`
`storage`	`noop`, `cinder`, `external`
`vendor`	`idrac-wsman`, `idrac`, `idrac-redfish`, `no-vendor`

Note

idrac is the legacy name of the WSMAN interface. It has been deprecated in favor of idrac-wsman and may be removed in a future release.

Protocol-specific Properties¶

The WSMAN and Redfish protocols require different properties to be specified in the Ironic node’s driver_info field to communicate with the bare metal system’s iDRAC.

The WSMAN protocol requires the following properties:

drac_username: The WSMAN user name to use when communicating with the iDRAC. Usually root.
drac_password: The password for the WSMAN user to use when communicating with the iDRAC.
drac_address: The IP address of the iDRAC.

The Redfish protocol requires the following properties:

redfish_username: The Redfish user name to use when communicating with the iDRAC. Usually root.
redfish_password: The password for the Redfish user to use when communicating with the iDRAC.
redfish_address: The URL address of the iDRAC. It must include the authority portion of the URL, and can optionally include the scheme. If the scheme is missing, https is assumed.
redfish_system_id: The Redfish ID of the server to be managed. This should always be: /redfish/v1/Systems/System.Embedded.1.

For other Redfish protocol parameters see Redfish driver.

If using only interfaces which use WSMAN (idrac-wsman), then only the WSMAN properties must be supplied. If using only interfaces which use Redfish (idrac-redfish), then only the Redfish properties must be supplied. If using a mix of interfaces, where some use WSMAN and others use Redfish, both the WSMAN and Redfish properties must be supplied.

Enrolling¶

The following command enrolls a bare metal node with the idrac hardware type using WSMAN for all interfaces:

baremetal node create --driver idrac \
    --driver-info drac_username=user \
    --driver-info drac_password=pa$$w0rd \
    --driver-info drac_address=drac.host

The following command enrolls a bare metal node with the idrac hardware type using Redfish for all interfaces:

baremetal node create --driver idrac \
    --driver-info redfish_username=user \
    --driver-info redfish_password=pa$$w0rd \
    --driver-info redfish_address=drac.host \
    --driver-info redfish_system_id=/redfish/v1/Systems/System.Embedded.1 \
    --bios-interface idrac-redfish \
    --inspect-interface idrac-redfish \
    --management-interface idrac-redfish \
    --power-interface idrac-redfish \
    --raid-interface no-raid \
    --vendor-interface no-vendor

The following command enrolls a bare metal node with the idrac hardware type assuming a mix of Redfish and WSMAN interfaces are used:

baremetal node create --driver idrac \
    --driver-info drac_username=user \
    --driver-info drac_password=pa$$w0rd
    --driver-info drac_address=drac.host \
    --driver-info redfish_username=user \
    --driver-info redfish_password=pa$$w0rd \
    --driver-info redfish_address=drac.host \
    --driver-info redfish_system_id=/redfish/v1/Systems/System.Embedded.1 \
    --bios-interface idrac-redfish \
    --inspect-interface idrac-redfish \
    --management-interface idrac-redfish \
    --power-interface idrac-redfish

Note

If using WSMAN for the management interface, then WSMAN must be used for the power interface. The same applies to Redfish. It is currently not possible to use Redfish for one and WSMAN for the other.

BIOS Interface¶

The BIOS interface implementations supported by the idrac hardware type allows BIOS to be configured with the standard clean/deploy step approach.

Example¶

A clean step to enable Virtualization and SRIOV in BIOS of an iDRAC BMC would be as follows:

{
  "target":"clean",
  "clean_steps": [
    {
      "interface": "bios",
      "step": "apply_configuration",
      "args": {
        "settings": [
          {
            "name": "ProcVirtualization",
            "value": "Enabled"
          },
          {
            "name": "SriovGlobalEnable",
            "value": "Enabled"
          }
        ]
      }
    }
  ]
}

See the Known Issues for a known issue with factory_reset clean step. For additional details of BIOS configuration, see BIOS Configuration.

Inspect Interface¶

The Dell iDRAC out-of-band inspection process catalogs all the same attributes of the server as the IPMI driver. Unlike IPMI, it does this without requiring the system to be rebooted, or even to be powered on. Inspection is performed using the Dell WSMAN or Redfish protocol directly without affecting the operation of the system being inspected.

