Just picked up 3 R710's from a business that moved to cloud services. My first servers for my first homelab. So far, just resetting them to factory default as you have shown has enabled me to access the system and be able to remote in to them. As well as fix some fan issues. All running the Xeon 5677s, can't wait to keep learning!
Hey, Thanks for posting this video. It was "exactly" what I needed. I was having various issues with my newly acquired R710. You going through the details of the various steps and explaining in really good detail the various functions helped me to get the system operational. I didn't know Amber light on the led display was a bad thing for starters. Also, the tricks for resetting the BIOS helped out, as well as resetting iDrac itself. Thanks for the video!! I'll be watching the rest of them in the series. 😎😎😎
Fantastic series. I cant wait to watch more. I appreciate you taking the time and effort to walk people through this process. I like the background music and the filming/transitioning is really good. Keep up the great work!
@@ve-uh7tq We had a bunch of those on our last HPC system, and 512GB was frequently insufficient so we went large on the new system. This is idle at the moment, but the main use is mesh generation for CFD. Once you have the mesh the actual computation takes way less RAM. [root@big1 ~]# free -mh total used free shared buff/cache available Mem: 3.0T 68G 2.9T 14M 1.6G 2.9T Swap: 29G 0B 29G
34:56 - For those like me that still want to be lazy (read: hate old Java console clients) and update firmware via ssh, you can always give yourself the safety net of launching `screen` or `tmux` first. That way if your SSH session drops, you can log back in and "attach" back to your previous session.
I found your channel after purchasing a sas card from your eBay store... I really appreciate the detail in this video...I have subscribed and will continue watching. Thank you so much!
Thankyou for this series. I have been homelabbing for a while on consumer hardware and just received an R410 and R710. I have never touched real servers before but keen to learn.
Don't do what I did and try to update the firmware to the latest directly from the OS without doing an incremental update of each released version. iDrac will quit on you if you do.
Reset Bios to Factory default at 49:00 At system console: 1)Reboot and when prompted press F2 to enter bios 2) If not already on press NUM Lock key to turn on Num Lock. Press Caps lock key to turn on Caps Lock. Press Scroll Lock key to turn on Scroll Lock, . 3) Press Alt+E, Alt+F+Alt B, system will reboot to factory defaults when Alt+B is pressed.
Thank you so much for this series! I got a R710 a while back that had a bunch of stuff pre-configured, and I just haven't been able to dive into it, but this video made it way more accessible for me.
Thanks, Art of Server! Appreciate taking the time and effort to walk through excellent case study of building R710. Caulk full of technical, useful details & convenient table of contents in your comment if ever need to revisit video.
A couple of observations. Its worth moving the fans about in the chassis to check its a fan that is broken rather than a connector. If you are running updates remotely over SSH and you are worried something will terminate your connection mid-update, you could run them inside 'screen'. You may be better in an iDrac connection, but if you can't get one... The order of your updates can also be important. If you have an old BIOS and new iDrac firmware, you can break things. BIOS before iDrac has never failed me since that one bit me.
Hi, I'm interested in buying a Dell PowerEdge server, but I don't know anything about servers watching your video I learned a lot of things, but I would like to know the basics. I mean what equipment you use (I explain myself) I see that you have a rack and the server is on top of it, when you buy the server it comes with the rack or that rack is purchased separately. For example in the 6:00 minute, you take out a screen with a keyboard, that's what I mean, what is that called and that comes with the server or is purchased separately. I also want to know where and how in the 22:03 minute you entered the server from your PC, how do you do it? Is a cable connected to the monitor? Or do you simply put the server's IP in Remote Desktop connection? I would appreciate you helping me, you just won a new follower.
@Dragh Dofus Touch Thanks for watching my video! Those are great questions! I'm adding that to my list (rather long list) of future video ideas! Stay tuned...
You may be wondering... Note@: 12:15 AOS re-installs the Perc6i card while troubleshooting the iDrac card, even though he's planning on using an IT flashed H700 and you may be wondering why? The devil is in the details. While troubleshooting hardware AOS is using care to change only one variable at a time. Also important to note that he doesn't just hurriedly rob the plastic bracket from the original daughter card; he swaps it so his benchtop and bins don't overflow with bits and pieces like mine are :)
I am in need for help please. I did install Proxmox on the `raid 0` made from 2 HDD`s. But I don`t understand why the bios wont boot from that raid, I don`t even find it in the boot option. Please any infos will help alot.@@ArtofServer
For my first one..... I had the awesome pleasure of getting one of the PE 2950's ....... and hearing the JET ENGINE spin up and blowing my eardrums out..... and finding out there was no way to adjust them..... I litterally could not take it anymore and got some resistors and soldered them into the red wire of each fan........ suck out some of the gas and the jet engine monster was now TAMED and my headache FINALLY went away lol. If you got the R710....... you got a damn good machine :) I love the hell outa mine. Fucking AWESOME that the market was literally FLOODED with dirt cheap "trash" as the companies upgraded their server rooms all at the same time to give everyone a chance to mess with em for almost nothing to set one up. It was a fun getting inside machines like these. Built computers since my first 500mz system and I opened up a rack mount server and I was literally lost...... saying WTF is THAT...... lol. EVERYONE who tinkers with hardware should grab a server and have fun and end up with a solid well built machine that will probably run for another 20 years without a hitch lol. The only thing I dont really like...... is that you really cannot mix/match parts in these servers. You can to a very small degree but pretty much better make sure if you get parts..... it jives with the rest of it. Really can't Frankenstein a machine together. But was still fun to mess with em.
@@rustykoenig3566 regarding your point about mix/match parts.. you are right with Dell. They seem to redesign almost everything for each generation. About the only thing you can "upgrade" and older server with are PCIe cards. That said, this is one of the reasons why I really like Supermicro; they "evolve" their design, so a lot of new components/parts can be swapped with older server. For example, you can take the new high efficiency PSU of newer Supermicro servers and plug them into a 10 year old Supermicro server and all of a sudden you have a cheap server that runs efficiently and doesn't have screaming PSU fans.
@@ArtofServer Ya, All I have messed with so far is the Dell. The first "name" I ever bought was my very first system.... it was a 200mz compaq tower from circuit city that ended up being $1300. After that...... I vowed to never have a "name brand" system again..... it was gonna be my brand. Had the pleasure of messing with other peoples compaqs dells or whatever and I cringed every time I did...... I held true to that untill...... that PE2950 lol. I actually had it in my head that I was just gonna part one together ..... cuz thats what I do...... but I found a loaded one for $150 and got it...... I was so glad I didnt try to part one together lol. I read I dont know HOW much shit trying to find a way to make it read more that 2TB on a drive cuz I only had like 2 drives in its "range". I edned up parting together a tower out of my junk pile to pile my hard drives into and used it for a NAS...... but if others are capable of doing that I might look into something else to mess around with then. Had to get the 710 cuz not only was the 2950 the jet engine...... it was 1 step below the ability to really mess with VM's.... It could do it it just lacked 1 stat to really do it lol.
Was going great upto 27:30. I’m guessing you have a usb Cent os plugged into the server and managed to boot that up and then ssh to it? Sorry if dumb assumption but I’m only just starting out with Linux. Iv been trying to boot up a usb Ubuntu stick but keep getting no boot media. Any chance on your next video in the series that you expand on this area a bit please? Cheers Edit 35:30 made more sense 😊 Another edit, I should really learn to watch the entire video before leaving comments, I will have another go after putting everything back to default! Thanks REALLY appreciate the video! Cheers
yes, that's exactly right. i have a USB flash drive with CentOS 7 installed that i move from server to server to give me something easy to boot up with. it has my tools for flashing firmware any many other things. regarding your issue with Ubuntu on usb stick, check that your BIOS settings are correct. notice that i set the USB emulation type to hard drive near the end. also, make sure your boot device selection includes the USB drive. that is usually enough to get it to boot an OS installed on a USB flash drive. thanks for watching! :-)
Art of Server Thanks for the tips and detailed reply. Hopefully will be having a go this weekend. I do have unraid running on another box but I need the R710 extra resources as it’s reached capacity. Cheers
Can I ask what tool you used to create your Centos usb drive please. Iv tried etcher but that tries to install the os, which actually starts installing and fails with unknown error. Tried Linux Live Usb creator, same error but that failed where it tries to connect to a repository, that with live and persistence enabled, pulling my hair out now 😢 Error setting up base repository. I select the iso file, unknown error! Network is enabled and working. Update, I got Ubuntu’s 18.4 live desk top working, no issues with that. Will try tomorrow the bios update, I’m on 1.2.6 😢. I’m wanting 4tb support. Can you advise if I can do the updates from Ubuntu’s desktop or use terminal please? Cheers
yeah, it's pretty straight forward actually. download CentOS7 and follow the instructions to make a USB installer flash drive. Then, install a blank USB flash drive (at least 32GB?) in the server, and make sure the USB drive is setup for hard drive emulation in the BIOS. Also install the USB "installer" flash drive... now boot up from the "installer" USB drive... and during install, you need to pick the install target destination; just choose the "other" USB flash drive. complete the install, remove the "installer" USB drive, and boot up on the "target" USB drive that you just freshly installed CentOS7 on. That's basically it. I basically treat it like installing on a normal HDD or SSD.
