Date: Fri, 17 Mar 2006 08:53:02 -0600 From: Eric Anderson <anderson@centtech.com> To: Eric Anderson <anderson@centtech.com> Cc: FreeBSD-ISP List <freebsd-isp@freebsd.org>, Andrew McNaughton <andrew@scoop.co.nz> Subject: Re: experience with dell DRAC 4? Message-ID: <441ACD4E.6080305@centtech.com> In-Reply-To: <4418E5B4.1010903@centtech.com> References: <20060316145215.Y18985@a2.scoop.co.nz> <4418E5B4.1010903@centtech.com>
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Eric Anderson wrote: > Andrew McNaughton wrote: >> >> Does anyone have experience of Dell's remote access card, the DRAC 4? >> (as sold for the dell poweredge 850 I'm looking at). >> >> Dell suggests that it's possible, at least for windows, to install an >> operating system remotely via one of these cards. If that were >> possible with FreeBSD, it would be very useful for me for deploying >> remote servers. >> >> Short of that, out of band serial access for remote management of >> servers is the base criteria I'm looking for, and I'd be interested >> in any feedback on how the dell card performs, and any issues >> relating to FreeBSD >> compatibility. >> >> If there's competing products I should be aware of that might also be >> useful information. > > I use them in all our servers (1850s, 2850s), and they work very > well. The latest FreeBSD-6.1-BETA4 I believe detects the DRAC as a > usb keyboard/mouse, and also sees the virtual CD-ROM, however I have > not used it for an install yet. I have some spare 2850's that I could > test this out on though if you were interested. Just to report back on this: Using a Windows box to be the virtual cd-rom device provider (uses asp, which only works on IE I think), I successfully booted, and installed a FreeBSD 6.1 machine completely across the network, using the DRAC card. Works like a charm! Eric -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Eric Anderson Sr. Systems Administrator Centaur Technology Anything that works is better than anything that doesn't. ------------------------------------------------------------------------
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