Troubleshooting, Logging, And Diagnostics; Remote Management; Advanced System Configuration - Dell PowerEdge System Management Manual

For the steps to upgrade the ESXi software, refer to the VMware ESXi Dell
Solutions Guide at support.dell.com.

Troubleshooting, Logging, and Diagnostics

The system log, management log, and storage controller log can be viewed
from the terminal.
In addition to viewing, log files can also be retrieved and provided to Dell or
VMware support using the VI Client.
Using DRAC or IT Assistant, the can be obtained and
System Event Log (SEL)
viewed. The SEL can be viewed using the IPMItool utility:
ipmitool -I lan -H<DRAC_IP_Address> -U <username> -P
<password> sel list.

Remote Management

Dell Remote Access Controller (DRAC) is designed to allow anywhere,
anytime "Lights Out" monitoring, troubleshooting, and server
repairs/upgrades independent of the operating system status. Remote Access
Controller is supported in VMware ESXi. For more information, refer to the
Dell Remote Access Controller Users Guide at
support.dell.com/support/edocs/software/smdrac3.

Advanced System Configuration

This section describes some of the commonly performed hardware
configuration operations on the server and steps to perform such operations.
BIOS Configuration
BIOS configurations are performed by pressing <F2> during the boot
process. DTK tools can be used to configure BIOS on multiple servers.
Configuring the BIOS while ESXi is running is not supported.
Storage Configuration
Storage configurations, including creating and configuring RAID volumes,
hot spares etc, are performed by pressing <Ctrl><R> during the boot
process and invoking the OptionROM menu.
Configuring the storage while ESXi is running is not supported.
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Systems Management Guide