Art of Server Ahh.... when I was trying I had a 80gb hdd installed, it did see it but obviously something is going wrong when trying to install it. I will try again but installing to a usb stick. Thanks for the help 👍. Cheers
This was a Dell 11gen server with idrac6, no license required . What’s your approach to 12gen machines that require a license for idrac7 functions? Do you buy a Dell license somewhere (eBay sellers appear to be in China) or will the dedicated idrac card port work to some degree without a license? If it’s covered in another video, let me know, thanks.
Buy the idrac7 enterprise license. They are about $30-40 on eBay. When buying a used 12th gen or newer Dell PowerEdge server, it's always a good idea to ask about the idrac enterprise license. If it's not installed, you can negotiate that cost off the asking price. I try to get servers already with the license key installed.
Thanks Art of Server for the great video. I have a few questions though. Is Centos 8 supposed to work too? I copied Centos 8 DVD ISO into a flash usb drive and, when I boot R710 off of the flash usb drive, it gives me two options: Installing Centos 8 or troubleshooting. I don't want to install Centos 8, as I plan to eventually install ESXi. I just want to boot off of it so that I can ssh to the R710 server and do the same thing you did. Should I delete Centos 8 from my flash drive and copy the Centos 7 DVD ISO to it? ... Or is there a way to boot off Centos 8 in a way that enables me to ssh to the R710 without installing the Centos 8? ... Or should I install Centos 8 on the R710, update the BIOS and other stuff, then install ESXi in a way that wipes out the Centos 8, hoping that it won't do the BIOS and other updates? ... Please be verbose. If your explanation is too short for AOC to label it as mansplaining, I would most likely not understand it. Thanks.
If your goal is to update the server using a "live" boot OS, you could use CentOS7. I would avoid CentOS8 for now. I also show in another video how to setup a portable CentOS7 USB boot drive, which is what I often use for these types of updates.
@@ArtofServer Thanks Art of Server for your prompt reply. Yes, my goal is to update the Dell PowerEdge server. I will look up your video on the topic of creating a portable CentOS7 USB boot drive. In the meantime, if anybody reading this knows the link to that video, please post it as a reply to this comment. Thanks in advance.
Clarification: I posted the present reply before noticing that Art of Server had already replied an hour earlier with additional information. I am keeping it anyway as it has some good information. I then posted a subsequent reply to Art of Server's reply an hour later. See reply after the present one. I followed the instructions at ua-cam.com/video/8MpLsYX9IeQ/v-deo.html and, when I boot my Dell PowerEdge R710 from that bootable CentOS 7 USB boot drive, I run into the same problem I ran into when I was trying CentOS 8. CentOS 7 gives me the options to install CentOS 7, test and install CentOS7, and troubleshoot. None of which is what I want. Did I follow the instructions in the wrong video? Note that, two days ago, I created a live USB Ubuntu 21.04 (daily build) live ISO drive with persistent storage using mkusb, and used it to update the BIOS and the LifeCycle stuff. But the updates of Network_Firmware_PX6V4_LN7.12.17.BIN failed (I don't know why), and the update of SAS-RAID_Firmware_F96NR_LN_6.3.3-0002_X00.BIN failed (many of the commands that the BIN relies on are not in Ubuntu). I will try making a live ISO Centos (7 then 8) using mksub, and report here about that worked or not.
I've had a R710 for a few years running ESXi ona nd I'm quite happy with it. The SAS drives that came with it kinda sucked (as does SATA access with the built in raid card), but it's been a workhorse. Resently a powerout crashed the datatore raid to degraded and corrupted the ESXi boot media so looking to start over and get it as upgraded as possible now. Looking forward to watching through your series.
Amazing tutoring. Hey I'm in the process of building a home lab. I currently have a unRaid server and I'm looking to buy a couple of Dell poweredge servers to the lab. I have 2 questions 1.What's the difference between the r210 and the r210 ii? I want to use that to create a PFSense router/firewall 2. Is the r710 the best bang for the buck to create a Proxmox server? I enjoy your content keep, continue success.
Thanks for watching! :-) 1) Not 100% sure about all the details regarding R210 vs R210-II. But I believe they have totally different motherboards. The II supports SandyBridge/IvyBridge Xeons, while the "I" supported Lynnfield, which is much older and more power hungry. I would get the R210-II. 2) I think the R710 is a great starter server, but I would also say consider some of the 12th generation servers too, like R720, R620, etc. There are some nice options that only cost a little bit more. Thanks for your kind words!
Thought all the redundacy was to keep system running... one fan goes bad and system will not start?? Do all systems come with this "IDRAC' system/equipment? Are you saying I drive?
the system still powered on with the bad fan. so not sure what made you think it will not start? it just spewed an error about the FAN1 and lost of redundancy. Not all systems come with iDRAC. the iDRAC system here consists of 2 modules, the "express" and "enterprise" modules as shown in this vid.
Hey man, great video/tutorial. Love the work and effort you did. Did you installed the OS you selected for the BIOS updates? So you installed Red Hat Linux6?
Hey, Great Video! I have a R720 server with iDRAC 7 Express which I brought it recently. I connected it to the network but DHCP is not getting an IP from the network. When I try to connect it to my monitor it takes me to the life cycle controller page and get struck. I am a beginner and any suggestions would be appreciated. Thank you in advance !
It looks like your system is stuck in booting into the LifeCycle Controller (LCC). There might have been a previous configuration that is directing it to go into the LCC. You might need to let that complete. On the 12th gen iDRAC, you can't use the dedicated idrac NIC unless you have the enterprise license key installed. Maybe that's the issue?
@@ArtofServer Thank you for your reply! I had a bad VGA to HDMI cable and it caused this issue. I bought a new VGA to VGA cable and it led me to get to the LCC. But still couldn't setup the IDRAC IP for it. As a starting point I reset my idrac setting and tried setting up static IP in the network but I wasn't able to ping my idrac ip after reboot. Let me explain on how I connected the idrac physical interface. I have one end of RJ45 to iDRAC port and other end to my TP link router which is my ISP. Initially my idrac port started blinking while resting the idrac setting through system setup but after its completed there is no light.. seems to me like the port is down. So next I connected TP link router to a switch (Netgear) and then from switch to IDRAC port but no luck.. I am completely new in setting this up and I am struck on here in setting up a IP address to the device. Not sure if my idrac port is working or not as its not blinking anymore and couldn't run the hardware diagnosis to see for any issues as my firmware is out of date. I tried reseating the idrac module but still no luck. I am looking to setup it as a home lab to install proxmox, eveng to learn networking. Or should I install hypervisor and assign an IP before I setup Idrac IP ? I would appreciate if you can provide some inputs hear please. Thank you in advance!!!
yes, 128PB for SATA and 8ZB for SAS. so, practically speaking, limitless with today's available technology. details are explained in this video: ua-cam.com/video/u55vIGMzzKw/v-deo.html
Small question: Since you're buying, repairing and selling lots of Dell servers, why don't you setup a IPXE server with CentOS? from the error messages that appeared while installing the updates, it looks like your Disk on Key has some issues (sdb1).
That USB drive with CentOS is the same one I use for all the firmware flashing, you'll notice it has hostname "the-flash". Makes me nervous to run a firmware flash from files on a network filesystem. The sdb errors are not the USB flash drive. I think they are from the idrac's emulated virtual media.
I'm having difficulty getting idrac to work at all. I have did a factory reset, I enabled idrac6 lan, I enabled ipv4, set a static IP, set gateway, subnet mask, default gateway and DNS. I used dedicated nic selection. I even tried just letting dhcp set everything. But no matter what I do I can't ping it, I can reach via the web browser and I never see any activity lights on the back ethernet port on the far left side of the server next to the serial console port. I'm positive there is an easy step that I'm missing here.
As of 13/10/2019... iDRAC6 Firmware Revision version: 2.92.05 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Java Control Panel - Oracle Java Version 8 Update 221 (x64) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- www.java.com/en/download/manual.jsp 01. Navigate to the Java Control Panel 02. Security/High = Yes 03. Exception Site List Add: 192.168.x.xxx/ [Where x.xxx is your iDRAC6 address] Apply Windows 10 Pro x64/Java Installation Folder ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 01. Navigate to: C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.8.0_221\lib\security 02. Find: java.security 03. Open With/Notepad: java.security 04. Search for: jdk.tls.disabledAlgorithms= 05. Edit/Save file: (I saved to Desktop as 'java.security', WITHOUT .txt, and then replaced the original file) Replace: jdk.tls.disabledAlgorithms=SSLv3, RC4, DES, MD5withRSA, DH keySize < 1024, \ EC keySize < 224, 3DES_EDE_CBC, anon, NULL With: jdk.tls.disabledAlgorithms=SSLv3, DES, MD5withRSA, DH keySize < 1024, \ EC keySize < 224, 3DES_EDE_CBC, anon, NULL Reboot your Windows 10 Pro x64 PC ----------------------------------------------------------- 01. Reboot iDRAC6 - Login via Opera Browser ------------------------------------------------------ 01. Navigate to: 192.168.x.xxx/ in Opera Browser [Where x.xxx is your iDRAC6 address] 02. 'Console/Media'/Video Encryption Enabled = Yes/No (Change this in the 'Configuration' tab if connection issues!) 01. Properties/Launch 02. The 'viewer.jnlp' link downloads instead of opening (Grr!)... (Note: The filename information changes with each session, so ALWAYS USE the LATEST one!) 03. Open With/Look for another app on this PC [Scroll down] 04. Open With: C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.8.0_221\bin\javaws.exe 05. The connection to this website is untrusted/Continue 06. I accept the risk and want to run this application = Yes/Run 07. The Virtual Console should now load!
