Using Dell™ vFlash
A Dell Technical White Paper
Dell │ Product Group Customer Operations
Cori Rizzo
Using Dell™ vFlash
THIS WHITE PAPER IS FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY, AND MAY CONTAIN TYPOGRAPHICAL
ERRORS AND TECHNICAL INACCURACIES. THE CONTENT IS PROVIDED AS IS, WITHOUT EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND.
© 2010 Dell Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction of this material in any manner whatsoever without
the express written permission of Dell Inc. is strictly forbidden. For more information, contact Dell.
Dell, the DELL logo, and the DELL badge, OpenManage, and PowerEdge are trademarks of Dell Inc.
Microsoft, Windows Vista, and Windows are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Microsoft
Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Other trademarks and trade names may be
used in this document to refer to either the entities claiming the marks and names or their products.
Dell Inc. disclaims any proprietary interest in trademarks and trade names other than its own.
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Using Dell™ vFlash
Table of Contents
Introduction ................................................................................................................ 2
What’s New in vFlash? .................................................................................................... 2
Getting Started with vFlash ............................................................................................. 3
Creating vFlash Partitions ................................................................................................ 4
Managing vFlash Partitions ............................................................................................... 6
Booting to a vFlash Partition ............................................................................................ 7
User Scenarios ............................................................................................................. 8
Backup Options .......................................................................................................... 8
Operating Systems & Images.......................................................................................... 8
vFlash & Dell Deployment Toolkit ................................................................................... 9
Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 11
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Using Dell™ vFlash
Introduction
The Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller 6 (or iDRAC6) enables remote server management and
reduces the need for an administrator to physically visit the server to accomplish server configuration
or maintenance. The iDRAC6 express product offers a rich remote management feature set, including a
Web user interface, power control and monitoring, network access features, and directory service
integration; it is the standard offering on tower and rack server series 600 and above. The iDRAC6
enterprise extends the express feature set by including a virtual console, virtual media, scripting, a
dedicated network port, and a vFlash port; the enterprise product is the standard offering on all blade
servers. The Dell vFlash media card provides additional functionality to customers who already have an
iDRAC6 enterprise card.
Dell vFlash media is a Dell-branded 1 or 8 GB secure digital (SD) card that inserts into the iDRAC6
enterprise daughter card on the back of the server; blade servers must be removed from their chassis
to access this port. Customers can use the space on the vFlash card to create up to 16 partitions in
sizes ranging from 1MB to 4GB. The partitions are managed remotely using the iDRAC6 Web interface
and the RACADM command line. Users can expose the partition to the operating system much like a USB
flash drive, and can even physically move it to another supported Dell server. In addition, partitions
can be bootable making them ideal candidates for a persistent diagnostic boot image, or other
bootable utility. This is also an excellent management tool for customers that have low bandwidth, or
high latency, links to the remotely managed server.
What’s New in vFlash?
The July 2010 release of iDRAC6 firmware (version 1.50 for rack and tower servers, or version 3.00 for
blade servers) has dramatically improved the vFlash feature set and overall usability. The primary
improvements are listed below.
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Support for multiple vFlash partitions:
o Users can now create up to 16 individual partitions on vFlash
o Partitions can be attached to the operating system individually
o Partitions can be set to read-only
o Partitions can be up to 4 GB in size
8 GB vFlash cards:
o A larger 8 GB card is available, and functions exactly like the existing 1 GB vFlash
User interface and command line redesign for vFlash:
o The vFlash user interface features are simplified
o A comprehensive CLI has been added to access vFlash features
Support of multiple vFlash emulation types and formats:
o Partitions can be created as a floppy drive, hard drive, or CD device
o Partitions can be created by uploading IMG or ISO images
o Support for several partition types including FAT16, FAT32, EXT2, and EXT3
“Boot Once” for vFlash
iDRAC6 allows users to select a vFlash partition as the next boot device, the same way it does with
other boot devices; subsequent boots are not impacted.
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Using Dell™ vFlash
Getting Started with vFlash
The iDRAC6 Web interface is the easiest way to access the vFlash features, but there is a command line
utility available; the focus of this technical whitepaper is the GUI interface. See the Integrated Dell
Remote Access Controller 6 (iDRAC6) Version 1.5 User Guide for instructions on how to perform any
GUI operations using the RACADM command line interface.
In order to access the vFlash Web GUI interface, follow these steps.
1. From a supported Web browser, log in to the iDRAC6 Web interface:
a. The vFlash functionality is tied to the iDRAC6 user privilege Access Virtual Media. A
user must have this privilege before attempting to use a vFlash feature over any of the
interfaces like WSMAN, RACADM, or the Web GUI. Trying to use the vFlash features
without this privilege results in errors.