The inspection discovers the following properties:

cpu_arch: cpu architecture
cpus: number of cpus
local_gb: disk size in gigabytes
memory_mb: memory size in megabytes

Extra capabilities:

boot_mode: UEFI or BIOS boot mode.
pci_gpu_devices: number of GPU devices connected to the bare metal.

It also creates baremetal ports for each NIC port detected in the system. The idrac-wsman inspect interface discovers which NIC ports are configured to PXE boot and sets pxe_enabled to True on those ports. The idrac-redfish inspect interface does not currently set pxe_enabled on the ports. The user should ensure that pxe_enabled is set correctly on the ports following inspection with the idrac-redfish inspect interface.

Management Interface¶

The management interface for idrac-redfish supports updating firmware on nodes using a manual cleaning step.

See Redfish driver for more information on firmware update support.

RAID Interface¶

See RAID Configuration for more information on Ironic RAID support.

The following properties are supported by the iDRAC WSMAN raid interface implementation, idrac-wsman:

Mandatory properties¶

size_gb: Size in gigabytes (integer) for the logical disk. Use MAX as size_gb if this logical disk is supposed to use the rest of the space available.
raid_level: RAID level for the logical disk. Valid values are 0, 1, 5, 6, 1+0, 5+0 and 6+0.

Note

JBOD and 2 are not supported, and will fail with reason: ‘Cannot calculate spans for RAID level.’

Optional properties¶

is_root_volume: Optional. Specifies whether this disk is a root volume. By default, this is False.
volume_name: Optional. Name of the volume to be created. If this is not specified, it will be auto-generated.

Backing physical disk hints¶

See RAID Configuration for more information on backing disk hints.

These are machine-independent information. The hints are specified for each logical disk to help Ironic find the desired disks for RAID configuration.

disk_type
interface_type
share_physical_disks
number_of_physical_disks

Backing physical disks¶

These are Dell RAID controller-specific values and must match the names provided by the iDRAC.

controller: Mandatory. The name of the controller to use.
physical_disks: Optional. The names of the physical disks to use.

Note

physical_disks is a mandatory parameter if the property size_gb is set to MAX.

Examples¶

Creation of RAID 1+0 logical disk with six disks on one controller:

{ "logical_disks":
  [ { "controller": "RAID.Integrated.1-1",
      "is_root_volume": "True",
      "physical_disks": [
        "Disk.Bay.0:Enclosure.Internal.0-1:RAID.Integrated.1-1",
        "Disk.Bay.1:Enclosure.Internal.0-1:RAID.Integrated.1-1",
        "Disk.Bay.2:Enclosure.Internal.0-1:RAID.Integrated.1-1",
        "Disk.Bay.3:Enclosure.Internal.0-1:RAID.Integrated.1-1",
        "Disk.Bay.4:Enclosure.Internal.0-1:RAID.Integrated.1-1",
        "Disk.Bay.5:Enclosure.Internal.0-1:RAID.Integrated.1-1"],
      "raid_level": "1+0",
      "size_gb": "MAX"}]}

Manual RAID Invocation¶

The following command can be used to delete any existing RAID configuration. It deletes all virtual disks/RAID volumes, unassigns all global and dedicated hot spare physical disks, and clears foreign configuration:

baremetal node clean --clean-steps \
  '[{"interface": "raid", "step": "delete_configuration"}]' ${node_uuid}

The following command shows an example of how to set the target RAID configuration:

baremetal node set --target-raid-config '{ "logical_disks":
  [ { "controller": "RAID.Integrated.1-1",
      "is_root_volume": true,
      "physical_disks": [
        "Disk.Bay.0:Enclosure.Internal.0-1:RAID.Integrated.1-1",
        "Disk.Bay.1:Enclosure.Internal.0-1:RAID.Integrated.1-1"],
      "raid_level": "0",
      "size_gb": "MAX"}]}' ${node_uuid}

The following command can be used to create a RAID configuration:

baremetal node clean --clean-steps \
  '[{"interface": "raid", "step": "create_configuration"}]' <node>

When the physical disk names or controller names are not known, the following Python code example shows how the python-dracclient can be used to fetch the information directly from the Dell bare metal:

import dracclient.client


client = dracclient.client.DRACClient(
    host="192.168.1.1",
    username="root",
    password="calvin")
controllers = client.list_raid_controllers()
print(controllers)

physical_disks = client.list_physical_disks()
print(physical_disks)

Vendor Interface¶

Dell iDRAC BIOS management is available through the Ironic vendor passthru interface.