My r710 was so out of date but found a bootable iso to do all updates was amazing !! But for what ever reason idrac and life cycle controller wouldn’t update any ideas as I struggle to log in via ip where the page doesn’t load properly or log in.
Hey, this is really well made video. Could you clarify coule of things: Your Ubuntu Mate is installed in USB? If yes, is it connected to your server or to some other PC (accessing server via SSH)? Also, did you install any OS to server? Thank you very much and best of luck in future.
Not really sure what you mean by Ubuntu MATE? I'm running a CentOS7 on a USB drive in the server. My desktop is MATE, but on another machine on Fedora (not Ubuntu). I use my desktop OS for the screen recordings where I login to the server running off the USB drive.
there's a remote login tool called "ssh" and I use that to connect to the server on the terminal as a user. then escalate privileges to root, and that's what you're seeing.
Hello, thanks for your video. I'm getting a completely blackscreen on my r610 and was wondering whether that means my connector is just not working or if there's absolutely no software at all in it. Thanks a lot!
Great video. This has been extremely helpful and I can't wait to finish watching through the series. I recently picked up an r710 and would like to update the bios. The current version on it is 2.2.10. I read online that upgrading to the lastest version may cause issues and it was reommended to upgrade to each version in steps. I cannot find any bios versions other than the latest on dells support site. I am wondering if perhaps I can upgrade directly to latest version or if maybe anyone here could provide a link to older bios versions?
I don't know the origins of that recommendation. As you saw in this video, I just did a straight upgrade to the latest version and didn't have a problem.
@@ArtofServer Saw that recommendation in the dell forum from a dell tech lol. Didn't really make sense to me but I saw it mentioned multiple times and I'm new to server hardware so I wanted to be sure. Thank you so much for the quick reply!
@@josephwest651 Hi Joseph, so did you step up from bios 2.2.10 to 6.6.0 or did you go straight to the current version? Interested to see what happened, I'm in a similar ... ...
That means your server went into PXE boot mode (probably because there's no boot device) and could not PXE boot. If your server is not connected to a network with a PXE boot server, that's probably why.
Thank you for your videos. I just got a R-710, 6 SAS drives, a SAS 1068E, and Perc 6/E Raid card. Still getting my head around this. I want to setup Proxmox and wish to know if I should remove my Perc 6/E card. I have no use for external drives, dont think this will allow use with my internal drive, so is there any value to leave it in?
You should watch the next part of this series where I talk about storage, and later parts I show how to setup Proxmox. Just continue watching this series and you should get all the answers to these questions. The playlist is here: ua-cam.com/play/PL28eVGz5vFQ9hUBeeg5bxj-s0IeitoGIb.html
Thanks for the reply. I have seen all the above, but will watch them again and again until it all soaks in. I'm old and slow but never give up until I get it. Again my question was about the Perc 6/E. Does it have any value to keep it in the server or is it only useful on external drives. I do not have a Perc 6/i. No PD drives show with Ctrl-R. Drives appear when I use Cntl -C (SAS config).
@@waynejauss5857 Oh, about the PERC6/E... if you're planning to add a external DAS, like MD1000 or MD1200, then it may come in handy, but has limitations with SATA drives at 2TB. Generally, I think it's worth replacing with a 9200-8e or newer card.
The irony of this video is not using windows to avoid licenses and then using red hat linux. Which is also under a license you must agree to. Other than that, great video. Helped me set up my server in the configuration I needed it to be in.
I disagree. I wasn't avoiding windows licenses, I simply don't use windows. And I was using CentOS7, not RHEL; there are no encumbering licenses. But glad you got good use out of the video. Thanks for watching!
That explains it. I ordered an r710 with a 4 slot 3.5 hdd and they sent me a 8 slot 2.5hdd with a broken led, 2 caddies and punched in power supply grates. I'm getting a replacement I just hope it's not the 2.5. do you have any good recommendations for cheap sellers
im late to the party but i plan on getting one of these to run game servers, web pages, and a few other things. the main reason is i want the horsepower to be able to do whatever i want with it without having to add more to it down the road. it would just be a home server/home game server. would the R710 help?
Hey, Thank you for making this video series! Very interesting stuff!! Not sure if you still read the comments here but I was wondering if you could help me out. I wanna buy an old server like this one and start leaning about this stuff but I have no idea where to start or what to get first. Was hoping you could point me in the right direction and tell me what server to buy as my first one? Is there a brand that is most suitable for general use? for learning on? or should I just get this PowerEdge and follow your videos? or is there a better brand around the same price that is good to learn on and can last a long time and easily up-gradable if need be
Sure, I can point you in the right direction. In fact, I may have a server or 2 that might work for you. But first, please tell me what it is you want to learn about with your server? Is it for virtualization? Containers? Storage? Or, what else? And also, what is your budget?
@@ArtofServer Containers mainly. And if I can do both containers and storage at the same time then that's the goal. (As you can see I'm super new to all this)
@@ArtofServer around $600 if possible. As for storage even 4Tb is enough for now just for experimenting and then I'll add more with time. Thank you for your help! :) Edit: If budget is too low let me know what you recommend.
@@ArtofServer Red Hat won't even let me register an account so I can download the iso because it doesn't like my email :P Tried to update via the LIfecycle Controller instead, but apparently that no longer works either. Need to update BIOS and NIC firmware
Well, I would also make sure to update all the other component firmwares as shown in this video. Then checkout the rest of this video series: ua-cam.com/play/PL28eVGz5vFQ9hUBeeg5bxj-s0IeitoGIb.html
@@ArtofServer Thanks so much man! One more thing: You had this plugged in and were touching it (as far as Icould tell) without any ESD precautions, was it on an ESD Mat or are you a believer in that if you mess with them while plugged in that it'll send it to ground? Or are you just a badass? Hahaha
Yes, it is the Wiha 92092 Master Technicians Bench Top Screwdriver Set, ESD Safe. (affiliate link to that set here: ebay.to/391c7Fd) One of my favorite brand of screwdrivers... they are made in Germany. My favorite screwdrivers are German and Japanese brands, although I have plenty of other ones in my garage too.
Does idrac password will be factory default if we reset the bios to default using hardware jumper. I got the used server and vga display not working so want to reset idrac password
working my way through your great videos, not sure if dell through me a curved ball though, i didnt have dell logo on bootup so followed your video and did the jumpers then booted up and its there, great feeling very confident but now i have a boot error that may be related to clearing the NVRAM it says no sata e detected, any ideas
Go into the BIOS setup of the R710 and disable any SATA ports that are not in use. By default, if you enable any of the SATA ports, and it doesn't detect a device, it shows that error.
It’s an old vid. Not sure if you gona see the comment. But how did you prepare the centos usb and then boot from it? We’re you downloading the driver files on to that usb? Thanks
Regarding the Broadcom/QLogic BCM5709 Firmware/Drivers: I found a newer firmware, 8.07.26, which indeed lists support for the r710. It's under the name "QLogic FastLinQ Network Adapter Device Firmware" and you can find it here: www.dell.com/support/home/en-us/drivers/driversdetails?driverid=82j79 Hope this helps someone!
On the iDrac update I ran into an issue with some libraries. ..... The following packages are required for the update package to run: - compat-libstdc++-33.i686 libstdc++.i686 libxml2.i686 ..... When I installed the compat-libstdc++33 it would not take. Just wondering if you are using a 32-bit OS CentOS7 since I cannot get this to run in my Centos7 USB stick?
I was able to update using iDrac's update facility base on the instructions here.... www.dell.com/community/PowerEdge-Hardware-General/iDRAC6-firmware-upgrade-fails-using-Deployment-Toolkit-ISO/td-p/6210278
That's great! yeah, as you can see in my other R410 series, firmware updates on the 11th gen servers do not always work consistently. Often resorting to alternative methods can help, but not always.
Got the lifecycle inventory program reset after reinstalling the old ram which was needed to boot to that point. My sas card is not showing up in the boot sequence and I don't have access to my drives. Is there a setting somewhere to enable the sas card.
I just found your channel an already liked/followed it. Can you please pass me some informations/exp. about resetting the system setup password on my poweredge r720? We bought a used one and tried the pwd jumper, but we might done it wrong and we cannot install from a new copy of windows server from stick. We managed to set the raids up, but I got stuck on the system setup password part /(. Gonna try it again tomorrow, but I like it as it has enaugh power for my file stuff:)
@@ArtofServer thanks Server is running well! I still need to learn more about the bios settings (to disable all the lengthy self checks, boot directly to windows, disable idrac as is fails to initialize), but I keep watching your clips and I’m sure it will work:=) thank you and have a great weekend
Been sleeping next to R710 for more than 5 years. Bought a HP 380e g8 recently and had an unpleasant surprise :D It's not possible to sleep next to that one. Fortunately I did manage to silence it in the end.
