The Virtual Media feature provides the managed system with a virtual floppy diskette drive and a virtual CD drive, which can use standard media from anywhere on the network. (Figure 7-1 shows the overall architecture of virtual media.) With this feature, administrators can remotely boot their managed systems, install applications, update drivers, or even install new operating systems remotely from the virtual CD/floppy diskette drives.
Figure 7-1. Overall Architecture of Virtual Media
The managed system has a DRAC 4 card installed. The virtual CD and floppy drives are two electronic devices embedded in the DRAC 4 and which are controlled by the DRAC 4 firmware.
NOTE: These two devices are present on the managed system's operating system and BIOS at all times, whether virtual media is connected or not. Connecting virtual media is just like inserting media into virtual devices.
The management station provides the physical media or image file across the network. For the virtual media feature to work, the virtual media plug-in must be installed on the management station. 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 4 web server and is automatically installed on the management station.
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. When virtual media is not connected, virtual devices on the managed system behave just like two drives without media present.
Currently, the virtual floppy drive can be connected to a legacy 1.44 floppy drive with a 1.44 floppy diskette, a USB floppy drive with a 1.44 floppy diskette, a 1.44 floppy image, and USB keys. The virtual CDROM drive can be connected to a CDROM, DVD, CDRW, or combination drive with CDROM media. The virtual CDROM drive can also be connected to a USB CDROM drive with CDROM media.
NOTE: Changing virtual media while connected could stop the system boot sequence.
Operating System Requirements on the Managed System
Virtual media is supported on systems running the following operating systems:
Microsoft® Windows® Server 2000 with Service Pack 4
Windows Server 2003
Red Hat Enterprise Advanced Server, version 2.1 (ES, AS, and WS)
Red Hat® Enterprise Linux Advanced Server, version 3 (ES, AS, and WS)
NOTE: When using Virtual Media to install Windows 2000, the installation CD must have a built–in Service Pack 4. Service Pack 4 is required in order to access the virtual drives. This requirement also applies to using the virtual drives with Windows 2000. The drives do not appear until Service Pack 4 has been successfully installed.
Installing the Virtual Media Plug–In
To use the virtual media feature, you must successfully install the browser plug–in. After you have launched the virtual media page from within the DRAC 4 user interface, the browser automatically attempts to download the plug–in if it was not previously installed. If the plug–in is successfully installed, the virtual media page displays a list of floppy and CDROMs that the virtual drive can connect to.
Internet Explorer must be used on Windows management stations to use the virtual media feature. ActiveX Control is the plug–in that is used under Internet Explorer. The browser security must be set to the medium or lower setting for Internet Explore to be able to download and install signed ActiveX controls.
If you are using a Windows management station, 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 installation of the ActiveX control, you must first accept the control when Internet Explorer prompts you with a security warning.
On Red Hat Enterprise Linux management stations, the Mozilla and Netscape browsers are supported. If the plug–in has not yet been installed, or if a newer version is available, you are presented with a dialog to confirm the plug–in installation on the management station. When presented with this plug–in installation dialog, you must ensure that the user–ID running the browser has write permissions in the browser's directory tree. If not, the installation is not permitted.
Using the Virtual Media Feature
Open a Web browser on your management station.
Connect and log into the DRAC 4.
Click Media in the left pane to display a new page and download the virtual media plug–in if
it has not already been installed.
All the available drives are listed under Floppy Drive or CD–ROM Drive.
NOTE: A USB memory key or a floppy image file is also listed under Floppy Drive because they could be virtualized as a virtual floppy. You can choose one CDROM and one floppy at the same time, or only one of them if you want.
NOTE: The drive letters of virtual devices on the managed system have no correlation to the drive letters of physical drives on the management station.
Select the drives that you want to virtualize and click Connect.
If this connection is authenticated, the connection status becomes Connected and a list of all connected drives is displayed.
Booting From the Virtual Media
On supported systems, the system BIOS allows you boot from virtual CD or virtual floppy drives. You need to enter the BIOS setup window to ensure that the virtual drives are enabled in the boot sequence menu and that bootable devices are 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 CD and virtual floppy drives are listed along with other regular boot devices.
Ensure that the virtual drive is enabled and that it is the first device with bootable media
present among the listed devices. If it is not the first device, you can change the boot order by
following the on–screen instructions.
