Dell Drac 5 User Guide

							Using and Configuring Virtual Media191
Attaching, Auto-Attaching, and Detaching Virtual Media using the Web browser
You can set the status of a virtual media to Attach, Auto-Attach, or Detach. 
Based on this status, the devices in the remote system are displayed in the 
DRAC 5 GUI.
•Attach—If the status is Attach, DRAC 5 automatically attaches all devices 
of the remote system to the server. When you connect to the server, the 
devices available in the remote system are displayed in the DRAC 5 GUI.
•
Auto Attach—If the status is Auto Attach, DRAC 5 attaches a device to 
the server only if the device is virtualized. For example, when you connect 
to the server from a remote machine that has a CD drive, the CD drive is 
displayed only if it is virtualized using a CD. Otherwise, the CD drive is 
not displayed in the DRAC 5 GUI.
•
Detach—If the status is Detach, virtual device is not displayed in the 
server.
To Attach the virtual media feature, do the following:
1
Click SystemMediaConfiguration.
2Change the value for Attach Virtual Media to Attach.
3Click Apply Changes.
To Detach the virtual media feature, do the following:
1
Click System Media Configuration.
2Change the value for Attach Virtual Media to Detach.
3Click Apply Changes.
Attaching, Auto-Attaching, and Detaching Virtual Media using RACADM
To Attach the virtual media feature, open a command prompt, type the 
following command, and press : 
racadm config -g cfgRacVirtual -o cfgVirMediaAttached 1 
To Detach the virtual media, open a command prompt, type the following 
command, and press : 
racadm config -g cfgRacVirtual -o cfgVirMediaAttached 0 
To Auto-Attach the virtual media, open a command prompt, type the 
following command, and press : 
racadm config -g cfgRacVirtual -o cfgVirMediaAttached 2 
						

							192Using and Configuring Virtual Media
Booting From Virtual Media
On supported systems, the system BIOS enables you to boot from virtual optical 
drives or virtual floppy drives. During POST, enter the BIOS setup window 
and verify that the virtual drives are enabled and listed in the correct order.
To change the BIOS setting:
1
Boot the managed system.
2Press  to enter the BIOS setup window. 
3Scroll to the boot sequence and press .
In the pop-up window, the virtual optical drives and virtual floppy drives 
are listed with the standard boot devices.
4Ensure that the virtual drive is enabled and listed as the first device with 
bootable media. If required, follow the on-screen instructions to modify 
the boot order. 
5Save the changes and exit.
The managed system reboots.
The managed system attempts to boot from a bootable device based on 
the boot order. If a virtual device is connected and a bootable media is 
present, the system boots to the virtual device. Otherwise, the system 
overlooks the device—similar to a physical device—without bootable 
media. 
						

							Using and Configuring Virtual Media193
Installing Operating Systems Using Virtual Media 
This section describes a manual, interactive method to install the operating 
system on your management station that may take several hours to complete. 
A scripted operating system installation procedure using Virtual Media may 
take less than 15 minutes to complete. See Deploying Your Operating 
System Using VM-CLI on page 202 for more information.
1
Ve r i f y  t h e  f o l l o w i n g :
• The operating system installation CD is inserted in the management 
station’s CD drive.
• The local CD drive is selected.
• You are connected to the virtual drives.
2Follow the steps for booting from the virtual media in the Booting From 
Virtual Media on page 192 section to ensure that the BIOS is set to boot 
from the CD drive that you are installing from.
3Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the installation.
Using Virtual Media When the Server’s Operating System Is Running
Windows-Based Systems
On Windows systems, the virtual media drives are automounted and 
configured with a drive letter. 
Using the virtual drives from within Windows is similar to using your physical 
drives. When you connect to the media at a management station, the media 
is available at the system by clicking the drive and browsing its content.
Linux-Based Systems
On Linux systems, the virtual media drives are not configured with a drive 
letter. Depending on the software installed on your system, the virtual media 
drives may not be automounted. If your drives are not automounted, 
manually mount the drives. 
						