Hi, i am unable to access my iDRAC even though i have everything set up. When i try to access it from browser i get the error ERR_SSL_VERSION_CIPHER_MISMATCH. I have tried running racadm sslresetcfg, which it did not recognize. I am also running a R710
Mr. Art of Server.. I was directed here as I have an Old 610 that is very out of date. I just attempted your method of "wget" and pasting the link and I am greeted with "Address Family not supported by protocol" ... ever seen that ?
I have R715 It is quite quiet. Even fully working. I have Sapphire Pulse AMD Radeon RX 570 and 2x AMD Opteron 6180 SE and 16x 8GB DDR3 PC3-10600R RAM (it is 290W total while idle) and it quite quiet. Oh and no spinning rust only SSDs
@@ArtofServer cool, i just bought one of these and the necessary other components to replace my proxmox/plex/NAS server. I'll have to keep a centos drive around to update it, since they don't *officially* support debian-based distros with updates.
I have been racking my brain for the past two days...35:29 "lets log into the remote console"... easier said than done. For the life of me i can not log into the console, no matter what i try. I launch the viewer, rename the file, open it in Java, and i get unable to launch the application. i have whitelisted the server on Java HTTP and HTTPS and still get the same error. I wish it was as easy as your video shows it to be. I will be stuck with BIOS 1.2.6, iDRAC version 1.10 FOREVER, lol. Hell, i cant even get the USC to update from a USB because it says it failed to pass integrity check.
you need to change crypto related settings in the java security policy, as well as add the IP of your server's idrac to the exceptions list. you also need javaws (java web start). after that, it should work. i've gotten so use to this, but it was frustrating for me before too. i'm putting this on my list of future video ideas!
@@ArtofServer i still couldnt get it to work that way. But i did have some progress on the BIOS and network updates. I had to install CentOS 7 and install those updates via terminal. I am having an issue on the IDRAC update where it tells me the following package is required for the update "compat-libstdc++-33.i686 libstdc++-i686 libxml2.i686". And that the Lifecycle controller 1.7.5.4 isnt compatable with my system. making progress though.
@@tommystavley9808 yeah, just install the compat-libstdc++ packages with yum. Something like "yum install " will do the trick. so the java console app still isn't working for you? what's the error you get?
@@maherkhalil007 if you are in the USA, reach out to me at artofserver.com and I can share with you what I have available. I don't ship servers outside USA.
Why get rid if battery and change plug to h2 setup,and why change some wires in dell r720 just to run freenas? Also I just bought a used hp server, it's battery for cache is dead,I think thsts a bad idea!is dell doing the same?my new dellr240 has no battery for cache!
I've been fighting with an R720 for months. I can't figure out if I'm missing something, but does an R720 have a IDRAC enterprise module or any modular parts at all? Mine loses all settings every time the power goes out, and I can't get any updates to install on it. All update files either fail, or they never install when the IDRAC reboots, and if I had any hair I would have pulled it all out trying to figure out how to get it fixed.
On the 12th gen Dell servers like the R720, the "enterprise" module is a license key you install on the server instead of a physical "module". If you login to the iDRAC, it should tell you if you have the enterprise license key already installed or not. Are you saying your iDRAC loses settings or that the system setup (BIOS/UEFI) loses settings upon power cycling? Here's a video that might help you, and more relevant to the R720: ua-cam.com/video/ISA7j2BKgjI/v-deo.html
@@ArtofServer it looks like the Enterprise key is indeed installed. Only the IDRAC loses settings, the BIOS is fine. I've verified the CMOS battery is good, so I'm stumped. I created a script with racadm that sets the settings back where I need to access it, but it doesn't solve the other issues I have with the outdated firmware.
@@ArtofServer I did follow along with the instructions in that video. The update versions for the R720 add HTTPS support in the LC starting with versions 2.X. I'm stuck at 1.65. Any version I try to install using the .BIN file under Linux eventually ends with an "Invalid Signature Detected" error. Googling shows that various BIOS revisions may be incompatible with certain updates and produce this error. I have the latest BIOS (2.9.0) and have also tried various other BIOS versions with the same result. I've run the update file under Windows Server 2012 as well as Ubuntu. I even tried the update ISO route (there's a method that uses a Dell app to create a bootable ISO that auto updates everything), but that fails when it gets to the LC update stage. I've also tried extracting the payload file and using it with both racadm and the IDRAC web interface upload, but both return a FAILED status with any version I try.
I don't think I've ever seen so informative guide on youtube. I love it, thanks a lot!
I have 3 of these, and I love them all, wonderful quiet servers..not to mention a powerhouse for virtualization.
indeed, R710 is great for virtualization with the large memory capacity.
@@ArtofServer I have r630 that i'm putting together, should stay with that one or get the r710 or combine them?
Just picked up 3 R710's from a business that moved to cloud services. My first servers for my first homelab. So far, just resetting them to factory default as you have shown has enabled me to access the system and be able to remote in to them. As well as fix some fan issues. All running the Xeon 5677s, can't wait to keep learning!
Glad to hear this old series is still useful to you! :-) Thanks for watching!
Bought my R710 last night! Your videos gave me the confidence to take on this project!
Great to hear!
Hey, Thanks for posting this video. It was "exactly" what I needed. I was having various issues with my newly acquired R710. You going through the details of the various steps and explaining in really good detail the various functions helped me to get the system operational. I didn't know Amber light on the led display was a bad thing for starters. Also, the tricks for resetting the BIOS helped out, as well as resetting iDrac itself.
Thanks for the video!! I'll be watching the rest of them in the series. 😎😎😎
Glad this was helpful for you 😊
@@ArtofServer You did awesome job, thank you.
Fantastic series. I cant wait to watch more. I appreciate you taking the time and effort to walk people through this process. I like the background music and the filming/transitioning is really good. Keep up the great work!
Thanks for the words of encouragement!
Your tip on disabling the memory check is a god send. I have an R815 with 512Gb ram, that used to take 10 mins to boot up!
what do you do with 512Gb ram???
@@ve-uh7tq I know it's daft isn't it?
@@ve-uh7tq We had a bunch of those on our last HPC system, and 512GB was frequently insufficient so we went large on the new system. This is idle at the moment, but the main use is mesh generation for CFD. Once you have the mesh the actual computation takes way less RAM.
[root@big1 ~]# free -mh
total used free shared buff/cache available
Mem: 3.0T 68G 2.9T 14M 1.6G 2.9T
Swap: 29G 0B 29G
34:56 - For those like me that still want to be lazy (read: hate old Java console clients) and update firmware via ssh, you can always give yourself the safety net of launching `screen` or `tmux` first. That way if your SSH session drops, you can log back in and "attach" back to your previous session.
I found your channel after purchasing a sas card from your eBay store... I really appreciate the detail in this video...I have subscribed and will continue watching. Thank you so much!
Thank you so much for your support by shopping at my store! :-) Hope you enjoy the content here!
Thankyou for this series. I have been homelabbing for a while on consumer hardware and just received an R410 and R710. I have never touched real servers before but keen to learn.
Cool! glad this helped out! Checkout my series on the R410 too since you have that. There's a playlist on my channel for all the R410 content.
Don't do what I did and try to update the firmware to the latest directly from the OS without doing an incremental update of each released version. iDrac will quit on you if you do.
Great work, well explained with live demo for each step. Solid Gold work. Much appreciated.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Reset Bios to Factory default at 49:00
At system console:
1)Reboot and when prompted press F2 to enter bios
2) If not already on press NUM Lock key to turn on Num Lock. Press Caps lock key to turn on Caps Lock. Press Scroll Lock key to turn on Scroll Lock, .
3) Press Alt+E, Alt+F+Alt B, system will reboot to factory defaults when Alt+B is pressed.
Thank you so much for this series! I got a R710 a while back that had a bunch of stuff pre-configured, and I just haven't been able to dive into it, but this video made it way more accessible for me.
Thanks! I'm glad it was helpful to you.
Completely agree. I just got mine and it wasn't working as expected. This video helped to get it working again :)
The Best Channel Of UA-cam .
Thanks man! Glad you're enjoying the content!
@52:26 - there is more bios menu option below "Power Management", you need to press the down arrow.
Really good collection of useful insights and help. Just wanted to say thank you so much.
Glad it was helpful! Thank you for watching!
amazing you're able to do all that while playing the piano. Impressive!
Lol. What can I say, I was born fortunate and with cat spirit. May a cat lick you too. ;-p
@@ArtofServer seems appropriate on Valentine's Day!!
Can't wait for the next part. Awesome stuff!
Thanks for watching! Stay tuned... :-)
Thanks, Art of Server! Appreciate taking the time and effort to walk through excellent case study of building R710. Caulk full of technical, useful details & convenient table of contents in your comment if ever need to revisit video.
Who's Shaun? Lol
Glad you are finding these videos helpful! Thanks for watching 😊
I really thank you for this video. i was struggling to update my R610 i followed the same procedures you did everything is fine now.
Glad it helped
A couple of observations. Its worth moving the fans about in the chassis to check its a fan that is broken rather than a connector.
