PowerEdge: How to Reset the Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller (iDRAC)

The Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller (iDRAC) is responsible for system profile settings and out-of-band management. Sometimes, iDRAC may become unresponsive due to various reasons. Symptoms of an unresponsive iDRAC include the following:

• RACADM commands return "ERROR: Unable to perform requested operation"
• No SSH/Telnet access to the iDRAC (the attempted connection times out)
• No iDRAC browser access
• Pinging the iDRAC IP address fails

iDRACs can be reset by using the System Identification Button, the iDRAC Web Interface, the iDRAC Service Module, or RACADM. Click the appropriate section for more information.

System Identification Button

For systems with an iDRAC, a small button that is marked "i" (Figure 1 and Figure 2) is typically on the front and back of the system. This i button is the System Identification button. In order to reset the iDRAC without rebooting the operating system, press and hold the System Identification button for at least 16 seconds. Stop pressing the button when the cooling fans start spinning at full speed and the front LCD (if present) is off. Now the iDRAC restarts without changing any saved settings. It may take a minute or longer until the remote controller restarts.

Figure 1: iDRAC i button on PowerEdge R640 server

Figure 2: iDRAC i button on PowerEdge T620 server

iDRAC Web Interface

Resets are performed differently for the iDRAC9 Web Interface and the iDRAC7 and iDRAC8 Web Interface. Click the appropriate iDRAC for more information.

iDRAC9 Web Interface

1. Connect to the iDRAC Web interface.
2. Log in to the interface by entering the username and password.
3. Click the Maintenance tab.
4. Select Diagnostics.
5. Click Reset iDRAC to reset the iDRAC or click Reboot iDRAC to reset the iDRAC.

Figure 3: Reset iDRAC button in iDRAC9

Figure 4: Reboot iDRAC button

6. Alternately, click Reset iDRAC to Default Settings to reset the iDRAC to the default settings. After clicking the Reset iDRAC to Default Setting, Reset iDRAC to factory default window is displayed. This action resets the iDRAC to factory defaults. Choose any of the following options:
   • Preserve user and network settings.
   • Discard all settings and reset the users to shipping value (root/shipping value).
   • Discard all settings and reset username and password.
   • Discard all settings and set to Custom default configuration (Custom configuration file must be uploaded).
7. A warning message is displayed. Click Ok to proceed.

iDRAC7 and iDRAC8 Web Interface

1. Connect to the iDRAC Web interface.
2. Log in to the interface by entering the username and password.
3. In the lower right corner of the overview screen, the Quick Launch Tasks are shown.
4. Click Reset iDRAC.
5. Confirm the action.

Figure 5: Reset iDRAC option for iDRAC7 and iDRAC8

iDRAC Service Module

The iDRAC Service Module (iSM) is a lightweight software application that can be installed on PowerEdge servers running iDRAC7, iDRAC8 and iDRAC9. iSM 2.3 (and newer) allows the administrator to reset the iDRAC remotely when iDRAC is unresponsive. Resetting the iDRAC using the iDRAC Service Module is performed differently whether using Windows, Linux, or VMware ESXi Operating Systems. Click on the appropriate operating system for more information.

Windows

iDRAC Service Module provides the WMI Method, PowerShell Method, and the Program Menu Shortcut Method through which the iDRAC can be reset from within a Windows operating system. Click the appropriate method for more information.

WMI Method

This can be invoked either locally or remotely using Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) commands.

To reset the iDRAC using WMI commands, the procedure is as follows:

1. Install the iDRAC Service Module on the host operating system.
2. Open Command Prompt with administrator rights.
3. Run either the local WinRM command or the remote WinRM command.
   • Local WinRM command: winrm i iDRACHardReset wmi/root/cimv2/dcim/DCIM_iSMService?InstanceID="iSMExportedFunctions"
   • Run the remote WinRM command: winrm i iDRACHardReset wmi/root/cimv2/dcim/dcim_ismservice -u:"admin-username" -p:"password" -r:http://"remote-hostname or IP"/wsman -a:Basic -encoding:utf-8 -skipCACheck -skipCNCheck

PowerShell Method

This can be invoked either locally or remotely using PowerShell commands.

