BIOS patch keeps on turning down the servers

Seen this also.

Hello,

It is strange. They don't use the same update:

R330

Dell Server PowerEdge R330, R230, T330 and T130 BIOS Version 2.20.0

R350

Dell Server PowerEdge BIOS R350/R250/T350/T150 Version 1.11.1

Are you able to do a power up from the iDRAC console when this happens?

Have you checked the iDRAC System Event Log (SEL) and LifeCycle Controller log for any related errors?

If you are applying BIOS in the OS and do the required reboot, could you try applying the BIOS in the DRAC update section and let it do reboot and check results?

For testing You might do a reset of the iDRAC first, not the host, and then try the update.

I don't really think this is the issue but you may check

Confirm last power state is set in the BIOS:

AC Power Recovery - Sets how the system behaves after AC power is restored to the system. This option is set to 'Last' by default. Try setting to 'ON'

I see the R330 has a pretty good gap from 2.5.0 to 2.20.0. You may try stepping it up.

Try to keep your iDRAC and BIOS updated together.

Like if you have a 2021 iDRAC update to do the 2021 BIOS update at the same time.

I don't see this as a prerequisites, it's just a best practice when you are updating regularly to keep the updates applied at the same time.

Server starts than normaly through the iDRAC Console when we apply a power on action.  IIRC i have it only seen on 15Gen Server (R750/R650/R550) because thats the majority we have.

Regards,

Joerg

Thanks Charles! I'll take note of those recommendations moving forward to next patching cycle. To answer your questions:

Are you able to do a power up from the iDRAC console when this happens? It usually takes too long for us to boot up the server.

Have you checked the iDRAC System Event Log (SEL) and LifeCycle Controller log for any related errors? Yes, I checked and the logs for BIOS download to Device Power Cycle just repeats. No error is found.

If you are applying BIOS in the OS and do the required reboot, could you try applying the BIOS in the DRAC update section and let it do reboot and check results? We don't apply BIOS patch on OS. We only apply LifeCycle and BIOS patch to iDRAC. 

For testing You might do a reset of the iDRAC first, not the host, and then try the update. IDRAC reset usually happens after the LifeCycle update, should you reset the iDRAC again for the BIOS Patch?


Thank you!

Hello,

Thank you for the information.

The last one I mention to try a iDRAC reboot just before applying updates we would like to see if the issue is the same.

If you could try that next time we would like to see how that does.

Hey Charles,

This are the 3 things I get:
1. Make sure that AC Power Recovery is "ON"

2. Reboot iDRAC first before apply updates (warm boot)

3. Try to patch LifeCycle and BIOS together according to release date.

I'll try to do all the suggestions and see if issue re-occurs again. Thanks!

My two cents, for the R340 and R350, ensure you're at the latest CPLD, but ideally, the idrac and bios should be updated before the CPLD, so you're in a chicken/egg scenario. We have 155 15G servers in our lab, we have yet to see this behavior, but i'm keeping an eye out.

Rey
#Iwork4Dell