If you are running updates remotely over SSH and you are worried something will terminate your connection mid-update, you could run them inside 'screen'. You may be better in an iDrac connection, but if you can't get one...
The order of your updates can also be important. If you have an old BIOS and new iDrac firmware, you can break things. BIOS before iDrac has never failed me since that one bit me.
Thanks! Those are great adds...
Interesting. I've never heard of the Linux screen command, but I'll definitely look into it in the future. Thanks for the tip!
Hi, I'm interested in buying a Dell PowerEdge server, but I don't know anything about servers watching your video I learned a lot of things, but I would like to know the basics. I mean what equipment you use (I explain myself) I see that you have a rack and the server is on top of it, when you buy the server it comes with the rack or that rack is purchased separately.
For example in the 6:00 minute, you take out a screen with a keyboard, that's what I mean, what is that called and that comes with the server or is purchased separately. I also want to know where and how in the 22:03 minute you entered the server from your PC, how do you do it? Is a cable connected to the monitor? Or do you simply put the server's IP in Remote Desktop connection?
I would appreciate you helping me, you just won a new follower.
@Dragh Dofus Touch Thanks for watching my video! Those are great questions! I'm adding that to my list (rather long list) of future video ideas! Stay tuned...
Thank you this series is super useful
You're very welcome! Thanks for watching!
Great video! I'm getting one of these servers today!
Hope you enjoy it!
You may be wondering...
Note@: 12:15 AOS re-installs the Perc6i card while troubleshooting the iDrac card, even though he's planning on using an IT flashed H700 and you may be wondering why?
The devil is in the details. While troubleshooting hardware AOS is using care to change only one variable at a time. Also important to note that he doesn't just hurriedly rob the plastic bracket from the original daughter card; he swaps it so his benchtop and bins don't overflow with bits and pieces like mine are :)
One of the best servers ever made. Second to the R810 imo. Btw sweet kvm setup.
Maybe... but I'm loving the R820 though... see my video series ua-cam.com/play/PL28eVGz5vFQ9FoUxcxEUtDddZlV0DbSK_.html
@@ArtofServer I can second that, the 820 is a vm powerhouse as well. Gotta love the 9 series power in a 2u package.
awsome videos. I just got my r710 and I really needed some helpfull videos. :) Thank you !
Glad I could help!
I am in need for help please. I did install Proxmox on the `raid 0` made from 2 HDD`s. But I don`t understand why the bios wont boot from that raid, I don`t even find it in the boot option. Please any infos will help alot.@@ArtofServer
Nice. I have a haphazard collection of R900/R410/R420/R720/R730/R740 at work with random disks and whatnot and it's just a joy to tinker with them :)
Nice collection of servers from several generations! Keep on tinkering! Thanks for watching! :-)
Dam! Just seen this and now I have got to go to work 😢. Thanks I now have something to look forward to watching this evening 😀. Cheers
So informative, dude, you are a lifesaver.
Glad to help!
Picking one of these up today! Thanks for the video!
Glad I could help!
I just bought one of these on ebay for $150 for my first real server! Thanks this video is giving me the confidence to get it up and running.
awesome! :-)
@@ArtofServer $150 after shipping and tax. www.ebay.com/itm/264502135937
For my first one..... I had the awesome pleasure of getting one of the PE 2950's ....... and hearing the JET ENGINE spin up and blowing my eardrums out..... and finding out there was no way to adjust them..... I litterally could not take it anymore and got some resistors and soldered them into the red wire of each fan........ suck out some of the gas and the jet engine monster was now TAMED and my headache FINALLY went away lol. If you got the R710....... you got a damn good machine :) I love the hell outa mine. Fucking AWESOME that the market was literally FLOODED with dirt cheap "trash" as the companies upgraded their server rooms all at the same time to give everyone a chance to mess with em for almost nothing to set one up. It was a fun getting inside machines like these. Built computers since my first 500mz system and I opened up a rack mount server and I was literally lost...... saying WTF is THAT...... lol. EVERYONE who tinkers with hardware should grab a server and have fun and end up with a solid well built machine that will probably run for another 20 years without a hitch lol.
The only thing I dont really like...... is that you really cannot mix/match parts in these servers. You can to a very small degree but pretty much better make sure if you get parts..... it jives with the rest of it. Really can't Frankenstein a machine together. But was still fun to mess with em.
@@rustykoenig3566 regarding your point about mix/match parts.. you are right with Dell. They seem to redesign almost everything for each generation. About the only thing you can "upgrade" and older server with are PCIe cards. That said, this is one of the reasons why I really like Supermicro; they "evolve" their design, so a lot of new components/parts can be swapped with older server. For example, you can take the new high efficiency PSU of newer Supermicro servers and plug them into a 10 year old Supermicro server and all of a sudden you have a cheap server that runs efficiently and doesn't have screaming PSU fans.
@@ArtofServer Ya, All I have messed with so far is the Dell. The first "name" I ever bought was my very first system.... it was a 200mz compaq tower from circuit city that ended up being $1300. After that...... I vowed to never have a "name brand" system again..... it was gonna be my brand. Had the pleasure of messing with other peoples compaqs dells or whatever and I cringed every time I did...... I held true to that untill...... that PE2950 lol. I actually had it in my head that I was just gonna part one together ..... cuz thats what I do...... but I found a loaded one for $150 and got it...... I was so glad I didnt try to part one together lol. I read I dont know HOW much shit trying to find a way to make it read more that 2TB on a drive cuz I only had like 2 drives in its "range". I edned up parting together a tower out of my junk pile to pile my hard drives into and used it for a NAS...... but if others are capable of doing that I might look into something else to mess around with then. Had to get the 710 cuz not only was the 2950 the jet engine...... it was 1 step below the ability to really mess with VM's.... It could do it it just lacked 1 stat to really do it lol.
Was going great upto 27:30. I’m guessing you have a usb Cent os plugged into the server and managed to boot that up and then ssh to it? Sorry if dumb assumption but I’m only just starting out with Linux. Iv been trying to boot up a usb Ubuntu stick but keep getting no boot media. Any chance on your next video in the series that you expand on this area a bit please? Cheers
Edit
35:30 made more sense 😊
Another edit,
I should really learn to watch the entire video before leaving comments, I will have another go after putting everything back to default!
Thanks REALLY appreciate the video! Cheers
yes, that's exactly right. i have a USB flash drive with CentOS 7 installed that i move from server to server to give me something easy to boot up with. it has my tools for flashing firmware any many other things.
regarding your issue with Ubuntu on usb stick, check that your BIOS settings are correct. notice that i set the USB emulation type to hard drive near the end. also, make sure your boot device selection includes the USB drive. that is usually enough to get it to boot an OS installed on a USB flash drive.
thanks for watching! :-)
Art of Server Thanks for the tips and detailed reply. Hopefully will be having a go this weekend. I do have unraid running on another box but I need the R710 extra resources as it’s reached capacity. Cheers
Can I ask what tool you used to create your Centos usb drive please. Iv tried etcher but that tries to install the os, which actually starts installing and fails with unknown error. Tried Linux Live Usb creator, same error but that failed where it tries to connect to a repository, that with live and persistence enabled, pulling my hair out now 😢
Error setting up base repository. I select the iso file, unknown error! Network is enabled and working.
Update, I got Ubuntu’s 18.4 live desk top working, no issues with that. Will try tomorrow the bios update, I’m on 1.2.6 😢. I’m wanting 4tb support. Can you advise if I can do the updates from Ubuntu’s desktop or use terminal please? Cheers
yeah, it's pretty straight forward actually. download CentOS7 and follow the instructions to make a USB installer flash drive. Then, install a blank USB flash drive (at least 32GB?) in the server, and make sure the USB drive is setup for hard drive emulation in the BIOS. Also install the USB "installer" flash drive... now boot up from the "installer" USB drive... and during install, you need to pick the install target destination; just choose the "other" USB flash drive. complete the install, remove the "installer" USB drive, and boot up on the "target" USB drive that you just freshly installed CentOS7 on. That's basically it. I basically treat it like installing on a normal HDD or SSD.
Art of Server Ahh.... when I was trying I had a 80gb hdd installed, it did see it but obviously something is going wrong when trying to install it. I will try again but installing to a usb stick. Thanks for the help 👍. Cheers
Thanks for your support
Thanks for your time and effort.
Thanks for watching!
I am new to your channel. Thank you for describing each step in wonderful detail. Very helpful.
Glad it was helpful!
for this specific server and to remote connect you have to have two network cables, correct? one of network communication and another for the iDRAC?
yes, for this specific server, there are 4 onboard NICs. but there's also a dedicated port for the iDRAC, that's the "iDRAC enterprise" module.
This was a Dell 11gen server with idrac6, no license required . What’s your approach to 12gen machines that require a license for idrac7 functions? Do you buy a Dell license somewhere (eBay sellers appear to be in China) or will the dedicated idrac card port work to some degree without a license? If it’s covered in another video, let me know, thanks.
Buy the idrac7 enterprise license. They are about $30-40 on eBay. When buying a used 12th gen or newer Dell PowerEdge server, it's always a good idea to ask about the idrac enterprise license. If it's not installed, you can negotiate that cost off the asking price. I try to get servers already with the license key installed.