2. Select the System tab from the system tree, and click on the vFlash tab.
3. The SD Card Properties page is displayed.
If this is the first time you are using vFlash, the properties page will report the card as “not initialized”
since before you can access the vFlash features you must first initialize the card. The initialization
process formats the card (if needed), and then writes a file called managedstore.img. This file is
necessary because it acts like a master boot record (MBR) of a hard drive but for the SD card. It
contains information about the vFlash card as well as its partitions. For this reason, a user cannot put
an image file on the vFlash card using another SD card reader and expect the iDRAC6 to acknowledge it
as a partition; the partition must be uploaded using either the Web GUI or the RACADM command line
interface.
The vFlash card may be reinitialized at any time as long, as the card is not “write” protected. Note
that there is a toggle switch on the side of the SD card that slides up and down to write protect the
card. The reinitialization process will remove all the data and rewrite the managedstore.img file.
Once the vFlash card is initialized, its features are unlocked.
NOTE: Following a vFlash reset or a firmware update, it is recommended that the user wait a few
minutes for the SD card properties to be populated on the Web GUI. This provides the time for the
iDRAC firmware to gather information about the card.
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Using Dell™ vFlash
Figure 1.
SD Card Properties
Creating vFlash Partitions
There are two ways to create a vFlash partition: as an empty partition or from an image file. Creating
an empty vFlash partition is similar to creating a USB key with a custom size, with the one difference
being that you can choose the emulation type (floppy or hard drive). Creating a vFlash partition from
an image file is also available, and iDRAC6 supports both ISO and IMG image types.
Below are the steps for creating and formatting an empty partition.
1. Select System -> vFlash tab -> Create Empty Partition subtab; see Figure 2
2. Enter the information needed.
3. Click Apply. A new partition is created and a page indicating the progress percentage is
displayed.
4. Select System -> vFlash tab -> Format subtab; see Figure 3.
5. Enter the information needed.
6. Click Apply. A warning message indicating that all the data on the partition will be erased is
displayed. Click OK. The selected partition is formatted to the specified file system type.
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Using Dell™ vFlash
Figure 2.
Create Empty Partition
Figure 3.
Formatting a Partition
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Using Dell™ vFlash
Below are the steps for creating a partition using an image file.
1. Select System -> vFlash tab -> Create Partition from Image File subtab; see Figure 4.
2. Enter the information needed.
3. Click Apply. A new partition is created and a page indicating the progress percentage is
displayed.
NOTE: Using the Web interface, the image size that can be uploaded to the vFlash SD card is limited to
a maximum of 2 GB on both 32-bit and 64-bit browsers. Using the RACADM and WSMAN interface, the
image size that can be uploaded to a vFlash SD card is a maximum of 4 GB.
Figure 4.
Creating a Partition from an Image
Managing vFlash Partitions
When a partition is attached, it appears to the host operating system as hard disk or floppy drive
depending on the emulation type selected. If a partition was created with an ISO image, it will appear
as a CD device to the host OS. If you want to add or remove data from the partition using the host
operating system, uncheck the “Read-Only” box for the selected partition; see Figure 5.
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Using Dell™ vFlash
Figure 5.
Managing Partitions
Booting to a vFlash Partition
As with other bootable devices, the iDRAC6 can instruct the server to boot to the vFlash partition on
the next boot; this feature is called “boot once” and can be enabled using the following steps.
1. Select System -> Setup tab -> First Boot Device subtab; see Figure 6.
2. The vFlash partition that contains a bootable image (in the .img or .iso format) to set it as a
boot device.
3. Select the bootable vFlash partition from the drop-down list and reboot the server.
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Using Dell™ vFlash
Figure 6.
Booting to vFlash
User Scenarios
There are several use cases and advantages of the vFlash media card. One advantage of vFlash is that
the image is always present, and does not rely on costly network infrastructure to be retrieved from a
remote location. It provides on demand local storage since partitions can be created as needed and
exposed when required; this storage can also be hidden when it is not needed. Multiple partitions sizes
and formats can be created on a single SD card, and the vFlash partition can emulate a floppy disk, CDRom or a hard drive.
Backup Options
It is possible to use vFlash partitions for a number of backup scenarios.
1. The operating system can be backed up on a vFlash partition, so that the system can be
immediately rebooted to the vFlash if it cannot be booted from the hard drive.
2. Critical data can be backed up on the vFlash if it needs to be isolated from the hard disk drive.
3. The system configuration can be backed up, and later restored from a vFlash partition.
4. A vFlash partition can be used as a “crash dump” location for Linux servers.
Operating Systems & Images
1. Operating system images can be hosted on a remote NFS or CIFS file share, and iDRAC6 can upload
the image locally to a vFlash partition.
