The Virtual Media feature provides the managed system with a virtual CD drive, which can use standard media from anywhere on the network. Figure 8-1 shows the overall architecture of virtual media.
Figure 8-1. Overall Architecture of Virtual Media
Using Virtual Media, administrators can remotely boot their managed systems, install applications, update drivers, or even install new operating systems remotely from the virtual CD/DVD and diskette drives.
NOTE: Virtual media requires a minimum available network bandwidth of 128 Kbps.
The managed system is configured with a DRAC 5 card. The virtual CD and floppy drives are two electronic devices embedded in the DRAC 5 that are controlled by the DRAC 5 firmware. These two devices are present on the managed system's operating system and BIOS at all times, whether virtual media is connected or disconnected.
The management station provides the physical media or image file across the network. When you launch the RAC browser for the first time and you access the virtual media page, the virtual media plug-in is downloaded from the DRAC 5 Web server and is automatically installed on the management station. The virtual media plug-in must be installed on the management station for the virtual media feature to function properly.
When virtual media is connected, all virtual CD/floppy drive access requests from the managed system are directed to the management station across the network. Connecting virtual media is identical to inserting media into virtual devices. When virtual media is not connected, virtual devices on the managed system appear as two drives without media installed in the drives.
Table 8-1 lists the supported drive connections for virtual floppy and virtual optical drives.
NOTE: Changing virtual media while connected could stop the system boot sequence.
Table 8-1. Supported Drive Connections
Supported Virtual Floppy Drive Connections
Supported Virtual Optical Drive Connections
Legacy 1.44 floppy drive with a 1.44 floppy diskette
CD-ROM, DVD, CDRW, combination drive with CD-ROM media
USB floppy drive with a 1.44 floppy diskette
CD-ROM image file in the ISO9660 format
1.44 floppy image
USB CD-ROM drive with CD-ROM media.
Operating System Requirements on the Managed System
Virtual media is supported on systems running the following operating systems:
Microsoft® Windows 2000 Server with Service Pack 4
Windows Server™ 2003
Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS, ES, and WS (version 3.0)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS, ES, and WS (version 4)
SUSE® Linux Enterprise Server (version 9) with Service Pack 2 (SP2) for Intel EM64T
See the DRAC 5 Readme and the Dell OpenManage™ Server Administrator Compatibility Guide for the latest supported operating systems.
Installing the Virtual Media Plug-In
The virtual media browser plug-in must be installed on your management station to use the virtual media feature. After you open the DRAC 5 user interface and launch the Virtual Media page, the browser automatically downloads the plug-in, if required. If the plug-in is successfully installed, the Virtual Media page displays a list of floppy diskettes and optical disks that connect to the virtual drive.
Windows-Based Management Station
To run the virtual media feature on a management station running the Microsoft Windows operating system, install a supported version of Internet Explorer with the ActiveX Control plug-in. Set the browser security to Medium or a lower setting to enable Internet Explorer to download and install signed ActiveX controls.
Additionally, you must have administrator rights to install and use the virtual media feature. Before installing the ActiveX control, Internet Explorer may display a security warning. To complete the ActiveX control installation procedure, accept the ActiveX control when Internet Explorer prompts you with a security warning.
Linux-Based Management Station
To run the virtual media feature on a management station running the Linux operating system, install a supported version of Mozilla or Firefox. If the virtual media plug-in is not installed or if a newer version is available, a dialog box appears during the installation procedure to confirm the plug-in installation on the management station. Ensure that the user ID running the browser has write permissions in the browser's directory tree. If the user ID does not have write permissions, you cannot install the virtual media plug-in.
NOTICE: Do not issue a racreset command when running a Virtual Media session. Otherwise, undesired results may occur, including loss of data.
Using Virtual Media, you can "virtualize" a diskette image or drive, enabling a floppy image, floppy drive, or optical drive on your management console to become an available drive on the remote system.
Supported Virtual Media Configurations
You can enable Virtual Media for one floppy drive and one optical drive. Only one drive for each media type can be virtualized at a time.
Supported floppy drives include a floppy image or one available floppy drive. Supported optical drives include a maximum of one available optical drive or one ISO image file.
Running Virtual Media Using the Web User Interface
The Virtual Media page appears with the client drives that can be virtualized.
NOTE: The Floppy Image File under Floppy Drive (if applicable) may appear, as this device can be virtualized as a virtual floppy. You can select one optical drive and one floppy at the same time, or a single drive.
NOTE: The virtual device drive letters on the managed system do not coincide with the physical drive letters on the management station.
If prompted, follow the on-screen instructions to install the virtual media plug-in.
In the Attribute box, perform the following steps:
In the Value column, ensure that the Attach/Detach status value is Attached.
If the value is Detached, perform the following steps:
In the Media tab, click Configuration.
In the Value column, ensure that the Attach Virtual Media checkbox is selected.
Click Apply Changes.
In the Virtual Media tab, click Virtual Media.
In the Value column, ensure that the Attach/Detach status value is Attached.
Ensure that the Current Status value is Not connected. If the Value field displays connected, you
must disconnect from the image or drive before reconnecting.
Select the Encryption Enabled checkbox to establish an encrypted connection between the
remote system and your management station (if desired).
If you are virtualizing a floppy image or ISO image, select Floppy Image File or ISO Image File and
enter or browse to the image file you want to virtualize.
If you are virtualizing a floppy drive or an optical drive, select the button next to the drives that you want to virtualize.
Click Connect.
If the connection is authenticated, the connection status becomes Connected and a list of all connected drives is displayed. All available diskette images and drives you selected become available on the managed system's console as though they are real drives.
NOTE: The assigned virtual drive letter (for Microsoft® Windows® systems) or device special file (for Linux systems) may not be identical to the drive letter on your management console.