Method Name	HTTP Method	Description
`abandon_bios_config`	`DELETE`	Abandon a BIOS configuration job.
`commit_bios_config`	`POST`	Commit a BIOS configuration job submitted through `set_bios_config`. Required argument: `reboot` - indicates whether a reboot job should be automatically created with the config job. Returns a dictionary containing the `job_id` key with the ID of the newly created config job, and the `reboot_required` key indicating whether the node needs to be rebooted to execute the config job.
`get_bios_config`	`GET`	Returns a dictionary containing the node’s BIOS settings.
`list_unfinished_jobs`	`GET`	Returns a dictionary containing the key `unfinished_jobs`; its value is a list of dictionaries. Each dictionary represents an unfinished config job object.
`set_bios_config`	`POST`	Change the BIOS configuration on a node. Required argument: a dictionary of {`AttributeName`: `NewValue`}. Returns a dictionary containing the `is_commit_required` key indicating whether `commit_bios_config` needs to be called to apply the changes and the `is_reboot_required` value indicating whether the server must also be rebooted. Possible values are `true` and `false`.

Examples¶

Get BIOS Config¶

baremetal node passthru call --http-method GET <node> get_bios_config

Snippet of output showing virtualization enabled:

{"ProcVirtualization": {
      "current_value": "Enabled",
      "instance_id": "BIOS.Setup.1-1:ProcVirtualization",
      "name": "ProcVirtualization",
      "pending_value": null,
      "possible_values": [
          "Enabled",
          "Disabled"],
      "read_only": false }}

There are a number of items to note from the above snippet:

name: this is the name to use in a call to set_bios_config.
current_value: the current state of the setting.
pending_value: if the value has been set, but not yet committed, the new value is shown here. The change can either be committed or abandoned.
possible_values: shows a list of valid values which can be used in a call to set_bios_config.
read_only: indicates if the value is capable of being changed.

Set BIOS Config¶

baremetal node passthru call <node> set_bios_config --arg "name=value"

Walkthrough of perfoming a BIOS configuration change:

The following section demonstrates how to change BIOS configuration settings, detect that a commit and reboot are required, and act on them accordingly. The two properties that are being changed are:

Enable virtualization technology of the processor
Globally enable SR-IOV

baremetal node passthru call <node> set_bios_config \
  --arg "ProcVirtualization=Enabled" \
  --arg "SriovGlobalEnable=Enabled"

This returns a dictionary indicating what actions are required next:

{
  "is_reboot_required": true,
  "is_commit_required": true
}

Commit BIOS Changes¶

The next step is to commit the pending change to the BIOS. Note that in this example, the reboot argument is set to true. The response indicates that a reboot is no longer required as it has been scheduled automatically by the commit_bios_config call. If the reboot argument is not supplied, the job is still created, however it remains in the scheduled state until a reboot is performed. The reboot can be initiated through the Ironic power API.

baremetal node passthru call <node> commit_bios_config \
  --arg "reboot=true"

{
  "job_id": "JID_499377293428",
  "reboot_required": false
}

The state of any executing job can be queried:

baremetal node passthru call --http-method GET <node> list_unfinished_jobs

{"unfinished_jobs":
    [{"status": "Scheduled",
      "name": "ConfigBIOS:BIOS.Setup.1-1",
      "until_time": "TIME_NA",
      "start_time": "TIME_NOW",
      "message": "Task successfully scheduled.",
      "percent_complete": "0",
      "id": "JID_499377293428"}]}

Abandon BIOS Changes¶

Instead of committing, a pending change can be abandoned:

baremetal node passthru call --http-method DELETE <node> abandon_bios_config

The abandon command does not provide a response body.

