Anaconda can now log install status to iDRAC

Linux installation can at times fail, or be aborted on user request. With kickstart installs (across a large number of servers), tracking the installs that succeeded and those that failed can be cumbersome.

Dell collaborated with the Anaconda team to implement a mechanism through which the installer can indicate the installation status information to iDRAC. The System Administrator can then query the iDRAC’s Sensor Event Log to know if the install succeeded, failed or aborted on that server.

The status codes were included as new Sensor Type Codes in IPMI (v2.0 E7 Markup, Table 42-3) as new "Base OS Boot / Installation Status" Sensor Type.

The installer can indicate to iDRAC the following status events:
 
Table 1: v2.0 E7 Markup

This feature is available in Fedora 23 and later. This will also be available in a future update of RHEL 7.

Here is a sample output from iDRAC after successful completion of a Fedora install:


Figure 1: sample output from iDRAC after successful completion of a Fedora install

The same can be queried over with IPMI LAN (requires freeipmi-1.4.1 or later or ipmitool-1.8.14):

[root@per ~]# ipmi-sel -D LAN_2_0 -h 10.10.10.1 -u root

ID  | Date        | Time     | Name            | Type                     | Event

2   | Nov-17-2015 | 12:23:13 | Sensor #0       | OS Boot                  | Base OS/Hypervisor Installation started

3   | Nov-17-2015 | 12:30:24 | Sensor #0       | OS Boot                  | Base OS/Hypervisor Installation completed

Here is the sample output when a user aborts/quits a Fedora install before completion:


Figure 2: sample output when a user aborts/quits a Fedora install before completion

The same can be queried over ipmi:

[root@per ~]# ipmi-sel -D LAN_2_0 -h 10.10.10.1 -u root

ID  | Date        | Time     | Name            | Type                     | Event

2   | Nov-17-2015 | 13:51:03 | Sensor #0       | OS Boot                  | Base OS/Hypervisor Installation started

3   | Nov-17-2015 | 13:55:32 | Sensor #0       | OS Boot                  | Base OS/Hypervisor Installation aborted