How to Get ConfigMgr to Configure RAID Array on Dell PERC during OSD

Depending on which PERC you have (I was using a PowerEdge R720 with a PERC H710P), the DSDP and DTK may not inject the most appropriate driver for the "Set RAID Config" step to actually configure the controller during OSD.

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Edit 8/26/2014: This has been found to possibly be an issue with up-level ConfigMgr and down-level OS.  Below is the work-around for an issue described here: http://bradsjumpbag.blogspot.com/2014/08/failed-to-insert-osd-binaries-into-wim.html
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Here are the steps needed to get this working until the correct driver is injected automatically.  As of this post, the DTK and DSDP are only injecting the percsas3 driver and not the percsas2 driver.

A high level overview of this process: Get the boot image and inject the needed drivers using dism, re-import the boot image into ConfigMgr and make it usable again.

1. Right click on the boot image you are using in ConfigMgr and go to Properties.  On the Data Source tab you can see the Image Path.  Go to that location where the image is stored.  It should be similar to "\\SCCMServer\SMS_Site\OSD\Lib\BootImages\Dell\PowerEdge\x64\bootxxxx.wim".

Copy that wim file and paste it in the following step.

2. You will need a server running the same version of Dism as the version of the boot wim.  For example, if the boot wim is OS Version 6.3.9600.16384, you will need to copy the wim from #1 above to a server running Server 2012 R2 (you can see the OS Version column in Boot Images in ConfigMgr).  Paste that wim file to that server.  I just put mine in the root of C:\.

3. From a workstation without a PERC, go to www.dell.com/support.  You can either enter your service tag or click on "Servers, Storage & Networking"/PowerEdge/Model.  Then click on Drivers & Downloads.  Select your operating system in the dropdown.  Scroll down to and expand SAS RAID.  Find and download the Windows driver.  For this example I am using the "Microsoft Windows 2012 R2 64 bit driver for Dell PERC H310/H170/H710P/H810/SPERC8 Controllers" located here:
http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/Drivers/DriversDetails?driverId=0P5XV&fileId=3389791240&osCode=W12R2&productCode=poweredge-r720&languageCode=EN&categoryId=SF

4. This is being done on a workstation without a PERC so that you can extract the drivers without having it actually install.  Double click on the executable you just downloaded and click the Install button, but nothing else.  The install will fail but do not close it yet.  While the failed notice is still on the screen, browse to c:\users\YourLoggedInUser\Appdata\Local\Temp and find the folder that was just created based on time.  It will be a GUID.  Open that folder and you will find another folder with the drivers.  Copy that folder out and put it on your server where the wim was copied to.  I put mine in a folder called c:\perc.

So to this point we now have copied our bootxxxx.wim to C:\ on a server running the same OS version as the boot image; copied the needed drivers to C:\perc on the same server.

Next we will mount that image, inject the drivers, and commit the changes.

5. From an elevated PowerShell command windows, make another folder on this server called C:\Mount.  Then run the following commands.

This will mount that wim into the C:\Mount folder for editing.
"dism /Mount-wim /WimFile:C:\bootxxxx.wim /Index:1 /MountDir:C:\Mount"
replace bootxxxx.wim with the actual name of your file.  WinPE boot images usually only have 1 index so Index should always be 1.

Inject the drivers from C:\perc.
"dism /Image:C:\Mount /Add-Driver /Driver:C:\perc /Recurse"
Make sure all drivers were injected successfully.

Commit changes and unmount the image.
"dism /Unmount-wim /MountDir:C:\Mount /Commit"
If you have any File Explorer windows open to the C:\Mount folder, the commit may fail.  Close windows and try again.

6. Now the bootxxxx.wim file should show a modified date and time along with a slightly larger size than before.  Move this bootxxxx.wim to your sources folder, or other UNC accessible share path on your ConfigMgr server.

7. In ConfigMgr, right click on the Boot Images node and select "Dell PowerEdge Server Deployment\Create Dell Server Boot Image".  Mark the radial button for "Use a custom boot image" and enter the path to that new bootxxxx.wim.  The Boot Image should only show the first Index.  Press Next and give a name, version, and any comments for the new boot image we are creating.  Continue through the wizard and after a little processing time you should have a new boot image listed in ConfigMgr.

8. Open the properties of this new boot image.  On the Customization tab, make sure "Enable command support" is checked.  On the Data Source tab, mark "Deploy this boot image from the PXE-enabled distribution point".  On the Data Access tab, mark "Copy the content in this package to a package share on distribution points".  Press Ok.

9. Right click on the new boot image and Distribute Content.  Distribute to any and all DPs that you will be used for OSD.  refresh and check the status to make sure it succeeds.  You can also look at the Image ID on that boot image and then on each DP look in the SMSPKGDrive$ folder for that Image ID and make sure the bootxxxx.wim is there.

10. Go to your Task Sequences.  Right click on the TS you want to use and go to Properties, not Edit.  On the Advanced tab you can update the box for "Use a boot image" to this new image.  Press Ok.

