I'm having a hard time upgrading the iDrac on one of my Dell PowerEdge R730xd servers. All my other servers upgraded to version 2.70.70.70 without any issues. However, this one just won't cooperate. I started with version 2.40.40.40 and tried to upgrade incrementally to 2.70.70.70 and even to 2.41.40.40, but no luck. I did a factory reset on the iDrac in hopes of fixing any underlying issues, but it still won't upgrade. Someone mentioned the problem might be related to a certificate issue. I'm looking for some advice or solutions since all my servers are out of warranty, and contacting Dell could be really expensive.
5 Answers
As a former Dell employee who worked extensively with iDRACs, I recommend checking the LCC messages and clearing them out. Also, look at the job log to remove any old messages. It’s key to extract the .exe; it self-extracts and should give you a .d7 file to upload through the update tab instead of the .exe.
I had success by extracting the firmimg.d7 file from the .EXE and uploading that directly.
Are you uploading the .exe directly to iDRAC’s web interface? What do the logs say when it fails? That could give us more insight into the error.
I’ve attempted the upload on both the machine and through the interface. The error I’m getting is RED004, which is an unknown error.
How are you performing the update? I usually extract the files from the update utility and upload them through the iDrac GUI. It’s worked for me every time.
You can just upload the entire .exe file; no need to extract it first. The iDrac handles it automatically.
Since it's a 13th Gen Dell server, you’re using iDRAC 8. Make sure you’re uploading the .EXE file that contains the firmware image. It may have a certificate that older iDRAC versions can’t read. You should extract the package to a temporary folder and upload the firmimg.d7 file instead, which should be around 107 MB in size.
I tried the .bin file, but it didn’t recognize it. Any other suggestions?
Are you referring to the 2.70 update?