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 this virtual device. Otherwise, the system skips it, just like a physical device without bootable media.
NOTE: You have to connect the virtual media before the IDE option ROM runs in order to boot from the virtual media.
Installing Operating Systems Using Virtual Media
NOTE: The two virtual drives work simultaneously only when the operating system is running. During the operating system installation using the virtual CD drive, the virtual floppy drive is not available.
Ensure that your operating system installation CD is inserted in the management station's
CD drive.
Ensure that you have selected your local CD drive and that you have connected to the virtual
drives.
Follow the steps for booting from the virtual media in the preceding 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
On Windows systems, the virtual media drives are mounted and given a drive letter.
Using the virtual drives from within Windows is similar to using your physical drives. Once connected to the media at a management station, then the media is available at the system by simply clicking the drive and browsing its content.
On a Red Hat Enterprise Linux system, the virtual drives must be mounted before the drives can be accessed. Before mounting the drive, you must first connect to the media at the management station.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux automatically creates mount points in the /etc/fstab file for the virtual floppy and CD drives.
On a system running Red Hat Enterprise Linux, type the following command to quickly identify the assigned virtual media devices:
cat /var/log/messages | grep VIRTUAL
The virtual CD has an entry for a device named /dev/cdromX (where X is an optional index that is assigned by Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Normally, the virtual CD drive is named /dev/cdrom1 name and the local CD drive is named /dev/cdrom.
The virtual floppy drive has an entry for a device named /dev/floppyX (where X is an optional index that is assigned by Red Hat Enterprise Linux). Depending upon whether or not there is a local floppy drive, the virtual floppy drive is named /dev/floppy or /dev/floppy1.
Frequently Asked Questions
Table 7-1 lists frequently asked questions and answers.
Table 7-1. Using Virtual Media: Frequently Asked Questions
Question
Answer
Sometimes when I try to access virtual floppy media, the Windows File Explorer displays a "Not Responding" message in the title bar, but the floppy access light indicates that the floppy is still being accessed. Why does this happen?
The access to a 1.44 floppy is slow, especially over a network. As a result, you must wait long enough for Windows to read the floppy. The Windows File Explorer may display a "Not Responding" message in the title bar while it continues to read the floppy. Note that USB keys are faster to access.
Why does the Eject command fail to work?
The Eject command fails to work with Virtual CD devices if no Virtual Media client was connected at the time the Red Hat Enterprise Linux host was booted.
To eject CD media from a Virtual CD device in this situation, ensure that the CD is not mounted, and then press the Eject button on the client CD drive.
I was using Internet Explorer and I did not install the Virtual Media plug-in when I was prompted to do so. Now, I can't use the Virtual Media feature.
To return to the dialog for installing the Virtual Media plug-in, you can navigate away from the Media page and then navigate back to it to be prompted for the plug-in installation again.
Why do error messages like the following display on the console when Red Hat Enterprise Linux boots a Dell server with a DRAC 4 present?
Apr 16 14:48:27 localhost kernel: ide-floppy: Can't get floppy parameters
... other console startup messages ...
The Red Hat Enterprise Linux IDE driver writes all error responses that it receives to the console log for diagnostic purposes. However, in this case, the messages are not indications of any real errors and should be ignored.
The reason these error responses are generated is because a Virtual Media client is not connected to the DRAC 4 management board while the system is being booted, but the Red Hat Enterprise Linux IDE driver is requesting information regarding the Virtual floppy media size. This information is not available until a Virtual Media client connects its floppy device to the DRAC 4.
The error response, in this case, (key=2, asc=3a) from the DRAC 4 hardware indicates "media not present."
When I have a floppy drive or USB key open through Windows Explorer and I try to establish a Virtual Media connection on Windows for the same drives, I get a connection failure and I am asked to retry. Why?
You cannot establish a connection until you close the Windows Explorer that is accessing the floppy drive or USB key. DRAC 4 does not allow shared access for floppy drives and USB keys on Windows.
Do I need to install drivers on the server to make the Virtual Media feature work?
No. Drivers are not required on either the managed system or the management station. The operating system provides what is required for this feature.
When I performed a firmware update remotely using the DRAC 4 user interface, I noticed that the Virtual Drives on the managed system disappeared.