11. Now go boot your server that you are trying to deploy to.  I like to go into the controller (CTRL+R) when possible and clear the config.  Then reboot to PXE and now the "Set RAID config" step should be able to access your PERC and try to configure it.

Press F8 during the task sequence so that you can stop it from rebooting just in case it doesn't work.  From here you open cmtrace and check out the SMSTS.log or run diskpart and type "list disk".  If "list disk" shows the drives now, it is working.  If not, open X:\Windows\Temp\Smsts\SMSTS.log to find the next error.

How to clean out old OpenManage driver packages and replace them in Configuration Manager 2012

To clean out the imported OpenManage driver bundles from ConfigMgr and replace with newer or the same versions.  This works for any version of OM driver bundles but for this example I will use the last version and latest version at the time of this writing as examples (OM7.3.2 and OM7.4).  Some of these delete folder steps may need to be done on each DP.

1. Write down the Package ID first for each one drive package, or take a screenshot.  Then delete the Driver Packages and folders.
2. Go to the same driver folders labeled as "Dell PowerEdge Drivers OM7.3.2" in the Drivers sections in ConfigMgr.  Highlight all of the drivers listed, right click and delete them.  Then delete the folder as well.
3. Remove the folders labeled as "Dell PowerEdge Drivers OM7.3.2" also from both Drivers Packages and Drivers.
4. Go to the ConfigMgr Installation location which is normally "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Configuration Manager".  From here you will go down and delete the OM7.3.2 folders for the same versions you deleted from inside ConfigMgr in the following folders.
1. "\OSD\Lib\DriverPackages\Dell\PowerEdge\"
2. "\OSD\Lib\Drivers\Dell\PowerEdge\"
5. Go to the drive where your DP Shares are located.  For example, if they are on the E: drive you would go to "E:\SMSPKGE$\".  If they are on the G: drive you would go to "G:\SMSPKGG$".  Delete each Package ID folder that you copied back in Step 1 for each Driver Package.  These folders may just be empty shells at this point.

Now the old versions are cleaned out and you are ready to import new versions.  These driver packages can only be imported from the Dell System Management Tools and Documentation (SMTD) iso.  Do not use the SBUU, CDU, or SUU iso or your drivers will not be imported correctly.

1. First, mount the SMTD 7.4 iso in Server 2012 by double clicking on it so that it will appear like a DVD drive.
2. Right click on Drive Packages and select the "Dell Server Driver package\Import Dell PowerEdge Server Driver Packages" option.
3. Select the drive letter that the OM7.4 iso is mounted it.
4. Select the server models and OS versions you want to import and let it run.
5. Right click on each driver package that you imported and go to Properties. On the Data Access tab, check the box "Copy the content in this package to a package share on distribution points".  Press OK.
6. After each of those is done, right click on each driver package and Distribute Content.  Select your DPs and then give it some time to distribute.  The amount of time will depend on # of DPs, locations, network, etc.
7. Check the Content Status for an updated date and time and green pie chart.  You can also verify distribution to each DP by going to the SMSPKGdrive$ folder and verify the PackageID folder is created and drivers are there.

********* Note here*********  I have noticed that drivers do not always fully distribute.  Your SMSPKGdrive$\PackageID folder may only have one GUID sub-folder.  In this case, just Update the Distribution Points again for the same package and make sure the content status shows success.

8. Now just go back to your Task Sequences, Edit, and on the Apply Driver Package step just add the new package.

Intel driver install missing or corrupt help.cab

Ever try to install Intel nic drivers and get an error message similar to "installation failed. Missing or corrupted file: Help.cab"?

Here is the quick and easy way to resolve this.

1. Rename or delete the following folders:
"C:\Program Files\Intel"
"C:\Program Files(x86)\Intel"

2. Export and then delete the following registry key:
HKLM\Software\Intel

3. Right click on the Intel install package and Run As Admin.

That is it.  Now the install will run successfully.

Dell Connections License Manager 1.0/1.1 AD Groups

Dell Connections License Manager 1.0 and 1.1 will create three groups in your Active Directory if the account you use to install DCLM has enough permissions in AD.  If for whatever reason the install account doesn't have enough permissions to create groups in AD, you can create them manually.

These are the three groups and they must be named exactly.

1. Dell Connections License Administrators
2. Dell Connections License Operators
3. Dell Connections License Users

DCLM 1.1 contains several fixes including authentication recursion in the above groups.  In DCLM 1.0, the user account had to be placed directly into the Administrators or Users group.  In 1.1, you can now put a user or several users into a group, such as "SCOM Admins", and then nest that "SCOM Admins" group inside the Dell Connections License Administrators or Users groups.

Update iDrac6 or iDrac7 firmware with ConfigMgr 2012

Update iDrac6 or iDrac7 firmware with ConfigMgr 2012

There are multiple ways to update iDrac firmware.  Recently I had a customer request that it be done specifically with ConfigMgr 2012 because they didn't want to install any other tools at the time.  So here is how to do it silently for iDrac6 and iDrac7.

First we have to get the iDrac firmware version from all servers by adding the class to the hardware inventory.