							194Using and Configuring Virtual Media
Using Virtual Flash
The DRAC 5 provides persistent Virtual Flash—16 MB of flash memory that 
resides in the DRAC 5 file system that can be used for persistent storage and 
accessed by the system. When enabled, Virtual Flash is configured as a third 
virtual drive and appears in the BIOS boot order, allowing a user to boot from 
the Virtual Flash.
 NOTE: To boot from the Virtual Flash, the Virtual Flash image must be a 
bootable image.
Unlike a CD or floppy drive that requires an external client connection or 
functional device in the host system, implementing Virtual Flash only requires 
the DRAC 5 persistent Virtual Flash feature. The 16 MB of flash memory 
appears as an unformatted, removable USB drive in the host environment.
Use the following guidelines when implementing Virtual Flash:
• Attaching or detaching the Virtual Flash performs a USB renumeration, 
which attaches and detaches all Virtual Media devices, respectively 
(for example, CD drive and floppy drive).
• When you enable or disable Virtual Flash, the Virtual Media CD/floppy 
drive connection status does not change.
 CAUTION: The Detach and Attach procedures disrupt active Virtual Media read 
and write operations.
Enabling Virtual Flash
To enable Virtual Flash, open a command prompt, type the following 
command, and press :
racadm config -g cfgRacVirtual -o 
cfgVirMediaKeyEnable 1
Disabling Virtual Flash
To disable Virtual Flash, open a command prompt, type the following 
command, and press :
racadm config -gcfgRacVirtual -o cfgVirMediaKeyEnable 0 
						

							Using and Configuring Virtual Media195
Storing Images in a Virtual Flash
The Virtual Flash can be formatted from the managed host. If you are 
running the Windows operating system, right-click the drive icon and select 
Format. If you are running Linux, system tools such as format and fdisk allow 
you to partition and format the USB. 
Before you upload an image from the RAC Web browser to the Virtual Flash, 
ensure that the image file is between 1.44 MB and 16 MB in size (inclusive) 
and Virtual Flash is disabled. After you download the image and re-enable the 
Virtual Flash drive, the system and BIOS recognize the Virtual Flash.
Configuring a Bootable Virtual Flash
1Insert a bootable diskette into the diskette drive or insert a bootable CD 
into the optical drive.
2Restart your system and boot to the selected media drive.
3Add a partition to Virtual Flash and enable the partition.
Use 
fdisk if Virtual Flash is emulating the hard drive. If Virtual Flash is 
configured as Drive B:, the Virtual Flash is floppy emulated and does not 
require a partition to configure Virtual Flash as a bootable drive.
4Using the format command, format the drive with the /s switch to transfer 
the system files to the Virtual Flash. 
Fo r  e x a m p l e :
format /s x
where x is the drive letter assigned to Virtual Flash.
5Shut down the system and remove the bootable floppy or CD from the 
appropriate drive.
6Turn on the system and verify that the system boots from Virtual Flash to 
the 
C:\ or A:\ prompt. 
						

							196Using and Configuring Virtual Media
Using the Virtual Media Command Line 
Interface Utility
The Virtual Media Command Line Interface (VM-CLI) utility is a scriptable 
command-line interface that provides virtual media features from the 
management station to the DRAC 5 in the remote system. 
The VM-CLI utility provides the following features:
• Supports multiple, simultaneously-active sessions. 
 NOTE: When virtualizing read-only image files, multiple sessions may share 
the same image media. When virtualizing physical drives, only one session 
can access a given physical drive at a time.
• Removable media devices or image files that are consistent with the 
Virtual Media plug-ins
• Automatic termination when the DRAC firmware boot once option is 
enabled. 
• Secure communications to the DRAC 5 using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)
Before you run the utility, ensure that you have Virtual Media user privilege 
to the DRAC 5 in the remote system.
If your operating system supports administrator privileges or an operating 
system-specific privilege or group membership, administrator privileges are 
also required to run the VM-CLI command. 
The client systems administrator controls user groups and privileges, thereby 
controlling the users who can run the utility.
For Windows systems, you must have Power User privileges to run the 
VM-CLI utility.
For Linux systems, you can access the VM-CLI utility without administrator 
privileges by using the sudo command. This command provides a centralized 
means of providing non-administrator access and logs all user commands. To 
add or edit users in the VM-CLI group, the administrator uses the visudo 
command. Users without administrator privileges can add the sudo command 
as a prefix to the VM-CLI command line (or to the VM-CLI script) to obtain 
access to the DRAC 5 in the remote system and run the utility.  
						

