Users Guide

local system or on a network share. This operation is enabled by leveraging the Lifecycle Controller

functionality on the server.

The Lifecycle Controller service is available on each server and is facilitated by iDRAC. You can manage

the firmware of the components and devices on the servers using the Lifecycle Controller service. The

Lifecycle Controller uses an optimization algorithm to update the firmware that efficiently reduces the

number of restarts.

The Lifecycle Controller provides module update support for iDRAC7 and later servers. The iDRAC

firmware must be at version 2.3 or later to update firmware using Lifecycle Controller.

Dell Update Packages (DUPs) are used to perform the firmware updates using Lifecycle Controller. The

Operating System Driver Pack component DUP exceeds this limit and must be updated separately using

the Extended Storage feature.

NOTE: Before using the Lifecycle Controller–based update feature, server firmware versions must

be updated. You must also update the CMC firmware before updating the server component

firmware modules.

NOTE: To update component firmware, the CSIOR option must be enabled for servers. To enable

CSIOR on:

• 12th generation servers and later— After restarting the server, from the F2 setup, select iDRAC

Settings → Lifecycle Controller, enable CSIOR and save the changes.

• 13th generation servers —After rebooting the server, when prompted, press F10 to access

Lifecycle Controller. Go to the

Hardware Inventory page by selecting Hardware Configuration

→ Hardware Inventory. On the Hardware Inventory page, click Collect System Inventory on

Restart.

The Update from File method enables you to update the server component firmware using DUP files

stored on a local system. You can select the individual server components to update the firmware using

the required DUP files. You can update large number of components at a time by using an SD Card to

store DUP file of more than 48 MB memory size.

NOTE: Note the following:

• While selecting the individual server components for update, make sure that there are no

dependencies between the selected components. Else, selecting some components that have

dependencies on other components for update may cause the server to stop functioning

abruptly.

• Make sure to update the server components in the recommended order. Else, the process of

component firmware update may become unsuccessful.

Always update the server component firmware modules in the following order:

– iDRAC

– Lifecycle Controller

– BIOS

The Single Click all blade update or the Update from Network Share method enables you to update the

server component firmware using DUP files stored on a network share. You can use the Dell Repository

Manager (DRM) based update feature to access the DUP files stored on a network share and update the