Change Boot Mode¶

The boot mode of the iDRAC can be changed to:

BIOS - Also called legacy or traditional boot mode. The BIOS initializes the system’s processors, memory, bus controllers, and I/O devices. After initialization is complete, the BIOS passes control to operating system (OS) software. The OS loader uses basic services provided by the system BIOS to locate and load OS modules into system memory. After booting the system, the BIOS and embedded management controllers execute system management algorithms, which monitor and optimize the condition of the underlying hardware. BIOS configuration settings enable fine-tuning of the performance, power management, and reliability features of the system.
UEFI - The Unified Extensible Firmware Interface does not change the traditional purposes of the system BIOS. To a large extent, a UEFI-compliant BIOS performs the same initialization, boot, configuration, and management tasks as a traditional BIOS. However, UEFI does change the interfaces and data structures the BIOS uses to interact with I/O device firmware and operating system software. The primary intent of UEFI is to eliminate shortcomings in the traditional BIOS environment, enabling system firmware to continue scaling with industry trends.

The UEFI boot mode offers:

Improved partitioning scheme for boot media
Support for media larger than 2 TB
Redundant partition tables
Flexible handoff from BIOS to OS
Consolidated firmware user interface
Enhanced resource allocation for boot device firmware

The boot mode can be changed via the vendor passthru interface as follows:

baremetal node passthru call <node> set_bios_config \
  --arg "BootMode=Uefi"

baremetal node passthru call <node> commit_bios_config \
  --arg "reboot=true"

baremetal node passthru call <node> set_bios_config \
  --arg "BootMode=Bios"

baremetal node passthru call <node> commit_bios_config \
  --arg "reboot=true"

Known Issues¶

Nodes go into maintenance mode¶

After some period of time, nodes managed by the idrac hardware type may go into maintenance mode in Ironic. This issue can be worked around by changing the Ironic power state poll interval to 70 seconds. See [conductor]sync_power_state_interval in /etc/ironic/ironic.conf.

PXE reset with “factory_reset” BIOS clean step¶

When using the UEFI boot mode` with non-default PXE interface, the factory reset can cause the PXE interface to be reset to default, which doesn’t allow the server to PXE boot for any further operations. This can cause a clean_failed state on the node or deploy_failed if you attempt to deploy a node after this step. For now, the only solution is for the operator to manually restore the PXE settings of the server for it to PXE boot again, properly. The problem is caused by the fact that with the UEFI boot mode, the idrac uses BIOS settings to manage PXE configuration. This is not the case with the BIOS boot mode where the PXE configuration is handled as a configuration job on the integrated NIC itself, independently of the BIOS settings.

Vendor passthru timeout¶

When iDRAC is not ready and executing vendor passthru commands, they take more time as waiting for iDRAC to become ready again and then time out, for example:

baremetal node passthru call --http-method GET \
  aed58dca-1b25-409a-a32f-3a817d59e1e0 list_unfinished_jobs
Timed out waiting for a reply to message ID 547ce7995342418c99ef1ea4a0054572 (HTTP 500)

To avoid this need to increase timeout for messaging in /etc/ironic/ironic.conf and restart Ironic API service.

[DEFAULT]
rpc_response_timeout = 600

Timeout when powering off¶

Some servers might be slow when soft powering off and time out. The default retry count is 6, resulting in 30 seconds timeout (the default retry interval set by post_deploy_get_power_state_retry_interval is 5 seconds). To resolve this issue, increase the timeout to 90 seconds by setting the retry count to 18 as follows:

[agent]
post_deploy_get_power_state_retries = 18

iDRAC driver

iDRAC driver¶

Overview¶

Ironic Features¶

Prerequisites¶

Enabling¶

Protocol-specific Properties¶

Enrolling¶

BIOS Interface¶

Example¶

Inspect Interface¶

Management Interface¶

RAID Interface¶

Mandatory properties¶

Optional properties¶

Backing physical disk hints¶

Backing physical disks¶

Examples¶

Manual RAID Invocation¶

Vendor Interface¶

Examples¶

Get BIOS Config¶

Set BIOS Config¶

Commit BIOS Changes¶

Abandon BIOS Changes¶

Change Boot Mode¶

Known Issues¶

Nodes go into maintenance mode¶

PXE reset with “factory_reset” BIOS clean step¶

Vendor passthru timeout¶

Timeout when powering off¶

ironic 16.2.1.dev2

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