How to RASR Reset a Dell VxRail 8.0 Node

Of course – Dell’s VxRail universe has also arrived in VMware vSphere 8. And of course it still happens that individual nodes have to be RASR’ed. However, the procedure has changed with the 15G server models. In my previous post, I described how we had to perform the RASR process via the embedded SD cards.

How to RASR Reset Dell EMC VxRail 7.0 Node

This is different now, first, pull the correct SOLVE procedure from solve.dell.com.
There is also described how to get the correct RASR image. After downloading the RASR image and following the SOLVE procedure, you will notice that you have to change the virtual console of your iDRAC 9 from HTML5 to Java. However, you will quickly notice that the Plug-in -> Java option is missing. Therefore you can simply upload the RASR image via the HTML5 console. To do this, click on virtual media in the virtual console, connect the interface and upload the RASR image under Map CD/DVD and then click on Map Device.

After closing the window, click Boot -> Virtual CD/DVD at the top of the virtual console, so that the RASR image is directly accessed at the next reboot.

No sooner said than done, restart the system once, but Reset System (warm boot).

As you can see in the POST process, the system is accessing the Virtual CD that was requested by iDRAC. Afterwards the RASR image is loaded, please be patient, because the image takes some time to boot.

Once the RASR image is loaded, you will be taken to a fairly simple menu, either perform a factory reset directly or create a RASRUSB for an external recovery drive. An 8 GB USB drive is sufficient. In our case, we click on F – Factory Reset, since we want to RASR the system.

You should be aware of what RASR means, nevertheless the system will ask you if you are sure about this task. We type yes.

In the next step you will be asked to remove all external storage devices, for example if it is a production system that has supplemental storage in addition to VMware vSAN, then you should disconnect it. To confirm the whole thing, we type Disconnect and not yes, as some think.

During the initialization of the Factory Rest, you will be asked if you want to install the DUPS from the RASR image as well. We confirm with a Y, here the latest drivers and firmware are retrieved from the image, such as BIOS, NIC, SSD etc.

And here we go, please have a lot of patience, because a RASR can take something between 2 and more hours.

Please do not click anywhere or type anything during the RASR process.

Once the RASR has completed successfully, you will see the following message:

********************************************************************
Factory Install Prototype (FIP) sucessfully completed!
********************************************************************

After pressing Enter and rebooting the system, the DUPS will be installed. After that another reboot takes place, now you can re-attach your system to vCenter via Loudmouth Service or IP.

That’s it from this Blog post, if you have any questions please leave it in the comment section below. 🙂