How to update BIOS and firmware using Dell Lifecycle Controller | what to do when it doesn't work

In this video, I'm going to show you how to use the Dell Lifecycle Controller to update the BIOS and firmware of a 12th gen Dell PowerEdge server. This should normally be a straight-forward process, but unfortunately it doesn't always work as expected. So, I'm going to show you some of the issues you might encounter and how to workaround them.

Regarding the missing NIC in the LCC: so, after i made this video, after unplugging the power to the server and then powering it up again, the NIC became available again in the LCC. Looks like the NICs went away after the NIC firmware update and it seems to require a cold power cycle.

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[stefanharms]

Even in 2024 your video is still helpful. Thank you

[TheMightyAgency]

Everyone consumes how-to/tutorial differently and I have to say the way you explained things matches the way I learn things so I very much appreciate your video. I am in the midst of investigating a problem that requires me to go through the steps you described so it's good to know all the possible pitfalls ahead of time.

Speaking of that, I'm trying to resolve "The System board BP1 PG voltage is outside of range" for a R730XD. Google search tells me to apply an update related to CPLD but there's no such update for the R730XD. If anyone ever experienced this error and have a solution, I'd greatly appreciate. This error is causing the server to randomly restart the server, which as you can imagine is a showstopper.

[weak.]

This is the one and only video that helped for the real things. Showed and solved all problems. Thank you so much! I'm a beginner at server stuff and this was just amazing

[frclayton]

So many research hours saved!!! Thanks once more for this educating video. I had an outdated - and nearly useless - Idrac7 firmware, now is "brand new".

[geoffhalsey]

Updated a R320 today by following this video. Brilliant.

[Renholder]

I performed these same steps in 2023 on a Dell poweredge t430 using Ubuntu 22.04.3 live from usb. Thank you for your help!

[rogerdebortoli]

Thanks for the video, worked for me on R715 and R710 servers running ubuntu from USB stick

[pavelkristofik]

Hello, good to hear that you are back on your feet. Thanks for info, helpful.

[rmgnair]

Thank you very much for making this video, and for the efforts. Well described.

[Muscleduck]

Thanks so much for this video. I've picked up a server a while back but haven't gotten around to setting it up. This video will definitely help. I'm trying to learn about server stuff.


Though 1 remark, but it's towards Dell: why are there no release notes available for these updates? I like reading those, especially with bios and firmware updates.

[opvallend]

Make a video how to setup the network settings and Idrac 7 via the lifecycle controller

[harshbarj]

My hope is these systems keep getting updates for years to come. For a lot of uses they are more than enough.

[kylejoel]

Thank you for the video, I really appreciate it. Did you find out why you got no netowk connection afterwards? Because I have the same problem now.

[mikebloomberg]

Great video! For folks that are getting errors (package error in linux or the inability to verify in the lifecycle controller or idrac interface) when attempting to update you may need to do a step approach to updating (dell article #000135299). For me I had to update to 2.40.40.40 before I could update to 2.65.65.65, although the error messages are useless; hopefully, this saves someone the hour it cost me.

[zadkieladdae]

Happy New and hope in are in good health now. I appreciate your hard work.

[carlbaillargeon]

Hey man! Just discovered your channel and subscribed :) Thank for all the info! Is this going to work with R710 or you recommend I follow your other series on the R710 ? Thanks

[roboknight]

This still doesn't seem to work as I got some kind of "login credential" error after I got to the point where it was trying to connect to the shares. Not sure what to do here. Guess I'll have to do this the manual way. Error was: "Unable to connect to the network share (SWC0066)... according to DELL: Dell EMC Lifecycle Controller Engineering is aware of this issue and is working on solution for this behavior. When updated iDRAC/ Lifecycle Controller code is available, an update will need to be applied to iDRAC to resolve.

[jeremiahbright]

For the cert saying its not trusted, either the idrac client can't lookup the cert, like no certificate stores to check root CAs, or it has an issue because the domain has a wildcard cert installed, some clients don't like that. But I agree, Dell should fix that, this entire ecosystem is in their control. I also noticed it lists the server at the time of updates as having a \ at the end. not sure if you typo'd that or if its a bug in their software

[davebradberry]

Firstly thankyou for these series of very informative videos, I followed the R410 series and now have a R710 too.
My niggle is with the R710, despite upgrading successfully bios to 6.6.0, idrac 2.92 and LC 1.7.5 my boot screen F10 System Services, takes me to the USC. Running the LC to update from here I still get the old view, ie no https option. Any ideas to get it to update properly? Not having good Linux skills I used windows Server as i couldnt read the screen text as you typed. Many thanks.

[elcolin_]

I want to follow along, but I'm lost from the get-go. Trying to learn/understand what the iDRAC and Lifecycle Controller are and do, but we're talking about updating the BIOS etc in this video and you're like already logged into the iDRAC, somehow? How? Is this Red Hat Linux in the background of this window of this video? How do we even get to this point first?