DELL POWER SOLUTIONS Re
rinted from Dell Power Solutions, August 2005. Copyright © 2005 Dell Inc. All rights reserve
ugust 2005
SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT
E
uipped with 10 server blades and several I/O mod
ules and management modules, the Dell PowerEdge
855 blade server contains numerous system software
components to update durin
the chan
e-mana
ement
rocess. Although best practices dictate careful planning
and methodical implementation when deployin
system
software updates for the PowerEdge 1855 blade server,
such chan
e mana
ement need not be di
icult. As is
e case wit
ot
er PowerE
ge servers, a
ministrators
can mana
e software updates for the PowerEd
e 1855
blade server using standards-based Dell OpenManag
oo
s, t
ir
-party enterprise c
an
e-mana
ement
ools
or both.
at
ng server
a
e
he process for updating system software components on
PowerEd
e 1855 server blades is desi
ned to be the same
as on ot
er PowerE
ge servers. T
is simi
arity a
ows
administrators to levera
e existin
chan
e-mana
ement
rocesses in their IT or
anization to mana
e updates to
owerEdge 1855 server blades. On PowerEdge 1855 server
lades, administrators can typically update firmware on
the
ollowin
system so
tware components
•
erver s
stem BIO
•
Baseboard management controller (BMC
•
PowerEd
e Expandable RAID Controller 4,
Integrated Mirroring
PERC 4/IM
•
Adaptec SCSI Card 3916
•
CSI hard disk drives
•
-
v
riv
r
As part of the change-management planning
rocess, administrators must decide which u
date
ethod best fits their environment. System software
components on a PowerEd
e 1855 server blade can be
updated using one o
two methods: o
line updates or
online updates.
BY NARAYAN DEVIREDDY AND R
TIN
H
AN
p
at
ng t
e
Dell PowerEdge 1855 Blade Server
hassis and
erver Blade
Many hardware components in the Dell
™
PowerEdge
™
1855 blade server have been
designed with a firmware upgrade option—including the Dell Remote Access Controller/
Modular Chassis (DRAC/MC) management module; server baseboard management
controllers; I/O modules; and keyboard, video, mouse modules. This article discusses
standards-based frameworks for updating individual server blades and available
software utilities as well as recommended methods and best practices for updating
chassis component firmware.
Related Categories:
Blade servers
Dell PowerEdge blade servers
New-generation server technology
Visit www.dell.com/powersolutions
for the complete category index.