Hello. Thx for this video. Can we connect normal usb keyboard for console access?
Yes
Dell support has the QLogic BCM57xx firmware version 8.07.26 under the R710 section now.
Awesome! I'll check that out! Thanks for the update.
awsome video! thank you for this ! i learned a lot!!!
Thank you for watching! :-)
awesome series , thank you sir
Glad this helped!
Damn I wish you did a diy server rack mount build im trying to do this my self
I actually have plans to do those types of videos... just not enough me to go around. LOL
Best find on UA-cam so far.
Thank you!!!
Thanks Art of Server for the great video. I have a few questions though. Is Centos 8 supposed to work too? I copied Centos 8 DVD ISO into a flash usb drive and, when I boot R710 off of the flash usb drive, it gives me two options: Installing Centos 8 or troubleshooting. I don't want to install Centos 8, as I plan to eventually install ESXi. I just want to boot off of it so that I can ssh to the R710 server and do the same thing you did. Should I delete Centos 8 from my flash drive and copy the Centos 7 DVD ISO to it? ... Or is there a way to boot off Centos 8 in a way that enables me to ssh to the R710 without installing the Centos 8? ... Or should I install Centos 8 on the R710, update the BIOS and other stuff, then install ESXi in a way that wipes out the Centos 8, hoping that it won't do the BIOS and other updates? ... Please be verbose. If your explanation is too short for AOC to label it as mansplaining, I would most likely not understand it. Thanks.
If your goal is to update the server using a "live" boot OS, you could use CentOS7. I would avoid CentOS8 for now. I also show in another video how to setup a portable CentOS7 USB boot drive, which is what I often use for these types of updates.
@@ArtofServer Thanks Art of Server for your prompt reply. Yes, my goal is to update the Dell PowerEdge server. I will look up your video on the topic of creating a portable CentOS7 USB boot drive. In the meantime, if anybody reading this knows the link to that video, please post it as a reply to this comment. Thanks in advance.
I found the video: ua-cam.com/video/8MpLsYX9IeQ/v-deo.html
@@abdenourachab Here's the vid: ua-cam.com/video/laC7nsY1SyM/v-deo.html I demonstrated with CentOS8, but actually I use CentOS7 in the same manner.
Clarification: I posted the present reply before noticing that Art of Server had already replied an hour earlier with additional information. I am keeping it anyway as it has some good information. I then posted a subsequent reply to Art of Server's reply an hour later. See reply after the present one.
I followed the instructions at ua-cam.com/video/8MpLsYX9IeQ/v-deo.html and, when I boot my Dell PowerEdge R710 from that bootable CentOS 7 USB boot drive, I run into the same problem I ran into when I was trying CentOS 8. CentOS 7 gives me the options to install CentOS 7, test and install CentOS7, and troubleshoot. None of which is what I want. Did I follow the instructions in the wrong video?
Note that, two days ago, I created a live USB Ubuntu 21.04 (daily build) live ISO drive with persistent storage using mkusb, and used it to update the BIOS and the LifeCycle stuff. But the updates of Network_Firmware_PX6V4_LN7.12.17.BIN failed (I don't know why), and the update of SAS-RAID_Firmware_F96NR_LN_6.3.3-0002_X00.BIN failed (many of the commands that the BIN relies on are not in Ubuntu). I will try making a live ISO Centos (7 then 8) using mksub, and report here about that worked or not.
I've had a R710 for a few years running ESXi ona nd I'm quite happy with it. The SAS drives that came with it kinda sucked (as does SATA access with the built in raid card), but it's been a workhorse. Resently a powerout crashed the datatore raid to degraded and corrupted the ESXi boot media so looking to start over and get it as upgraded as possible now. Looking forward to watching through your series.
Awesome! Hope you enjoy the rest of the series! Thanks for watching!
@@ArtofServer I'm sure I will. My machine is a dual 6 core with 72gb ram, idrac 6 enterprise and raid controller (sas/sata2 i think)
Amazing tutoring. Hey I'm in the process of building a home lab. I currently have a unRaid server and I'm looking to buy a couple of Dell poweredge servers to the lab.
I have 2 questions
1.What's the difference between the r210 and the r210 ii? I want to use that to create a PFSense router/firewall
2. Is the r710 the best bang for the buck to create a Proxmox server?
I enjoy your content keep, continue success.
Thanks for watching! :-)
1) Not 100% sure about all the details regarding R210 vs R210-II. But I believe they have totally different motherboards. The II supports SandyBridge/IvyBridge Xeons, while the "I" supported Lynnfield, which is much older and more power hungry. I would get the R210-II.
2) I think the R710 is a great starter server, but I would also say consider some of the 12th generation servers too, like R720, R620, etc. There are some nice options that only cost a little bit more.
Thanks for your kind words!
Thought all the redundacy was to keep system running... one fan goes bad and system will not start?? Do all systems come with this "IDRAC' system/equipment? Are you saying I drive?
the system still powered on with the bad fan. so not sure what made you think it will not start? it just spewed an error about the FAN1 and lost of redundancy.
Not all systems come with iDRAC. the iDRAC system here consists of 2 modules, the "express" and "enterprise" modules as shown in this vid.
Thank you thank you , mine is on it’s way
Hey man, great video/tutorial. Love the work and effort you did. Did you installed the OS you selected for the BIOS updates? So you installed Red Hat Linux6?
Thanks! No, I have a portable usb with Centos7 that I used for the updates. Later in this series, I install proxmox ve.
Subscribed, server Sensei. This is the Way.
LOL.. thanks for watching!
Hey, Great Video! I have a R720 server with iDRAC 7 Express which I brought it recently. I connected it to the network but DHCP is not getting an IP from the network. When I try to connect it to my monitor it takes me to the life cycle controller page and get struck. I am a beginner and any suggestions would be appreciated. Thank you in advance !
It looks like your system is stuck in booting into the LifeCycle Controller (LCC). There might have been a previous configuration that is directing it to go into the LCC. You might need to let that complete.
On the 12th gen iDRAC, you can't use the dedicated idrac NIC unless you have the enterprise license key installed. Maybe that's the issue?
@@ArtofServer Thank you for your reply! I had a bad VGA to HDMI cable and it caused this issue. I bought a new VGA to VGA cable and it led me to get to the LCC. But still couldn't setup the IDRAC IP for it. As a starting point I reset my idrac setting and tried setting up static IP in the network but I wasn't able to ping my idrac ip after reboot. Let me explain on how I connected the idrac physical interface. I have one end of RJ45 to iDRAC port and other end to my TP link router which is my ISP. Initially my idrac port started blinking while resting the idrac setting through system setup but after its completed there is no light.. seems to me like the port is down. So next I connected TP link router to a switch (Netgear) and then from switch to IDRAC port but no luck.. I am completely new in setting this up and I am struck on here in setting up a IP address to the device. Not sure if my idrac port is working or not as its not blinking anymore and couldn't run the hardware diagnosis to see for any issues as my firmware is out of date. I tried reseating the idrac module but still no luck. I am looking to setup it as a home lab to install proxmox, eveng to learn networking. Or should I install hypervisor and assign an IP before I setup Idrac IP ? I would appreciate if you can provide some inputs hear please. Thank you in advance!!!
Any idead what the drive size limit is for the h200 you sell on your ebay store?
yes, 128PB for SATA and 8ZB for SAS. so, practically speaking, limitless with today's available technology. details are explained in this video: ua-cam.com/video/u55vIGMzzKw/v-deo.html
so will the h200 be able to handle 8tb drives. I have a perc 6i in one of my systems and im having trouble getting the 8tb drives to work in it.
Small question: Since you're buying, repairing and selling lots of Dell servers, why don't you setup a IPXE server with CentOS? from the error messages that appeared while installing the updates, it looks like your Disk on Key has some issues (sdb1).
That USB drive with CentOS is the same one I use for all the firmware flashing, you'll notice it has hostname "the-flash". Makes me nervous to run a firmware flash from files on a network filesystem.
The sdb errors are not the USB flash drive. I think they are from the idrac's emulated virtual media.
Great job there thank you !! I just got 2 R740 too and I am about the follow your process and make them hosting my websites. can you guide me ?
The R740 is a much newer server, so some of the stuff in these videos will be quite different. Just keep that in mind.
What is that monitor/keyboard combo/ I like it!
It's a 1U Dell KMM 17" panel. Search for "Dell KMM 17FP" and you can find it. Or, check here on ebay: ebay.us/wF4Ufg (affiliate link)
Thanks for the video. Please explain how to ssh to the server as well for beginners 👍
I'm having difficulty getting idrac to work at all. I have did a factory reset, I enabled idrac6 lan, I enabled ipv4, set a static IP, set gateway, subnet mask, default gateway and DNS. I used dedicated nic selection. I even tried just letting dhcp set everything. But no matter what I do I can't ping it, I can reach via the web browser and I never see any activity lights on the back ethernet port on the far left side of the server next to the serial console port. I'm positive there is an easy step that I'm missing here.
I want to get one of these and put XCP-NG on it to mess around with
46:35 - iDRAC6 Reset/Login.
