The Dell Remote Access Controller, or DRAC, is an
out-of-band management
In systems management, out-of-band management involves the use of management interfaces (or serial ports) for managing networking equipment. Out-of-band (''OOB'') management is a networking term which refers to accessing and managing network infras ...
platform on certain
Dell
Dell is an American based technology company. It develops, sells, repairs, and supports computers and related products and services. Dell is owned by its parent company, Dell Technologies.
Dell sells personal computers (PCs), servers, data ...
servers. The platform may be provided on a separate
expansion card
In computing, an expansion card (also called an expansion board, adapter card, peripheral card or accessory card) is a printed circuit board that can be inserted into an electrical connector, or expansion slot (also referred to as a bus slo ...
, or integrated into the
main board
A motherboard (also called mainboard, main circuit board, mb, mboard, backplane board, base board, system board, logic board (only in Apple computers) or mobo) is the main printed circuit board (PCB) in general-purpose computers and other expand ...
; when integrated, the platform is referred to as iDRAC.
It mostly uses separate resources to the main server resources, and provides a browser-based or command-line interface (or both) for managing and monitoring the server hardware.
Features
The controller has its own processor, memory, network connection, and access to the system bus. Key features include power management, virtual media access and remote console capabilities, all available through a supported
web browser
A web browser is application software for accessing websites. When a user requests a web page from a particular website, the browser retrieves its files from a web server and then displays the page on the user's screen. Browsers are used on ...
or
command-line interface
A command-line interpreter or command-line processor uses a command-line interface (CLI) to receive commands from a user in the form of lines of text. This provides a means of setting parameters for the environment, invoking executables and pro ...
. This gives
system administrator
A system administrator, or sysadmin, or admin is a person who is responsible for the upkeep, configuration, and reliable operation of computer systems, especially multi-user computers, such as servers. The system administrator seeks to en ...
s the ability to configure a machine as if they were sitting at the local console (
terminal
Terminal may refer to:
Computing Hardware
* Terminal (electronics), a device for joining electrical circuits together
* Terminal (telecommunication), a device communicating over a line
* Computer terminal, a set of primary input and output dev ...
).
The DRAC interfaces with baseboard management controller (BMC) chips, and is based on the
Intelligent Platform Management Interface
The Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) is a set of computer interface specifications for an autonomous computer subsystem that provides management and monitoring capabilities independently of the host system's CPU, firmware ( BIOS o ...
(IPMI) 2.0 standard, which allows the use of IPMI out-of-band interfaces such as IPMI Over LAN.
Versions
The Dell Remote Access Controllers (DRAC) and the Integrated Dell Remote Access Controllers (iDRAC) come in different versions, where a new (i)DRAC version is often linked to a new generation of Poweredge servers.
The hardware is often integrated on the motherboard of the server, and the combined product is termed iDRAC, where the "i" is for integrated. When iDRAC Express is used, the software and hardware systems management functions are shared with one of the server's on-board network interfaces using a unique IP address. By contrast, iDRAC Enterprise version features a dedicated physical network interface.
iDRAC version 7 was introduced in conjunction with the release of
Dell PowerEdge generation 12 servers in March 2012, and is only available on 12th generation models.
Unlike previous versions the functionality of iDRAC 7 is the same for rack, tower and blade-servers.
An overview of the different versions:
Power management
With the DRAC enabled and using its own separate network connection, a user may login and reboot the system even if the core operating system has crashed. If the operating system has loaded the correct drivers, the DRAC will attempt to shut down the system gracefully. Without this feature and with the system running, administrators can use the remote console to access the operating system too.
Remote console
The remote console features of the DRAC allow an administrator to interface with the computer as if sitting in front of it, and one can share the local inputs from keyboard and mouse as well as video output (DRAC does not support remote sound). Remote-console capability relies on either an
Active X or
Java
Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...
plug-in, or
HTML5
HTML5 is a markup language used for structuring and presenting content on the World Wide Web. It is the fifth and final major HTML version that is a World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recommendation. The current specification is known as the HTML ...
in the later models, which displays a window showing the video output on the local terminal and which takes mouse and keyboard input. This behavior closely resembles that of other remote access solutions such as
VNC
Virtual Network Computing (VNC) is a graphical desktop-sharing system that uses the Remote Frame Buffer protocol (RFB) to remotely control another computer. It transmits the keyboard and mouse input from one computer to another, relaying the g ...
or
RDP but also works if the operating system of the server doesn't work any more (unlike VNC or RDP). It is used to take the server console remotely.
