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VxRail ™ SolVe Generator

Solution for Validating your engagement

Topic
VxRail Restricted Procedures
Selections
Select the VxRail Appliance Model: VxRail V570/V570F
Select a Procedure: Rapid Appliance Self Recovery (RASR) Factory Image Upgrade Procedure
(Remote Capable - Dell platforms only)
Select the Version you wish to upgrade the RASR Image to:: v4.7.000
Do you want to include the RASR Reset Procedure?: Yes

Generated: September 3, 2020 11:57 AM GMT

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If you find any errors in this procedure or have comments regarding this application, send email to
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Copyright © 2020 Dell Inc. or its subsidiaries. All Rights Reserved.

THIS DOCUMENT IS RESTRICTED FOR THE INTERNAL USE OF EMC CORPORATION (“EMC”)
ONLY. THIS DOCUMENT AND THE INSTRUCTIONS CONTAINED HEREIN ARE FOR USE BY
APPROVED EMC SERVICE PERSONNEL ONLY. ANY USE OF THIS DOCUMENT AND/OR ITS
INSTRUCTIONS BY ANYONE OTHER THAN AUTHORIZED EMC SERVICE PERSONNEL
(“UNAUTHORIZED USER”) IS NOT AUTHORIZED, LICENSED OR PERMITTED BY EMC.
UNAUTHORIZED USER ASSUMES SOLE AND COMPLETE RESPONSIBILITY AND RISK FOR ANY
AND ALL LOSSES OR DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH ANY SUCH
UNAUTHORIZED USE.

Dell, EMC, Dell EMC and other trademarks are trademarks of Dell Inc. or its subsidiaries. Other
trademarks may be the property of their respective owners.

Publication Date: September, 2020

Dell Technologies Confidential Information- for internal use only version: 4.0.0.9

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Contents
Preliminary Activity Tasks .......................................................................................................3
Read, understand, and perform these tasks.................................................................................................3

VxRail v4.7.x RASR Factory Image Upgrade from ISO ..........................................................4


Summary:......................................................................................................................................................4
Supported Models.........................................................................................................................................4
System requirements ....................................................................................................................................4
Task 1: RASR Reimage using RASR ISO ....................................................................................5
Task 2: Installing the Dell Upgrade Packages (DUPs) from SD. ................................................16
Task 3: Factory Reset Through ISO ...........................................................................................23
Appendix A: Gathering RASR Update Utility Logs ...........................................................37
Appendix B: Secure Boot Enabled/Disabled ....................................................................38

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Preliminary Activity Tasks
This section may contain tasks that you must complete before performing this procedure.

Read, understand, and perform these tasks


1. [ ] Table 1 lists tasks, cautions, warnings, notes, and/or knowledgebase (KB) solutions that you
need to be aware of before performing this activity. Read, understand, and when necessary perform
any tasks contained in this table and any tasks contained in any associated knowledgebase solution.

Table 1 List of cautions, warnings, notes, and/or KB solutions related to this activity

528536: VxRail: vSAN license and deployment guidance; caution do not use 4.7.X (and above) RASR
package for purchases at 4.5.X and below

501659: VxRail: Upgrade fails when upgrading VxRail VIB on Dell node that was previously reimaged
with RASR procedure

504087: VxRail: How to find the version on RASR image

525386: VxRail: iDRAC doesn't get updated when performing RASR with devices connected to other
USB ports on the node

2. [ ] This is a link to the top trending service topics. These topics may or not be related to this activity.
This is merely a proactive attempt to make you aware of any KB articles that may be associated with
this product.
VxRail Appliance Top Service Topics

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VxRail v4.7.x RASR Factory Image Upgrade from ISO
WARNING: Please be advised that if your customer purchased a VxRail at software version 4.5 or below
and wants to upgrade to 4.7.x, please deploy at the manufactured version and use the LCM to upgrade to
4.7.x. If a RASR is used, the customer will lose the embedded vSAN Enterprise License Key which is
applied during first run. Please refer to KB528536 for additional information.

Summary:
This procedure describes the steps to upgrade the RASR image on VxRail Dell appliance (node) to the
VxRail 4.7.x release version. This procedure requires the node to be powered cycled. If this RASR image
upgrade is run on a currently running Cluster, the Cluster may be impacted. This procedure contains the
following steps:
1. Upgrade the RASR image on the node using ISO
2. Install the Dell Upgrade Packages (DUPs) from SD
3. Factory Reset using ISO

IMPORTANT: Using this procedure to downgrade nodes is NOT supported.