As of 13/10/2019...
iDRAC6 Firmware Revision version: 2.92.05
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Java Control Panel - Oracle Java Version 8 Update 221 (x64)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
www.java.com/en/download/manual.jsp
01. Navigate to the Java Control Panel
02. Security/High = Yes
03. Exception Site List
Add: 192.168.x.xxx/ [Where x.xxx is your iDRAC6 address]
Apply
Windows 10 Pro x64/Java Installation Folder
------------------------------------------------------------------------
01. Navigate to: C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.8.0_221\lib\security
02. Find: java.security
03. Open With/Notepad: java.security
04. Search for: jdk.tls.disabledAlgorithms=
05. Edit/Save file: (I saved to Desktop as 'java.security', WITHOUT .txt, and then replaced the original file)
Replace: jdk.tls.disabledAlgorithms=SSLv3, RC4, DES, MD5withRSA, DH keySize < 1024, \
EC keySize < 224, 3DES_EDE_CBC, anon, NULL
With: jdk.tls.disabledAlgorithms=SSLv3, DES, MD5withRSA, DH keySize < 1024, \
EC keySize < 224, 3DES_EDE_CBC, anon, NULL
Reboot your Windows 10 Pro x64 PC
-----------------------------------------------------------
01. Reboot
iDRAC6 - Login via Opera Browser
------------------------------------------------------
01. Navigate to: 192.168.x.xxx/ in Opera Browser [Where x.xxx is your iDRAC6 address]
02. 'Console/Media'/Video Encryption Enabled = Yes/No
(Change this in the 'Configuration' tab if connection issues!)
01. Properties/Launch
02. The 'viewer.jnlp' link downloads instead of opening (Grr!)...
(Note: The filename information changes with each session, so ALWAYS USE the LATEST one!)
03. Open With/Look for another app on this PC [Scroll down]
04. Open With: C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.8.0_221\bin\javaws.exe
05. The connection to this website is untrusted/Continue
06. I accept the risk and want to run this application = Yes/Run
07. The Virtual Console should now load!
My r710 was so out of date but found a bootable iso to do all updates was amazing !! But for what ever reason idrac and life cycle controller wouldn’t update any ideas as I struggle to log in via ip where the page doesn’t load properly or log in.
Hey, this is really well made video. Could you clarify coule of things: Your Ubuntu Mate is installed in USB? If yes, is it connected to your server or to some other PC (accessing server via SSH)? Also, did you install any OS to server? Thank you very much and best of luck in future.
Not really sure what you mean by Ubuntu MATE? I'm running a CentOS7 on a USB drive in the server. My desktop is MATE, but on another machine on Fedora (not Ubuntu). I use my desktop OS for the screen recordings where I login to the server running off the USB drive.
could you explain to me how you logged into the linux terminal to download the files directly to the server
there's a remote login tool called "ssh" and I use that to connect to the server on the terminal as a user. then escalate privileges to root, and that's what you're seeing.
Hello, thanks for your video. I'm getting a completely blackscreen on my r610 and was wondering whether that means my connector is just not working or if there's absolutely no software at all in it. Thanks a lot!
sorry, no idea...
Great video. This has been extremely helpful and I can't wait to finish watching through the series. I recently picked up an r710 and would like to update the bios. The current version on it is 2.2.10. I read online that upgrading to the lastest version may cause issues and it was reommended to upgrade to each version in steps. I cannot find any bios versions other than the latest on dells support site. I am wondering if perhaps I can upgrade directly to latest version or if maybe anyone here could provide a link to older bios versions?
I don't know the origins of that recommendation. As you saw in this video, I just did a straight upgrade to the latest version and didn't have a problem.
@@ArtofServer Saw that recommendation in the dell forum from a dell tech lol. Didn't really make sense to me but I saw it mentioned multiple times and I'm new to server hardware so I wanted to be sure. Thank you so much for the quick reply!
@Joe Slaughter I just got a used R710 with bios 3.0 and idrac 1.7!!! what should I do as for an upgrade path ?
@@josephwest651 Hi Joseph, so did you step up from bios 2.2.10 to 6.6.0 or did you go straight to the current version? Interested to see what happened, I'm in a similar ... ...
are you usinga linux on a USB Stick to do the firmware update?
yes.
@@ArtofServer and thanks for your answe, greatly appreciated.
Received my Dell R710 today. Powered it on and received the following error: PXE-E61 media test failure-check cable. Can you offer guidance, please?
That means your server went into PXE boot mode (probably because there's no boot device) and could not PXE boot. If your server is not connected to a network with a PXE boot server, that's probably why.
Thank you for your videos. I just got a R-710, 6 SAS drives, a SAS 1068E, and Perc 6/E Raid card. Still getting my head around this. I want to setup Proxmox and wish to know if I should remove my Perc 6/E card. I have no use for external drives, dont think this will allow use with my internal drive, so is there any value to leave it in?
You should watch the next part of this series where I talk about storage, and later parts I show how to setup Proxmox. Just continue watching this series and you should get all the answers to these questions. The playlist is here: ua-cam.com/play/PL28eVGz5vFQ9hUBeeg5bxj-s0IeitoGIb.html
Thanks for the reply. I have seen all the above, but will watch them again and again until it all soaks in. I'm old and slow but never give up until I get it. Again my question was about the Perc 6/E. Does it have any value to keep it in the server or is it only useful on external drives. I do not have a Perc 6/i. No PD drives show with Ctrl-R. Drives appear when I use Cntl -C (SAS config).
@@waynejauss5857 Oh, about the PERC6/E... if you're planning to add a external DAS, like MD1000 or MD1200, then it may come in handy, but has limitations with SATA drives at 2TB. Generally, I think it's worth replacing with a 9200-8e or newer card.
I am fascinated. Very informative.
Thanks for watching!
The irony of this video is not using windows to avoid licenses and then using red hat linux. Which is also under a license you must agree to.
Other than that, great video. Helped me set up my server in the configuration I needed it to be in.
I disagree. I wasn't avoiding windows licenses, I simply don't use windows. And I was using CentOS7, not RHEL; there are no encumbering licenses.
But glad you got good use out of the video. Thanks for watching!
I got an r710 but it looks nothing like yours. The harddrive slots look much different for instance. are there different models?
Yes, there is a 6x3.5" backplane like this one, and there is a 8x2.5" backplane model.
That explains it. I ordered an r710 with a 4 slot 3.5 hdd and they sent me a 8 slot 2.5hdd with a broken led, 2 caddies and punched in power supply grates. I'm getting a replacement I just hope it's not the 2.5. do you have any good recommendations for cheap sellers
Thank you for your video.
Thanks for watching!
im late to the party but i plan on getting one of these to run game servers, web pages, and a few other things. the main reason is i want the horsepower to be able to do whatever i want with it without having to add more to it down the road. it would just be a home server/home game server. would the R710 help?
Hey,
Thank you for making this video series! Very interesting stuff!!
Not sure if you still read the comments here but I was wondering if you could help me out. I wanna buy an old server like this one and start leaning about this stuff but I have no idea where to start or what to get first. Was hoping you could point me in the right direction and tell me what server to buy as my first one? Is there a brand that is most suitable for general use? for learning on? or should I just get this PowerEdge and follow your videos? or is there a better brand around the same price that is good to learn on and can last a long time and easily up-gradable if need be
Sure, I can point you in the right direction. In fact, I may have a server or 2 that might work for you.
But first, please tell me what it is you want to learn about with your server? Is it for virtualization? Containers? Storage? Or, what else? And also, what is your budget?
@@ArtofServer Containers mainly. And if I can do both containers and storage at the same time then that's the goal. (As you can see I'm super new to all this)
@@issasaid92 ok. what's your budget? and how much storage do you need?
@@ArtofServer around $600 if possible. As for storage even 4Tb is enough for now just for experimenting and then I'll add more with time.
Thank you for your help! :)
Edit: If budget is too low let me know what you recommend.
@@ArtofServer Would it be easier to communicate through email?
Any guide on setting up the bootable drive you use for the updates?
Not yet. Will be in a future video.
@@ArtofServer Red Hat won't even let me register an account so I can download the iso because it doesn't like my email :P
Tried to update via the LIfecycle Controller instead, but apparently that no longer works either. Need to update BIOS and NIC firmware
Its like 5 years later but I just got mine, anything else I should do besides get it up to BIOS 6.6.0 ?
Well, I would also make sure to update all the other component firmwares as shown in this video. Then checkout the rest of this video series:
ua-cam.com/play/PL28eVGz5vFQ9hUBeeg5bxj-s0IeitoGIb.html
@@ArtofServer Thanks so much man! One more thing: You had this plugged in and were touching it (as far as Icould tell) without any ESD precautions, was it on an ESD Mat or are you a believer in that if you mess with them while plugged in that it'll send it to ground?
Or are you just a badass? Hahaha
Could you tell me what the screw driver set is with the yellow and black handles in the background on your desk?
Yes, it is the Wiha 92092 Master Technicians Bench Top Screwdriver Set, ESD Safe. (affiliate link to that set here: ebay.to/391c7Fd)
One of my favorite brand of screwdrivers... they are made in Germany. My favorite screwdrivers are German and Japanese brands, although I have plenty of other ones in my garage too.
