Dell PowerEdge R940 BIOS and UEFI Reference Guide June 2021 Rev.
Notes, cautions, and warnings NOTE: A NOTE indicates important information that helps you make better use of your product. CAUTION: A CAUTION indicates either potential damage to hardware or loss of data and tells you how to avoid the problem. WARNING: A WARNING indicates a potential for property damage, personal injury, or death. © 2017 - 2021 Dell Inc. or its subsidiaries. All rights reserved. Dell, EMC, and other trademarks are trademarks of Dell Inc. or its subsidiaries.
Contents Chapter 1: Pre-operating system management applications...........................................................4 Options to manage the pre-operating system applications...................................................................................... 4 System Setup....................................................................................................................................................................... 4 Viewing System Setup.........................................
1 Pre-operating system management applications You can manage basic settings and features of a system without booting to the operating system by using the system firmware.
System Setup details The System Setup Main Menu screen details are explained as follows: Option Description System BIOS Enables you to configure BIOS settings. iDRAC Settings Enables you to configure the iDRAC settings. The iDRAC settings utility is an interface to set up and configure the iDRAC parameters by using UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface). You can enable or disable various iDRAC parameters by using the iDRAC settings utility.
Option Description Network Settings Provides options to manage the UEFI network settings and boot protocols. Legacy network settings are managed from the Device Settings menu. Integrated Devices Provides options to manage integrated device controllers and ports, specifies related features and options. Serial Communication Provides options to manage the serial ports, their related features and options.
Option Description System Service Tag Specifies the system Service Tag. System Manufacturer Specifies the name of the system manufacturer. System Manufacturer Contact Information Specifies the contact information of the system manufacturer. System CPLD Version Specifies the current version of the system complex programmable logic device (CPLD) firmware. Secondary System CPLD Version Specifies the current version of the system complex programmable logic device (CPLD) firmware.
Option Description Video Memory Specifies the amount of video memory. System Memory Testing Specifies whether the system memory tests are run during system boot. Options are Enabled and Disabled. This option is set to Disabled by default. Memory Operating Mode Specifies the memory operating mode. The options available are Optimizer Mode, Single Rank Spare Mode, Multi Rank Spare Mode, Mirror Mode, and Dell Fault Resilient Mode. This option is set to Optimizer Mode by default.
Processor Settings You can use the Processor Settings screen to view the processor settings and perform specific functions such as enabling virtualization technology, hardware prefetcher, logical processor idling. Viewing Processor Settings To view the Processor Settings screen, perform the following steps: Steps 1. Power on, or restart your system. 2.
Option Description DCU Streamer Prefetcher Enables or disables the Data Cache Unit (DCU) streamer prefetcher. This option is set to Enabled by default. DCU IP Prefetcher Enables or disables the Data Cache Unit (DCU) IP prefetcher. This option is set to Enabled by default. Sub NUMA Cluster Sub NUMA Clustering (SNC) is a feature for breaking up the LLC into disjoint clusters based on address range, with each cluster bound to a subset of the memory controllers in the system.
Option Description Option Description Level 2 Cache Specifies the total L2 cache. Level 3 Cache Specifies the total L3 cache. Number of Cores Specifies the number of cores per processor. Maximum Specifies the maximum memory capacity per processor. Memory Capacity Microcode Specifies the microcode. SATA Settings You can use the SATA Settings screen to view the settings of SATA devices and enable SATA and PCIe NVMe RAID mode on your system.
Option Description Option Description Capacity Specifies the total capacity of the drive. This field is undefined for removable media devices such as optical drives. NVMe Settings The NVMe settings enable you to set the NVMe drives to either RAID mode or Non-RAID mode. NOTE: To configure these drives as RAID drives, you must set the NVMe drives and the Embedded SATA option in the SATA Settings menu to RAID mode. If not, you must set this field to Non-RAID mode.
Viewing Boot Settings To view the Boot Settings screen, perform the following steps: Steps 1. Power on, or restart your system. 2. Press F2 immediately after you see the following message: F2 = System Setup NOTE: If your operating system begins to load before you press F2, wait for the system to finish booting, and then restart your system and try again. 3. On the System Setup Main Menu screen, click System BIOS. 4. On the System BIOS screen, click Boot Settings.
Choosing system boot mode System Setup enables you to specify one of the following boot modes for installing your operating system: ● BIOS boot mode (the default) is the standard BIOS-level boot interface. ● UEFI boot mode (the default), is an enhanced 64-bit boot interface. If you have configured your system to boot to UEFI mode, it replaces the system BIOS. 1. From the System Setup Main Menu, click Boot Settings, and select Boot Mode. 2. Select the UEFI boot mode you want the system to boot into.