2. vFlash storage can be used to host multiple hypervisors.
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Using Dell™ vFlash
vFlash & Dell Deployment Toolkit
In this scenario, a custom WinPE is loaded that contains the Dell Deployment Toolkit (DTK). The
following components are required for creating a WinPE based DTK-enabled bootable vFlash:
1. Download the Windows® Automated Installation Kit (AIK) from Microsoft® at the following location:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=94BB6E34-D890-4932-81A55B50C657DE08&displaylang=en
2. Download the latest Dell Deployment Toolkit (DTK) at support.dell.com.
3. Download any 3rd party files or utilities from your organization that you want to add, such as:
a. Scripts
b. Imaging Tools
c. Etc.
Use the following steps to customize WinPE:
1. Install Windows AIK to the default installation directory, as this is where the DTK tool will need it.
2. Extract the DTK to the default directory - C:\Dell.
3. To create a custom WinPE with any third party tools or scripts, modify C:\Dell\
x64\Drivers\winpe3.x.\WINPE3.0_driverinst.bat. It is recommended to backup this file
before modifying it so that you can always go back to the original.
a. Include the scripts and tools in section 6 of WINPE3.0_driverinst.bat. The script
in this section is copying data from the DTK path in the DTK installation into the WinPE
image. For this example, we will use sbin (C:\Dell\sbin) for where the imaging
tool and a script to start the imaging over the network are located.
b. Enter the following customization into section 6 of WINPE3.0_driverinst.bat:
xcopy %DTKPATH%\..\sbin\*.* %WINPEPATH%\mount\sbin /S /E /I /Y
NOTE: If you are using VB scripts, include the scripting package into the WinPE by
adding the following line in section 4:
AIKTOOLS%\PETOOLS\peimg /install=WinPE-Scripting-Package
%WINPEPATH%\mount\Windows
c. To finalize the WinPE, include a line to copy the modified winpe.wim to create the
boot.wim right after the line that uses imagex to unmount and commit the WinPE
directory.
copy %WINPEPATH%\winpe.wim %WINPEPATH%\ISO\sources\boot.wim /Y
d. Save WINPE3.0_driverinst.bat.
e. To build the custom WinPE, open a command prompt; if you are running Windows
Vista®, perform this action with administrator rights.
i. Using the command prompt, go to the location of the
WINPE3.0_driverinst.bat - C:\Dell\\x64\Drivers\winpe3.x.
ii. Execute the WINPE3.0_Driverinst.bat with the two required arguments as
follows:
WINPE3.0_driverinst.bat <WINPEPATH> <DTK PATH>
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Using Dell™ vFlash
Where <WINPEPATH> is the destination path to create the directory
structure for Windows PE2.0, and <DTKPATH> is the path to the Dell drivers
in the extracted DTK toolkit.
For Example: WINPE3.0_driverinst.bat C:\MYVFLASH C:\Dell\ x64\Drivers
We will use the RACADM command line options to prepare the vFlash, so that it will be easy to create
scripts. It is assumed that OpenManage™ Server Administrator, or DRAC Tools are installed on the
server.
1. Open a command prompt, and run the command to enable vFlash:
racadm config –g cfgvFlashSD
–o cfgvFlashSDEnable 1
2. Run the command to initialize vFlash:
racadm -u root –p calvin vflashSD initialize
3. Create a partition:
racadm vFlashPartition create –i 1 –o <partition_name> –t empty –e hdd
–f fat32 -s 1028
4. Make the partition read-write.
racadm config –g cfgvFlashPartition –o cfgvFlashPartitionAccessType –i
1 1
5. Attach the partition.
racadm
i 1 1
config –g cfgvFlashPartition –o cfgvFlashPartitionAttachState –
6. Check the server operating system to see what drive letter is assigned to the attached
partition.
7. Copy the custom WinPE to the vFlash partition.
Xcopy C:\MYVFLASH\ISO *.* /s /e /f H:\
vFlash
where H is the drive letter of the
8. Set the vFlash partition as a boot device.
racadm –r <iDrac IP address> -u root –p calvin config –g cfgServerInfo
–o cfgServerFirstBootDevice “<partition_name>”
The system will boot to the WinPE image on the vFlash.
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Using Dell™ vFlash
Conclusion
These are two of many user scenarios for the Dell vFlash media card. vFlash provides a custom
deployment environment that allows for the automation of server configuration, scripts, and imaging.
Multiple boot media disks are no longer required as you can now have them embedded on vFlash
partitions. Dell is committed to continue to make improvements to iDRAC6 so that it will continue
leverage the power of vFlash.
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