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The Dell Remote Access Controller (DRAC) is an
out-of-band management In systems management, out-of-band management (OOB; also lights-out management or LOM) is a process for accessing and managing devices and infrastructure at remote locations through a separate management plane from the production network. OOB all ...
platform on certain
Dell Dell Inc. is an American technology company that develops, sells, repairs, and supports personal computers (PCs), Server (computing), servers, data storage devices, network switches, software, computer peripherals including printers and webcam ...
servers. The platform may be provided on a separate
expansion card In computing, an expansion card (also called an expansion board, adapter card, peripheral card or accessory card) is a printed circuit board that can be inserted into an electrical connector, or expansion slot (also referred to as a bus sl ...
, or integrated into the
main board A motherboard, also called a mainboard, a system board, a logic board, and informally a mobo (see "Nomenclature" section), is the main printed circuit board (PCB) in general-purpose computers and other expandable systems. It holds and allows ...
; when integrated, the platform is referred to as iDRAC. It mostly uses separate resources to the main server resources, and provides a
browser-based A web application (or web app) is application software that is created with web technologies and runs via a web browser. Web applications emerged during the late 1990s and allowed for the server to dynamically build a response to the request, ...
and/or
command-line interface A command-line interface (CLI) is a means of interacting with software via command (computing), commands each formatted as a line of text. Command-line interfaces emerged in the mid-1960s, on computer terminals, as an interactive and more user ...
(CLI) for managing and monitoring the server hardware. DRAC has similar functionality to the lights out management (LOM) technology offered by other vendors, for example, Sun/Oracle's LOM port,
HP Integrated Lights-Out Integrated Lights-Out (iLO) is a proprietary embedded server management technology by Hewlett Packard Enterprise which provides out-of-band management facilities. The physical connection is an Ethernet port that can be found on most ProLiant serv ...
(iLO), the IBM Remote Supervisor Adapter and
Cisco Cisco Systems, Inc. (using the trademark Cisco) is an American multinational digital communications technology conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develops, manufactures, and sells networking hardware, s ...
CIMC.


Features

The controller has its own processor, memory, network connection, and access to the system bus. Key features include power management, virtual media access and remote console capabilities, all available through a supported
web browser A web browser, often shortened to browser, is an application for accessing websites. When a user requests a web page from a particular website, the browser retrieves its files from a web server and then displays the page on the user's scr ...
or
command-line interface A command-line interface (CLI) is a means of interacting with software via command (computing), commands each formatted as a line of text. Command-line interfaces emerged in the mid-1960s, on computer terminals, as an interactive and more user ...
. This gives
system administrator An IT administrator, system administrator, sysadmin, or admin is a person who is responsible for the upkeep, configuration, and reliable operation of computer systems, especially multi-user computers, such as Server (computing), servers. The ...
s the ability to configure a machine as if they were sitting at the local console (
terminal Terminal may refer to: Computing Hardware * Computer terminal, a set of primary input and output devices for a computer * Terminal (electronics), a device for joining electrical circuits together ** Battery terminal, electrical contact used to ...
). The DRAC interfaces with baseboard management controller (BMC) chips, and is based on the
Intelligent Platform Management Interface The Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) is a set of Interface (computing), computer interface specifications for an autonomous computer subsystem that provides management and monitoring capabilities independently of the host system's C ...
(IPMI) 2.0 standard, which allows the use of IPMI out-of-band interfaces such as IPMI Over LAN.


Versions

The Dell Remote Access Controllers (DRAC) and the Integrated Dell Remote Access Controllers (iDRAC) come in different versions, where a new (i)DRAC version is often linked to a new generation of Poweredge servers. The hardware is often integrated on the motherboard of the server, and the combined product is termed iDRAC, where the "i" is for integrated. When iDRAC Express is used, the software and hardware systems management functions are shared with one of the server's on-board network interfaces using a unique IP address. By contrast, iDRAC Enterprise version features a dedicated physical network interface. iDRAC version 7 was introduced in conjunction with the release of Dell PowerEdge generation 12 servers in March 2012, and is only available on 12th generation models. Unlike previous versions the functionality of iDRAC 7 is the same for rack, tower and blade-servers. An overview of the different versions:


Power management

With the DRAC enabled and using its own separate network connection, a user may login and reboot the system even if the core operating system has crashed. If the operating system has loaded the correct drivers, the DRAC will attempt to shut down the system gracefully. Without this feature and with the system running, administrators can use the remote console to access the operating system too.


Remote console

The remote console features of the DRAC allow an administrator to interface with the computer as if sitting in front of it, and one can share the local inputs from keyboard and mouse as well as video output (DRAC does not support remote sound). Remote-console capability relies on either an Active X or
Java Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...
plug-in Plug-in, plug in or plugin may refer to: * Plug-in (computing), a software component that adds a specific feature to an existing computer program ** Audio plug-in, adds audio signal processing features ** Photoshop plugin, a piece of software that ...
, or
HTML5 HTML5 (Hypertext Markup Language 5) is a markup language used for structuring and presenting hypertext documents on the World Wide Web. It was the fifth and final major HTML version that is now a retired World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recommend ...
in the later models, which displays a window showing the video output on the local terminal and which takes mouse and keyboard input. This behavior closely resembles that of other remote access solutions such as VNC or
RDP RDP may refer to: Computing * Ramer–Douglas–Peucker algorithm, an algorithm for polygonal simplification * Recombination detection program, for analysing genetic recombination * Recursive descent parser, a type of top-down parser * Remote Desk ...
but also works if the operating system of the server doesn't work anymore (unlike VNC or RDP). It is used to take the server console remotely.