Network Settings screen details The Network Settings screen details are explained as follows: About this task Option UEFI PXE Settings PXE Device n Settings(n = 1 to 4) UEFI HTTP Settings Description Options Description PXE Device n (n = 1 to 4) Enables or disables the device. When enabled, a UEFI PXE boot option is created for the device. Enables you to control the configuration of the PXE device. Options Description HTTP Device (n = Enables or disables the device.
2. Press F2 immediately after you see the following message: F2 = System Setup NOTE: If your operating system begins to load before you press F2, wait for the system to finish booting, and then restart your system and try again. 3. On the System Setup Main Menu screen, click System BIOS. 4. On the System BIOS screen, click Integrated Devices.
Option Description Internal SD Card Redundancy Configures the redundancy mode of the Internal Dual SD Module (IDSDM). When set to Mirror Mode, data is written on both SD cards. After failure of either card and replacement of the failed card, the data of the active card is copied to the offline card during the system boot. When Internal SD Card Redundancy is set to Disabled, only the primary SD card is visible to the OS. This option is set to Disabled by default.
Option Description Table 3.
Option Description Serial Communication Enables you to select serial communication devices (Serial Device 1 and Serial Device 2) in BIOS. BIOS console redirection can also be enabled, and the port address can be specified. This option is set to Auto by default. Serial Port Address Enables you to set the port address for serial device. This field sets the serial port address to either COM1 or COM2 (COM1=0x3F8, COM2=0x2F8). This option is set to Serial Device1=COM2 or Serial Device 2=COM1 by default.
System Profile Settings details About this task The System Profile Settings screen details are explained as follows: Option Description System Profile Sets the system profile. If you set the System Profile option to a mode other than Custom, the BIOS automatically sets the rest of the options. You can only change the rest of the options if the mode is set to Custom.This option is set to Performance Per Watt Optimized (DAPC) by default. DAPC is Dell Active Power Controller.
Option Description PCI ASPM L1 Link Power Management Enables or disables the PCI ASPM L1 Link Power Management. This option is set to Enabled by default. Intel Persistent Memory CR QoS Controls the tuning recipe for Quality of Service (QoS) knobs. Disabled by default. Method 1 is recommended for 2-2-2 memory configurations in App-Direct. Method 2 is recommended for other memory configurations in App-Direct. Method 3 is recommended for 1 DIMM per channel configurations.
Option Description TPM Status Specifies the TPM status. TPM Command Controls the Trusted Platform Module (TPM). When set to None, no command is sent to the TPM. When set to Activate, the TPM is enabled and activated. When set to Deactivate, the TPM is disabled and deactivated. When set to Clear, all the contents of the TPM are cleared. This option is set to None by default. CAUTION: Clearing the TPM results in the loss of all keys in the TPM.
Option Description Options Description BIOS performs signature verification on pre-boot images. BIOS also logs the results in the image Execution Information Table, but approves the images whether they pass or fail verification. Deployed Mode Deployed Mode is the most secure mode. In Deployed Mode, PK must be installed and the BIOS performs signature verification on programmatic attempts to update policy objects. Deployed Mode restricts the programmatic mode transitions.
Steps 1. Power on or reboot your system. 2. Type the system password and press Enter. Next steps When Password Status is set to Locked, type the system password and press Enter when prompted at reboot. NOTE: If an incorrect system password is typed, the system displays a message and prompts you to reenter your password. You have three attempts to type the correct password.
Redundant OS Control In the Redundant OS Control screen you can set the redundant OS information. This enables you to set up a physical recovery disk on the system. Viewing Redundant OS Control To view the Redundant OS Control screen, perform the following steps: Steps 1. Power on, or restart your system. 2.
Miscellaneous Settings You can use the Miscellaneous Settings screen to perform specific functions such as updating the asset tag and changing the system date and time. Viewing Miscellaneous Settings To view the Miscellaneous Settings screen, perform the following steps: Steps 1. Power on, or restart your system. 2.
For more information about using iDRAC, see Dell Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller User's Guide at www.dell.com/ poweredgemanuals.
Menu item Description One-shot Boot Menu Enables you to access boot menu, where you can select a one-time boot device to boot from. Launch System Setup Enables you to access System Setup. Launch Lifecycle Controller Exits the Boot Manager and invokes the Dell Lifecycle Controller program. System Utilities Enables you to launch System Utilities menu such as System Diagnostics and UEFI shell. One-shot UEFI boot menu One-shot UEFI boot menu enables you to select a boot device to boot from.