To reset the iDRAC using local PowerShell commands, the procedure is as follows:

Prerequisites

• Requires Microsoft .NET Framework 64-bit version 2.x or newer.
• The execution policy for running PowerShell scripts should be set to one of the following:
  • Set-ExecutionPolicy AllSigned
  • Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted

iDRAC Service Module also provides a PowerShell cmdlet to locally reset the iDRAC. To use PowerShell for resetting the iDRAC:

1. Open a Windows PowerShell session as an administrator.
2. Type Invoke-iDRACHardReset and then press Enter.

To use the Invoke-iDRACHardReset command from a remote PowerShell session:

1. Launch a PowerShell session on the management station.
2. Enable remote PowerShell using the Enable PS-Remoting cmdlet.

Program Menu Shortcut Method

This can be run by logging into the operating system using a remote desktop session. Then, select the iDRAC reset option from the program menu.

Linux

On all iSM-supported Linux operating systems, the iSM provides commands which can be run by logging into the operating system by using SSH or equivalent.

The commands are either:

• $ /opt/dell/srvadmin/iSM/bin/Invoke-iDRACHardReset
• $ /opt/dell/srvadmin/iSM/bin/Invoke-iDRACHardReset -f

VMware ESXi operating systems

On all iDRAC Service Module supported ESXi operating systems; iSM 2.3 and newer supports a CMPI method provider. This enables performing the iDRAC reset remotely using WinRM remote commands. Unlike Windows (except WMI) and Linux operating systems; ESXi does not prompt the user for a confirmation before resetting the iDRAC.

The command is:

• winrm i iDRACHardReset http://schemas.dell.com/wbem/wscim/1/cim-schema/2/root/cimv2/dcim/DCIM_iSMService?__cimnamespace=root/cimv2/dcim+InstanceID=iSMExportedFunctions -u:"root-username" -p:"password" -r:https://"Host-IP":443/wsman -a:basic -encoding:utf-8 -skipCNCheck -skipCACheck -skipRevocationcheck

The result of the operation is displayed as an integer value which indicates either success or failure of the operation.

Limitations:

On ESXi 6.0 U1 and ESXi 6.0 U2 versions of ESXi; the IPMI driver may become unresponsive after the iDRAC reset. After a Hard Reset operation on certain VMware ESXi operating systems, the IPMI driver (ipmi_si_drv) may become unresponsive because of an existing issue in the IPMI driver. If the IPMI driver becomes unresponsive, reload the IPMI driver (ipmi_si_drv).

To reload the ipmi_si_drv:

/etc/init.d/sfcbd-watchdog stop
esxcfg-module -u ipmi_si_drv => unload ipmi_si_drv
esxcfg-module ipmi_si_drv => load ipmi_si_drv
/etc/init.d/sfcbd-watchdog start

RACADM

The Dell Remote Access Controller Admin (RACADM) utility is a command-line tool that allows for remote or local management using the iDRAC. RACADM commands can be run remotely from a management station or locally on the managed system.

In all instances, only the iDRAC reboots and this does not reboot the server. An iDRAC reboot does not affect the running operating system. There are differences in the commands between the iDRAC9 and the iDRAC7 or iDRAC8. Click the appropriate iDRAC for more information.

iDRAC9

Reset - This reboots the iDRAC without changing any iDRAC configuration settings.
Example: racadm racreset

Reset (forced) - Adding -f to any iDRAC command forces the command.
Example: racadm racreset -f

Reset iDRAC to factory defaults - this resets all changes back to factory settings, but keeps user and network settings.
Example: racadm racresetcfg

Reset iDRAC configuration to default and reset user to shipping value.
Example: racadm racresetcfg -all

Reset iDRAC configuration to default and reset the user to a username of root and password of calvin.
Example: racadm racresetcfg -rc

Reset iDRAC configuration to custom defaults.
Example: racadm racrsetcfg -custom

All iDRAC9 reset commands can be found in the Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller 9 (iDRAC9) Version 3.00.00.00 User's Guide | Dell US (page 249).

iDRAC7 or iDRAC8

Reset - This reboots the iDRAC without changing any iDRAC configuration settings.
Example: 

racadm racreset

Adding -f to any iDRAC command forces the command.
Example: 

racadm racreset -f

Reset iDRAC to factory defaults - this resets all changes back to factory settings. This removes user and network settings.
Example: 

racadm racresetcfg

All iDRAC7 or iDRAC8 reset commands can be found in the iDRAC 8/7 v2.81.81.81 RACADM CLI Guide (page 105).