Virtual media

The DRAC enables a user to mount remotely shared disk-images as if they were connected to the system. In combination with the remote console, this gives administrators the ability to completely re-install an
operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware and software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ...
, a task which traditionally required local
console Console may refer to: Computing and video games * System console, a physical device to operate a computer ** Virtual console, a user interface for multiple computer consoles on one device ** Command-line interface, a method of interacting with ...
access to the physical machine. Administrators can control virtual media through the browser or through the OpenManage tools provided by Dell, though specific versions of browsers restrict some functionality.


Access

The main DRAC management takes place via a web interface. All generations of the DRAC use the default user name root and the default password calvin. Starting with the DRAC 3, Microsoft
Active Directory Active Directory (AD) is a directory service developed by Microsoft for Windows domain networks. Windows Server operating systems include it as a set of processes and services. Originally, only centralized domain management used Active Direct ...
can also provide authentication either with Dell AD Schema Extensions or Standard Schema.


Implementation

The DRAC5 and iDRAC6 and higher are embedded platforms running
Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...
and
Busybox BusyBox is a software suite that provides several List of Unix commands, Unix utilities in a single executable file. It runs in a variety of POSIX environments such as Linux, Android (operating system), Android, and FreeBSD, although many of the ...
. The firmware source code is available on the Dell website, but it is not possible to compile the source into a replacement firmware as Dell does not include a build environment. The DRAC provides remote access to the system console (keyboard and screen) allowing the system BIOS to be accessed over the Internet when the server is rebooted. This is done by configuring the system BIOS to send its output to a serial port (as a stream of text using VT100-compatible control codes). The chosen serial port is then redirected to the DRAC's serial port. Users can then log into the DRAC via SSH and run a command to connect the SSH session to the serial port, thus allowing the console to be accessed over the Internet. Earlier versions of the DRAC used ActiveX in
Internet Explorer Internet Explorer (formerly Microsoft Internet Explorer and Windows Internet Explorer, commonly abbreviated as IE or MSIE) is a deprecation, retired series of graphical user interface, graphical web browsers developed by Microsoft that were u ...
to provide a remote-console interface in a web browser; however, this was unpopular with non-Windows users who did not have access to Internet Explorer. The latest revision of the DRAC6 uses a Java application instead (launched from within the browser), though both the DRAC5 and iDRAC6 also provided the aforementioned platform-independent SSH access.


iDRAC6

iDRAC6 is available in two levels: iDRAC6 Express and iDRAC6 Enterprise. iDRAC6 Express (which integrates features previously charged for in DRAC5) became a standard offering on Dell's servers. Certain features are not available for the Express version, including the remote console functionality and the vFlash SD card slot. As with iDRAC, iDRAC6 Enterprise is a standard offering on blade servers * iDRAC6 offers three upgrades: iDRAC6 Express, iDRAC6 Enterprise, and VFlash Media * iDRAC6 offers power budgeting * iDRAC6 Enterprise's virtual console and virtual media features are now integrated into a single plug-in * iDRAC6 Enterprise's virtual console now allows two users to collaborate on the same server * iDRAC6 now allows customers to view what is on the server LCD without a server-side visit * iDRAC6 supports IPv6


iDRAC7

On 6 March 2012, software version 1.00.00 for the iDRAC7 was released for generation 12 servers. iDRAC 7 does not work on earlier generation servers although some of the new functions introduced with iDRAC 7 might be offered in iDRAC 6 releases. As of May 2019, the current version was 2.63.60.62. With the introduction of iDRAC 7, the licensing model has changed. iDRAC 7 now supports lifecycle controller. Some features of Lifecycle controller are licensed and to access those features via iDRAC the correct licenses for those functions need to be enabled.


Supported hardware platforms

iDRAC 7 runs on generation 12 PowerEdge servers. Per introduction in March 2012 the following servers use iDRAC7: * PowerEdge T620 – tower model of 620, can be converted to 5 U rack system * PowerEdge R220 – native rack server, 1 U * PowerEdge R320 – native rack server, 1 U * PowerEdge R420 – native rack server, 1 U * PowerEdge R520 – native rack server, 2 U * PowerEdge R620 – native rack server, 1 U * PowerEdge M620 – blade server for M1000e enclosure, half-height (max 16 per chassis) * PowerEdge R720 – rack-server, 2 U * PowerEdge R720xd – an R720 with additional 2.5" hard drive bays in the front and rear of the enclosure


