Hi all,
I'm a new-to-the-industry network technician assigned to an R620 server in a test environment. I am working on a PlanetLab project, and I'm trying to figure out how to bring this server online. I understand this sounds like a question for PL Support, but we've been stumped and at this point I'm trying to get any help or ideas I can try, in addition to working with PL Support.
As part of the installation, I have a bootable CD with a custom Linux kernel. When booted from the CD, the server should initialize network connections then contact the PL central servers and install things. However, I never manage to get past the network initialization.
The server has an Enterprise license. I assigned a public IP address to the iDRAC port, and nothing is connected to any of the ethernet port. It is on Dedicated mode. The iDRAC port is reachable remotely, and a test OS shows that I am able to make connections out from the server -- i.e none of the hardware is defective or misconfigured.
The error I got was "Device eth0 does not exist, most likely this CD does not support your hardware."
What I have tried so far:
- Adding a tag to tell the CD to look for em1 instead of eth0. I get the same message, "Device em1 does not exist......"
- Adding a tag to tell the CD to look for the iDRAC MAC address.
- Changing the mode from Dedicated to Shared and selecting LOM1 as the active interface (with a working plugged in cable).
- Adding a tag to tell the CD to look for the MAC address of the LOM1 port.
The error message remains the same. As a test, I tried using the CD to boot up on a few other Dell desktop computers (I didn't note the model numbers), and this time the CD recognizes eth0 on those machines (running Windows 7 Enterprise, though it shouldn't matter since the OS was not even booted up yet).
So there is something about the way iDRAC vs NICs work. Beyond the basic understanding of the iDRAC being a separate controller with its own network adapter, processor, etc, I am new to the DRAC technology.
Unfortunately, I cannot figure out what, and am running out of ideas. At this point, I'd appreciate greatly any ideas I can try to get the CD to recognize the DRAC network adapter. Or even one of the 4 ports.
Thanks so much for reading.