Summmary

Dell PowerEdge servers are enterprise-grade computing systems designed and manufactured by Dell Technologies, built to deliver reliable performance for data centers, businesses, and homelabs alike. Available in rack, tower, and modular form factors, PowerEdge servers support a wide range of workloads—from virtualization and storage to high-performance computing and cloud infrastructure. They are known for their scalability, robust hardware configurations, integrated management tools like iDRAC, and strong compatibility with enterprise operating systems and hypervisors.

Dell iDRAC

Dell iDRAC (Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller) is a built-in management platform developed by Dell Technologies that enables administrators to remotely monitor, manage, and troubleshoot Dell PowerEdge servers, even when the operating system is offline. Through a dedicated network interface and web-based interface, iDRAC provides features such as remote console access, power control, hardware monitoring, firmware updates, and lifecycle management. It is a key tool for out-of-band management, allowing efficient administration of servers in data centers, edge deployments, and homelab environments.

SSL Certificate

Prerequisite: Install RACADM on a Linux or Windows box (included in Dell iDRAC Tools; latest version is 11.1.0.0 as of 2023-11-14).

Generate a CSR & Private Key, and sign it by your CA
Upload Private Key (RSA)
racadm -r <RAC IP Address or FQDN> -i sslkeyupload -t 1 -f idrac.key
Upload Certificate
racadm -r <RAC IP Address or FQDN> -i sslcertupload -t 1 -f idrac.crt
Restart iDRAC
racadm -r <RAC IP Address> -i racreset

Info: No need to specify -u or -p in the racadm command - it will prompt you for credentials.

Info: DNS iDRAC name (in iDRAC Settings) must match FQDN, or you'll get a 400 Error.

iDRAC Tools

Dell iDRAC Tools provides these useful utilities which enable administrators to deploy, monitor, manage, configure, update, and troubleshoot Dell servers from any location without using any agents.

RACADM: Command Line Interface (CLI): Enables scripting of iDRAC management operations.
IPMITool: Provides local and remote IPMI management of a server.

To obtain these utilities, search for and install the appropriate version of Dell iDRAC Tools for your OS, from Dell's Support website.

These utilities are required for doing most of the things described below.

Fan Control

Warning: Unfortunately, there does not appear to be a way to manually adjust fan speeds in >=14G PowerEdge servers.

Third-Party PCIe Cards

Dell doesn't like third-party PCIe cards, so the PowerEdge will ramp up the fans if it detects a non-Dell card in the system. Luckily, they provide a way to disable this functionality, to get your fans to settle down a bit.

Get list of PCI slots

racadm get system.pcieslotlfm

Check status of third-party PCI fan response

racadm get system.pcieslotlfm.1

Disable third-party PCI fan response

racadm set system.pcieslotlfm.1.lfmmode disabled