Supported operating systems

iDRAC 7 is supported by the following operating systems * Microsoft
Windows Server 2016 Windows Server 2016 is the eleventh major version of the Windows NT operating system produced by Microsoft to be released under the Windows Server brand name. It was developed alongside Windows 10 and is the successor to the Windows 8.1-based ...
, x64 * Microsoft
Windows Server 2012 Windows Server 2012, codenamed "Windows Server 8", is the ninth major version of the Windows NT operating system produced by Microsoft to be released under the Windows Server brand name. It is the server version of Windows based on Windows ...
, x64 * Microsoft
Windows Server 2008 Windows Server 2008, codenamed "Longhorn Server" (alternatives: "Windows Vista Server" or "Windows Server Vista"), is the seventh major version of the Windows NT operating system produced by Microsoft to be released under the Windows Server b ...
SP2 (standard, enterprise and datacenter editions), x86 and x64 * Microsoft
Windows Server 2008 R2 Windows Server 2008 R2, codenamed "Windows Server 7" or "Windows Server 2008 Release 2", is the eighth major version of the Windows NT operating system produced by Microsoft to be released under the Windows Server brand name. It was release ...
SP1 (standard, enterprise and datacenter editions), x64 *
Microsoft Small Business Server Small Business Server can refer to: * Novell Small Business Server * Windows Small Business Server {{Disambig ...
2011, x64 *
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server SUSE Linux Enterprise (SLE) is a Linux-based operating system developed by SUSE. It is available in two editions, suffixed with Server (SLES) for servers and mainframes, and Desktop (SLED) for workstations and desktop computers. Its major ve ...
(SLES) 10 and 11, x64 *
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is a commercial Linux distribution developed by Red Hat. Red Hat Enterprise Linux is released in server versions for x86-64, Power ISA, ARM64, and IBM Z and a desktop version for x86-64. Fedora Linux and ...
(RHEL), 5.8 (x86/x64), 6.1 (x64) and 6.3 (x64) * Microsoft
Hyper-V Hyper-V is a native hypervisor developed by Microsoft; it can create virtual machines on x86-64 systems running Windows. It is included in Pro and Enterprise editions of Windows (since Windows 8) as an optional feature to be manually enabled. A ...
(with Windows server 2008) and Hyper-V R2 (Windows Server 2008 R2) *
VMware ESX VMware ESXi (formerly ESX) is an enterprise-class, type-1 hypervisor developed by VMware, a subsidiary of Broadcom, for deploying and serving virtual computers. As a type-1 hypervisor, ESXi is not a software application that is installed on ...
/ESXi 4.1, Update 2 * VMWare ESXi 5 Patch 01 *
Citrix Systems Citrix Systems, Inc. is an American multinational cloud computing and virtualization technology company that provides server, application and desktop virtualization, networking, software as a service (SaaS), and cloud computing technologies. ...
Xen Xen (pronounced ) is a free and open-source type-1 hypervisor, providing services that allow multiple computer operating systems to execute on the same computer hardware concurrently. It was originally developed by the University of Cambridge C ...
Server 6


Supported web browsers

The GUI for iDRAC7 uses a Web browser and Java. Internet Explorer 7, 8 and 9, as well as
Firefox Mozilla Firefox, or simply Firefox, is a free and open-source web browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation and its subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation. It uses the Gecko rendering engine to display web pages, which implements curr ...
6 + 7 were tested for different operating systems.


Limitations

To take advantage of storage greater than 256 MB on the iDRAC6 enterprise, Dell requires that a vFlash
SD card Secure Digital (SD) is a proprietary, non-volatile, flash memory card format developed by the SD Association (SDA). Owing to their compact size, SD cards have been widely adopted in a variety of portable consumer electronics, including dig ...
be procured through Dell channels. As of December 2011, Dell vFlash SD cards differ from consumer SD cards by being over-provisioned by 100% for increased write endurance and performance. While there are no other known functional differences between a Dell-branded vFlash SD card and a class 2 or greater SDHC card, the use of non-Dell media prevents the use of extended capacities and functions. On a Linux client system the standard arrow and print screen keys cannot be used in the iDRAC6 Java virtual console application because of some incompatible key event IDs;Post on Dell Linux-PowerEdge mailing list, Jun 2011
/ref> however, the arrow keys on the numeric keypad can still be used. Some combinations of DRAC firmware, web browser, and Java runtime do not support virtual media via the
Java applet Java applets were applet, small applications written in the Java (programming language), Java programming language, or another programming language that Compiled language, compiles to Java bytecode, and delivered to users in the form of Ja ...
or the plugin in DRAC5 and iDRAC6.


References

{{Reflist, 30em


External links


Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller (iDRAC)
on Dell's website
Available manuals for iDRAC7





DRAC II/III product info
from
Dell Dell Inc. is an American technology company that develops, sells, repairs, and supports personal computers (PCs), Server (computing), servers, data storage devices, network switches, software, computer peripherals including printers and webcam ...

Dell Remote Access Controller User Guides


in
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Dell DRAC 5 Remote SSH Console Redirection

iDRAC7/iDRAC8 feature comparison
Out-of-band management Dell products