IMPORTANT: 4.7.x RASR does not support Secure boot enabled, refer to Appendix B to check Secure
Boot enable/disable status before executing RASR procedure.

Supported Models
This procedure supports the following VxRail models:
Dell 13G Models
 Dell EMC VxRail E460
 Dell EMC VxRail E460F
 Dell EMC VxRail P470
 Dell EMC VxRail P470F
 Dell EMC VxRail V470
 Dell EMC VxRail V470F
 Dell EMC VxRail S470

Dell 14G Model


 Dell EMC VxRail E560
 Dell EMC VxRail E560F
 Dell EMC VxRail P570
 Dell EMC VxRail P570F
 Dell EMC VxRail V570
 Dell EMC VxRail V570F
 Dell EMC VxRail S570
 Dell EMC VxRail G560
 Dell EMC VxRail G560F

System requirements
 VxRail RASR ISO upgrade image for version 4.7.x (available for download from
https://support.emc.com/downloads/39970_VxRail-Appliance-Series)

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 Access to iDRAC

Task 1: RASR Reimage using RASR ISO


IMPORTANT: The iDRAC Virtual Console can be configured to use different plugins. The Java plugin
(default setting) should be used for this procedure. Do not use the HTML5 plugin for the virtual console
as it may increase the amount of time to complete this procedure

a. In a window client, open iDRAC web UI, launch virtual console.

Note: Screen shots may differ depending on the RASR version and/or Java plugin version.

Figure 1

b. In Virtual Console window, click “Virtual Media” tag and select “Connect Virtual Media”.

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Figure 2

c. Select Virtual Media again, then select “Map CD/DVD”

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Figure 3

d. The Virtual Media popup appears. Click “Browse” to open file explorer and select the RASR ISO
file and click “Open”. Then click “Map Device”.

Note: Screen shots may differ depending on the RASR version.

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Figure 4

e. After mapping the RASR ISO, select “Virtual Media” to confirm the ISO is mapped as shown below.

Note: Screen shots may differ depending on the RASR version.

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Figure 5

f. Click “Next Boot” and select “Virtual CD/DVD/ISO”.

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Figure 6

g. The “Next Boot” popup appears. Click “OK” to save the selection.

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Figure 7

h. Click “Next Boot” to confirm “Virtual CD/DVD/ISO” has been selected.

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Figure 8

i. Click “Power” and select “Reset System (warm boot)”.

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Figure 9

j. Click “Yes” to continue and system will reboot.

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Figure 10

k. The system will boot to the RASR Update Utility menu.

Figure 11

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l. Type “R” to select RASR Reset and then type “Y” to continue.

Figure 12

m. The RASR Reset process begins. Monitor the progress until completion. This process will take
approximately 30 minutes.

Figure 13

n. RASR reset completes and displays message "Factory install Prototype (FIP) successfully
completed". Press Enter to continue and back to RASR Update Utility menu.

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Figure 14

Task 2: Installing the Dell Upgrade Packages (DUPs) from SD.


To boot to SD Card, you need to choose Next Boot as Local SD Card, and then reset system (warm boot)
through Power setting. Before installing DUPs from SD, need to run RASR reset through ISO first.

a. After completing RASR reset through ISO, disconnect the virtual media by selecting
Virtual Media then Disconnect Virtual Media.

Figure 15

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b. From RASR Main Menu, type “Q” to quit and “Y” to reboot

Figure 16

c. During Boot, press F11 to enter Boot Manager

Figure 17

d. Select “One-shot UEFI Boot Menu”

Figure 18

e. Select “Internal SD: RASRTOOL”

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Figure 19

f. System will reboot to start RASR

Figure 20

g. At the VxRail RASR Menu, type 99 then press enter. The VxRail RASR Support Menu will be
displayed.

Figure 21

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a. Choose Install DUP(s) by selecting “I” and press Enter.

Figure 22

h. The FW DUPs available status will display.

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Figure 23

i. Choose “Upgrade” from below menu, input “2” and enter.

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Figure 24

j. Choose “Upgrade All Available DUP(s)” from below menu, input “2” and press enter.

Figure 25

k. The DUP upgrades will begin. The system will automatically reboot after each DUP is installed.

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Figure 26

l. After each reboot, the system will boot to the SD Card and execute the remaining DUPs update.

IMPORTANT: If the system does not automatically boot into the BIOS Boot Menu, then manually
reboot the node and select F11 during boot to enter the BIOS Boot Manager. Choose one-shot UEFI
boot menu and select “Internal SD:RASRTOOL” to boot.

