Bootable ISO to re-flash BMC-firmware of PE 840

Question

Hi everybody

I'm still pretty new to Dell servers (this is actually my first post on this forum). However, I am familiar with computers in general. I'm trying to install pfSense on an old PowerEdge 840 that I still have. Unfortunately the server's POST shows a BMC communication failure and as a result the fan is also going crazy. I have already disconnected everything non-essential inside the server and cleared the NVRAM using the jumpers. Unfortunately this has not solved the problem. On other posts I have seen that re-flashing the BMC firmware sometimes helps, hence I would like to give that a try. In this case, the easiest would be to create a bootable ISO for that. I tried to do that with DRM. But as can be expected, the PE 840 does not appear as an option in DRM anymore. (The closest server - at least by name - in the DRM catalogue is the R840.)

Does anybody know if it's possible to get a DRM catalogue-file that still contains information for the PE 840? Or is there another way to create a bootable ISO with which to install the firmware .bin or .exe file that can still be downloaded from Dell Support? (The firmware file is still from 2013, hence might have some OS-dependencies for the bootable ISO.)

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

DELL-Chris H · Answer

MrJatDell,

Try powering down the server, unplug the cables to the power supplies, then hold the power buttong for 30 seconds to drain the flea power. After doing that then give it a few minutes and reinstall the cables and boot, if the issue persist then there may be damage to the board.

As far as updating the BMC, you can fidn the specific file here.

Let me know if this helps.

MrJatDell · Answer

I did as you said - removed the power-cables, drained the flea-power, and waited a few minutes before re-connecting power and booting up again. But unfortunately I still get the BMC-error during POST.

Since this error was solved with a FW-update in another post, I also wanted to try that. So I still got a copy of CentOS 5.2 (should be close to RHEL 5.2) from the CentOS vault, installed that, downloaded the BMC FW-files for the PE840 from Dell Support and tried to run that. But unfortunately that just produced a couple of errors and a message that the update package is not compatible with my system configuration.

On one forum-post I saw that Dell made a bootable ISO with a FW-update for someone with the same problem (but a different server model). I realize that the PE840 is ancient history by now. But is it still possible to get such an ISO for this case?

DELL-Chris H · Answer

There are a couple, but I believe you are referring to the Platform Specific Bootable ISO, which was only about 10ths gen forward, where the 840 is an 8th generation. Now there is the Build and Update Utility, which is bootable, but you would need to use the Server Update Utilities repository to update with. So you boot to BUU and then swap the disk over to the SUU when you go to update.

You can find the BUU here, and the SUU here.

MrJatDell · Answer

Thanks for the links. Since it's already 19h43 here, I'm going to call it a day. But I'll try it out tomorrow or on Monday and will let you know how it went.

MrJatDell · Answer

Sorry for the delay...got busy with something else. I tried the SBUU and SUU on Saturday already - just wanted to have another look today. Unfortunately the utility does not even see the BMC when it does the system inventory collection. Only the BIOS shows up as a component, which is on the last FW-version already. So I guess that the BMC is simply toast. Or is there something else that one can still do?

PowerEdge Hardware General

Bootable ISO to re-flash BMC-firmware of PE 840

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