Disconnecting Virtual Media
Click Disconnect to disconnect all virtualized images and drives from the management station. All virtualized images or drives disconnect and are no longer available on the managed system.
Attaching and Detaching the Virtual Media Feature
The DRAC 5 Virtual Media feature is based on USB technology and can take advantage of the USB plug and play features. DRAC 5 adds the option to attach and detach the virtual devices from the USB bus. When the devices are detached, the operating system or BIOS cannot see any attached drives. When the virtual devices are attached, the drives are visible. Unlike DRAC 4, where the drives could only be enabled or disabled at the next system boot, DRAC 5 virtual devices can be attached or detached at any time.
The virtual devices can be attached or detached using a Web browser, local racadm, remote racadm, telnet, and serial port. To detach/attach virtual media using a Web browser, you can navigate to the media page and then to the media configuration page where you can change settings and apply them.
Attaching Virtual Media using RACADM
To attach the virtual media feature, open a command prompt, type the following command, and press <Enter>.:
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, perform the following steps:
Boot the managed system.
Press <F2> to enter the BIOS setup window.
Scroll to the boot sequence and press <Enter>.
In the pop-up window, the virtual optical drives and virtual floppy drives are listed with the standard boot devices.
Ensure 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.
Save the changes and exit.
The managed system reboots.
The managed system attempts to boot from a bootable device based on the boot order. If 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.
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" for more information.
Verify the following:
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.
Follow the steps for booting from the virtual media in the "Booting From the Virtual Media" section to
ensure that the BIOS is set to boot from the CD drive that you are installing from.
Follow 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.
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.
NOTICE: 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 <Enter>:
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
Insert a bootable diskette into the diskette drive or insert a bootable CD into the optical drive.
Restart your system and boot to the selected media drive.
Add 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.
Using the format command, format the drive with the /s switch to transfer the system files to the
Virtual Flash.
For example:
format /s x
where x is the drive letter assigned to Virtual Flash.
Shut down the system and remove the bootable floppy or CD from the appropriate drive.
Turn on the system and verify that the system boots from Virtual Flash to the C:\ or A:\ prompt.
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:
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 system's 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.
Supported Operating Systems
The VM-CLI utility supports the following operating systems:
Windows XP
Windows 2000 Server with Service Pack 4
Windows Server 2003
Windows Server 2003 R2
Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS/ES (version 3)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS/ES (version 4)
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server Version 9 with Service Pack 2 for EM64T
See the DRAC 5 Readme and the Dell OpenManage™ Server Administrator Compatibility Guide located on the Dell Support website at support.dell.com for the latest information.
Utility Installation
The VM-CLI utility is located on the Dell OpenManage™ Systems Management Consoles CD, which is included with your Dell OpenManage System Management Software Kit. To install the utility, insert the System Management Consoles CD into your system's CD drive and follow the on-screen instructions.
The Systems Management Consoles CD contains the latest systems management software products, including diagnostics, storage management, remote access service, and the RACADM utility. This CD also contains readme files, which provide the latest systems management software product information.
Additionally, the Systems Management Consoles CD 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."
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.
All command-line syntax are case sensitive. See "VM-CLI Parameters" 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.
VM-CLI Parameters
DRAC 5 IP Address
-r <RAC-IP-address>[:<RAC-SSL-port>]
where <RAC-IP-address> 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 <RAC-SSL-port> 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 <DRAC-user-name>
This parameter provides the DRAC 5 user name that will run Virtual Media.
The <DRAC-user-name> 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 <DRAC-user-password>
This parameter provides the password for the specified DRAC 5 user.
If DRAC 5 authentication fails, an error message displays and the command terminates.
Floppy/Disk Device or Image File
-f {<device-name> | <image-file>}
where <device-name> 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 <image-file> 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:\temp\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 {<device-name> | <image-file>}
where <device-name> is a valid CD/DVD drive letter (Windows systems) or a valid CD/DVD device file name (Linux systems) and <image-file> 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:\temp\mydvd.img (Windows systems)
-c /tmp/mydvd.img (Linux systems)
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, VM-CLI 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.
VM-CLI Operating System Shell Options
The following operating system features can be used in the VM-CLI command line:
stderr/stdout redirection — Redirects any printed utility output to a file.
For example, using the greater-than character (>) followed by a filename overwrites the specified file with the printed output of the VM-CLI utility.
NOTE: The VM-CLI utility does not read from standard input (stdin). As a result, stdin redirection is not required.
Background execution — By default, the VM-CLI utility runs in the foreground. Use the operating system's command shell features to cause the utility to run in the background. For example, under a Linux operating system, the ampersand character (&) following the command causes the program to be spawned as a new background process.
The latter technique is useful in script programs, as it allows the script to proceed after a new process is started for the VM-CLI command (otherwise, the script would block until the VM-CLI program is terminated). When multiple VM-CLI instances are started in this way, and one or more of the command instances must be manually terminated, use the operating system-specific facilities for listing and terminating processes.
VM-CLI Return Codes
0 = No error
1 = Unable to connect
2 = VM-CLI command line error
3 = RAC firmware connection dropped
English-only text messages are also issued to standard error output whenever errors are encountered.
Frequently Asked Questions
Table 8-2 lists frequently asked questions and answers.
Table 8-2. Using Virtual Media: Frequently Asked Questions
You can sometimes lose your client connection if the network is slow or if you change the CD in the client system CD drive. For example, if you change the CD in the client system's CD drive, the new CD might have an autostart feature. If this is the case, the firmware can time out and the connection can be lost if the client system takes too long before it is ready to read the CD. If a connection is lost, reconnect from the GUI and continue the previous operation.