Figure 27

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m. After selecting Internal SD:RASRTOOL, the DUP upgrade process will continue with “Rolling DUP
Update Detected” message.

Figure 28

n. The system will reboot for each DUP upgrade. The total number of upgrades will vary depending
on the number of DUPs that need to be updated. After each reboot, ensure that “Internal
SD:RASRTOOL” is selected from the BIOS Boot Manager until all DUP updates are complete.

IMPORTANT: During the DUP update process, connection to iDRAC will be disconnected. This is
expected behavior when iDRAC is updated. When this occurs, close the virtual console and login to
iDRAC web UI. It may take a few minutes before iDRAC is up and login is enabled. After logging into
iDRAC, launch the Virtual Console to proceed with this procedure.

o. When all DUPs are completed, the RASRTOOL will return to the main menu as shown below:

Figure 29

p. The DUP upgrade is complete.

Task 3: Factory Reset Through ISO


a. In a window client, open iDRAC web UI, launch virtual console

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Figure 30

b. In Virtual Console window, click “Virtual Media” tag and select “Connect Virtual Media”.

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Figure 31

c. Select Virtual Media again, then select “Map CD/DVD”

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Figure 32

d. The Virtual Media popup appears. Click “Browse” to open file explorer and select the RASR ISO
file and click “Open”. Then click “Map Device”.

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Figure 33

e. After mapping the RASR ISO, select “Virtual Media” to confirm the ISO is mapped as shown
below.

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Figure 34

f. Click “Next Boot” and select “Virtual CD/DVD/ISO”.

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Figure 35

g. The “Next Boot” popup appears. Click “OK” to save the selection.

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Figure 36

h. Click “Next Boot” to confirm “Virtual CD/DVD/ISO” has been selected.

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Figure 37

i. Click “Power” and select “Reset System (warm boot)”.

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Figure 38

j. Click “Yes” to continue and system will reboot.

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Figure 39

k. The system will boot to the RASR Update Utility menu.

Figure 40

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l. Type “F” to do Factory Reset and press “Y” to continue.

Figure 41

m. Factory Reset completes and displays message "Factory install Prototype (FIP) successfully
completed". Press Enter to continue and back to RASR Update Utility menu.

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Figure 42

n. Press “Q” to quit and reboot system.

Figure 43

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o. The node boots into the ESXi Installer. The factory reset is completed once the ESXi screen
Installation Status reports VxRAIL Appliance Installation Successfully Completed. This automated
reset process will take approximately one hour to complete with multiple reboots. Repeat this
process on all nodes in the cluster.

Note: If you are upgrading the RASR image for an entire cluster, this procedure will need to be repeated
for each node in the cluster.

Figure 44

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Appendix A: Gathering RASR Update Utility Logs
The logs are stored in a directory on the RASR device you have booted from except for RASR ISO.
When booted from the IDSDM or USB disk, logs are stored at:
/mnt/RASR/systems/<service tag>/logs/
When booted from RASR ISO, logs are stored at:
/tmp/systems/<service tag>/logs/

IMPORTANT: Log files contain useful information on all invocations of RASR. In the event of an error
occurring while using RASR, collect all available logs which include the individual RASR.log files, for
debugging by engineering.

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Appendix B: Secure Boot Enabled/Disabled
1. From vCenter Web Client, move each node to maintenance mode.

Figure 45

2. Get VGA output of the node. Either by connectting VGA console physically or redirecting VGA output
from IDRAC virtual console.
(Here is the step if you have IDRAC IP address).

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Figure 46

3. Select “Next Boot” > “BIOS Setup”

Figure 47

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Figure 48

4. Reboot the node through iDrac -> Power settings->Reset system ,node will reboot into BIOS setup

Figure 49

5. Go to System BIOS > System Security setting.

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Figure 50

6. For RASR ISO which does not support Secure Boot enabled, it may need to disable Secure Boot
firstly and then enable Secure Boot after RASR execution procedure are completed,
For Secure Boot disabled, Select Secure Boot setting to Disabled.

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Figure 51

7. For Secure Boot enabled, select Secure Boot setting to Enabled, A warning message will be shown.
Just click OK. Select Secure Boot policy to Custom.

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Figure 52

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Figure 53

8. Save and finish

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Figure 54

9. Node reboots and you’ll see the following screen that indicates Secure Boot is enabled.

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Figure 55

10. Exit Maintenance Mode

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Figure 56

11. Repeat steps1-10 for other nodes in the cluster.

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