Does idrac password will be factory default if we reset the bios to default using hardware jumper. I got the used server and vga display not working so want to reset idrac password
you need to do a idrac factory reset. there are several ways, for example, you can use the 'racadm' utility provided by Dell.
working my way through your great videos, not sure if dell through me a curved ball though, i didnt have dell logo on bootup so followed your video and did the jumpers then booted up and its there, great feeling very confident but now i have a boot error that may be related to clearing the NVRAM it says no sata e detected, any ideas
Go into the BIOS setup of the R710 and disable any SATA ports that are not in use. By default, if you enable any of the SATA ports, and it doesn't detect a device, it shows that error.
It’s an old vid. Not sure if you gona see the comment. But how did you prepare the centos usb and then boot from it? We’re you downloading the driver files on to that usb? Thanks
I show how in this video ua-cam.com/video/laC7nsY1SyM/v-deo.html
Regarding the Broadcom/QLogic BCM5709 Firmware/Drivers:
I found a newer firmware, 8.07.26, which indeed lists support for the r710. It's under the name "QLogic FastLinQ Network Adapter Device Firmware" and you can find it here: www.dell.com/support/home/en-us/drivers/driversdetails?driverid=82j79
Hope this helps someone!
Awesome! Thanks for sharing!
On the iDrac update I ran into an issue with some libraries. ..... The following packages are required for the update package to run:
- compat-libstdc++-33.i686 libstdc++.i686 libxml2.i686 ..... When I installed the compat-libstdc++33 it would not take. Just wondering if you are using a 32-bit OS CentOS7 since I cannot get this to run in my Centos7 USB stick?
I was able to update using iDrac's update facility base on the instructions here.... www.dell.com/community/PowerEdge-Hardware-General/iDRAC6-firmware-upgrade-fails-using-Deployment-Toolkit-ISO/td-p/6210278
No, I'm using 64bit CentOS 7 in this video.
That's great! yeah, as you can see in my other R410 series, firmware updates on the 11th gen servers do not always work consistently. Often resorting to alternative methods can help, but not always.
please show how you setup idrac
yes please. I'm having difficulty myself
I have a question, how do I reset my r710 so it stops complaining that I have inserted new ram. Is this lifecycle? How to reset? Help please
Run the lifecycle controller inventory assessment program.
Got the lifecycle inventory program reset after reinstalling the old ram which was needed to boot to that point. My sas card is not showing up in the boot sequence and I don't have access to my drives. Is there a setting somewhere to enable the sas card.
I just found your channel an already liked/followed it. Can you please pass me some informations/exp. about resetting the system setup password on my poweredge r720? We bought a used one and tried the pwd jumper, but we might done it wrong and we cannot install from a new copy of windows server from stick. We managed to set the raids up, but I got stuck on the system setup password part /(. Gonna try it again tomorrow, but I like it as it has enaugh power for my file stuff:)
Welcome to the channel! Check out my videos on the R820 and R720; those will better apply to your situation.
@@ArtofServer thanks Server is running well! I still need to learn more about the bios settings (to disable all the lengthy self checks, boot directly to windows, disable idrac as is fails to initialize), but I keep watching your clips and I’m sure it will work:=) thank you and have a great weekend
Been sleeping next to R710 for more than 5 years.
Bought a HP 380e g8 recently and had an unpleasant surprise :D It's not possible to sleep next to that one. Fortunately I did manage to silence it in the end.
did you override the fan speed with ipmi?
@@ArtofServer yes, but I had to install a custom iLO firmware though
Hi, i am unable to access my iDRAC even though i have everything set up. When i try to access it from browser i get the error ERR_SSL_VERSION_CIPHER_MISMATCH. I have tried running racadm sslresetcfg, which it did not recognize. I am also running a R710
I hope you can help me
you should checkout these 2 videos:
ua-cam.com/video/drhSo9Xl9M0/v-deo.html
ua-cam.com/video/qxOk-AbIk9Y/v-deo.html
hope that helps! :-)
@@ArtofServer i love you, thanks
Mr. Art of Server.. I was directed here as I have an Old 610 that is very out of date. I just attempted your method of "wget" and pasting the link and I am greeted with "Address Family not supported by protocol" ... ever seen that ?
I have R715
It is quite quiet. Even fully working. I have Sapphire Pulse AMD Radeon RX 570 and 2x AMD Opteron 6180 SE and 16x 8GB DDR3 PC3-10600R RAM (it is 290W total while idle) and it quite quiet.
Oh and no spinning rust only SSDs
Didnt Dell have a downloadable ISO that you could boot from that went through the update process for all hardware?
Yes, I believe so. I haven't seen it in a while...
@@ArtofServer It was also quite a challenge to find back in the day!
This is a great video!
Glad you enjoyed it
i downloaded Centos 7 ISO file to flash drive but it wanted me to install it. Where do i download the live CD version?
Did you boot CentOS on the server just to update its firmware? Can this be done from a USB live environment?
It's not a USB live environment. It's just centos 7 installed on a USB drive. I use it as a portable USB drive to do maintenance or diagnose problems.
@@ArtofServer cool, i just bought one of these and the necessary other components to replace my proxmox/plex/NAS server. I'll have to keep a centos drive around to update it, since they don't *officially* support debian-based distros with updates.
I have been racking my brain for the past two days...35:29 "lets log into the remote console"... easier said than done. For the life of me i can not log into the console, no matter what i try. I launch the viewer, rename the file, open it in Java, and i get unable to launch the application. i have whitelisted the server on Java HTTP and HTTPS and still get the same error. I wish it was as easy as your video shows it to be. I will be stuck with BIOS 1.2.6, iDRAC version 1.10 FOREVER, lol. Hell, i cant even get the USC to update from a USB because it says it failed to pass integrity check.
you need to change crypto related settings in the java security policy, as well as add the IP of your server's idrac to the exceptions list. you also need javaws (java web start). after that, it should work. i've gotten so use to this, but it was frustrating for me before too. i'm putting this on my list of future video ideas!
Awesome, I will give this a shot. Thank you
@Tommy Stavley this one is for you ua-cam.com/video/drhSo9Xl9M0/v-deo.html hope that helps you out.
@@ArtofServer i still couldnt get it to work that way. But i did have some progress on the BIOS and network updates. I had to install CentOS 7 and install those updates via terminal. I am having an issue on the IDRAC update where it tells me the following package is required for the update "compat-libstdc++-33.i686 libstdc++-i686 libxml2.i686". And that the Lifecycle controller 1.7.5.4 isnt compatable with my system. making progress though.
@@tommystavley9808 yeah, just install the compat-libstdc++ packages with yum. Something like "yum install " will do the trick.
so the java console app still isn't working for you? what's the error you get?
do you have more servers now?
What do you mean? Servers for sale? Servers in use? Servers for testing?
@@ArtofServer I want to buy server for virualization
@@ArtofServer which state are you?
@@maherkhalil007 if you are in the USA, reach out to me at artofserver.com and I can share with you what I have available. I don't ship servers outside USA.
@@maherkhalil007 California
Thank you in 2022 🙏🙏
LOL.. I think we are now in 2023! But, you are welcome and thank you for watching in 2023! :-)
Why get rid if battery and change plug to h2 setup,and why change some wires in dell r720 just to run freenas?
Also I just bought a used hp server, it's battery for cache is dead,I think thsts a bad idea!is dell doing the same?my new dellr240 has no battery for cache!
Battery is needed for RAID controllers that have onboard cache. This is not R720, but R710 by the way... Very different server.
If the IDRAC was set up for a cluster it goes through a verification process over ip
I've been fighting with an R720 for months. I can't figure out if I'm missing something, but does an R720 have a IDRAC enterprise module or any modular parts at all? Mine loses all settings every time the power goes out, and I can't get any updates to install on it. All update files either fail, or they never install when the IDRAC reboots, and if I had any hair I would have pulled it all out trying to figure out how to get it fixed.
On the 12th gen Dell servers like the R720, the "enterprise" module is a license key you install on the server instead of a physical "module". If you login to the iDRAC, it should tell you if you have the enterprise license key already installed or not.
Are you saying your iDRAC loses settings or that the system setup (BIOS/UEFI) loses settings upon power cycling?
Here's a video that might help you, and more relevant to the R720: ua-cam.com/video/ISA7j2BKgjI/v-deo.html
@@ArtofServer it looks like the Enterprise key is indeed installed. Only the IDRAC loses settings, the BIOS is fine. I've verified the CMOS battery is good, so I'm stumped. I created a script with racadm that sets the settings back where I need to access it, but it doesn't solve the other issues I have with the outdated firmware.
@@ArtofServer I did follow along with the instructions in that video. The update versions for the R720 add HTTPS support in the LC starting with versions 2.X. I'm stuck at 1.65. Any version I try to install using the .BIN file under Linux eventually ends with an "Invalid Signature Detected" error. Googling shows that various BIOS revisions may be incompatible with certain updates and produce this error. I have the latest BIOS (2.9.0) and have also tried various other BIOS versions with the same result. I've run the update file under Windows Server 2012 as well as Ubuntu. I even tried the update ISO route (there's a method that uses a Dell app to create a bootable ISO that auto updates everything), but that fails when it gets to the LC update stage. I've also tried extracting the payload file and using it with both racadm and the IDRAC web interface upload, but both return a FAILED status with any version I try.