I have an r710 server that was originally resold by EMC as an avamar storage node but being re purposed to an esxi host.
I installed server 2012R2 directly on local disk and downloaded the system update utility iso. From there I was able to update Everything except the system bios. I was able to update the perc, the backplane, the drac, etc. When I attempt to flash the bios it instructs me to reboot and says "bios update attempt failed!"
The system has 1.1.4 bios currently. I tried going to the next step from there 1.2.6. I then tried 1.3.6, 6.3.0, & 6.4.0 direct from windows. I tried booting the System Build Utility from the drac and then switching to SUU iso. I tried dos bootable ISOs with all those bios versions. I wiped and reloaded the system with server 2008, and I tried using the ufi utilities on startup. All result in the same error.
I am not quite sure how to proceed and I have been troubleshooting this for days. What am I missing?
Is there some sort of write protection jumper somewhere I am not aware of or something else?
I want to upgrade my e5504 cpu and don't have the microcode to support my replacement.
Does EMC require proprietary firmware? I saw no EMC branding other than a sticker on chassis.