Virtual media
The DRAC enables a user to mount remotely shared disk-images as if they were connected to the system. In combination with the remote console, this gives administrators the ability to completely re-install an
operating system
An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs.
Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also in ...
, a task which traditionally required local
console
Console may refer to:
Computing and video games
* System console, a physical device to operate a computer
** Virtual console, a user interface for multiple computer consoles on one device
** Command-line interface, a method of interacting with ...
access to the physical machine. Administrators can control virtual media through the browser or through the
OpenManage tools provided by Dell, though specific versions of browsers restrict some functionality.
Access
The main DRAC management takes place via a web interface. All generations of the DRAC use the default user name
root
and the default password
calvin
. Starting with the DRAC 3, Microsoft
Active Directory
Active Directory (AD) is a directory service developed by Microsoft for Windows domain networks. It is included in most Windows Server operating systems as a set of processes and services. Initially, Active Directory was used only for centralize ...
can also provide authentication either with Dell AD Schema Extensions or Standard Schema.
Implementation
The DRAC5 and iDRAC6 and higher are embedded platforms running
Linux
Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which ...
and
Busybox
BusyBox is a software suite that provides several Unix utilities in a single executable file. It runs in a variety of POSIX environments such as Linux, Android, and FreeBSD, although many of the tools it provides are designed to work with in ...
. The firmware source code is available on the Dell website, but it is not possible to compile the source into a replacement firmware as Dell does not include a build environment.
The DRAC provides remote access to the system console (keyboard and screen) allowing the system BIOS to be accessed over the Internet when the server is rebooted. This is done by configuring the system BIOS to send its output to a serial port (as a stream of text using VT100-compatible control codes). The chosen serial port is then redirected to the DRAC's serial port. Users can then log into the DRAC via SSH and run a command to connect the SSH session to the serial port, thus allowing the console to be accessed over the Internet.
Earlier versions of the DRAC used ActiveX in
Internet Explorer
Internet Explorer (formerly Microsoft Internet Explorer and Windows Internet Explorer, commonly abbreviated IE or MSIE) is a series of graphical web browsers developed by Microsoft which was used in the Windows line of operating systems ( ...
to provide a remote-console interface in a web browser; however, this was unpopular with non-Windows users who did not have access to Internet Explorer. The latest revision of the DRAC6 uses a Java application instead (launched from within the browser), though both the DRAC5 and iDRAC6 also provided the aforementioned platform-independent SSH access.
iDRAC6
iDRAC6 is available in two levels: iDRAC6 Express and iDRAC6 Enterprise. iDRAC6 Express (which integrates features previously charged for in DRAC5) became a standard offering on Dell's servers. Certain features are not available for the Express version, including the remote console functionality and the vFlash SD card slot. As with iDRAC, iDRAC6 Enterprise is a standard offering on blade servers
* iDRAC6 offers three upgrades: iDRAC6 Express, iDRAC6 Enterprise, and VFlash Media
* iDRAC6 offers power budgeting
* iDRAC6 Enterprise's virtual console and virtual media features are now integrated into a single plug-in
* iDRAC6 Enterprise's virtual console now allows two users to collaborate on the same server
* iDRAC6 now allows customers to view what is on the server LCD without a server-side visit
* iDRAC6 supports IPv6
iDRAC7
On 6 March 2012, software version 1.00.00 for the iDRAC7 was released for generation 12 servers. iDRAC 7 does not work on earlier generation servers although some of the new functions introduced with iDRAC 7 might be offered in iDRAC 6 releases.
As of May 2019, the current version was 2.63.60.62.
With the introduction of iDRAC 7, the licensing model has changed. iDRAC 7 now supports lifecycle controller. Some features of Lifecycle controller are licensed and to access those features via iDRAC the correct licenses for those functions need to be enabled.
Supported hardware platforms
iDRAC 7 runs on
generation 12 PowerEdge servers. Per introduction in March 2012 the following servers use iDRAC7:
* PowerEdge T620 – tower model of 620, can be converted to 5
U rack system
* PowerEdge R220 – native rack server, 1
U
* PowerEdge R320 – native rack server, 1
U
* PowerEdge R420 – native rack server, 1
U
* PowerEdge R520 – native rack server, 2
U
* PowerEdge R620 – native rack server, 1
U
* PowerEdge M620 – blade server for
M1000e enclosure, half-height (max 16 per chassis)
* PowerEdge R720 – rack-server, 2
U
* PowerEdge R720xd – an R720 with additional 2.5" hard drive bays in the front and rear of the enclosure
Supported operating systems
iDRAC 7 is supported by the following operating systems
* Microsoft
Windows Server 2016
Windows Server 2016 is the eighth release of the Windows Server Server (computing), server operating system developed by Microsoft as part of the Windows NT family of operating systems. It was developed concurrently with Windows 10 and is the su ...
