Greetings!
I am taking up a project to consolidate the bios/LC/idrac/hw firmware
updates for powerEdge 12G+ servers and would appreciate if you can answer
few questions noted below.
Environment: 3000+ Linux servers(RHEL6, 7) all running in multiple sites.
Primarily PE R600 & 700 series with idrac enterprise 7,8,9.
Update Plan: Create a local mirror of the upstream repo and use it in some
fashion.
I narrowed down my update strategy to following options.
A. Install using yum repo (os-independent & os-dependent)
B. Install using DSU by passing catalog.xml(update definitions) &
location of .BIN files(using config.xml)
C. Create an iso using DSU by passing Catalog.xml &
config.xml(pointing to local .BIN repo). Then PXE boot to this iso to patch.
D. Setup iDrac scheduled updates using local copy of repo and use
multiple Catalog.xml to roll-out in phased manner.
__Questions__:
Q1. I like option:D as it is OS agnostic and uses iDRAC/LC to apply
patches in a scheduled way. Has anyone encountered issues where certain
category of updates fail for some reason? Will probably make windows server
team happy too with this. :)
Q2. I can also deal with option:C which involves creating iso and pxe
booting servers into it. This has historically worked well for me using
Dell Repo Mnager but the nv is too large and I'd like to avoid manual work
having to do this. So curious to know if folks here prefer this over
option:C.
Q3. In order to go with option C or D ), is there a .BIN repo that I can
mirror locally? Sorry I may not have google'd hard enough. If you have the
link handy, please share. Thx. I found the Catalog.xml file from '
https://downloads.dell.com/catalog/' but don't see fw files there.
Q4. I have never used RPM based updates(option A), but curious to know your
experiences? Are all updates available via DRM typically also packaged into
rpms or only a subset?
Q5. Option B sounds like a custom tailored updates for each server but I
have heard from fellow admins that it is a hit or miss. Do you agree with
this? Do you recommend even looking at this?
Any other ideas to fully automate bios/lc/idrac/hw firmware updates is
welcome.
Cheers
P
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