1. Default Client Settings, Hardware Inventory, Add, Connect, servername, wmi namespace = root\cimv2\dell, check recursive.  Check DELL_Firmware.  Press OK all the way out to save.  This will also give you the Lifecycle Controller firmware version on the servers.
2. Trigger an event or wait for the Machine Policy Update to run.
3. Trigger an event or wait for the Hardware Inventory Policy to run. 

Next, we need to create collections based on iDrac generation.  There may be other ways to do this but I like to create a folder and then inside each folder you can put the collections. You just have to change the query rule next time you are ready to update all the iDracs to whatever the latest version is at that time.

1. Create one folder called iDrac6 and one called iDrac7.
2. Create a collection called iDrac6 to show all machines with this iDrac under the folder for iDrac6.
1. Use a Query rule to look for Dell_Firmware: Name equal to iDRAC6
3. Create a collection called iDrac7 to show all machines with this iDrac under the folder for iDrac7.
4. Create a collection called iDrac7 under the iDrac7 folder.
1. Use a Query rule to look for Dell_Firmware: Name equal to iDRAC7
5. Create a collection called iDrac6 - less than latest firmware
1. Limit to iDrac6 collection
2. Use a Query rule to look for Dell_Firmware: Version not equal to whatever the latest version is.
6. Create a collection called iDrac7 - less than latest firmware
1. Limit to iDrac7 collection
2. Use a Query rule to look for Dell_Firmware: Version not equal to whatever the latest version is.

Now we create the package for each new version.

1. Download the Update Package for Windows from Dell and put it in your source location.
2. Create the iDrac6 firmware package.
1. Select to Copy the content in the package to a package share on DPs.
3. Distribute the package to the DPs.
4. Create a new program in the iDrac6 package and name it after the firmware version.
1. Will look similar to this “ESM_Firmware_G6N28_WN32_1.97_A00.EXE /s”.  The /s on  the end tells it to do a silent install.
2. Run Normal or Hidden, Whether or not a user is logged on, and Suppress program notifications.
5. Deploy the package and program to the iDrac6 – Less than latest collection created earlier.
6. Repeat the same steps for the iDrac7 package making the necessary changes.

Dell Connection License Manager 1.0 with Dell SCOM Management Pack 5.1

Here are some tips for getting the Server OOB licensing to work when you install the Dell SCOM MP and connect to the Dell Connections License Manager.

****Update: This issue has been resolved with DCLM 1.1.  DCLM 1.1 was released 5/23/2014 and the Dell SCOM MP 5.2 was released on 5/8/2014.****

Using Dell SCOM MP 5.1 and DCLM 1.0

1. Install DCLM on the SCOM server if possible.

2. Make sure you have the correct type of license imported into DCLM.  It should read "Dell Server Management Pack Suite for System Center Operations Manager. This license is for monitoring X server via out of band".

3. Use the same AD account for the Dell Device Helper COM+ object and the Operations Manager Action Account.

4. And here is the big tip.  That same AD account should be put directly into the Dell Connection License Manager Administrator group in Active Directory.  You cannot put the account in a group and nest that group in the DCLM Adminsistrators group.  It will not work.  The Action Account must be directly in the DCLM Administrators group.

5. From the Dell Feature Management Dashboard in SCOM, make sure you can Launch the Dell Connections License Manager (in the lower right Task pane) and you can see the licenses in DCLM once it opens.  You may need to add the URL to your Trusted Sites.

6. Refresh the Dashboard and your licenses for Out-of-Band Monitoring should show up correctly under Dell Feature Management Dashboard.

How to move WSUS from SQL 2005 to SQL 2008 R2

I needed to move my WSUS database from SQL 2005 to a new SQL 2008 R2 server.  It was difficult to find the exact directions online so I hashed together some from several places and it worked just fine.  Here's how.

1. On the WSUS server, stop the "IIS Admin" service and "Update Services" service from services.msc.
2. On the SQL 2005 server, backup the SUSDB.
     Right click on the running SUSDB database in SQL Management Studio and select All Tasks -> Backup.
     Database = SUSDB
     Backup Type = Full
     Destination =  Disk.  I chose the desktop.
     Options Page = I selected to Verify the database when finished.  Press OK.

3. Copy the database over to the new SQL 2008 R2 server.
4. On the new SQL 2008 R2 server, open SQL Management Studio and connect to the database engine.  Then click on New Query.
5. Type in the following and then execute by pressing the green checkmark in the toolbar:
USE MASTER
GO
ALTER DATABASE SUSDB SET SINGLE_USER WITH ROLLBACK IMMEDIATE
GO
DROP DATABASE SUSDB
GO

6. Once that is done right click on Databases and select Restore Database.
     To database = SUSDB
     From database = From device and then find the file you copied over from the old SQL server.
     Under Select the backup sets to restore = put a check mark next to the SUSDB database to restore.
     Press OK.

7. Back on the WSUS server, open regedit.exe and navigate to HKLM\Software\Microsoft\UpdateServices\Server.  Find the SqlServerName object and change that to the name of your new SQL server.
8. Restart the "IIS Admin" and "Update Services" services.
9. Open WSUS admin console and give it a moment to connect.

That's it.  It worked perfectly for me and was really easy to do.