Firmware updates cause the DRAC 4 to reset, which causes the Virtual Drives to be unmounted. You can restore the Virtual Drives on systems running Windows by either restarting the system or by using the Windows device manager to scan for new hardware. You can restore the Virtual Drives on systems running Red Hat Enterprise Linux by re-mounting the drives after the firmware update completes.
What will my Virtual Media feature look like before the system is booted?
During system boot, the BIOS lists the virtual devices that are available. You should see a message that lists 2 devices as follows:
Drive Number : 0 VIRTUALFLOPPY DRIVE Removable Media Drive
Drive Number : 1 VIRTUALCDROM DRIVE
How do I set my virtual device to be bootable?
You must go into the BIOS setup at the managed system and then go to the boot menu. Once in the boot menu, you find a listing for the virtual CD drive and the virtual floppy drive. You can change the order of the virtual devices in the boot order. For example, to boot from a CD drive, you must put the CD drive first in the boot order.
What media can I boot from?
DRAC 4 allows you to boot from a bootable CDROM media, a bootable 1.44 floppy disk, a bootable 1.44 floppy image, and a bootable USB key.
How can I make my USB key bootable?
Dell provides a Windows utility for formatting its USB Solid State devices as bootable devices on the Dell Resource CD that ships with a Dell system. You can use this utility to make the Memory Key bootable. You can also use the utility to format the Memory Key, to add an active partition, and to transfer basic MS-DOS system files to the Memory Key.
This utility is also available on the Dell Support website at support.dell.com. You can find the utility by searching for "Memory Key Boot."
How do I make a floppy image file to be used as a virtual floppy?
Windows users can create image files from physical 1.44M floppy diskettes, using Dell's DRAC III Remote Floppy Boot image file creation utility:
-d <drive> Drive letter containing floppy disk. The drive letter must contain a ':'. The default drive letter is "a:".
-f <file> File name of boot file. The default file name is "bootimg.bin".
-v Display version information.
-h Usage string is displayed.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux users may use the dd (data duplicator) utility to make images from the supported Virtual Floppy media types (and vice-versa)
dd if=<input-file> of=<output-file>
where input-file is the input file or device, for example, /dev/fd0
where output-file is the output file or device, for example myimage.bin
What does Virtual Media look like at the server?
On Windows systems, you see additional CD and removable media drives appear in "My Computer." On Red Hat Enterprise Linux systems, you see devices that can be mounted. You can find the device names by looking at /etc/fstab.
How do I know which drives are my virtual media drives?
When you connect your management station drive to the managed system drive then the title of the inserted media should automatically appear next to the drive letter on Windows systems. But the best way to know which drive is the virtual media drive and which is the physical drive is by opening/mounting the drive and looking at its content.
Will the drive letters change on Windows systems?
Generally, the drive letters will not change. So if you have a CD drive that is labeled D: and a removable media drive that is labeled F:, then those drive letters will remain the same.
How do I find my device names on Red Hat Enterprise Linux systems so I can mount them?
You can look at the /etc/fstab file which lists the device names for all your devices. When you know the device name, then you can use the mount and umount command to mount and unmount your CD or floppy drives.
To manually identify the virtual media devices, type the following command:
cat /var/log/messages | grep VIRTUAL
Then look for mount points for those devices in the /etc/fstab file, for example:
cat /etc/fstab | grep /dev/hde
Finally, use the associated mount point on the mount command, for example:
mount /mnt/cdrom1
What do I need to install on the client side for the Virtual Media feature to work?
For a Windows management station, you must install an ActiveX web plug-in. For a Red Hat Enterprise Linux management station, you must install a Mozilla plug-in. The plug-in is installed automatically when you access the Virtual Media page for the first time or when a newer version of the plug-in is available.
Do I need to install this plug-in every time I use the Virtual Media feature?
No. You only need to install the plug-in once when the feature is used for the first time unless a newer version becomes available.
Will I need to have administrator rights in Windows to install the ActiveX plug-in.
You must have administrator privileges on Windows systems to install and use the Virtual Media feature.
What privileges do I need to install and use the Virtual Media plug-in on a Red Hat Enterprise Linux management station?
You must have write privileges on the browser's directory tree in order to successfully install the Virtual Media plug-in.
Can I use my virtual drives under any version of NetWare?
Currently, the Virtual Media feature is not supported under any version of the NetWare operating system. NetWare drivers ignore the virtual drives and do not make them available to the system.