							Using and Configuring Virtual Media197
Utility Installation
The VM-CLI utility is located on the Dell Systems Management Tools and 
Documentation DVD, which is included with your Dell OpenManage System 
Management Software Kit. To install the utility, insert the Dell Systems 
Management Tools and Documentation DVD into your system’s DVD drive 
and follow the on-screen instructions.
The Dell Systems Management Tools and Documentation DVD contains the 
latest systems management software products, including diagnostics, storage 
management, remote access service, and the RACADM utility. This DVD 
also contains readme files, which provide the latest systems management 
software product information.
Additionally, the Dell Systems Management Tools and Documentation DVD 
includes vmdeploy—a sample script that illustrates how to use the VM-CLI 
and RACADM utilities to deploy software to multiple remote systems. For 
more information, see Deploying Your Operating System Using VM-CLI on 
page 202.
Command Line Options
The VM-CLI interface is identical on both Windows and Linux systems. 
The utility uses options that are consistent with the RACADM utility 
options. For example, an option to specify the DRAC 5 IP address requires 
the same syntax for both RACADM and VM-CLI utilities.
The VM-CLI command format is as follows:
racvmcli [parameter] [operating_system_shell_options]
 NOTE: You need Administrator privileges to run the racvmcli command.
All command-line syntax are case sensitive. See VM-CLI Parameters on 
page 198 for more information. 
If the remote system accepts the commands and the DRAC 5 authorizes the 
connection, the command continues to run until either of the following occurs: 
• The VM-CLI connection terminates for any reason.
• The process is manually terminated using an operating system control. For 
example, in Windows, you can use the Task Manager to terminate the 
process.  
						

							198Using and Configuring Virtual Media
VM-CLI Parameters
DRAC 5 IP Address 
-r [:] 
where  is a valid, unique IP address or the DRAC 5 
Dynamic Domain Naming System (DDNS) name (if supported). 
This parameter provides the DRAC 5 IP address and SSL port. The VM-CLI 
utility needs this information to establish a Virtual Media connection with 
the target DRAC 5. If you enter an invalid IP address or DDNS name, 
an error message appears and the command is terminated.
If  is omitted, port 443 (the default port) is used. 
The optional SSL port is not required unless you change the DRAC 5 default 
SSL port.
DRAC 5 User Name 
-u  
This parameter provides the DRAC 5 user name that will run Virtual Media.
The  must have the following attributes:
• Valid user name
• DRAC Virtual Media User permission
If DRAC 5 authentication fails, an error message appears and the command 
is terminated.
DRAC User Password 
-p  
This parameter provides the password for the specified DRAC 5 user. 
If DRAC 5 authentication fails, an error message displays and the command 
terminates.  
						

							Using and Configuring Virtual Media199
Floppy/Disk Device or Image File 
-f { | }
where  is a valid drive letter (for Windows systems) or a 
valid device file name, including the mountable file system partition number, 
if applicable (for Linux systems); and  is the filename and 
path of a valid image file.
This parameter specifies the device or file to supply the virtual floppy/disk media. 
For example, an image file is specified as:
-f c:	emp\myfloppy.img (Windows system)
-f /tmp/myfloppy.img (Linux system)
If the file is not write-protected, Virtual Media may write to the image file. 
Configure the operating system to write-protect a floppy image file that 
should not be overwritten. 
For example, a device is specified as:
-f a:\ (Windows system)
-f /dev/sdb4 # 4th partition on device /dev/sdb 
(Linux system)
If the device provides a write-protection capability, use this capability to 
ensure that Virtual Media will not write to the media. 
Additionally, omit this parameter from the command line if you are not 
virtualizing floppy media. If an invalid value is detected, an error message 
displays and the command terminates. 
CD/DVD Device or Image File 
-c { | }
where  is a valid CD/DVD drive letter (Windows systems) 
or a valid CD/DVD device file name (Linux systems) and  is 
the file name and path of a valid ISO-9660 image file.
This parameter specifies the device or file that will supply the virtual 
CD/DVD-ROM media: 
For example, an image file is specified as:
-c c:	emp\mydvd.img (Windows systems)
-c /tmp/mydvd.img (Linux systems) 
						

							200Using and Configuring Virtual Media
For example, a device is specified as:
-c d:\ (Windows systems)
-c /dev/cdrom (Linux systems)
Additionally, omit this parameter from the command line if you are not 
virtualizing CD/DVD media. If an invalid value is detected, an error message 
is listed and the command terminates. 
Specify at least one media type (floppy or CD/DVD drive) with the 
command, unless only switch options are provided. Otherwise, an error 
message displays and the command terminates and generates an error. 
Version Display
-v 
This parameter is used to display the VM-CLI utility version. If no other 
non-switch options are provided, the command terminates without an error 
message.
Help Display
-h 
This parameter displays a summary of the VM-CLI utility parameters. 
If no other non-switch options are provided, the command terminates 
without error. 
Encrypted Data
-e
When this parameter is included in the command line, the VM-CLI utility 
will use an SSL-encrypted channel to transfer data between the management 
station and the DRAC 5 in the remote system. If this parameter is not 
included in the command line, the data transfer is not encrypted.