, x64
* Microsoft
Windows Server 2012
Windows Server 2012, codenamed "Windows Server 8", is the sixth version of the Windows Server operating system by Microsoft, as part of the Windows NT family of operating systems. It is the server version of Windows based on Windows 8 and succe ...
, x64
* Microsoft
Windows Server 2008
Windows Server 2008 is the fourth release of the Windows Server operating system produced by Microsoft as part of the Windows NT family of the operating systems. It was released to manufacturing on February 4, 2008, and generally to retail on Fe ...
SP2 (standard, enterprise and datacenter editions), x86 and x64
* Microsoft
Windows Server 2008 R2
Windows Server 2008 R2 is the fifth version of the Windows Server operating system produced by Microsoft and released as part of the Windows NT family of operating systems. It was released to manufacturing on July 22, 2009, and became generall ...
SP1 (standard, enterprise and datacenter editions), x64
*
Microsoft Small Business Server 2011, x64
*
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 10 and 11, x64
*
Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is a commercial open-source Linux distribution developed by Red Hat for the commercial market. Red Hat Enterprise Linux is released in server versions for x86-64, Power ISA, ARM64, and IBM Z and a desktop version ...
(RHEL), 5.8 (x86/x64), 6.1 (x64) and 6.3 (x64)
* Microsoft
Hyper-V
Microsoft Hyper-V, codenamed Viridian, and briefly known before its release as Windows Server Virtualization, is a native hypervisor; it can create virtual machines on x86-64 systems running Windows. Starting with Windows 8, Hyper-V superseded W ...
(with Windows server 2008) and Hyper-V R2 (Windows Server 2008 R2)
*
VMware ESX
VMware ESXi (formerly ESX) is an enterprise-class, type-1 hypervisor developed by VMware for deploying and serving virtual computers. As a type-1 hypervisor, ESXi is not a software application that is installed on an operating system (OS); ...
/ESXi 4.1, Update 2
* VMWare ESXi 5 Patch 01
*
Citrix Systems Xen Server 6
Supported web browsers
The GUI for iDRAC7 uses a Web browser and Java. Internet Explorer 7, 8 and 9, as well as
Firefox
Mozilla Firefox, or simply Firefox, is a free and open-source web browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation and its subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation. It uses the Gecko rendering engine to display web pages, which implements current ...
6 + 7 were tested for different operating systems.
Limitations
To take advantage of storage greater than 256 MB on the iDRAC6 enterprise, Dell requires that a vFlash
SD card
Secure Digital, officially abbreviated as SD, is a proprietary non-volatile flash memory card format developed by the SD Association (SDA) for use in portable devices.
The standard was introduced in August 1999 by joint efforts between SanDis ...
be procured through Dell channels. As of December 2011, Dell vFlash SD cards differ from consumer SD cards by being over-provisioned by 100% for increased write endurance and performance.
While there are no other known functional differences between a Dell-branded vFlash SD card and a class 2 or greater SDHC card, the use of non-Dell media prevents the use of extended capacities and functions.
On a Linux client system the standard arrow and print screen keys cannot be used in the iDRAC6 Java virtual console application because of some incompatible key event IDs;
Post on Dell Linux-PowerEdge mailing list, Jun 2011
/ref> however, the arrow keys on the numeric keypad can still be used.
Some combinations of DRAC firmware, web browser, and Java runtime do not support virtual media via the Java applet
Java applets were small applications written in the Java programming language, or another programming language that compiles to Java bytecode, and delivered to users in the form of Java bytecode. The user launched the Java applet from a ...
or the plugin in DRAC5 and iDRAC6.
References
{{Reflist, 30em
External links
Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller (iDRAC)
on Dell's website
Available manuals for iDRAC7
DRAC II/III product info
from Dell
Dell is an American based technology company. It develops, sells, repairs, and supports computers and related products and services. Dell is owned by its parent company, Dell Technologies.
Dell sells personal computers (PCs), servers, data ...
Dell Remote Access Controller User Guides
in InfoWorld
''InfoWorld'' (abbreviated IW) is an information technology media business. Founded in 1978, it began as a monthly magazine. In 2007, it transitioned to a web-only publication. Its parent company today is International Data Group, and its siste ...
Dell DRAC 5 Remote SSH Console Redirection
iDRAC7/iDRAC8 feature comparison
Out-of-band management
Dell products